Theet Chatango Q&A 2

This Q&A was held by Alex Hall on January 28, 2012 in the Knights of Theet Chatango. It took place during the hiatus. The Q&A was logged by A-negative.

The Q&A

JadusableH: Hey guys! I'm just now getting in and have to deal with a few things first. Gonna have to kick this off about fifteen minutes later than planned. 7:15 EST, thanks for your understanding and looking forward to talking with you guys!

JadusableH: Alright guys, thanks for coming out!

JadusableH: Let me get set up here

JadusableH: Hows everyone doing?

JadusableH: Yeah sorry again, this has been a hectic night

JadusableH: Thanks for baring with me

JadusableH: Just a bit longer

JadusableH: =\

Anegative: Twss

JadusableH: Alright, ready to go now.

JadusableH: Sorry, was helping a ton of people today with a shoot

JadusableH: So welcome guys!

JadusableH: Basically starting around now, I've got about an hour to dedicate to just chilling out with you guys before I have to go get out of here

JadusableH: So let's kick this off! We can do more of these later in the coming weeks too

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Sephiriam: "You said one theory got close to figuring out what happened, which one was it"

JadusableH: Haha, yeah I remember that. He got a lot of things spot on, but not the entire theory. And of course I can't just come out and say who, because that would kind of ruin the story for Arc 3 :P

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Spanosa: Can you confirm the existence or non existence of the Roommate in Arc 1?

JadusableH: I believe based on what Jadusable says in "The Truth" document, he casually mentions that he was living in a single, whereas the Youtube account was posting videos claiming to be his roommate. One might argue that BEN could be doing this to try and screw with the viewers, but its such an arbetrary thing to stage that I doubt it that segment of The Truth was mere fiction

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Biggoron2195: How do you plan to market your movie when it is finished? What is your advertisement plan, target audience, etc?

JadusableH: Shoot, I'd love to talk more indepth about that right now, but I'm saving some of those tidbits for later on as it gets closer to release. I think people will be surprised at how it all goes down.

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Smartelec: How did you learn all the different codes and puzzle strategies you used in the ARG?

JadusableH: Can you elaborate? In terms of editing the videos or?

Smartelec: like, all the puzzle based elements, the immensly complicated codes, stuff like that.

JadusableH: Hmm...

JadusableH: I'm not really sure, I think its something I just tended to do naturally. I put myself in the position of the viewer and asked myself "Okay, now what would make this captivating?"

Smartelec: okay. I was just wondering because I don't have much confusing content I could use to mess with players if I chose to create something like an ARG.

JadusableH: I like to think that a good treasure hunt always keeps its participants excited

JadusableH: Aw, you're selling yourself short! Its not like I had a prequisite checklist of scary kelbris pages or cryptic riddles. I made a lot of it up as I went along

JadusableH: I think once you get in the moment, you'd be surprised at some of the resourceful and creative things you can come up with

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MugenKagemaru: What would the Song Of Storms have done if we had played it during Arc 2?

JadusableH: Okay, I suppose I can talk about that

JadusableH: I tried to have each of the ocarina songs have a similiar effect in the ARG world as they did originally in the games they debuted on

JadusableH: In the song of storms case, one of the most iconic moments assosciated with that song was in Ocarina of TIme, where you played it in the windmill (?) with the music man

JadusableH: All of a suddenly he immediately snaps and becomes almost deranged when you play the song in his presence

JadusableH: I would have liked to experiment with people playing the song of storms because I was going to have it control moods in the ARG for certain characters. It was something I would have liked to explore, but because the direction of the game was dictated by the players, there was no guarentee that that would ever come into play

JadusableH: It's hard to explain, but it would control moods, or personalities. Almost like flipping a switch.

MugenKagemaru: Mmm-kay, then... Would have been interesting. Thanks.

JadusableH: No problem my man

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Astartus: On Within Hubris, there is an user called Onslaught Six claiming to have been in contact with you, concerning merchandising t-shirts for his metal project, featuring the edited Elegy Mask/BEN icon. He claimed to have an agreement with you over the sales. In the very same thread, he not only admits to large-scale audio sampling from other works (meaning the unlicensed use of audio material like vocals, drum patterns, background drones etc, which constitutes theft of creative property), but even boasts about doing so. What is your stance on this?

JadusableH: My stance on the first part of your question or the sampling of unlicensed use of audio materials

Harshad423: I'm fairly sure he meant the first part but he seems to have gone afk

Astartus: Well, the general situation. Is it true that you have a sales agreement with this user, and if so, what is your stance on participating in the marketing of a product that significantly consists of stolen content?

JadusableH: Well, I've spoken to Onslaught Six before and he seems like a good guy, but I was unaware that we had any kind of licensing agreement or merchandising arrangement

JadusableH: So this is news to me

JadusableH: hang on

JadusableH: Still typing up second part

JadusableH: As for him using audio material that's licensed, I'm not sure its something to boast about, but at the same time I'm not inherently opposed to it. Provided he takes the appropriate measures to make sure he doesn't end up in any legal issues, if you can take something pre-existing and make it better, I wouldn't say that's a bad thing. It depends on the audio materials in question, a lot of artists use samples from other songs, its a pretty big trend in hip hop, and they've made some pretty great songs out of that.

Astartus: Well, he specifically makes a point of not asking for permission and on trusting on staying below the radar, so that's that - but that answers my question. Thanks.

JadusableH: Well, I would say that's a dangerous practice, but then again since he's independant and trying to get his name out there I doubt too many mainstream artists would be up in arms about it.

JadusableH: I respect him for pursuing his passion, even if some of the methods of going about it aren't the norm. But in this crazy ass world, especially the cut throat entertainment industries, the norm doesn't really mean a whole lot.

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AChatangoAccount: What are/were the ages of the Moon Children in Arc 2?

AChatangoAccount: Sorry for jumping the gun there Jad

JadusableH: No worries my man

JadusableH: @AChatango Although I don't have the actual biographies of each of the Moon Children in front of me (I'm not on my work computer), I can say that they had a wide range of ages.

JadusableH: I believe 13-14 was the youngest, with around 17-19 being the oldest that was inititally implied, but one of the members was quite a bit older than that.

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HauntedMaster: You said in an interveiw long ago, you said that through this story you learnt stuff about the human mind. What were some things you did learn?
About how much through arc three will it be untill we see Children.wmv?
Is BEN as evil as we think?

JadusableH: Thats interesting that you should mention that. Yeah, I did learn a lot of things about patterns that people tend to exhibit when presented with a particular scenario

JadusableH: Geez, its hard to explain without taking forever.

HauntedMaster: That's ok

JadusableH: But I'll try to sum it up briefly

JadusableH: I learned that For example, I placed several obscure clues throughout the youtube movies that I was positive that 95% of the people watching would not find. And for the most part they didn't. But because of the 5% that had a keen eye, they would point out something and the word would spread like wildfire, effectively clueing that 95% in to the plot point or hint, which allowed me to be able to advance the story in a more dynamic and detective-esque way instead of pandering the story to the general public in a more straightforward way without taking any real risks. You had to work for some of the clues (like discovering the URL of youshouldnthavedonethat.net) which I imagine was pretty interesting for those of the people who spent hours trying to solve ciphers and work in teams, but at the same time, their findings would be made public as soon as they turned up something so everyone else wouldn't be left behind.

JadusableH: I learned a lot about the inquisitive nature of people and especially peoples' tendancy to incorrectly link two completely unrelated things, yet reading their reasoning I could sort of see how they would come to a conclusion like that based on the text in front of them.

JadusableH: There was a lot of real-time adapting and adjusting to my strategy as I laid the story out, and it was interesting to see the community evolve and the smaller groups that formed in response

JadusableH: I feel like a lot of people got to know complete strangers pretty well and became friends because of theorycrafting or puzzle solving.

JadusableH: You'll see children.wmv pretty early in, hell, in a sense you even are involved in it.

JadusableH: If you're referring to BEN as the entity that tormented Jadusable and Ryukaki, then based on the evidence in the text so far, its hard to see any other kind of motive other than it being a twisted, malicious being

HauntedMaster: Thank you for answering Jadusable

JadusableH: No problem

Anegative: I just want you to know that thing about children.wmv made everyone go "OOOOOOOOOH MY GOD HOLY FUCKS" in the other chat

Sephiriam: They flipped their shit

Harshad423: Big time

JadusableH: Haha :P

---

Inunah: Okay, how was Kelbris able to interpret an understandable message from Luna's words, despite there being so many 3's everywhere?

Inunah: Like, from the Luna Prophecy, I mean?

JadusableH: Kelbris plays a bigger role in this story than the rest of his peers. There's more to his character, and his origin than the meanderings of the moon children website. Remember, the website is in character, it was made as both an information resource and as a private community site for the moon children.

Anegative: http://tinyurl.com/MCtheories if you forgot hohohoho

JadusableH: That might sound confusing, but think of it as any other website made in our world; someone has to make it and write the biographies, lore, etc. There's always room for human "error".

JadusableH: Or something a little less innocent

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Chucklesx123: allright three questions, what genre is the movie?, can you tell us a working title?, and Is there an importance to the number three, not just 423 but 3 itself?

Chucklesx123: In the arg

JadusableH: 1. Its hard to define, but when the website is released about the movie I want to have a few surprises there, so I can't reveal all my cards yet

JadusableH: 2. ben 2: electric boogaloo

JadusableH: 3. Yes, the number three has some sort of overlaying significance in the bigger picture of the whole thing. Its hard to really convey to you guys what the "bigger picture" is, because that's a spoiler, but there's more to this than the Moon Children website. The number three starts coming into play more prominently in Arc 3.

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Harshad423: FYI Jad, we've got about 6 questions left if you'd be cool enough to stay slightly longer than an hour

JadusableH: Yeah, that's no problem! I can stall the guys a bit, anyway

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Tabramp: Hey Jad, I’m going to College next year to major in some aspect of Film. With all the experiences you’ve had, is there anything you can give me tips on in general? Like maybe the industry itself? Or quick tips?

JadusableH: Oh hell yeah, I was hoping there'd be some questions like these. Honestly, be careful with a lot of film schools. Unless they're extremely well known and prestigous, a lot of the times students will not get their money's worth at all from them. I would captialize on networking, especially around people with similiar interests, you piggy back off each other and learn a lot. Kinds of relationships like that are crucial to have if you want to get into the entertainment industry. A friend of mine is a rapper that I shot some music videos for for free because I can sympathize with trying to make it starting out from nothing, and because of that he ended up repaying the favor by putting me in contact with some people that may help propell me up to where I need to be. Definately don't burn bridges, and try and lend your expertise and assistance to others who deserve it. People tend to remember favors.

Tabramp: Alright, thanks Jad ;)

JadusableH: But more importantly, do not wait until you are in college or have a degree before you tell yourself "Okay, now I can start making movies". Do all of that kind of stuff while you are in school, always be creating, always be doing, always be striving to improve yourself. And don't be afraid to put yourself out there. On a whim I wrote a horror story - something I've never attempted before - and decided to put a pen name to it and put it out to the internet

Tabramp: Yes indeed , thanks again.

JadusableH: Next thing you know, here we are. And I did that as a sophomore in college, without a degree, almost overnight. I'm not trying to come off as boisterous - I'm trying to convey that sometimes its really that simple. Effort like that will be rewarded. You guys can totally replicate this kind of success tomorrow. Don't wait until it "feels appropriate" or "makes sense" for you to start creating, do it now!

JadusableH: I'm not anyone special, I'm a guy that took a chance and got rewarded for it - something that every single one of you guys in this chat can do.

Tabramp: Indeed. Well I think the guys in the chat are awaiting the next question :p Thanks.

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EditOutJ: What gave you the motivation or the inspiration to do the videos and the 4Chan stuff in the first place?

JadusableH: Uh, I just got this really great idea walking to class one day for some neat things you could do with a haunted videogame story. I made the videos because its one thing to be able to do something (in this case write a videogame creepypasta), but you have to think "what is going to set this apart from the rest? How can I distinguish myself?". The videos added a more grounded feeling to the story and actually convinced some people of its validity on its own and I'm so glad I went the extra mile to add them because otherwise I doubt this story would have been as popular as it was

EditOutJ: Nice

EditOutJ: Thanks Jad

EditOutJ: I would also like to tell you that you made a game that scarred me shitless when I was a child even more scarry

JadusableH: Yeah, I definately recommend for anyone trying to break into any kind of field - art, music, literature, whatever - finding a way to set your creation apart from the rest and distinguish itself can be just as important as the creation itself

JadusableH: Haha, I never know what to say to these kind of things

EditOutJ: Hold me

JadusableH: But thank you!

JadusableH: Hahah

Anegative: EditXJad OTP

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Harshad423: Yo Jaddypoos. Is the number 423 important due to it being the day Ben died, or did Ben die on 4/23 because the number 423 is important?

JadusableH: The former.

Harshad423: Aha, thanks man.

Harshad423: <3

JadusableH: Np brah

JadusableH: I gotta wrap this up soon, fyi

Harshad423: bros4lyfe

JadusableH: We can do another one of these if people still have questions later on

JadusableH: Lets do one more question then I gotta split

Harshad423: we have two more questions left I think.

JadusableH: Make them quick, I don't want to keep my client waiting. I have to return some of this production equipment I used today.

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Ariesus: so Jad, how much of all this did you just pull out of your ass? Speaking as someone who's done stuff like this before, I know I found myself ad-libbing constanty.

Ariesus: *constantly.

Ariesus: damn, apparently, I was supposed to post a video from the film The Room asking you about your sex life.

JadusableH: I had a general feel of how the story would go, but because of the way it was viewer driven, that meant that there were avenues that would entirely never be explored (i.e. Song of Storms effect). The beauty of it is that the players felt more involved and I enjoyed spontaneously crafting the story as it developed, but the downside was that I had to scrap some pretty great plot elements because the players took the story in a different direction

JadusableH: There was a general plan of how the story would go, and no matter what happened in Arcs 1 and 2, due to the nature of the story and what's coming that meant that Arc 3 would happen no matter what. Although the means of which the story ended up getting there was drastically different than what I originally planned.

JadusableH: Let me clarify, I originally said I thought the thing would be over in a week because initially all I had was the haunted zelda story that was meant to end at the truth

JadusableH: Then after I continued it, that's more what my answer was abot

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ChaosLamorak: If you have the time, when Zora Link died, three hearts regenerated. Is that important?

JadusableH: Three is the magic number

JadusableH: :P

Kafeite: actually, if i may add onto that, there were many little things like that. were they editing mistakes, on purpose, half and half?

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Kafeite: meeting clients at 9 PM is dangerous so be careful

AviaRayne: ^ i meet mine at 11 =(

EditOutJ: Make sure you get the money upfront

JadusableH: He's just a guy that's putting together a small documentary and I'm on the crew.

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Anegative: Do you have more answers or anything?

Anegative: Just to make sure I've got everything

Anegative: Before we let this chat get flooded again

JadusableH: That's everything for tonight

JadusableH: I've got to get moving, I hope I got to answer most of the questions

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Biggoron2195: how many inches?

JadusableH: And thats my cue

JadusableH: Later guys! Let me know if you want to do this again! Have a great weekend!