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 Forum index » Chaotic Fiction » Marble Hornets
A little confused about MH
Moderators: Giskard, JKatkina, Zarggg
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Sepulcher
Greenhorn

Joined: 21 Jul 2012
Posts: 3

 		A little confused about MH
A few questions for the experts...
I've only become aware of this series since the start of 2012 so I'm not exactly an expert on the series.
I have a few questions:

1. Is MH real? The footage they show has shaky camera work and some of it looks quiet amateur.
2. Why does the footage always distort (sound-wise) when slenderman appears?
3. What is the significance of the hooded/masked man?


I've read some of the 'tweets' by the operator, and he says "got a massive headache". Is it just a tweet from the actor, or the actual guy?

Sorry if I sound like a real newby, and I know my question sounds a little cheesy; like a troll. I assure you I am not a troll. Laughing

PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 4:37 am
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t3hkender
Decorated


Joined: 28 Jun 2011
Posts: 168
Location: Gresham, OR

 		Re: A little confused about MH
A few questions for the experts...
Sepulcher wrote:
I've only become aware of this series since the start of 2012 so I'm not exactly an expert on the series.
I have a few questions:

1. Is MH real? The footage they show has shaky camera work and some of it looks quiet amateur.
2. Why does the footage always distort (sound-wise) when slenderman appears?
3. What is the significance of the hooded/masked man?


I've read some of the 'tweets' by the operator, and he says "got a massive headache". Is it just a tweet from the actor, or the actual guy?

Sorry if I sound like a real newby, and I know my question sounds a little cheesy; like a troll. I assure you I am not a troll. Laughing


WARNING: Reading this post may answer questions that you may feel better left unanswered after you know the answers. I cannot explain why without giving away the reason. I will explain it at the end of the post, if you choose to read it.

You have been warned.

1.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
No. MH is an unconventional serial horror film. The Operator ("Slenderman") is not real, and everyone in the film is an actor, not a real person. The filming seems amateur because it is. It's all filmed on handheld cameras, not on any fancy equipment or by a professional cameraman. If you've seen Blair Witch or Cloverfield, it's a lot like that in filming style.


2. We don't know; the Operator just has that effect on cameras and probably other electronics.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
"The Operator" is the 'correct' term for Marble Hornets' version of Slenderman.


3. There are two (or three, depending on who you ask) masked people. The first one is...

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Tim


...but we don't know what his motivation is, or even if the masked personality is the same as his 'normal' personality. We do not know the true identity of the masked figure commonly called "hoody" yet (it could be anyone except for Tim, Alex or Jay, really), and the third masked character ("skully") only appeared once, in a totheark video, and by many is not thought to be an actual character or of any real importance.

I assume by "tweets from the operator" you mean Jay, the operator of the camera, and not the Operator ("Slenderman") entity, because (as far as we know) he doesn't tweet.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Those tweets are from Jay, the character, who is played by Troy, an actor and the creator of the series.

EDIT: I should clarify. Anything from the @marblehornets twitter account is in-game stuff, and is being tweeted by the character, Jay. The creators, Troy, Joseph and Tim all have their own Twitter accounts: @whatatroy, @geauxjoe and @flamingbuttwind, respectively. None of what they tweet is in-game, and they don't post spoilers.


It's okay to be new to Marble Hornets; you don't have to apologize for it. We were all new to it at some point, and it does have quite a learning curve to it. There's a lot to take in. You have the benefit of the knowledge of those who've put some of the pieces together.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The reason I warned you about reading this post is that it will break your immersion in the story (by answering the question "is this real?"). For some people, this is a big deal. Marble Hornets is still fun and still terrifying even after the immersion is broken, I assure you. You will still see the Operator out of the corner of your eye all the goddamn time. Enjoy that.


PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 5:10 am
Last edited by t3hkender on Sat Jul 21, 2012 5:31 am; edited 1 time in total
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Sepulcher
Greenhorn

Joined: 21 Jul 2012
Posts: 3

 		Ohh, I never realized the 'operator' was slenderman. I always thought the term was operator [of the camera].

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
I was only wondering if it was real because I had never heard of the slenderman until this year. I've heard of bigfoot and many others, but not this guy. To be pefectly honest with you, I was more afraid (I think that's the word) of the eeriness and confusion surrounding the whole series rather than the shadow itself.


Thanks for answering by the way Smile Glad to see these boards are actually active. The last one I went to was deserted for about a year

PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 5:29 am
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t3hkender
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Joined: 28 Jun 2011
Posts: 168
Location: Gresham, OR
Sepulcher wrote:
Ohh, I never realized the 'operator' was slenderman. I always thought the term was operator [of the camera].

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
I was only wondering if it was real because I had never heard of the slenderman until this year. I've heard of bigfoot and many others, but not this guy. To be pefectly honest with you, I was more afraid (I think that's the word) of the eeriness and confusion surrounding the whole series rather than the shadow itself.


Thanks for answering by the way Smile Glad to see these boards are actually active. The last one I went to was deserted for about a year


Nope, Unfiction is quite active, and you're welcome.

A bit on the origin of the Slender Man:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The Slender Man originated on the Something Awful forums in a "paranormal pictures" photoshop contest, and was created by Victor Surge. He was quickly popularized by series like Marble Hornets, EverymanHYBRID and Tribe Twelve, as well as droves of blogs and other stories. He's not a "real" urban legend the way that Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, vampires, werewolves, etc. are. Generally speaking, nobody believes in the Slender Man, and we know that he's fictitious because we know where the myth came from. He's also relatively new, being less than five years old. He's a very interesting character and is scary in a very primal kind of way.

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PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 5:40 am
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Sepulcher
Greenhorn

Joined: 21 Jul 2012
Posts: 3

 		Wow, never knew that! It's quiet interesting reading up on all this.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
I saw on YouTube, a theatrical trailer for "Marble Hornets" in Febuary of this year. Is this actually true, because the IMDB boards are a little deserted, as opposed to the videos which receive over 200,000 views each video.

Also, is it known how long MH (the Youtube series) has been 'in production' for? What I mean is, the entries are of course made in about a week after editing and sound checks, but the tapes from the others?

Also, I guess I was a little dumb not knowing this was fiction. If it were real we'd almost certainly be reading it on the news and the guy would be in some type of witness protection program or even accused of assault (can't remember who it was that was hit by a pipe while taking a 'leak').

Also, I feel no different after knowing it was not real. I had suspicions about it.


PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 5:50 am
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Lithp
I Have No Life


Joined: 04 Mar 2012
Posts: 2058

 		5 years old? Aww, he's such an adorable abomination. And so tall for his age.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 7:07 am
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ZargggModerator
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Joined: 23 Dec 2010
Posts: 1660
t3hkender wrote:
A bit on the origin of the Slender Man:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The Slender Man originated on the Something Awful forums in a "paranormal pictures" photoshop contest, and was created by Victor Surge. He was quickly popularized by series like Marble Hornets, EverymanHYBRID and Tribe Twelve, as well as droves of blogs and other stories. He's not a "real" urban legend the way that Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, vampires, werewolves, etc. are. Generally speaking, nobody believes in the Slender Man, and we know that he's fictitious because we know where the myth came from. He's also relatively new, being less than five years old. He's a very interesting character and is scary in a very primal kind of way.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
As a side note, one of the most compelling things about the Slender Man concept is that people in the original Paranormal Images thread commented that there were times they felt that it really was like one of those other urban legends, and even at some times felt it was real. The original purpose of the thread itself was to create images that could be passed off as evidence of ghosts and other paranormal activity (like the kind you see on the About.com subsite and other "ghost hunter" sites). The term "tulpa" was thrown around many times, which could be defined most simply as "made real by thinking it is."


PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:59 am
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t3hkender
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Joined: 28 Jun 2011
Posts: 168
Location: Gresham, OR
Zarggg wrote:
t3hkender wrote:
A bit on the origin of the Slender Man:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The Slender Man originated on the Something Awful forums in a "paranormal pictures" photoshop contest, and was created by Victor Surge. He was quickly popularized by series like Marble Hornets, EverymanHYBRID and Tribe Twelve, as well as droves of blogs and other stories. He's not a "real" urban legend the way that Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, vampires, werewolves, etc. are. Generally speaking, nobody believes in the Slender Man, and we know that he's fictitious because we know where the myth came from. He's also relatively new, being less than five years old. He's a very interesting character and is scary in a very primal kind of way.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
As a side note, one of the most compelling things about the Slender Man concept is that people in the original Paranormal Images thread commented that there were times they felt that it really was like one of those other urban legends, and even at some times felt it was real. The original purpose of the thread itself was to create images that could be passed off as evidence of ghosts and other paranormal activity (like the kind you see on the About.com subsite and other "ghost hunter" sites). The term "tulpa" was thrown around many times, which could be defined most simply as "made real by thinking it is."


Spoiler (Rollover to View):
To me, rather than a ghost or tulpa, the Slender Man was always just the Bogeyman given actual form and (albeit not-fully-understood) purpose.


Sepulcher wrote:
Wow, never knew that! It's quiet interesting reading up on all this.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
I saw on YouTube, a theatrical trailer for "Marble Hornets" in Febuary of this year. Is this actually true, because the IMDB boards are a little deserted, as opposed to the videos which receive over 200,000 views each video.

Also, is it known how long MH (the Youtube series) has been 'in production' for? What I mean is, the entries are of course made in about a week after editing and sound checks, but the tapes from the others?

Also, I guess I was a little dumb not knowing this was fiction. If it were real we'd almost certainly be reading it on the news and the guy would be in some type of witness protection program or even accused of assault (can't remember who it was that was hit by a pipe while taking a 'leak').

Also, I feel no different after knowing it was not real. I had suspicions about it.


Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Marble Hornets is produced one episode at a time. That is, even when Jay finds a tape from the past, the corresponding entry, including the footage from that tape, in real life has just been filmed, even if the events depicted happened in game three years ago. totheark videos often draw upon video from past entries or from stock footage (like old black & white movies, for instance) or contain new video.

Don't feel dumb. Marble Hornets can seem very real to a person just stumbling across it on the Internet. It's meant to be realistic (as much as fiction about a tall faceless guy can be realistic). All of the "the police would be involved by now" arguments can be handwaved away--this is a supernatural entity we're dealing with here. Jay can't go to the authorities, they'd just think he's nuts. In the game world, it's likely that few people follow the Marble Hornets YouTube account and most people that do know of it probably think it's fiction. Why should they believe it? Because of the nature of what they're dealing with, Jay (and the other characters) are very, very alone here.

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PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:55 am
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Gante
Veteran

Joined: 30 Jun 2012
Posts: 106
Quote:
2. Why does the footage always distort (sound-wise) when slenderman appears?



The idea behind the distortion is that Slenderman/the Operator is to alien to our universe that his presence damages the fabric of reality. It causes cameras to malfuncition, makes people sick and insane, and warps time and space itself in weird ways.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 12:52 pm
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t3hkender
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Joined: 28 Jun 2011
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Location: Gresham, OR
Gante wrote:
Quote:
2. Why does the footage always distort (sound-wise) when slenderman appears?



The idea behind the distortion is that Slenderman/the Operator is to alien to our universe that his presence damages the fabric of reality. It causes cameras to malfuncition, makes people sick and insane, and warps time and space itself in weird ways.


That's the accepted theory, and it's what most people seem to think. We don't know that that's the reason, though. It could be a willful, active power of the Operator rather than a constant effect.

That's kind of the point of why he's scary. We just don't know what he is capable of doing, or why he does it.
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 2:35 pm
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Starkley
Unfettered


Joined: 12 Jul 2012
Posts: 326

 		The fact that you can have instances of only moderate distortion (increased noise in the audio, for example, like during Entry #33 while Jay talks to Jessica and #21 at the distortion hole) makes me think it's a more constant thing than an active thing though. Like, he could have it decrease with distance or leave a trail. Otherwise I don't see why TO would ever need "quiet" distortions.

Anyway, whenever TO is behind a window/in a different room with a barrier between you and it, no video distortion HAS to happen, as far as I can tell. Entry #1 recorded Slendy just fine through a window. As did Jay when he was looking through the window from Alex's house. As did the cameraman in #17 when Slendy was behind Tim outside the window/in the bushes. As well as Alex recording TO through the window of his car in #7 (I think, working off of memory here). So I don't know how active Slendy's distortion is. There seem to be rules.

#1 had audio removal, but Jay speculated that it could have been removed, and given how completely gone it was instead of just being distorted...

Also, evidence for it being active would be the sudden distortion at the end of #17. In any case, you CAN record TO without getting too much distortion.

EDIT: Specified that video distortion is minimal, and added #7 to list of instances where TO was recorded through a window.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 2:44 pm
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slendydreaming
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Joined: 08 May 2012
Posts: 129

 		Have we figured out why certain of the season videos had the audio removed? For example, in #1 I'm wondering if the audio was removed in order to hide the fact that Alex knew what OP was, in other words that he'd run into it before.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:35 pm
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Starkley
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 		People speculate that Alex was saying some incriminating things/things that would show Jay for certain too early that he was working with TO. But there are too few entries with completely removed audio so it's difficult to say for sure.

PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 12:05 am
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