Edited video of a man falling into a water pit and disappearing is being shared as a real video - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 14, 2022
A video of a man who is  walking in the rain with an umbrella, and suddenly falling into a water pit and disappearing is widely being shared on social media. Through this article, let’s see how authentic the content of the video is.
Claim: Incident of a man falling into a water pit and disappearing.
Fact: This is a staged video created by an Indonesian VFX artist, Faisal. He uploads such scripted VFX videos to his Instagram account @faisal_vfx. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
Using a few video frames, we did a reverse image search on the internet  and were led to an Instagram account. It is the account of an Instagram user named Faisal_VFX,  He uploaded the original video to his Instagram account on 08 September 2020. The post’s description is in Indonesian and translates to, “If it rains, be careful on the road, guys, there are lots of puddles, especially the past puddles.”
Faisal is a video creator, and he creates many such VFX videos for his Instagram page and YouTube channel.
A few things in the video giveaway that it has been edited and contains VFX elements.
1. A-frame to-frame breakdown of the video at 3:00 after the umbrella drops from his hand reveals that only a single still was animated till his body gets wholly submerged into the water. If we observe the frames, his right hand is in the same position till the end.
2. In the video, it almost seems like the person is willingly dropping  the umbrella.
3. Another question is why didn’t the camera person try to help the man? Instead, he/she did not even flinch and kept recording for 13 more seconds after the man falls into the pit.
Since 2020, Faisal’s scripted & animated video has been uploaded by various YouTube channels too, and it is usually shared during the monsoons to caution people. Those videos can be watched here, here and here.
To sum it up, an edited video is being shared as an original incident of a man falling into a water pit and disappearing.