unforum

[krystyn]

Heh, I was at one of the pre-screenings in Chicago, at Piper's Alley.

I remember two things about that night:

No one wanted to meet anyone's eyes as they exited the theatre and walked past the people waiting to get into the next showing.

The theatre was utterly silent except for what was happening on the screen. Until someone screamed, and then a bunch of us jumped in our seats and laughed nervously. To this day, it was the first and only time I have ever witnessed such a rapt audience.

The website was a lot of fun to comb through. I liked finding things before my friends did.

/me hands the thread back.

[GuyP]

Thoroughly concur with the key thesis of the post - I think generally people are just referring to the Fourth Wall when they talk about TINAG. If I'm wrong, and they're talking about something else, then I still don't think TINAG is a good descriptor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall

[GuyP]

To elaborate, I don't think BW is a good reference to make. The characters in BW think they're real, but so do the characters in Lost In Translation or Love Actually or Die Hard. The difference is that it was constructed so as to appear real to the viewer, by adopting the conventions of media that genuinely does portray real things and gain a level of plausibility via that.

If you think about most ARGs and their whacked out storylines, I don't think we can argue that they're built to plausible or convincing.

There's a missing term we're looking for:

a) Looks unreal, know it's unreal, pretend it's real (most movies, books, etc)
b) Looks real, think it's real (real life, hoaxes)
c) Looks real, know it isn't, pretend it's real (BWP, This Is Spinal Tap, ARGs)
d) Looks unreal, know it's unreal, engage with unrealness (meta-fiction, breaking character, breaking fourth wall, etc)

Where c) genuinely describes stuff using conventionally 'real' media/presentation techniques to create a 'meta-realness', but without the active intent to "trick" people into think it's *actually* real. Which, I suppose, is maybe what we're trying to describe with TINAG - still, I think there's probably a better term for it.

Other interesting terms around this to google: Docudrama, Mockumentary, Epistolary novel, and - oh - Verisimilitude!

"Verisimilitude (from Latin verisimilitudo, from verus true + similitudo similitude) is the state or quality of something that exhibits the appearance of truth or reality."

Verisimilar Gaming anyone?

[dmax]

TINAG = Leave the meta discussions elsewhere.

Hence, Unfiction, supposedly the only place where the game can be a game.

[Phaedra]

[imbri]

Do you mean the little point & click thing with the roaches? I'll grant that it was a decent website for a movie back in 96? 97?, but I don't think that I'd go as far as to compare it to a production like Blair Witch.

[Phaedra]

[Mikeyj]

[ScarpeGrosse]

[vpisteve]

/me registers cockumentaries.com before Spacely can...

[Rekidk]

[thebruce]

oddly enough, it's already been registered

[vpisteve]

Yeah, I'm fast, man.

[konamouse]

Not THAT fast.

[Rekidk]

Oooh burn.