Veteran film industry special makeup effects designer Bill Munns joined guest host Connie Willis (email) for the entire program to discuss his analysis of the controversial 1967 Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film (PGF). He described how his examination of the PGF is the most comprehensive to date. According to Munns, his database of high resolution copies of each frame from various versions of the PGF, and expertise in makeup effects and the filmmaking process, make him uniquely qualified to comment on the film's authenticity. Munns further detailed his background working as a makeup artist/costume designer on such films as The Boogens, Swamp Thing, and The Beastmaster, and how these cinematic experiences gave him the necessary skill set to properly analyze the creature seen in the PGF footage.
Dubbing the creature "Patty," Munns addressed the question of whether she was indeed a genuine cryptid, or just a person in a costume. "A costume the way that is described [by skeptics] will not produce what you see in the Patterson film, and you can prove it to a certainty," he revealed. The film suggests the creature is female as two mammary glands are visible on its front. Munns analysis has found this area of anatomy has measurable fluid motion dynamics, which he proposed as evidence for the creature's authenticity. "In 1967 nobody made costumes that had any kind of sexual anatomy," he said, adding that hoaxers would have likely made a male costume because it is scarier.
Munns also commented on the release of "new" footage from the PGF as well as Rene Dahinden's Blue Creek Mountain trackway film. Only the last quarter, or 25 feet, of the PGF has ever been seen by most people, he reported, noting the first part of the footage shows horse and rider shots from Patterson's docudrama shoot about a Bigfoot hunt. Munns contends the entirety of the footage shows no fakery of any kind, and believed it was preparation, not calculated fraud, that allowed Patterson to capture Bigfoot that day. "The one who's going to get [Bigfoot] is most likely the one who goes out into the woods for weeks at a time and does nothing but look around in areas where there are known sightings and activity, and the person who's got a camera loaded, lens set, and ready to film on a moment’s notice," he explained.