Review our Ethics and Security policies and learn more about the process.
Digital veiling is a visual-effects process that protects contributor identity in documentaries. It preserves authenticity and consent while ensuring contributors’ safety and maintaining the integrity of the story.
Each section below outlines a different part of our thinking and production workflow.
Digital veiling is grounded in informed consent, ethical transparency, and visual clarity. Each step is designed to protect contributors while maintaining the trust of audiences and collaborators.
Digital veiling depends on consent from all involved — contributors, doubles, and, in an indirect sense, the audience.
Projects will clearly indicate through an on screen disclaimer that digital veils have been used, such as “Some contributors have been digitally disguised.” This open approach preserves honesty in storytelling and aligns with best practices for ethical disclosure.
The on-screen watermark supports this transparency with regulators and any archivists who may use the material in the future.
A subtle, soft halo marks treated areas. The style is inspired by the visual language of the familiar “blurry oval” of traditional witness protection, and connecting to that base knowlege, we instanty communicate to the audience that the production is protecting the contributors. The halo acts as a communcation tool, on top of the an ethical and a forensic cues. It signals that identity protection was deliberate, not deceptive, and it prevents visual unease while maintaining natural emotional expression.
The “uncanny valley” describes the discomfort viewers feel when something looks not quite right. Even small visual inconsistencies between perception and anticipation can trigger unease.
We have leveraged the visual language of witness protection, the blurry oval as a short hand to tell audience that production is taking care to protect their witnesses. The soft halo serves a second purpose, to also tell the audience that we are using a digital veil, allowing them to move past the is it real puzzle, and return focus to the testimony.
The solution prioritizes motion fidelity, and that correct movement keeps expressions natural while avoiding the valley of unease. Research conducted at Dartmouth College confirmed that halo-treated footage feels more authentic and emotionally legible.
This approach balances ethics, budget, and craft — protecting identities, preserving emotion, and sustaining audience trust.
All project media is processed in an offline, air-gapped environment. No footage is stored or processed in the cloud.
Transfers occur using encrypted ZIP or DMG archives protected by one-time keys. Secure methods such as Aspera, Signiant, or HTTPS portals are used. Once received, temporary copies are deleted. Hand-delivery of encrypted drives is also available.
After project completion, encrypted partitions are overwritten with random data and deleted. Physical media is wiped or destroyed. These measures exceed typical broadcast security standards.
Every project is different and each requires unique levels of protection. We can successfully anonymize their facial feature, and we offer these additioanl items to think about for overall protection.
These choices support privacy and simplify digital veiling without compromising authenticity.
Typical intermediates (Turnovers):
Proxy Media (Dailies) for editorial review:
Deliverables (Final Veiled Media):
PROJ_SEQ_SHOT_DESC. Consistent naming ensures simple reconform and tracking.This ensures seamless reintegration of veiled shots.
Digital veiling uses machine learning, but it is not “artificial intelligence” in the creative or autonomous sense. The process is mathematical, not interpretive — a controlled transformation that never invents content or meaning.
Using precise language distinguishes Digital Veils from generative or synthetic media. As industry terminology evolves, clarity in description reflects care, professionalism, and transparency. This precision helps audiences, collaborators, and distributors understand that the technique protects identity while maintaining authenticity.
Deepfakes use a subset of the computational tools used in Digital Veiling. A key technical difference is our reshaping of heads, a vfx heavy process prior to neural training and rendering. This puts Digital Veils in a different category of protection.
On its face, Digital Veils differ in process, technology, purpose, consent, and outcome. Deepfakes deceive; Digital Veils protect.
“Digital Veil” describes a relatively new distinct and deliberate process. The treatment uses computational methods like many visual effects processes, none of which are agentic or intelligent.
This approach represents an evolution of traditional witness protection treatments, developed to meet the needs of modern documentary filmmaking within the boundaries of journalism and ethical storytelling.
Leveraging neural networks, we achieve a fidelity motion and emotionally accuracy not previously possible. Using clear language and visuals ensures that audiences, distributors, and regulators can distinguish protection from manipulation.