[00:00] Black screen.
[00:01] White text appears centered on the screen:
Entry #5
Before Marble Hornets began production, I went location scouting with Alex.
I filmed him talking about the locations he was interested in using.
I came across one of the tapes containing this footage that has had its audio severely distorted.
[00:19] Cut to footage of Alex in a gazebo, looking at the camera. The gazebo is in shadowed dark, but outside it is daylight on a forest of skinny, smallish trees. The camera is moving slightly, as if it is held by hand.
[00:20] Jay says: "Alright, it's recording."
[00:22] Alex looks away from the camera, and says: "Okay, uh, this is the gazebo where I want Brian to come back and reflect later in the movie,"
Alex is moving around the gazebo, looking out into the trees, and Jay follows him with the camera.
[00:27] Alex looks at the camera again and gestures with his hands, continuing, "this'll probably be three-fourths of the way through." A visual tear also begins.
[00:29] The tear resolves itself.
[00:30] The angle drifts downwards, to the gazebo floor. Jay says: "This'll just be by himself right?" He pans the camera left across the gazebo as he speaks. Alex leaves frame.
[00:33] Camera pans back to Alex. Alex says: "Yea. I'm thinking about maybe putting in a—"
[00:34] Heavy audio distortion begins, a loud, heavy, uneven buzzing. The camera pans to the ceiling of the gazebo.
[00:36] The camera pans back down to Alex, and then moves to look out at the forest over his shoulder. The autofocus takes a moment to readjust, rendering the frame momentarily blurry. Alex appears to be speaking, but the audio distortion blocks out any words. There is the slight suggestion of speaking in the way the audio fluctuates, but nothing even vaguely understandable.
[00:44] The distortion changes quality. It is still noisy, but the sound is almost a rushing sound, like wind past a microphone, and it is slightly tinny. There is once again the vague suggestion of speech under the distortion. Alex is still speaking, and gesturing with his hands.
[00:50] Alex pauses in his speech, looks at the camera, scratches his nose and gestures. The camera pans to the forested slope beyond.
[00:52] The audio distortion abruptly ends.
[00:54] Normal audio cuts back in. Alex says: "—and then we'll have 'em, like, reflect and decide to actually go back to Sarah to try and win her back." The camera pans back to Alex.
[01:00] Alex continues: "Um, and we've a good number of shots here. We have the stream down there, um, and—" He points towards the stream.
[01:07] The camera pans towards the stream and zooms. Audio distortion cuts back in. It is a third kind, sounding similar to the 'rushing' noise, but sharper. The suggestion of speech underneath is stronger, but still difficult to decipher.
[01:10] The camera zooms away from the stream again, and slowly pans back to Alex.
[01:13] The audio distortion changes. It is similar to the first kind once more. Alex is talking, but it is obscured.
[01:20] The camera pans to the slope again. The left channel of audio is fluctuating in volume. The kind of fluctuations suggests that Jay is speaking as well, and that it is also obscured. The camera pans back and forth between the slope and the gazebo a number of times.
[01:32] The audio distortion cuts out. Jay is speaking: "—area its very, I dunno, secluded I guess."
[01:39] Cut to footage of a forest floor.
[01:40] The camera pans upward. Alex is standing on a pinecone-strewn, but cleared forest floor.
Jay speaks: "Alright."
[01:42] Alex responds: "Alright. This is going to be near Sarah's hunting camp, uhh."
[01:43] There is a visual tear along the bottom of the screen as Alex speaks.
[01:45] The tear resolves. Alex continues, walking left: "Over there's where we're gonna do the bonfire scene, over by the fireplace…"
[01:48] The camera pans left, the way Alex was gesturing. There are a firepit and several logs perhaps twenty feet away.
[01:50] Jay says: "Yup." He pans back to Alex.
[01:51] Alex says: "Uh, I also want to have a—" J coughs here "—shot of the next day where uh,"
[01:55] Audio distortion cuts in. It is tinny and light. Alex can still be heard speaking through it, and he sounds louder. Alex continues: "Sarah and Brian, and I might also have Tim there at some point, are sitting around thinking about the past, you know, just…"
[02:03] Jay pans left again as Alex speaks. The camera pauses on a shot of the tall trees of this part of the forest. A red structure can be seen across a sunlit field a good distance away.
[02:04] Jay says: "Yeah."
[02:06] Alex continues: "talking about—" The audio distortion ends. "—days gone by. Um, I really like this place since we have the tree line that basically blocks off our entire shooting area and we have these really tall trees right in the middle which personally I just think are really cool." Jay pans up the tree trunks as Alex speaks, and then back down to Alex.
[02:24] Jay pans left again. He says: "What's that tall, red thing over there?" As he speaks he zooms in on the red tower, partially obscured by trees. He zooms out again in chunks.
[02:28] Alex says: "Yeah, thats like an old climbing wall, or—I can't remember if it was a climbing wall or a fire department—"
[02:33] Heavy audio distortion sets in again, buzzing and irregular. Suggestions of speech are audible behind it again.
[02:36] The camera pans back to Alex.
[02:37] Louder fluctuations of distortion suggest that Jay says something. He pans back to the tower and zooms in again as Alex speaks, and then says one word and zooms out.
[02:45] He pans back to Alex, looking towards the red tower. The audio distortion ends.
[02:46] Alex says, and points in the general direction of the tower: "although I wish that tall grass were all level or we had more of this kinda rubbly stuff over here."
[02:54] Jay says, "Yeah." He pans to the field again and then back to Alex.
[02:57] Alex: "I'm sure we can work our way around it." He is looking at the camera.
[03:00] Cut to black.
In addition to the audio distortion, there have also been numerous instances of visual tearing.
I've noticed these occurring in previous entries as well.
[03:14] Cut to footage from Entry 1, showing the tear that occurred at 00:22. It is labelled along the bottom with white text, "Entry #1".
[03:17] Cut to black.
[03:18] Cut to footage from Entry 3, of the tear that occurs at 00:29. This clip is labelled "Entry #3".
[03:21] Cut to black.
[03:22] Cut to footage from Entry 4, of the tear that occurs at 00:17. This clip is labelled "Entry #4".
[03:26] Cut to black. White text appears:
It is possible that I missed other occurrences of this in tapes that I have already watched.
[03:36] Video ends.
