unforum

[threedifferentones]

Sort of [OOG]. A little something I don't understand.

[Aconti2]

Yeah but we're talking about a film student here. They love the tapes like guitarists love the tubes. Also remember there is a lot of footage from a digital camera found in the external hardrive found in the hotel safe.

[MsSynclair]

Some cameras still use tapes.

[BranRainey]

Back in 2006 (when the first videos were set), digital camcorders that recorded to a hard drive or SD card were much more expensive than their DV-tape-using counterparts. I used to use DV tape just because of that -- better quality at the same price at the expense of having to use a less convenient recording medium. (Transferring footage from DV tape to computer is totally realtime so putting an hour of footage onto your editing rig actually takes an hour. Annoying.)

Nowadays I've switched to SD cards completely because the price has dropped so much, but to still have J using tapes is IMO acceptable for tradition's sake and just because it's more cinematic to have tapes in a safe than a bunch of SD cards.

(Also note, for those that keep making this mistake, that it's still a digital camera even if it records to tape; it's recording digital information to the tape to be read by a computer. ALL cameras in Marble Hornets are digital.)

[Shaded Spriter]

I also think people who use SD cards or hard drives people still tend to call them tapes - hell some people still call DVDs and bluray discs video tapes.

[Themayor]

[Foood]

[BranRainey]

And J's camera also has visible tapes in Entry #33 (unless he switched to another camera that has identical quality before waking up).

But yeah, I've definitely referred to SD cards as tapes before haha. Hard drive cameras not as much though, because they don't have a swappable storage media that you would typically talk about.

DV tapes aren't really a huge expense in real life because you can reuse them, but the amount of tapes in MH is almost as financially unreasonable as the hotel hopping.

[Geneaux486]

[BranRainey]

That's the extreme derpiness I mentioned. I get that they need to space out stuff so they have time to film, but the in-story excuse is poor. J is an idiot just so they can hide the low budget.

Really, you'd never see a recording like Entry #40 and just stop watching after you run away. You'd be enthralled and watch the entire thing.

(It's funny to imagine J cowering in the corner for three weeks, though, so definitely better than no excuse at all. That kind of subtle humour adds to the entertainment value of the series without detracting from the horror, in my opinion.)

[Sixteen32]

[Geneaux486]

Gotta disagree with you, Bran, I think it was a pretty realistic moment when J stopped watching the tape. What he knew at the time was that he had just encountered the Operator face to face for the first time ever, and that at any point after that something happened that caused him to repress seven months of his life. Most people would be hesitant to see what happens after something like that.

[Milkdudds92]

Yeah, as a poor film student, I can confirm that cameras that use miniDV tapes are pretty much the best thing we can afford. I have one myself. When you're looking to spend less than a thousand bucks, anything else is just crap. MiniDV gives you pretty awesome quality for the price. And mine's worked for me just fine since around 2008, so I can see why Jay would keep his for so long.

[bobthecrusher]

Eh, problem being is that for ever 5 minutes of Operator filled action, there's 12 hours of 'Derpity Derp derp, I'm walking/ driving!' or sleeping. Not to mention that he's trying to establish Chronology of the events, but with him having NOTHING but this to do you'd think he'd finish faster

[BranRainey]

All I know is, when I wake up with a hangover, no memory, and a clue that something horrible might have happened that I don't remember, I become obsessed with trying to find out every horrible detail. A monster stalking you might be a bit worse than someone you'd do when drunk, but I can't imagine myself willingly making myself ignorant when I'm in danger.

It's certainly not impossible for people like J to exist, but IMO it's still a fairly poor excuse. What the hell did he do for three straight weeks anyway? Watch TV? The man clearly doesn't have a job and if he still has the motivation to make movies other than his investigation I'd be surprised.

I guess in the end I could just say that the Operator supernaturally makes people extremely frightened of him so they *have* to be this ignorant. Kind of like dragons in DnD fiction.