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[Lithp]

[OOG] Entry Quality

[RandomH-bomb]

And I'm just going to throw out there that MH, like all Slenderseries, is long-form storytelling that practically demands patience on the viewer's part.

You can have months go by with only a small number of entries and seemingly very minor plot development, but if you look back at, say, the entirety of Season Three, there IS definitely loads of plot progression over time. Just gotta be patient with the gradual pace and let it take its course.

[BranRainey]

I think season 3 is far better than season 2 was, so the entry quality has improved in that sense. However I think Troy has started taking "show don't tell" a little too seriously -- the fact that Jay almost never summarizes anything anymore and coincidentally happens to film every minor event makes the series feel much less like a real investigation (like the first season) and more like a low-budget horror movie. That's not a major problem (not like horror movies are bad somehow), but it is something I think was done better in earlier entries.

I rewatched Entry #53 recently and realized just how refreshing it was to be in a proper urban environment for a while. I can understand why they don't do that so often (cleverly framing out licence plates is really annoying) but still, it would be nice if we had less meandering footage of woods all the time. The first two seasons split it up with some buildings but the third hasn't really done that -- all we get are the occasional parking lot entries, which are always just for conversations. (Not counting the hospital because half of it seems to be rubble and nearly every shot inside it has trees anyway.)

The tunnels are actually great locations, in my opinion. Probably because they haven't been over-exposed and always have interesting events taking place in them. The same can't be said for the hospital -- it ironically seems like the safest place to be, since Jay's been there 3 times without any distortion.

I think many of the "we're walking for a long time" sequences in entries have been great and suspenseful -- 21, 40, 50 -- but then there are ones where it just feels excessive and padded. What's the point of the first 3 minutes of Entry #60? Season 1 would have shown Tim's room in 20 seconds with a title card, but Season 3 feels this need to show Jay walk across half the hospital. There's no distortion and we've seen the location a billion times -- nothing about that sequence is suspenseful or interesting in the slightest.

Anyway. I could nitpick and analyse every filmmaking decision in the series if I really wanted to (it's just how my mind works when I like something and want to figure out why I like it and how I think it could be improved). I won't bother though because fans tend to get hyper-defensive and rip my head off. Suffice to say, I like the series. Nothing is perfect.

[Lithp]

[Teedub]

Thanks for making this thread, Lithp. It was a nice idea.

I believe that the best quality entries in the series was the 40s. I really enjoyed them because they gradually unveiled more and more information about Alex, and these entries eventually showed us who he really is. He went from an innocent film student to a psychotic maniac within that span of entries. Between season 2 and 3, I'm indecisive on which one I "prefer." I mean, Season 3 hasn't even concluded yet. Although, you can't reallty compare the seasons to one another, due to them all consisting of different story lines and situations.

[rand__althor]

Well, that's the thing with a series like Marble Hornets: you want creepy stuff in an Entry, given the nature of the series, but you also want plot advancement, and, if not direct answers, then hints to answers. It's a careful balancing act of providing plot, and possibly answers, and still maintain a creepy atmosphere and provide scares. Too much exposition and plot advancement can nullify the chance for scares.

MH does a good enough job at maintaining that balance.

[Teedub]

Yeah, I agree with Rand. They can't simply give out a ton of answers per entry, because that would ruin the mystery of the paranormal aspect of Marble Hornets. I actually enjoy being left with more questions, as it gives us something to speculate about. I want the answers to be revealed at a steady pace while also keeping the mystery going until the end.

[Ztakk]

To me, it seems like they have been filming Season 3 with the intention of people watching it in the DVD or in one sitting. When you watch what is out of S3 in one sitting, it feels like a movie, rather than a web series. While this is not bad, it's a weird change of film making in my opinion.

[DJay32]

I came here to say pretty much what Ztakk said, except that I'd noticed them doing that from as early as Part 2 and I'm a huge fan of the idea.

I also fully believe that, if you were to take a really famous movie and split it so that all of its scenes are on separate videos on a YouTube channel and released weekly, people wouldn't think of the movie as quite so good. The nature of the medium kinda changes how people look at it. Which annoys me, but what can you do? My point is that this is how I always look at new entries-- not as individual videos, but as a logical continuation of the narrative, flow and all. I always try to keep the rest of Part 3 (or season 3, okay I'll call it that) in context.


But I think the quality of the entries is really good. I think it's only increased from how mediocre it was in the first 26 entries. I mean, just look at the camera alone. Look at the acting, look at the writing. Look at the sense of colour schemes-- every season feels different sheerly by means of colour. I think season three has been trying to maintain a sense of isolation, of desolation, of quiet greys and almost-washed out colours. And this makes the long drawn-out entries feel appropriate to me. It kinda goes with setting up the mood for me, I dunno.

So I think the quality is exactly what it needs to be to tell the story they want to tell. I think they know what they're doing, and the mere possibility of that makes me so goddamn happy and excited for whatever's to come.

But maybe this is just me.

[Grumplestiltskin]

I agree that Season 3 has been been dragging its heels in terms of plot, but I'm guessing that there are plenty of OOG reasons for that. IIRC, this is Joseph and Tim's last year of university, and Spring tends to be a time of year when final projects and/or recitals are being worked upon. There was also the Unending Rain from Hell with Bonus Snow, several cons, and then Troy's surgery, all of which cut into the production schedule.

But beyond that, it does seem like the entries are... lacking. And I'm not sure how much of that has to do with the "property" being sold. I know that Troy promised that MH the webseries would not suffer to enrich MH the movie, but if they are also working on that, it seems hard to see how it could be otherwise -- not even necessarily from a consciously robbing-Peter-to-give-Paul-the-juicy-plots perspective, but just simply because their attention would have to be divided.

And I agree with Bran Rainey about the "show don't tell" nature of these entries. I never thought I'd be saying this, but I kind of miss J's Mr. Plot Exposition titling.

I also feel obligated to disclaim that I am indeed a fan of the series, that I will follow it to the end, sweet, bitter, or otherwise, and that the boys have done a hell of a job with next to nothing, budgetwise.

[Ztakk]

Grumple it should be noted that they had a $500 budget for S1. S2 and S3 have MUCH higher budgets. So it's not "next to nothing"

[CraicIsMighty]

I'm sure that at the end of the series we'll all be able to look back on season 3 and say it was a good season. However, at the current rate it's going it just feels dragged out. The information we get isn't really condensed at all. Some entries feel like they would have benefited from being combined together with another entry. Entry 54 was good because it combined Jay getting the tapes from Tim with something Jay actually found on the tapes. However, I really think entry 55 could have been combined with entry 56. Maybe even 55-57 could've been combined into one entry. And entry 63 probably could have been combined with 62. i don't need every entry to be amazing but it just feels like the amount of information we've gotten so far this season is spread across too many entries. Or butter spread across too much bread, in Bilbo's words.

[LBfly]

I guess most opinions here are similar to mine as well, but theres something else that disturbs me the most. I love Marble Hornets it changed the way I see videos and series, i admire Troys work a lot and stuff.
But Im not scared anymore.
It began like a horror production, and even with low budget they still managed to create something different and relatively well made. Hell i remember one week without sleeping peacefully, i remember not being able to watch the entries after 4 pm otherwise i would go to bed with the Operator in mind. Even Masky would make me not look through my bathroom window (man i live in a very tall apartment). Now Im still afraid of S1 even talking with Tim on facebook, even watching Troy Has A Camera videos. But i think the horror touch has been lost, and I kinda miss it. Thats the reason why I searched for MH in the first place, so I hope they bring the creepiness back.
I still love the series tho and I would still marry Troy.

[RandomH-bomb]

Troy did a Q&A today with some fans on Skype, and I asked him for his thoughts on the "Slow pacing, plot's dragging" criticisms. Here are some quotes from him on the matter:

"The way I personally see it, is that this criticism is coming up mainly due to the fact that the series is being shot entry by entry, instead of being all shot beforehand.
In retrospect, shooting it all at once would definitely make it easier, but would be super impractical for us due to all of our schedules being so crazy.
Shooting season 3 all at once would probably end up taking the better part of a year.
I don't want to compromise the pacing of the entries once they're all finished as a whole, you know?
Like, once MH is done, and you sit down to watch all of season 3 in one go. I don't want the pacing of THAT to feel weird because I was afraid of people thinking I was taking too long while I was shooting each one."

[The Condor]

Kinda funny to think this takes a budget. I'd just gather up some friends, have a camera with me and do the editing and effects on my computer after.