SUBJECT: AMATEUR CAMCORDER USERS RECORD "REAL" UFO           FILE: UFO1141


NEWS, Buffalo, NY-March 25, 1990



By  Buzz McClain
Special to The News

     Dave Aaron has a tantalizing proposition:  "real" UFOs on videotape.
     Aaron, a Yucaipa, Calif., tape editor and video writer who goes by the name Video Dave, put out the call in May 1988 for camcorder owners who have filmed unidentified flying objects to send their tapes to him.
     His UFO Audio-Video Clearinghouse now has hundreds of entries in its catalog: submissions have come from around the world.
     I called Aaron and asked him to put together a sample reel of the best shots he had to offer.
     I watched the tape with Larry Bryant, 51, a federal employee at the Pentagon who in his spare time sues the government to release classified UFO material, and Rob Swaitek, 36, a physicist with the U.S. Patent Office who also serves on the executive committee of the Washington-based, non-profit Fund for UFO Research.
     Bryant and Swaitek are long-time UFO investigators who were anxious to see what Aaron's clearinghouse had to offer.
     The dozen taped clips Aaron sent were rough-hewn, clearly shot by amateurs, and the tape was made of what were obviously copies of copies of copies.
     The shots last from a few seconds to a few minutes, and editor Aaron had replayed them each three times, sometimes in slow motion, sometimes with magnification on certain areas of the screen.
     It took a minute to get used to the quality-these are not filmed in the best of conditions-but Bryant and Swaitek seemed enraptured from the start.
     Avid readers of UFO reports, they were thrilled to see taped footage to accompany the familiar documentation, and they preceded some of the clips with enlightening background comments.
     They knew the names of the sightings-the ones at Great Falls, Mont.:  Tremonton, Utah; the Colorado desert; Guatemala City, and from a plane over New Zealand-and filled me in with details.
     "These are the best films we've seen," Bryant said at one point.
     The best was yet to come.  On a separate tape Aaron sent his newest clip, a 15-second sighting shot in Japan by a couple testing a new video camera.
     An oblong object, red on the bottom with a white light at the top, is seen rising over a ridge not far from the camerma.  The object rises above the trees and gradually glides out of the frame.
     Conclusive?  No: Unless you are the one the event is happening to, you will always harbor reservations about what you're seeing on tape.
     The clips are chilling and thought-provoking-especially if they are real-but because there is no narration (Aaron records classical music for the background), it helps to know the circumstances of the footage.  UFO buffs will enjoy the tapes most; skeptics will continue being skeptical.
     Aaron's catalog includes footage detailing such phenomena as cattle mutilations, underground UFO bases, UFO burn cases, vats filled with human body parts and the like.  Audie cassettes include  interviews, original radio shows and call-in programs.
     Aaron custom-edits each video-tape in VHS or Beta format based on your selections from the catalog; each two-hour tape goes for $30.  Audio tapes are $9.95.
     To get a catalog, send $5 to UFO Audio-Video Clearinghouse,  P.O. Box 342-JN, Yucaipa, Calif.  92399-0342.  If you have footage you would like to donate, call Dave's 24-hour number, a (714)795-3361.

              
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