The Science of Prohibition

Wow, not very exciting, is it?

Some could be real - after many takes.
Others don't actually show the whole trajectory of the cans, so some could be faked.

What was that phrase again...?

WGAS?

Neither crazy throwing skills nor video editing skills. Simply show the successes and leave out the many misses. How is this a debate?

i think that the trick is to leave some drink in the can so that it adds some weight. i'm sure its still lots of takes though.

Wow, a documentary about throwing cans away.

I look forward to their next piece on mowing the yard and shoveling snow off the sidewalk.

Geez, you commenters are so cynical. Have you ever thrown something away? I thought it was cool how they made all those shots.

I enjoyed at how cassually they approached each throw, acting like nothing even happened.

And all I could think was "I hope those were recycling bins and not trash cans"

I suppose everybody needs a hobby right! And that look incredibly fake imo.

The shots all look practiced but it still does take some amount of aim to pull those off.

Wish I could substantiate it but most of the long shots look extremely wrong. Something about the garbage can openings and the way the cans fly. Just looks out of whack. Like when you see someone pretending to drink something on tv and it's obvious there's nothing in the glass. Or when it's an obviously empty suitcase they're carrying. Can I prove it? No. But if it's between me and these guys at the pearly gates...I wasn't the guy perpetrating the can tossing fraud in France in '07. My conscience is clean.

If you'd actually watched the second video all the way to the end, you would have seen the out-takes (in which the cans miss), proving that the videos were simply made by filming take after take until they got each throw right.

It's not rocket science, people!

Agreed, Yak Boy, it's not science...it's repetition. We've seen this before, folks. Still a cool vid...

Some of these look real, but there are a few that just aren't right: the trajectory is a bit off, or something. For example, look at -1:35 on the first video. The can levels off a little bit as it falls towards the can.

(And Yak Boy, just because they show someone missing, doesn't "prove" it's real when they show someone making it.)

Actually the cans have fishing line attached to the top and a motor in the can that retracts the line. couple of my buddies and i did the same thing in college for an engineering class. the tought part is not accidentally tripping on the line when you walk by it and making sure to put enough arc on the toss to make it look real.

some of the shots you can see the can off track when it's about 3-4 feet away and then alter course and get "sucked" into the trash.

Not rocket science,maybe. But I defy anyone to make the kicking the can shot. Even w/ repetition. Sheesh. Some people will believe anything as long as it's presented prettily enough.

Wally here sounds like he's at least barking up the right tree.

And where has this been seen before? I missed it.

Many of the shots have someone/something in the path of the would-be fishing line. Although some of the tougher shots may still be done that way.

For you unbelievers.
http://vietnam-26.skyrock.com/

You'll need to speak German or French, for those are the langages of the different news/shows the throwers are in.

Just a matter of trial and error (and error, and error and error ;) and a little bit of training too, they can toss better than the average guy.

They just show the successful attempts. I had a friend that saw a video art exhibit in Japan that did a similar thing. The exhibit documented the chance occurnaces of things such as throwing a penny from across a big room and having it land perfectly into an ashtray. The artist did this with many different things but only showed the successful attempts of each task attempted thus making it look like he did each task flawlessly but in reality he only showed the rare chance occurance after many many tries. If you look in these videos you see the rest of the guys sitting near the trash cans so it looks like regular people are siting about but they are sitting there for when the can misses. That way people don't get pissed they just got hit with a can, it is only their friends that get hit.

AHHH THATS OK I GUESS BUT CHECK OUT BILLY MARKS'S SKILLS WITH A PING PONG BALL(its not first try obviously but it just takes alot of tries,eventually you get it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFZevw1AHZs