The Orion Conspiracy

[[File:The Orion Conspiracy cover.jpg|thumb|right|165px|''The Orion Conspiracy'' DVD cover]]{{title-italics}}{{conspiracynav}}
{{cquote|This film is neither a work of fiction, nor a documentary.
Forget the words "esoteric" or "fantastic", here we're speaking about REALITY…|||Second half of the description}}
'''''The Orion Conspiracy''''' (also known as '''''La Conspiration d'Orion''''') is a short movie by [[France|French]] director/photographer Seb Janiak that was released in 2007/2008. It consists of a long presentation with a slideshow given by an anonymous lecturer to a group of important-looking men that tries to tie every major conspiracy theory in a single [[unified conspiracy theory]] narrative. Given the fact that the images in the slideshow are either [[image manipulation|blatantly photoshopped]] or taken [[out of context]], chances are that the whole thing is indeed a [[Poe's Law|tongue-in-cheek]] artsy movie, probably with some kind of message about gullibility and the [[media]], and not a straight example of Seb Jainak being a true believer. (Though the guy apparently doesn't like the [[United States|US]]. Or at least American militarism.)

==The images==
The defining feature of the movie is the images shown in the slideshow. Some of them are just publicly available pictures (e.g. [[:File:Uss_iowa_bb-61_pr.jpg|an American battleship firing its guns]], NASA pictures or snapshots from old movies), others are already existing conspiracy theory images (e.g. [[Nazi UFOs|Nazi flying saucers]]), but a lot of them seem to have been Photoshopped specially for the movie. Some images may have been reused from other sources - there are a few "giant skeleton" photos that are either taken from or inspired by a Worth1000 Photoshop contest that had been previously recycled as an Internet hoax.<ref>David Mikkelson, [https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/giant-skeleton-uncovered-saudi-arabia/ Was a Giant Skeleton Uncovered in Saudi Arabia?] [[Snopes]], 21 June 2004.</ref> The website has a gallery listing (a large part of) the manipulated images and even offers some of them for download as desktop wallpapers.

Since then, some of the images have been wittingly or unwittingly re-used by various conspiracy theory websites.<ref>For example, see this profile from conspiracy [[webshite]] [http://thegreaterpicture.com/the-orion-conspiracy.php The Greater Picture].</ref> One of the more amusing examples is the picture of an Apollo astronaut on the Moon with ruins added in the background – it was used as a background image of the website of the 2012 Secret Space Program conference,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120114083710/http://www.secretspaceprogram.com/ Secret Space Program]. Archived from 14 January 2012.</ref> a vehicle for the likes of Timothy Good and [[Richard Hoagland]]. (Most probably they are not that gullible, but they sure liked the idea...)

==See also==
*[[Crank magnetism]]
*[[Poe's law]]

==External links==
===The video itself===
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJfc63rCnWE ''The Orion Conspiracy'', part 1]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTe2tUW2LS8 ''The Orion Conspiracy'', part 2]
===Creator's sites===
*[https://archive.is/w5qFU ''The Orion Conspiracy''] – Archive snapshot of the official site
*[https://archive.is/7f0jg Seb Janiak] – Archive snapshot of the creator's website, featuring examples of his photography work (the guy managed to make Naomi Campbell look like a shiny plastic robot)

==References==
{{reflist|80%}}

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[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:Films]]
[[Category:Ufology]]
[[Category:Hoaxes]]
[[Category:Crank magnetism]]
[[Category:Fake news]]

Categories: Conspiracy theories, Films, Ufology, Hoaxes, Crank magnetism, Fake news