View topic - [Trailhead?] Norwegian Film Committee

unforum
a.r.g.b.b

Welcome!

New users, PLEASE read these forum guidelines. New posters, SEARCH before posting and read these rules before posting your killer new campaign. New players may also wish to peruse the ARG Player Tutorial.

All users must abide by the Terms of Service.

Website Restoration Project

This archiving project is a collaboration between Unfiction and Sean Stacey (SpaceBass), Brian Enigma (BrianEnigma), and Laura E. Hall (lehall) with
the Center for Immersive Arts.

Announcements

This is a static snapshot of the
Unfiction forums, as of
July 23, 2017.

This site is intended as an archive to chronicle the history of Alternate Reality Games.

Our Esteemed Contributors

The time now is Mon Nov 18, 2024 9:21 pm
All times are UTC - 4 (DST in action)

View posts in this forum since last visit
View unanswered posts in this forum

Calendar

Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Old News & Rumors

[Trailhead?] Norwegian Film Committee

Page 6 of 7 [91 Posts]

Goto page: Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Next

Author

Message

JonahFalcon
Veteran

Joined: 17 Nov 2007
Posts: 111

http://www.gamestooge.com/2008/05/30/more-too-human-dev-diary/

Part 2 of the doc is up!

* * *

Goblin man recording at the end - brrrrrrrrrr. Creepy.

Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 5:09 pm

Van der Sloot
Guest

Goblin Man
The story so far...

For those of you who are new to the Goblin Man story I will lay out the information available so far...

The story begins with the appearance of a website for the "Norwegian Film Committee" in early February 2008. The NFC site hosted what appeared to be part one of a three part documentary titled "The Goblin Man of Norway", from film-maker Howard Byrackk. This documentary video then appeared in a production diary from the developers of the video game Too Human, with the lead developer claiming it was an inspiration for their storyline in the game.

The documentary can be found: http://www.norwegianfilmcommittee.org/en/media.html

And the developer diary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KB9nBHDi0Y

The events and people involved in the documentary are entirely fictional, including the film-maker Howard Byrackk, the author Lawrence Dixon, and the organization G.W.O.B.

Shortly after the appearance of both of these videos, YouTube user wolfhunter333 posted a video of what appeared to be Mark Hoyt, a key character in the documentary, having a heated argument with an offscreen person. Though he never says the name we are meant to assume he is talking to Byrackk, apparently after having seen a screening of the Goblin Man documentary. This is our first indication of dishonesty and intrigue and it can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNcLxzdqIR0

These events appeared to be the trailhead for a viral ARG for the video game Too Human. The largest Too Human fansite, toohuman.net, began to discuss the possible ARG on their forum. After a few weeks of discussion an unknown user named "Fried Behemoth" appeared on the forum and posted three times before vanishing and deleting his posts.

The first post was titled Herkl��i, and contained the following image:

The second post was titled Svartr and included:

Fried Behemoth's third and final post titled S��astr Jafnd�gri, brought us this final image:

Note the filenames for the images themselves have been preserved as originally posted. The first being nfk_Herkl__i_1_22.jpg. The second gm_site.jpg, and the third vapn.jpg.

When the images were originally posted Fried Behemoth's forum avatar appeared as this:

This avatar shows Fried Behemoth's aversion to Lawrence Dixon and presumably the entire context of the Goblin Man documentary. The phrase "The truth is in the ice" seems to suggest that there are more answers to be found at the site of the Goblin Man find than the documentary revealed. After deleting his posts Fried Behemoth changed his avatar to a black field with the word "TRUTH" in white.

Following these events the forum members at toohuman.net began to examine the images. Some things to note are that in the first and third images, there is an indecipherable signature along with the date 1/22, which also occurs in the first image's filename. After cataloging the available information in the images the forum users then proceeded to attempt to translate all the strange words they had been given through post names, filenames, and in the images themselves.

The translations follow:

S��astr Jafnd�gri (Norwegian) = Long Equinox OR Last Equinox

Svartr (Norwegian) = Pitch-Dark and Dirty or Black

Svartr (Icelandic) = reply, response, replication, answer

Vapn (Norwegian) = Weapon

Herkl��i (Icelandic) = armor

Eventually the toohuman.net users ground to a standstill. They had gleaned all of the available information from the images and film and could not put it in any useful context. Then, a MySpace page appeared under the directory "Fried Behemoth". The name of the MySpace's owner was listed as "Joen Farls", which is the name of the photo credit on the gm_site.jpg image. At the same time a Facebook with the name Joen Farls emerged, and a user named Joen Farls posted three videos on Vimeo.

Here is the MySpace page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=369370861

And the Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/user427873/videos/sort:date

The videos on Vimeo are of particular interest. The ones entitled H.E.L. Kuppel Inngang, and Svart Glass Deponerer show an arctic locale identified in the videos as "BGRI: Site #18". The video entitled Mekkanisk Mann appears to be footage of the item from vapn.jpg in a frozen bathtub. At this point it would appear that the Mekkanisk Mann video and the two strange images from Fried Behemoth are of the Goblin Man.

The translations of the video titles are extremely interesting. Mekkanisk Mann as some of you may already be able to tell means "Mechanical Man". Now the more complicated one is H.E.L. Kuppel Inngang. Kuppel has no translation in Norwegian or Icelandic. Inngang, however, means "entrance". Now the acronym H.E.L. is too simple to be easily identified, but there is an amazing connection to be made. Without the punctuation, hel is the name given to the underworld in Norse Mythology, and that very mythology plays a pivotal role in the video game Too Human. This may suggest that the site is supposed to be the entrance to the underworld.

The story continued two days ago when the next developer diary from the game-makers was released, along with the next part of the documentary. However, only a few hours after it was posted online it was removed, supposedly at Microsoft's request. Voodoo Extreme Video had downloaded it however, and kept it up online. It can be found here (be sure to watch the Flash version as the WMV version is actually the old diary with the first part of the documentary):

http://ve3d.ign.com/videos/29078/Xbox-360/Too-Human

Now things get really interesting. In the second part of the documentary we meet a Goblin Man enthusiast who has an obsession with Goblin Man information. He has in his possession an artists rendering of the find, along with several photographs. The artifacts in the drawings and photographs are very clearly NOT the "Mekkanisk Mann" from the Joen Farls" images and video. The object shown in the documentary is very clearly identified as one of the enemy types from the Too Human game:

The find in the drawings and photographs is of the head and arms of this robotic creature. It bears no resemblance to the vapn.jpg image or especially the "Mekkanisk Mann" video.

Who is Joen Farls? What is he trying to tell us? What is the "Mekkanisk Mann" and why is there no mention of it in the documentary?

Thoughts?

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 12:41 am

Peacheshead
Guest

I think someone should call the phone number on the WHOIS page.

Quote:

Registrant Phone:+47.93200410

I did a reverse look-up of the phone number, and it is, in fact, registered to John Fredrick Moore. This is the link: http://www.gulesider.no/tk/search.c?q=93200410&x=16&y=8

If nothing else, we could send flowers..... there's a link on the page. Smile

On the satellite view of the map, it appears to be residential.

Like I said, though, someone should call (especially if we have any Norwegians on the forum). Very Happy

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 12:46 am

JonahFalcon
Veteran

Joined: 17 Nov 2007
Posts: 111

JonahFalcon wrote:

(sigh) Show part ii already!

Interesting part of the interview with Byrackk (does anyone else thing it's a reference to Prince of Darkness?):

Quote:

NFC: In 'Goblin Man', one of your interview subjects (Mark Hoyt) has actually spoken out against the film. Have you been in touch with him since?

Byrackk: Not really. There was a screening, his first time seeing the film, in which he brought up some of his feelings towards myself and the finished product. I suppose he felt used or twisted. Ultimately, the film is not about him. It's fine if he doesn't like the film. I still thought he was great in it.

O RLY?

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 2:37 am

Van der Sloot
Guest

Phone #
I called...

I called the Admin number of the norwegianfilmcommittee.org whoIs page. The first time I called I got an answer, and it went as follows:

Unknown: "Hello?"
Me: "Hi, I'm trying to reach someone at the Norwegian Film Committee?"
Unknown: "Pardon me?"
Me: "Yes, uh, I'm trying to reach the Norwegian Film Committee do I have the wrong number?"

Silence...

Unknown hangs up.

The format of this makes it entirely possible that I was talking to a recording. Nothing in his dialogue (which by the way was in English and unaccented) would give away he was a recording regardless of what I said.

I waited a few minutes, concerned I had dialed wrong and actually weirded some dude out I tried again, this time I got an answering machine which went as follows:

Canadian accented male English speaker: "Hey, it's Joen. Thank you for calling, leave a message and I'll get back to you."

I proceeded to leave a message with my email address telling Joen to get in touch with me, and that I would try him again later.

No new information was available, but hopefully i can make an in-character contact with Farls...

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 9:56 am

Van der Sloot
Guest

Phone Number...
It's been removed...

The phone number under the WHOIS for norwegianfilmcommittee.org has been removed...

I have the number stored in my phone... +47.93200410

But on the site it's been replaced with all 9's.

UPDATE: The original phone # has been disconnected...

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 7:42 pm

Van der Sloot
Guest

It's back...
The phone number...

Has been reconnected and Joen's voicemail is available again!

Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 9:58 am

Peacheshead
Guest

Re: Phone #
I called...

Van der Sloot wrote:

Unknown: "Hello?"
Me: "Hi, I'm trying to reach someone at the Norwegian Film Committee?"
Unknown: "Pardon me?"
Me: "Yes, uh, I'm trying to reach the Norwegian Film Committee do I have the wrong number?"

Silence...

Unknown hangs up.

Well, it appears that you may have caught him off-guard. Hopefully, he'll contact you or something with some sort of information. Also, the phone number is preserved in my post above, anyway, so it doesn't really matter if it's removed: we've got 'em now. Twisted Evil

Well, that's kind of exciting that you made some sort of contact. Kudos to Van der Sloot. Don't kidnap any kids in Aruba, eh?

Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 4:18 pm

Van der Sloot
Guest

Contact

Haha, it's a common enough name, but I'll try Wink

One interesting note is that the original voice was different from the recorded voice message. So either the person I spoke to had a prerecorded message from someone else ready to put up, or is very good at voices.

I tried again this morning, got the voicemail again. Haven't gotten a response to any of my emails, myspace, facebook, or youtube messages either...

I feel like I'm trying really hard to contact an ARG character that no one is playing anymore Evil or Very Mad

I'm too hooked to give up though. I'll be back if I learn anything new Wink

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:45 am

JonahFalcon
Veteran

Joined: 17 Nov 2007
Posts: 111

The NFC website hasn't been updated with the 2nd video, so they haven't really moved forward officially.

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 12:46 pm

Isa Uruz
Guest

Nice

i followed lots of links to get to this film , theres another one which is less arty and there for more belivable (it actualy shows pics) but the arty one is still good would be better with the includion of picures or models of the thing though. i was sad when i found out it was a fake but it did make me want to buy the game more than i already do, so i guess it was effective

Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 4:10 am

MrMadisonIV
Guest

Just dropping this off for Van Der Sloot

Hey all, I'm from TooHuman.net.

I don't expect to post here very often, I don't often get into ARGs, to be quite honest, they creep me out *just* a little bit. But I found myself playing around on my computer with this one for no good reason, and I put together a half-arsed theory.

so I just came to drop this bit of awkward, and probably incorrect, theory for Van Der Sloot to peruse.

enjoy.

Quote:

"Joen Farls" logged into Youtube about 2 weeks ago. I wasn't able to find what he was up to then, but his profile says "Last Sign In: 2 weeks ago"), but I think that is more recent than the most recent reveal that has been discussed in this thread right?

Joen's current favorites on Youtube are: "Nikola Tesla", "Ursula Franklin", "Sognefjell Mountain Pass", "Trucking Haukeli Mountain pass, Norway", and "Mekanisk Man".

MrMadisonIV wrote:

Quote:

Alright. Here's what I got so far. Hopefully someone can pretend to listen, so I don't feel like I am talking to myself. Razz

anyhow, here goes.

Quote:

Joen's current favorites on Youtube are:
"Nikola Tesla",
"Ursula Franklin",
"Sognefjell Mountain Pass",
"Trucking Haukeli Mountain pass, Norway",
"Mekanisk Man".

so, here is what little I know, based solely on the Youtube favorites list and Google.

Ursula Dronke translated two volumes of the Poetic Edda. One in 1967, and the other in 1997.

Haukeli is a Village in Norway along the Haukeli Mountain pass. The Areas around Haukeli are used for the development of Hydroelectric Power.

Nikola Tesla was a magnificent inventor whose inventions were covered up and kept secret by the US Government. Recent "innovations" that have been released to the public in our time, were actually invented by Tesla nearly 100 years ago, if you believe the stories. He is known as "The Man Who Invented the 20th Century."

Sognefjell Mountain Pass is the highest Mountain Pass in Norway, and leads to Lom, Norway. Lom Norway is known as the "Gateway" to the Jotunheimen Mountains. Jotunheimen translated to English is "The Realm of the Giants".

The Mechanisk Man is a nearly full metal body, with a human-esque head, in a frozen bathtub.

I'm going to try and put this together, but I can't do it fully, because something puzzles me. But here is a shot at a theory:

1. The "Mechanisk Man" and the Goblin Man are *not* one and the same. The Mechanisk Man is the remains of a Jotun, actually discovered decades earlier, in the Jotunheimen Mountains.

2. Thusly, the "cover-up" that Joen is alluding to is that there were TWO seperate discoveries, not one, as the NFC film would have us believe. The question is, which was discovered first, and when. and by WHO.

3. My theory is that the Mechanisk Man was discovered by or somehow fell into the hands of Nikola Tesla, decades before the Goblin Man is found. Tesla then found a way to reverse engineer these remains and study them, and this study helps him along the path to several futuristic inventions, one of which is HydroElectric Power. This of course is all covered up and labeled top-secret by the powers that be, and the discovery is never known to the public, until the Goblin Man is found.

4. Tesla took the Mechanisk Man to Haukeli, and there he ran his HydroPower Experiments and created the first HydroElectric Tower. and also used the Mechanisk Man to begin the study of robotics, a century earlier than everyone thinks.

that's all I got, and I'm sure it is quite inaccurate in many places. but one thing i cannot for the life of me figure out is...

what does Ursula Dronke or the Poetic Edda have to do with this?<br><br>Post edited by: MrMadisonIV, at: 2008/07/21 16:07

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:27 pm

MrMadisonIV
Guest

incidentally...

has anyone tried using the "Contact Us" Link on the NFC website to send them an email?

what was the response?

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:01 pm

MrMadisonIV
Guest

Something else was found!

Kefka, it just hit me.

we are both way wrong.

we are looking at and for the wrong thing.

we are looking for a difference between the Mekanisk Man, and the Goblin Man.

we should be looking at the images that Joen Farls posted, then removed, and the images that he posted on his Myspace.

everyone(including us) have assumed that they are pictures of the Goblin Man in some way, shape, or form. and we have been trying to reconcile these images, with the renderings in the 2nd Documentary video, with little success. which is leading us to believe that there were two Goblin men.

The realization just hit me, that they are not, and we should not be trying to reconcile them.

I *think* I know what Joen's Images are, and why they are the source of his so-called Goverment Cover-Up.

This:

is not the Goblin Man. it is not a "Man" at all. It is a Weapon.

It is Loki's Staff.

Quote:

Loki's preferred weapon is one of his own design and resembles a long staff topped with a serpent's head. The staff is made from a nano-forged material that can switch between rigidity and flexibility almost instantly. This means that the staff can be transformed into a whip-like weapon in the middle of an attack. Its flexible wire core allows the staff/whip to extend to great ranges, making the weapon exceptionally versatile. Small barbs along the staff allow it to cut through metals and armor.

that is the description of Loki's Staff from a Gamespy preview.

http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/too-human-part-1/871669p2.html

take this description, and look at those two images again, taking the description into consideration.

I believe that this is Loki's Staff, in "whip" form. and I believe that this is really what was found in 1997, not the Goblin Man.

With this piece of information in mind, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the Government would endeavor to suppress knowledge of the discovery of a Weapon that is technologically superior to anything we can muster, yet predates us by thousands of years.

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:40 pm

MrMadisonIV
Guest

Re: Something else was found!

need to correct some things in this post, I copy/pasted it from toohuman.net

MrMadisonIV wrote:

it just hit me.

we are both way wrong.

we are looking at and for the wrong thing.

we are looking for a difference between the Mekanisk Man, and the Goblin Man.

we should be looking at the images that Joen Farls posted, then removed, and the images that he posted on his Myspace.

everyone(including us) have assumed that they are pictures of the Goblin Man in some way, shape, or form. and we have been trying to reconcile these images, with the renderings in the 2nd Documentary video, with little success. which is leading us to believe that there were two Goblin men.

The realization just hit me, that they are not, and we should not be trying to reconcile them.

I *think* I know what Joen's Images are, and why they are the source of his so-called Goverment Cover-Up.

This:

is not the Goblin Man. it is not a "Man" at all. It is a Weapon.

It is Loki's Staff.

Quote:

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:43 pm

Display posts from previous: Sort by:

Page 6 of 7 [91 Posts]

Goto page: Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Next

Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Old News & Rumors

Jump to:

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
You cannot post calendar events in this forum