Line #13 Trivia/MarbleHornets


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2	* ActingForTwo: As detailed below, there were multiple actors in the Operator suit, and Joseph subbed in to play Jay when Jay grabbed the tape at the top of the red tower, due to Troy (Jay) being afraid of heights.
3	* AlterEgoActing: The creators treat the Operator as its own being; they haven't revealed who plays it or how they get it to work on-camera, purposely to keep the mystery. All they've confirmed is that it's not a mannequin.
4	** On his own tenth anniversary stream, [[spoiler: Joseph confirmed that he played the Operator at least once, with his [[TheBlank facelessness]] being a result of covering the performer's face with multiple layers of pantyhose. The Operator's arms were separate pieces from the rest of the costume, and his unnatural height came from duct-taping "at least five" flip-flops together to serve as rudimentary platform shoes in the early iterations of the costume. A video from Troy, Tim, and Joseph taken after the series' conclusion indicates that they upgraded to stilts at some point.]]
5	* AscendedFanon: The creators confirmed in the season 3 DVD commentary that the fans inspired them to give more significance to the 'distortion hole' from Entry #19. When they were stuck for ideas on how to have Jay and Tim [[spoiler: find more tapes]] in Entry #69, they decided to use the hole for an originally unintended CallBack / ChekhovsGun.
6	* AscendedMeme:
7	** Jay mentions Tim's sideburns (much-loved in the fandom) in Entry #53
8	** A blog post from [[WordOfGod Troy Wagner]] refers to the fan nicknames "Masky" and "Hoody".
9	* BeamMeUpScotty: Contrary to what numerous parodies, tributes, and works of fan fiction would have you believe, the phrase "This changes everything" never appears in the series. The closest the series gets to it was "It changes everything" in Entry 35, and given that [[spoiler: Entry 35 reveals authoritatively that Tim is Masky,]] its use is by no means egregious.
10	* {{Blooper}}: The initial upload of "enttry" #37 had a kid wearing a ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' T-shirt in 1991, although ''Spongebob'' didn't premiere until 8 years later. The second upload edited out those shots.
11	** In entry 60.5, as Jay is going through Tim's medical documents, one of them lists symptoms of headaches and insomnia, along with a third one apparently blacked out in marker. However, since the pages were wet, the ink leaked through onto the next page, revealing that the third symptom - whatever it is - was never written on the page to begin with.
12	* CreatorBacklash: Troy and Joseph have confessed that they regretted putting in the dialogue between Jay and Alex in Entry #50 about the original settlers enacting punishment on criminals, as too many fans misinterpreted it as the true origin story for the Operator‘s existence.
13	** Joseph feels this way about Season 2, stating that, while it has its good parts, it mostly consists of {{Padding}} due to the creators' relative inexperience with long-form storytelling.
14	* TheDanza: Tim, Jessica, Brian and Seth. Brian is actually a double example: Alex's Marble Hornets film features a character named Brian played by a character named Brian...played by a man named Brian. Oddly enough, Jay and Alex themselves don't follow this trope (their real names are Troy and Joseph), nor do Sarah and Amy. Jessica is a happy accident, that the character was named Jessica before they hired an actress named Jessica.
15	** Discussed by Alex on the ''Marble Hornets'' site (if you login).
16	-->"However in a lucky twist, Brian Thomas has been cast as the character 'Brian', and Tim Wright is cast as the friend, so I figured 'why not?' I’ll just make that character named Tim as well! Movies can be really strange like that sometimes."
17	* DawsonCasting:
18	** Averted, in part because Marble Hornets is filmed by actual college-age guys.
19	** The trope is also discussed on the DVD commentary ([[ShoutOut Troy specifically mentions TV Tropes at that!]]).
20	** Played straight in Entry #71, which takes place seven years in the past.
21	* EnforcedMethodActing: Tim asked Joseph to outright choke him in Entry #86 in order to have the choking noises sound realistic, but Joseph refused. They compromised by having Joseph hold his neck, while Tim leaned into it.
22	* FollowTheLeader: There's a truly staggering number of Slender Man-based blogs and small-scale [[AlternateRealityGame ARGs]] out there, and it appears [[CaptainErsatz each one has its own Totheark]].
23	* RuleThirtyFourCreatorReactions: To quote Joseph [=DeLage=] (Alex):
24	--> [[http://josephdelage.tumblr.com/post/37607789848/have-you-ever-looked-up-any-marble-hornets-fanfiction "I HAVE LIVED WITH THESE PEOPLE. YOU SHOULD ALL BE ASHAMED. >:["]]
25	* ScheduleSlip: Some of the later entries in Season 2 were victims of this. Troy would announce release dates for certain entries, but due to problems uploading the files he'd put off releasing them till the next day. Kind of immersion-breaking when he'd post as Jay on the Twitter page, saying he was having 'compression' problems with [=YouTube=].
26	** [[FridgeBrilliance Youtube's not really programmed to handle]] [[FridgeHorror footage tainted by the supernatural, after all.]]
27	** Because of weather conditions, entry 66 was put off a week.
28	* ThrowItIn:
29	** WordOfGod says that the shadow 'reaching into Alex's head' at the end of Entry #22 was a happy accident (the original plan was to simply have a shadow pass over him).
30	** Seth wasn't in the original script, but his girlfriend (who played Sarah) asked for him to be included, Troy and Joseph wrote him in as the cameraman for the student film. Slight case of AscendedExtra, as he came back later [[spoiler: as the only survivor of the student film aside from Alex. Which doesn't last]].
31	** Tim's line in Entry #9 about Alex spending too much money on tapes was improvised by Tim Sutton himself, along with most of the argument between Sarah, Alex, Tim, and Seth.
32	** The final shot of the series was improvised by Tim. He was driving the car with the camera running and pointed at him, spotted a crossroads up ahead, and -- ''without breaking character'' -- turned the camera to face through the windshield, resulting in a perfect image to close ''Marble Hornets''; Troy, sitting in the back seat, immediately gave him an enthusiastic thumbs-up, as speaking up would have blown the take.
33	** And that's not even getting into what was revealed in Joseph [=DeLage's=] 10 year anniversary stream in 2019. To wit:
34	*** The Operator's FaceRevealingTurn in Entry #1 was improvised by Joseph who was in the Operator costume at the time.
35	*** The beginning of Entry #7 from Alex asking Brian to do another take to Alex losing the script, was unscripted. According to Joseph, Brian's actor kept {{Corpsing}}, leading them to do several takes in a row to get the perfect shot.
36	*** The audio cutting out in Entry #8 was partially planned, and partially due to "Troy's cats meowing outside."
37	*** ''The entirety of the content ToTheArk channel'' was not planned out ahead of time. It was Troy's personal project. TTA's second video also caused the creators to adopt the "Operator" moniker for their series.
38	** During his 2020 livestream of the series, Tim revealed that his shuddering voice and hunched-over posture in Entry #66 were partly due to the cold: the end of Entry #65 (which leads directly into #66) was filmed in summer, while #66 was filmed in late fall; Tim had to wear the same outfit for continuity purposes, and was freezing in the early morning temperatures.
39	* TrollingCreator: A lot of responses about the ending of the series are very troll-ish. The creators refuse to confirm how the Operator costume was made and performed, if [[spoiler: Hoody/Brian]] was indeed totheark, or what the ''[[MythArc ark itself]]'' actually is.
40	** Tim's Tumblr is very much this. Pretty much constantly. Expect about two-thirds of the questions he's been asked regarding the series to be answered with "Meth," "Brian," or "You can't tell me what to do," and other equally obtuse variations.
41	** This gem from the [[http://www.reddit.com/r/marblehornets/comments/2b2pmf/were_troy_wagner_joseph_delage_and_tim_sutton_we/ Reddit AMA]]:
42	--> '''Redditor:''' What happened to Sarah, Amy and Seth?
43	--> '''Troy:''' [[FridgeHorror Alex is a bad man.]]
44	** During the first two seasons' runs, asking the cast about specific scenes where the Operator appears during their convention panels would result in either intentionally vague (to keep up the mystery behind their effects) but informative background information - or puzzled looks as to why you're asking about a guy in a suit being in their Website/YouTube videos.
45	* TroubledProduction: {{InUniverse}}. The student film, to say the least.
46	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
47	** The series was originally named ''[[WorkingTitle The Slender Tapes]]''.
48	** Entry #26 was initially going to be the last video, ending with Jay quitting the investigation once and for all. Due to the amount of fan demand for more content as well as the possibility of a movie deal, however, they continued for 2 more seasons.
49	*** The original ending to the series that was never filmed, according to co-creator Joseph [=DeLage=]:
50	--> '''Joseph:''' What it was going to end on was, Jay in a car, like, the Operator finds ''him'' now. [Jay] hops in the car, or whatever... He suddenly, like, it's dark outside, he turns on the car, and the headlights-- [[JumpScare Bam, Operator right there.]] Pulls out, starts driving, we had this country road that always fogged up at night, so as we're going down there, there are these light poles. [[OffscreenTeleportation We were gonna have the Operator under each one]], um, y'know, using camera trickery and stuff like that. [[BolivianArmyEnding Uh, and then that was gonna be the end, with the implication that it wasn't gonna end... great.]]
51	** The Season 2 DVD has an unused version of Entry #37 that would have re-introduced the Operator back into the story earlier than it did. However, Troy and Joseph felt the entry was weak and conflicting with what was going on, so they dumped it in favor of the VHS-flavored enttry #37.
52	** While the broader brushstrokes for the final entry had been worked out years in advance, the finer details were apparently tweaked. For example, they didn't originally plan on ending with a driving shot, and [[spoiler: Jessica]] was originally going to be working at the antique store from the start of the season. They also toyed with the idea of [[spoiler: Jay surviving through till the end]].
53	** During a 10 year anniversary stream, Joseph revealed that Entry #1 was going to feature the Operator [[HellIsThatNoise screaming]] outside Alex's window. However, they couldn't get the scream to sound right and ultimately cut it.
54	** The skull-faced, masked figure[[note]]a.k.a. [[FandomNickname "Skully"]][[/note]] who appears briefly in Entry #26 was originally just added in for RuleOfCool. During Season 3, however, the creators toyed with the idea of making him Jay's Operator-induced alter-ego (like Masky and Hoody were for [[spoiler: Tim and Brian]]), and having Jay himself discover this through found footage. The idea was scrapped, though the creators suggested that he could still be lurking somewhere. This was paid off when he later appeared in the ''Marble Hornets'' [[ComicBook/MarbleHornets comics]], where he's revealed to be [[spoiler: an [[HumanoidAbomination entity]] formed out of the fused souls of the Operator's past victims (including Jay, Brian, Alex, and White Shirt Guy) -- with Jay's body.]]
55	** Joseph briefly floated the idea of revisiting the MH filming sites during the series' 11-year anniversary, but these plans fell through due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.
56	* WordOfGay: According to [[https://namedlaika.tumblr.com/post/185439872248/is-there-canon-lgbt-characters-in-mh this Tumblr post]] by the comic artist, Jay and [[WordOfDante possibly]] Jessica.
57	* WordOfGod: Mostly averted during the first year while the identity of the cast and production team was still secret, but since revealing themselves, Troy, Joseph and Tim have done a large number of interviews and convention panels about the behind-the-scenes workings of the series. [[https://soundcloud.com/thacposdcast They even have an official podcast]].

Context Trivia / MarbleHornets