In addition to the work of Daniel Perez & M.K. Davis on this film, - Bill Appleton of Dreamfactory dot com wrote specific software tools for capturing, enhancing and stabilizing video, in this case he specifically created a derivative work under "fair use" for the study of the much debated "Memorial Day Footage."
1) The first study shows the MDF subject taking off the mask/removing the costume's headpiece with the right hand.
2) The second study shows the subject swinging the mask as he walks into the woods/treeline...

The Memorial Day Footage...

Videotaped May 26, 1996 by Lori and Owen Pate at Chopaka Lake in north central Washington State...
The sasquatch is not known to "run" in short strides with the knee locked (rear-leg) and elbows hiked up as seen in the Memorial Day video and again the same hiked up elbow motion and corresponding locomotion observed in the hoaxed Danny Sweeten footage.

Both of these individuals display human locomotion and the estimated size was in the human range. In some frames, the Memorial Day subject points his foot. This is not consistent with what is known about the great stride or the hurried gait of the sasquatch.

In the collective databases that currently exist, there are reports of of witnesses observing a sasquatch "running," some state the subject moved rapidly in giant strides, which gives the appearance of running or moving swiftly. There are few accounts where literal running has been observed and no report in four thousand where the sasquatch was observed moving with elbows hiked up.

Al Corbett, Bob Titmus and Gerry Crew all reported tracks in Northern California that ranged in stride from an average of 50 inches walking, to a running 10 foot distance between imprints. Running? Yes, the report states they were told by people who saw the footprints...this unknown man "was running." The 1958 article referenced is here: http://www.bigfootencounters.com/articles/fresno_bee1958.htm

Based on my personal observations coupled with the current database, it appears the Memorial Day footage was probably a fabrication. The late Dr. Grover Krantz, Ph.D., sternly announced he would not waste ink on the Memorial Day footage in his revised edition of "Big Footprints." It was about the only debate Krantz agreed on with Rene Dahinden and Peter Byrne. None found merit in this footage.
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Various Updates...

Discussion rages on as to the validity of the subject in the the Memorial Day footage with the publication of that clip produced in Doug Hajicek's DVD titled "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science" and again in Dr. Jeff Meldrum's book of the same name, on PP. 131 - 133, where he states there were discernible breasts that gyrated with each running step. In my opinion, I think that's really "reaching," especially in light of Dr. Esteban Sarmiento's point of view when he stated it was difficult to prove with any certainty whether the subject was a man in a monkey suit or the real thing. I fail to understand the ongoing debate over this footage, even if I thought it was real, what would it teach us? Absolutely nothing!

I would add here that most advocates of the film's authenticity are usually people who have never observed sasquatch locomotion and I would respond to the criticism that this is a weak argument by saying, - because to personally see a sasquatch move is to be stuck by the unique characteristics of its movement.

Let me take this a bit further.. Dr. Grover S. Krantz spoke well to the unusual gait of the Patterson subject in his book,"Big Footprints, A scientific Inquiry into the reality of Sasquatch" 1992. Krantz also physically demonstrated (with some difficulty), the unique gait of the sasquatch in various video documentaries before he died. He also declined to add anything regarding the MDF in his book revision. I cannot understand why Meldrum did not take Krantz's lead into consideration.. the locomotion of the sasquatch is neither ape nor man and clearly the subject in the MDF runs like any ordinary guy at a track meet; the unique locomotion of the sasquatch is not seen in the MDF. The subject at no time demonstrates the characteristics or the locomotion known to the sasquatch. I just don't get it. . . . Bobbie Short
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Two 2006 updates...
Here is another observation:
Posted by Stacy Flow ers... May 1, 2006 @ 9:00 pm -- -- I wrote this up on the Ohio Conference thread, but figured since it'd probably be missed by a lot of people not interested in hearing about the conference, I'd copy it here as well. I think it's intriguing, important, and worthy of further discussion.

Larry Lund was the first speaker of the evening, and had this to say about the Memorial Day footage:

As it turns out, he was the first person called to review the video. Larry stated that when Owen Pate called him, the first words out of his mouth were "Larry, I understand you're the guy who can help me get this video on TV. How soon can you make that happen and how much money do you think I can get out of it?"

His initial impression upon viewing the video was that it was hoaxed. He did say that seeing it again on "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science" almost had him convinced that maybe the thing was real, except for one little thing: On the original tape, Owen Pate had forgotten to stop recording in between the two "sightings" of the creature in question.

He had a copy of the original tape with him, unedited with all of the dialogue going back and forth and boy, is this revealing. The quotes below are written verbatim as we heard them on the video. The camera is on the spot where the subject runs out from for a looonnnng time before it does, while the dialogue below is going on.. apparently they know what's going to happen ahead of time. This is the stuff you did not see or hear on LMS:

- "We can make a million bucks!"
- "[undecipherable] enough power to play it back on TV?"
- "I've had two too many drinks!" (laughter)

At this point the subject starts running on the left of the screen, this is what you see without the talking, and the dialogue continues as it runs:

- "Looks like a white boy to me" (Larry said this was positively Fred Bradshaw's voice and one of his key phrases--the "white boy" thing--Fred had previously denied any involvement with this)
- "That's a guy with a big pack on his back"
- "It's a bigfoot!" (laughter)

This is all supposedly after seeing the thing once already... this dialogue occurs immediately before what you see on LMS. Does that sound like a bunch of people who have just seen a bigfoot, or a bunch of people partying and having a great laugh? icon_eyebrow.gif

Larry also believes that the movement at the end of the clip which some people believe is a baby being lifted up onto the shoulders is actually the head of the costume being removed. He said that the original actor playing Harry Henderson, before they got Kevin Peter Hall, actually DIED in the costume, on set, from heat exhaustion. He believes the guy had to take the head off to get some air and breathe after running across the hillside.

The video he showed was enhanced and SO much clearer than what you see on LMS, and honestly it did look (to me) like a man dressed in black running with a backpack on his back. After seeing the entire clip and hearing the banter between the "witnesses," I personally no longer give this video any credence at all.

http://bigfootdiscussions.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1174
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It is important that you read all these observations to understand the story:
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Ever watchful of the work M.K. Davis has done with the Patterson film and curious about what work he may have done with the Memorial Day footage, I wrote him and asked. Marlon had this to say:

In regard to the Memorial Day footage:

I don't have the highest quality version of the footage, so I approached the problem from a color scheme perspective.

A little known fact about synthetic fiber, such as many inexpensive ape suits contain, is that when it is dyed brown, there is a base coat of green.

My computer imaging program has the capability of restoring faded photographs to their original vibrant colors. It is very sensitive to even very faint colors.

When such inexpensive fiber is in strong light, the base coat of green often shines through.

This would be almost imperceptive to the naked eye, but the sensitive program does often pick up the faint green undercoat.

Working with this principle, I assembled some of the frames in the Memorial Day footage to see if green would come through and apparently it did.

Look at this clip, and watch the areas of green change with the light and shadow.

Finding the green base coat in strong light, is not 100% conclusive and this process only works on brown dyes, and not all them at that. In some cases there may be bleed over onto the subject from surrounding vegetation.

What I found with the subject running in the Memorial Day subject, however, changes as the light and shadow does. This strongly indicates an inexpensive fiber that has been dyed brown.

While not 100% conclusive, it is enough to make me not want to go through a lot of expense and time to look
at other points of interest. ....M.K.Davis, October 2006
...more continued at the bottom of this clip....

Memorial Day Footage Questioned...
Text from the 2006 November issue of the Bigfoot Times…

The footage in question was videotaped on May 26, 1996 by Lori Pate on a camping and fishing trip in Washington, just 5.5 miles south of the Canadian border and later broadcast to millions in the documentary Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science. Shortly after the film was shot the well known Bigfoot hunter Peter Byrne would comment, “a careful examination of this footage suggests to me that it was faked, not by the young couple who obtained the footage, but by others...” So uninspired by the Memorial Day footage, the late Dr. Grover Krantz wrote nothing about it in his book, Big Footprints, or in its revised edition, published in 1999. Dr. Esteban Sarmiento from the American Museum of Natural History offered this, “It’s very difficult to prove with certainty that the creature is real or a man in a monkey suit.”

And Washington’s resident Bigfoot expert, Rick Noll, echoed Sarmiento’s critique, “...there is not good enough resolution or detailed view of the animal on the video at this date to show anything but the gross body shape...” yet eagle-eyed Dr. Jeff Meldrum somehow noted, “also discernible were unmistakable breasts that gyrated with each running step,” in his freshly minted book.

But what is certain, in my opinion, is the Memorial Day footage, as it has been dubbed, met popular science or less than that in the forensic examination of the footage. As Dr. Jeff Meldrum put it in his book, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, (hereafter as S: LMS) a companion to the television documentary of the same title, “this was perhaps the most high-tech [and costly] analysis of any film purporting to depict a sasquatch.”

It isn’t rocket science but to anyone who has viewed this short videotape it looks like a man in a monkey suit and at about 5 feet 3 inches in height, and a gait strikingly like that of a man, suspicion would be quick to set in.

That the on-site forensic examiners didn’t get suspicious right out of the gate is beyond me. What they should have done is placed a man of the same height in a monkey suit going over the identical route to see what that would look like. Instead, what they have done is compared a man taller than the subject in running apparel (see picture, page 1) and that information was confirmed in a telephone call to Doug Divine of Pacific Survey Supply, whose enthusiasm about the videotape over a phone call was nonexistent. As a footnote, the test subject, Derek Prior, easily outran the subject over the same pathway. Mr. Prior, a sprinter, sped the course at 17.1 m.p.h. while the Memorial Day subject lagged along at a little more than half the speed at 8.56 m.p.h. Certainly telling... Nonetheless, narrator Stacy Keach for Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science offered total and complete contradiction: “The Memorial Day footage suggested that the creature was running at speeds across this rough terrain beyond human capabilities,” when in fact this was never the case.

However, the good thing about the filming site near Chopaka Lake, Washington, is that even today it remains relatively unaltered from 10 years ago and a man in a monkey suit experiment is quite doable. It should be done.

Damaging to the videotape was an experiment recently conducted by M.K. Davis, who single-handedly shed new light on the Patterson-Gimlin film. His comments are as follows: "In regard to the Memorial Day footage: I don't have the highest quality version of the footage, so I approached the problem from a color scheme perspective. A little known fact about synthetic fiber, such as many inexpensive ape suits contain, is that when it is dyed brown, there is a base coat of green.

My computer imaging program has the capability of restoring faded photographs to their original vibrant colors. It is very sensitive to even very faint colors.

When such inexpensive fiber is in strong light, the base coat of green often shines through. This would be almost imperceptive to the naked eye, but the sensitive program does often pick up the faint green undercoat.

Working with this principle, I assembled some of the frames in the Memorial Day footage to see if green would come through and apparently it did.

Look at this clip, [see Bigfoot Forums.com] and watch the areas of green change with the light and shadow. Finding the green base coat in strong light, is not 100% conclusive and this process only works on brown dyes, and not all them at that. In some cases there may be bleed over onto the subject from surrounding vegetation. What I found with the subject running in the Memorial Day subject, however, changes as the light and shadow does. This strongly indicates an inexpensive fiber that has been dyed brown. While not 100% conclusive, it is enough to make me not want to go through a lot of expense and time to look at other points of interest."

Rick Noll, known as Damndirtyape on the Bigfoot Forums.com site charged back, “As far as a color shift in the subject, more information is needed. Like control tests showing that video tape doesn't impart this characteristic on its own.”

Bobbie Short, a San Diego, California Bigfooter e-mailed this to me: During the early internet discussions of that film footage, (approximately 1996-7) someone asked Dr. Krantz if he was going to address the Memorial Day Footage issue in his updated version of Big Footprints. He fired back with both guns drawn saying he wouldn't waste ink on that footage. The exact [words] I cannot recall -- thus I'm trying to locate someone else who archived those early day exchanges beside what I have on old computers.” Ms. Short’s November 14th request for help: “Plea: A bunch of us are looking for Dr. Grover Krantz’s remarks on the Memorial Day footage. It does exist, but it was on an old 5” floppy HD computer of mine, long since gone the way of useless pc’s. It was posted on one of the early day Internet Bigfoot discussion lists, maybe the majordomo BFRR list, one of the onelists.com or Lyris List by Grover himself during early discussions of that film. It may have been logged on MIRC bigfoot undernet live-chat. I’m thinking somewhere between 1996 – 1999. Help! Someone must have archived Krantz’s points of view for posterity besides me. We need that priceless exchange…. and I’m offering a reward as incentive
…thanx! Mail to Bobbieshort at yahoo dot com

Larry Lund, reached by phone on November 19th, was perhaps the first investigator to hear about the videotape, with a call directly from Owen Pate shortly after the film was shot. He told me their primary interest was to see if they could get their Bigfoot videotape aired on television and how much money they would be paid. After viewing the videotape Larry Lund stated it looked “pretty terrible.” The Pates were eventually compensated for their videotape when they agreed to have it aired on S: LMS, and the producer, Doug Hajicek, who has cooperated fully with this investigation, offered this: “Owen [Pate] would have let us air the footage with or without the very small compensation.”

Also damaging to the footage as a whole is the audio. Curiously, and of tremendous interest, in S: LMS Paul Freeman’s alleged Bigfoot video is shown with sound yet when the Memorial Day footage is displayed the audio is dead silent. Why, we should ask? Again, some of the audio from that footage is both telling and damaging. Perhaps this is why is wasn’t used.

Here is some of the audio: (link to the audio feed below....)
“...he was right behind that small pine tree, right?”
“I’m freak.”
“Yeah, I’m scared.”
“I could make a million bucks.”
“That’s a guy with a big hair cut...”
“Sure is ambitious, running a lot...”
“It’s a Bigfoot.”
“That’s not a Bigfoot...”
“It’s a Dickfoot.”
“It’s all on video!”
“I’ve only had two drinks.”
“Me, too, two too many.”
And somewhere in the audio, as the subject comes into film view is this: “looks like a white boy to me,” a statement made without a doubt by the late Fred Bradshaw and avid Bigfooter from Elma, Washington.

So it begs the question, isn’t it convenient, or too convenient that a Bigfooter would be present when a camping couple (“there were seven people in our party...” -Owen Pate) just happens to film a Bigfoot? And what was Fred Bradshaw’s connection to Owen and Lori Pate? That remains to be seen.

In the end, the Memorial Day footage will always be controversial as it is a very questionable piece of videotape.

© November 2006 Bigfoot Times, Daniel Perez w/permission...

Here is the audiotape off the Memorial Day footage: http://www.bigfootforums.com/media/Memorial_Day_Footage_Audio.mp3

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