The Mystery of Zapruder Frame 312.5: Unveiling the Hidden Moment in JFK's Assassination

[Keyvan Shahrdar]

Delve into the enigmatic Zapruder frame 312.5, a crucial yet often overlooked frame in Robert Groden's version of the Zapruder film, absent from the NARA collection. This frame captures a haunting, reddish mist enveloping President Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, accompanied by the startling sight of fragments exiting the top of JFK's head.

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Keyvan Shahrdar

[Chris Bristow]

About 7 or more years ago there was a YouTube video claiming to reveal a dramatic slowing of the limo. Between 312 and 313 the limo's speed was cut in half. Long story short, someone had created/added an extra frame (312a). It was apparently made with a frame interpolation program. The program can take 2 consecutive frames and create an intermediate frame in which anything that moves from frame 1(312) to frame 2(313) is recreated to appear in a location in between those two positions.
Example: You have two frames that show a baseball being thrown. Frame 1 shows the ball 4 inches from the pitcher's hand and frame 2 shows it has moved to 8 inches from the pitcher's hand. The interpolation program will create a new frame, frame 1A, that shows the ball 6 inches from the pitcher's hand. The new frame becomes an intermediate frame.
 This is done between all frames and doubles the total number of frames. Then the projection rate is also doubled. The result is a film that moves at its original speed, but having twice as many frames smoothes out the appearance of the film. This is applied to old films to make them look less choppy.
 In the real Z film the limo moves about 8 inches from 312 to 313. Adding a single interpolated frame (312a) causes the limo to take 2 frames to move that same 8 inches. When projected at the normal Z frame rate the limo appears to cut its speed in half from 312 to 312a to 313. Of course cutting your speed in half then suddenly going back to its normal speed at 314 is impossible. Therefore I think the best answer to explain the faked Z copy is frame interpolation. It was used to add a single frame between 312 and 313.
 The top images are the real 312 and the faked 312a. JFK's head tips forward to  an intermediate position in 312a. A position that does not occur in the Z film.
 An additional proof of interpolation fakery appears in frames 349 and 350 of the same fake Z film(Below). There is no extra frame there but 350 is a fake composite of 349 and 350. I think it is a remnant of experimentation with interpolation.
 In the images at bottom the real 349 is on the left and a fake 350 is on the right. From 349 to 350 Altgens moves left relative to Jackie. that is real and correct in both frames. But the yellow paint on the curb does not move left from 349 to 350. The red lines show how much Altgens moved and how much the curb should have moved with him. But the yellow curb has barely moved at all. Additionally the fake 350 on the right should reveal Altgens shadow across the curb as it does in the real 350.
 The yellow curb in the fake 350 on the right and lack of Altgens shadow are both from frame 349. It seems that the fake 350 was an error that combined the real positions of everyone on the grass while the curb is a repeat of frame 349.
 I bumped up the saturation in the real 350 on the right to make the yellow curb more obvious. The curb in the real 350 is skinny compared to the real 349 because there is a bit more vertical camera jiggle in 349. That is one more proof that the fake 350 has the curb from the real 349.

Edited May 5 by Chris Bristow

[Chris Davidson]

5 hours ago, Chris Bristow said:

About 7 or more years ago there was a YouTube video claiming to reveal a dramatic slowing of the limo. Between 312 and 313 the limo's speed was cut in half. Long story short, someone had created/added an extra frame (312a). It was apparently made with a frame interpolation program. The program can take 2 consecutive frames and create an intermediate frame in which anything that moves from frame 1(312) to frame 2(313) is recreated to appear in a location in between those two positions.
 

Not sure when Keyvan's frame was created.

In Final Cut Pro you can create new(in-between) frames using "Optical Flow".

The example I'm providing is an "interlaced" frame on the left side(notice the horizontal lines through Jackie's face).

The right side is the same frame(using Photoshop) with a gaussian blur of 2 pixels, followed by an unsharp masking with an amount of 500 and radius of 1.

 

 

[Keyvan Shahrdar]

I am using Cyberlink and I advance the Robert Groden version of the Zapruder film frame by frame. Anything is possible as both of you mentioned but this seems to be a new frame that was omitted in the NARA version of the  Zapruder frames.

Do you guys have the Robert Groden version of the Zapruder Film.  If not DM me.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Keyvan Shahrdar

[Marcus Fuller]

Is it possible that one of the frames was duplicated? So 312 was copied and the 'new' frame was inserted after it. Presumably that would just make the footage overall longer a it would if you inserted an 'empty' event or some other effect.

[Eddy Bainbridge]

Can anyone confirm there is a genuine frame in existence between 312 and 313 ?

In terms of interpolation I think there may be sufficient 'residual' evidence to recreate the frames missing after 312 (I have tried with free software). The sequence would be (braking, Kennedy slump due to braking, shot to head from rear causing side blowout( with autopsy located entrance), front shot with head at correct angle for Brugioni/Nelly Connally/Ryberg Drawing, accelleration causing extant head snap) The timing for this is defined by 'bang-bang' evidence which must mean it occured in .25 - 1 sec.

[Keyvan Shahrdar]

9 hours ago, Chris Davidson said:

Not sure when Keyvan's frame was created.

In Final Cut Pro you can create new(in-between) frames using "Optical Flow".

The example I'm providing is an "interlaced" frame on the left side(notice the horizontal lines through Jackie's face).

The right side is the same frame(using Photoshop) with a gaussian blur of 2 pixels, followed by an unsharp masking with an amount of 500 and radius of 1.

 

 

@Chris Davidson, Gotcha - When transferring film to a digital format, some software may use interpolation to smooth out the footage. This process can sometimes create additional frames or alter existing ones to produce a more fluid motion in the video. While this can improve the viewing experience, it's important to be cautious as it might also introduce artifacts or alter the original content of the film.

[Jonathan Cohen]

1 hour ago, Eddy Bainbridge said:

Can anyone confirm there is a genuine frame in existence between 312 and 313 ?

No, there isn't.

[Chris Davidson]

1 hour ago, Keyvan Shahrdar said:

@Chris Davidson, Gotcha - When transferring film to a digital format, some software may use interpolation to smooth out the footage. This process can sometimes create additional frames or alter existing ones to produce a more fluid motion in the video. While this can improve the viewing experience, it's important to be cautious as it might also introduce artifacts or alter the original content of the film.

Here's an (Optical Flow) example from FinalCutPro.

This segment from the extant zfilm is 14 frames.

The gif consists of 33 frames for the same segment with each frame consisting of movement.

I sped up the playback rate to have it approximate what the extant zfilm naturally looks like.

[Chris Bristow]

3 hours ago, Chris Davidson said:

Here's an (Optical Flow) example from FinalCutPro.

This segment from the extant zfilm is 14 frames.

The gif consists of 33 frames for the same segment with each frame consisting of movement.

I sped up the playback rate to have it approximate what the extant zfilm naturally looks like.

Interlacing programs must have gotten much better since the fake video I saw in 17'. But it may have been from 2010. Even that older program could recognize JFK's forward head movement in 313 relative to his head in 312. That is impressive since his head in 313 is blurred and partially hidden in the cloud of blood.  The sophistication  is growing so rapidly now that anything can be faked.   

[Chris Bristow]

13 hours ago, Marcus Fuller said:

Is it possible that one of the frames was duplicated? So 312 was copied and the 'new' frame was inserted after it. Presumably that would just make the footage overall longer a it would if you inserted an 'empty' event or some other effect.

If you just duplicated 312 the limo would be in the same place for 2 frames. That is visible to the eye but also measurable in pairs of frames. The interlacing programs nudge the background to the left for each frame making the limo appear to move forward in every frame.

[Chris Bristow]

14 hours ago, Keyvan Shahrdar said:

I am using Cyberlink and I advance the Robert Groden version of the Zapruder film frame by frame. Anything is possible as both of you mentioned but this seems to be a new frame that was omitted in the NARA version of the  Zapruder frames.

Do you guys have the Robert Groden version of the Zapruder Film.  If not DM me.

The Groden frame set can be downloaded here. 
https://sites.google.com/site/lightboxzframes/lightbox-frame-sets

[Chris Bristow]

7 hours ago, Eddy Bainbridge said:

Can anyone confirm there is a genuine frame in existence between 312 and 313 ?

In terms of interpolation I think there may be sufficient 'residual' evidence to recreate the frames missing after 312 (I have tried with free software). The sequence would be (braking, Kennedy slump due to braking, shot to head from rear causing side blowout( with autopsy located entrance), front shot with head at correct angle for Brugioni/Nelly Connally/Ryberg Drawing, accelleration causing extant head snap) The timing for this is defined by 'bang-bang' evidence which must mean it occured in .25 - 1 sec.

In this day and age I don't think there is any way to confirm a perviously unknown frame because it can all be faked, imo. 

   If a limo stop was removed it could not be done by just removing frames. A deceleration from maybe 8mph to 2mph or less has to involve some matte process to shift the background in order to keep the limo moving at 8mph during the deceleration sequence. To hide a deceleration of  25%  you can't just remove 25% of the frames. . EXAMPLE: Starting with frames 1,2,3,4 you remove 25%. So you take out number 3 and are left with a sequence of 1,2,4,5. Nothing has changed from 1 to 2 or 4 to 5 so the limo speed won't change. But from 3 to 5 the limo speed will double  because its now going twice as far from 3 to 5. So the limo would be lurching down the street during deceleration or acceleration. 
 I think trying to recreate a limo stop or slowing by just adding frames would not work without adding the interpolation program to move the background. Basically the computer version of the matte process used in 60's era films.

[Keyvan Shahrdar]

44 minutes ago, Chris Bristow said:

The Groden frame set can be downloaded here. 
https://sites.google.com/site/lightboxzframes/lightbox-frame-sets

 

Groden does not have frame sets.  Groden copied the Zapruder film in 1975 to Betamax, in part that is how he got the HSCA gig in 1976.  You can’t see the sprockets in his film.

[Chris Bristow]

3 hours ago, Keyvan Shahrdar said:

 

Groden does not have frame sets.  Groden copied the Zapruder film in 1975 to Betamax, in part that is how he got the HSCA gig in 1976.  You can’t see the sprockets in his film.

The Betamax copies were the earliest available as I recall and the MPI version shows no sprocket area. But the frames on that sight and all the Groden frames I have seen elsewhere have everything in the pocket area. The color matches the rest of the frame area very well so I don't think the Groden sprocket areas  are a later addition. As I understand it those frames were provided by Groden, although he has never provided the complete set.