Marble Hornets is a Gothic tale told Web 2.0 style. It's still going on, and is well worth exploring.
Most of the content can be found in the Marble Hornets YouTube channel. The conceit is that an amateur filmmaker, Jay, is going through a videotape collection assembled by another video creator. That other filmmaker, Andy, was shooting his first movie, the eponymous Marble Hornets, when something strange started happening in his life, and he began documenting it.
The YouTube channel begins as the overlapping video record of Andy's two projects, then shades into Jay's present-day experiences. You can start with the introduction clip, or plunge into #1 directly:
Some notes on features: it's very low-low-low-budget stuff. Actors are amateur, locations are mostly outdoors, and post-production is all doable with freeware. This should be good news to anyone exploring such storytelling strategies, from educators to kids. Come up with an idea, get or borrow a Flip camera, get access to a decent computer, and go!
Yes, it clearly owes a lot to Blair Witch, from the documentary style to the problematic survival of the video archive. If #22 is the end, as it could well be, there's also a nod to that film's Gothic house finale (the high point, I maintain).
The Web 2.0 storytelling is based partly on the story's location in YouTube. It's a series of short videos, and our experience is mediated through that Web services's tools: channels, recommendations, "in response to" links, and comments. But Marble Hornets is also Web 2.0 narrative by being distributed in several other locations:
- The initial monster, glimpsed in the very first video clip, first appears on another site's discussion thread (SomethingAwful's DIY monster theme).
Here's an excellent archive.
- A Twitter feed exists, which seems to be from Jay's point of view: "I don't like the fact that it says "us" in the video", "I've been trying to sleep for a while. No luck."
- The appearance of a second YouTube channel, apparently maintained by a spooky new character, totheark. He/they/it gets mentioned in some of the MH clips, and apparently appears (the guy in white makeup or wearing a mask). These videos are shorter than the main ones, more abstract, and more cryptic.
- Audience-created content has been growing. There's a fan Facebook page, a video compilation of early Slenderman sightings. Not to mention summaries, discussions and aggregations of content in different places, like Metafilter, 'chan and Chuck Palahniuk's site. And various blogs, of course.
There's an alternate reality game (ARG) aspect to Marble Hornets, which makes sense given the combination of distributed content, mystery, and documentary approach. Unfiction has been all over it for a while. There's a very useful wiki.
PS: be sure to watch the clips in the dark, with your machine's sound turned up.
ADDED: Creepypasta has a nice story on the Slenderman theme.
(many thanks to Courtney Spaulding)
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