"Bitterroot Footage"

[Harlequenne]

Hey E =)

StumbleUpon directed me to this site a few weeks ago : http://www.thebitterrootfootage.com/photos.html

Essentially, this guy bought some stuff of craigslist and it came with some photos and 8mm film, all of which are creepy.  There's this man-like thing in a hooded cloak hobbling around and a few creepy visuals (what might be a body in a bag, a baby in an incubator, possibly a human head there at the end).  General opinion seems to be that it's publicity stunt, and there's a thing on IMDb about it.  I just don't know.  Thought I'd see if any of you had heard about this, or perhaps had opinions.  The footage isn't really that creepy--I had a hard time making it out, myself. 

But the point is: What do you guys think?

[Sabby]

Clearly viral marketing. I'm more confused over if the guy shooting the footage is following the hooded guy or not. If he's sneaking, then this is a lot faker looking.

[Inkidu]

No telling with the weird folklore state that the internet has given us. It's kind of sort of our last dark, deep forest. However, I'm going to call bunk, because let's face it, would it really get an IMDB entry if it weren't some kind of film? They typically don't put up a lot of fictional fiction, just the regular kind.

[Beorning]

Hm. Now I'm tempted to shoot a viral enigmatic footage myself :)

[Oniya]

Does it count as a 'plotbunny' if there isn't really a plot?  With the writers here, it would be interesting to see what kind of 'folklore' Elliquiy could come up with.

* Oniya skitters off to make notes.

[Beorning]

I say: we sit around, pool our creative talents and create a viral video that will make Snopes.com explode!  ;D

[Oniya]

Maybe not a video, but what about a series of pictures?  One person puts up a picture or pictures.  The next person puts up a bit of creepy story related to the pictures, plus their own picture or pictures.  Ideally, pictures would be self-taken (photography skills not required - bad framing/focus/lighting makes for more ambiguity! ;D ) and not localized (no shots of Mt. Rushmore!). 

[Beorning]

This could be fun! :)

[Sabby]

This is starting to sound like a companion site for Creepy Pasta... like an ARG.

[Beorning]

What's Creepy Pasta?

[Oniya]

I was more wondering what ARG meant.  Either that, or something snuck up behind Sabby and dragged him off.

Look, if he was dragged off, he wouldn't have bothered to type 'Aaaauuuggghhhh'. He'd just say it.

[Avis habilis]

"Augmented Reality Game". Like the faux Hanso Foundation & Oceanic Airlines ads that ran while Lost was still on.

[Oniya]

Oh, that thing's got a name?  Huh.  Okay - the thing in my head is sort of that way, sort of like the 'write a story' threads, and sort of like what I think they do at SCP (shared earlier).  It could mesh with what they do at Creepypasta (which is kind of a 'Weird Tales' for the Internet age).

[Beorning]

So... it would go like this:

1. Person A posts a picture.
2. Person B writes a story for the pic and / or post another picture.

Am I getting you right?

[Oniya]

No 'or' - you have to post at least one picture so the next person has something to write off of.  Person A might write up a touch of back-story, just to set the flavor of the thing.  Although, I guess you could post a picture or pictures without posting story.  Story snippets don't have to follow each other in sequence, but pulling stuff from other snippets is encouraged, in the manner of Slenderman or the circle of authors that were inspired by Lovecraft.

[Beorning]

Ah. That sounds very cool!  :-)