On A Roll

The second roll of film Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin used at the film site continues to elude us, but I believe I have probably obtained most of the images of any importance. You have to think about this a bit. A 100-foot roll of 16mm film would contain about 4000 individual frames. Now, with the camera running at 16 frames per second, that is about 4 minutes of filming, which is not a lot of time. I have concluded the following:

The first part of the film probably shows the creature’s footprints taken at Roger’s walking height. Bob Gimlin states there are frames showing the creature’s prints along side horse hoof prints. The footage was taken after the men returned from following the creature, so the hoof prints made when they set out would be evident. We do not have any frames from this part.

The second part shows Roger making a cast. One of the frames is shown here (page 66 of Meet the Sasquatch ). I believe there are numerous frames in this part. Many of the frames were used some years ago in the infamous and ridiculous BBC TV production, The Worlds Greatest Hoaxes. I don’t know where the producers got them, but it could have been from a 1975 Sir David Attenborough BBC documentary entitled Fabulous Animals. The BBC definitely had the second roll at that time, and I am quite sure they did not return it. Unfortunately my enquiries have fallen on deaf ears.

The third part shows close-ups of the creature’s footprints. Roger Thomas obtained 59 of these frames from some source, and again I believe they originated from the 1975 BBC production. Yvon Leclerc put these frames together for me to produce the composite photo shown here (page 66 of Meet the Sasquatch ). It is evident the men set about to make casts first and then filmed this part, as we can see that one of the prints has been filled with plaster.

Rene Dahinden had about a ten-foot strip of film from the second roll that was given to him by Roger Patterson. He had several photographs taken from the frames (I went down an picked up the photos for him while he was away). The photos seen here are from this strip. They match the appropriate frames Thomas obtained, except the casted print appears to have a handwritten mark. I have no explanation for this. I had the strip in my possession for a week or so, and do recall looking at the first few frames with a magnifying glass. I recall seeing shots of a horse or horses – close ups from the front. At the time, I was not totally aware of the significance of the strip – I was simply doing Rene a favor.

The third part probably shows Bob Gimlin jumping off a log to see how far his footprints would sink into the soil. Bob recalls that Roger filmed this and pointed out the log he used on my film site model (it is the one that shows a distance of 70ft/21.3m on page 62 of Meet The Sasquatch). These shots were probably taken while the plaster was drying, so would come after the previous shots. We don’t have any frames from this part.

The fourth part probably shows Roger holding casts. The frames you see here are again from the strip Rene had. I firmly believe these shots were taken at the film site immediately after the casts had set. Roger is wearing the same shirt seen in the shots of him making casts. He is wearing a coat as by this time it was much later in the day.

The second film roll was definitely shown at the University of British Columbia on October 26, 1967. I am sure the type of film is the same as that used to film the creature (first roll). If there is an issue with the film development time for the first roll, then the same would apply to the second roll. While I believe both rolls were developed at the same time and place, if one believes otherwise, the second roll was developed within four (4) days (not counting the day the men traveled back to Yakima, and the day they traveled to the University). This is not enough time to get the film to, and back from, Palo Alto, California. Any alternate scenario whereby it is suggested that the films were taken much earlier that October 20, 1967 creates a whole series of other problems beyond the scope of this discussion.

Tag: chris murphy roger patterson bob gimlin film site creature footprints worlds greatest hoaxes bbc tv attenborough documentary fabulous animals yvon leclerc rene dahinden sasquatch horse horses bc yakima university palo alto california