Filming “The best UFO cases and what they suggest”
The usual subject matter of our films is psychology - specifically the no-nonsense development of human potential, including what usually frustrates people’s sincere efforts to change themselves. They’re aimed at a small, target audience who want to go beyond the usual bullshit. We totally know that the vast majority of people prefer to just play at “changing” (or simply don’t even bother), indulging in what’s superficial and focused on generating a feel-good response, rather than having to face harsh reality and then needing to put in enormous effort. It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that humans remain stuck in immaturity and dilemma, despite showing clear glimmers of intelligence at times.
Earlier in the year, we decided to produce a mini-series of three films on UFOs or UAP. Our unique background and particular area of expertise means we’ve got something relevant, genuine, and refreshingly different to add to the discussion. We can answer four crucial questions: How do advanced extraterrestrials think? Are they friendly or hostile? What do they want? And why are they here?
Filming at White Sands in New Mexico
We dealt with the first three of these important questions in the introductory film, recorded at our Sussex studio. It necessitated going into a bit of psychology, including the need for self-transcendence, which was always going to be a challenge when you consider the dominance of the ubiquitous normalised mindset. We then got into some of the really big issues during the third film, also recorded in Sussex, not least answering the ultimate question: “What are they doing here?”
Our colleague, Callum, made the UFO prop out of a big piece of wood that we had at The Oasis nature reserve. Victoria splashed the cash with Amazon for the two little green men. And we already had the model brain from a previous series of films on human psychology (to which we simply attached one of the aforementioned little green men to denote the implied change to “extraterrestrial brain”).
We decided to add another film in the middle of these two for this mini-series, looking at the best UFO cases and what they suggest might be going on. We shot it at a variety of outdoor locations in the US.
We selected our “best cases” for their evidential quality, not for any clues they might yield.
Filming started off at Devils Tower in Wyoming at the end of September, with a nod to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the early work of J Allen Hynek.
Devils Tower at sunrise
We next travelled further north into Montana to shoot the section dealing with UFOs and nukes. A chunk was filmed at the entrance gate to Malmstrom Air Force Base. You invariably struggle with all kinds of audio interruptions when shooting outdoors, but the amount of vehicles fitted with extremely loud exhausts coming and going from this military base was much higher than elsewhere.
We thankfully didn’t have this difficulty when we filmed three sequences right next to the gate/fence of an active Intercontinental Ballistic Missile silo in the quieter surroundings of rural Montana. The “Use of deadly force authorized” warning sign made abundantly clear this was a Restricted Area - but we got close enough, as you can see from the photo of Becky (below).
Becky next to the “Use of deadly force authorized” sign
Further filming took place at the exact locations of the Travis Walton case in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, south-southwest of Heber, near Snowflake, Arizona, and of the Lonnie Zamora case in Socorro, New Mexico.
Rick Baca and Becky
We met Rick Baca who, back in 1964, aged 14, had sketched the UFO seen by Lonnie Zamora.
In the days that followed the event, Rick worked with Lonnie to produce as accurate a drawing as possible, similar to how police use an artist or facial composite to help identify a crime suspect. His dad was a legal secretary at the Socorro County District Attorney’s Office in 1964 and he worked with Police Officer Zamora. Rick’s dad kept the drawing of the UFO on his office wall at work until he retired. Rick later retrieved it from a pile of paperwork after his dad’s death.
Rick kindly allowed us to film and photograph his sketch of the Socorro UFO. His wife, Diana, added interesting detail as her family knew the Zamora family really well. Lonnie had seen something that was genuinely unidentified, but some folks in Socorro forever used the event as an opportunity to ridicule him. He was doubly affected by the encounter, directly and indirectly.
It’s been claimed in recent years that several students from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology pranked Lonnie Zamora. But inspection of the actual site makes this suggestion seem even less plausible. Almost all of the terrain is open with knee-height vegetation, with nowhere to hide or escape detection whilst fleeing the scene.
Close-up of Rick’s sketch. (We need to stress that this photographic image CANNOT be reproduced without our permission. Copyright: Iain Scott/EvolveFirst)
We spent four weeks filming in the US - and the first three weeks were hectic with us working flat out from about 5am to 10pm every day with no breaks other than quick visits to the “rest rooms” (aka toilets). Two and a half weeks were occupied with this “best UFO cases” film.
Our attention for four days was diverted to shooting two sections of another film for a series focusing on the need for a deeper approach to nature conservation. (This forthcoming series of six films is scheduled for release in March 2023.) We filmed in both Yellowstone National Park and at Grand Canyon.
We used locations in five states (Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico) and travelled through two others (Colorado and Idaho). Our main concerns were possible delays because of bad weather and/or vehicle breakdown. For a few hours one day, we slightly struggled with a slow puncture - which became an outright flat by dawn of the next morning - but that was it regarding our hired Traverse. However, the weather did turn very wet for 72 hours at the end of the first three weeks - and some dirt roads that we needed to travel along would have become impassable for a few days afterwards. So our “What if?” and “Get ahead, stay ahead” attitude undoubtedly contributed to a successful outcome.
We also planned for everything going to schedule, and it did, so we were ready to shoot an extra film towards the end of our time in the US. The Roswell Incident wasn’t included in our “best UFO cases”, despite it being the most famous. But it was the subject of this additional film - titled Something DEFINITELY crashed at Roswell - which will be released in a few days’ time. The question, of course, is “What?”
Here are the three films of our new mini-series:
Written by Iain Scott, 13th November 2022