The Dark Knight Tying up loose ends for the ARG - 42E speaks! (kinda)

[NickyTea]

So does that mean that there's a picture of a Joker-ized Jonah on the Rent-a-clown site?

 

[Batman137]

http://whysoserious.com/reports/cake.htm

i dont know if its just me, but if you call that number on the cake, does someone pick-up?

 

[Nirvana]

Incredible that Heath followed the virals.

 

[Anita18]

So does that mean that there's a picture of a Joker-ized Jonah on the Rent-a-clown site?

I have no clue. There are 20 pictures per page, 7 pages, and Twitchy Jr said there were about 250 people doing it, so they might have missed some. I don't see anyone who resembles Jonah, but I think I recognize Chuckles Earl on page 7. I might have met her yesterday. She's a fan of ARGs in general, but was supposed to be there doing press so she had to wash off the makeup right afterwards so she would seem a little bit more professional.

 

[ross2287]

• Rent-a-clown girl was the SHH lurker. She was the only one at 42E who witnessed the epicness that was...THE HIPPO IN THE STATIC. And when all those posts were taken down, nobody else would believe her. Oh man, great memories, guys.

Hilarious randomness

• 42E is rather indignant that you guys thought they used a green screen for Rachel's press conference (it was a set) and that Gary Oldman wasn't Gary Oldman.

That hippo stuff was hilarious and I still remember it, as referenced in my sig. And that really was Gary Oldman???

Heath

• For those of you who originally thought that Heath's death was a publicity stunt, you aren't alone, because that was a TDK associate producer's first thought as well.

What could have been (but isn't WB's fault so I feel safe in mentioning them )

• This was one they came awfully close to doing, and partially explains the game drought in early January - they were going to recruit a high school marching band slated to play in the Rose Parade. All of the musicians would wear Joker facepaint and clues would be put into the banners, to be seen when the parade was aired on TV. WB signed off on it, the school board signed off on it, I guess the Rose Parade people signed off on it, everything was ready to go...but the PARENTS of said marching band students said no.

Damn. That was one of my first thoughts when that news was announced. I don't know...I just expected him to appear in full Joker gear at the opening and surprise every one.

And that bit about the marching band would have been awesome!

 

[NickyTea]

I have no clue. There are 20 pictures per page, 7 pages, and Twitchy Jr said there were about 250 people doing it, so they might have missed some. I don't see anyone who resembles Jonah, but I think I recognize Chuckles Earl on page 7. I might have met her yesterday. She's a fan of ARGs in general, but was supposed to be there doing press so she had to wash off the makeup right afterwards so she would seem a little bit more professional.

It's just weird to think that I could have been talking to Jonah Nolan, and have had no idea. I miss those days.

 

[byte19]

ah.. i said the Chicago bat-signal was screwy... least the guys were disappointed also. still had fun out there all night with fellow geeks. thanks Nita!!

 

[Snoo]

Thank you for another update, Anita! It's amazing hearing about the ARG's behind the scenes stuff!

• Heath checked into WSS.com during the Comic Con game, and thought it was the coolest thing ever. So he definitely knew about the ARG.

That just made my day. Seriously. It's 3:40 AM and already my day's perfect! t: *imagines Heath browing WWS.com and chuckling to himself*

Judging by an old interview on BOF (from a TDK press junket, I believe) Christian Bale was unaware of the ARG and seemed really interested in hearing more about it when someone at the junket brought it up. He was handed the url to a website that had info about it (the wiki, I guess?). I remember reading that article sometime last summer and wondering which members of the cast knew about the virals.

Also the Gary Oldman bit is hilarious! Oh my God. Getting that international phone call in the middle of the night was really something else (my heart always flew out of my chest when the rang came and I had to say the password twice because I was so nervous) even though it was believed at the time the voice wasn't Oldman's. People were saying how it didn't sound like him at all but a lot of them agreed the voice was still close enough to be "Jim Gordon" or how Jim Gordon would say it, if that makes sense.

It didn't matter to me at the time that it was "just someone posing as Oldman's Jim Gordon" because the whole game was brilliant, but now you're telling us it actually was Oldman?

I have the urge to jump up and down laughing, waking the whole house in the process!

I guess no one in the press ever asked Oldman about his participation in the ARG because people believed he wasn't in it, anyway? Maybe if someone mentioned it at a junket Gary could talk more about it/confirm he actually recorded bits for it.

 

[Anita18]

It didn't matter to me at the time that it was "just someone posing as Oldman's Jim Gordon" because the whole game was brilliant, but now you're telling us it actually was Oldman?

I have the urge to jump up and down laughing, waking the whole house in the process!

I guess no one in the press ever asked Oldman about his participation in the ARG because people believed he wasn't in it, anyway? Maybe if someone mentioned it at a junket Gary could talk more about it/confirm he actually recorded bits for it.

Yup, it actually was him. Twitchy was disappointed since he wasn't in the office that day, but they actually had him record that phone call. Maggie Gyllenhaal did that press conference in a real set, and of course Aaron Eckhart provided a lot of his services as well.

Christian appeared in a Gotham Tonight episode, but that wasn't produced by 42 Entertainment, so he may not have been aware of the game itself despite having a little cameo.

 

[Snoo]

Yup, it actually was him. Twitchy was disappointed since he wasn't in the office that day, but they actually had him record that phone call. Maggie Gyllenhaal did that press conference in a real set, and of course Aaron Eckhart provided a lot of his services as well.

Christian appeared in a Gotham Tonight episode, but that wasn't produced by 42 Entertainment, so he may not have been aware of the game itself despite having a little cameo.

Thanks bunches, I'm all smiley right now over the Gary news. I want to tell random people on the street I got a phone call from Gary freaking Oldman! Sure, it was a recording of his voice but who cares?

Yeah, I always thought Christian must have known about the game since he made that funny appearance on GT and I was a bit surprised and disappointed when it was reported he was oblivious to it. Maybe next time, eh?

Man, I'll never forget all the fan whining over Maggie's press conference clip. It was embarrassing.

 

[[A]]

I've no idea what you're talking about

 

[Snoo]

I've no idea what you're talking about

There's always the Wiki that explains the epicness of it all. The link is in Anita's sig.

 

[Lightning257]

So I'm back again with a few other tidbits for you!

Rent-a-clown girl and Twitchy were joined by Twitchy Jr, who, as you can probably guess, is Twitchy's son. They worked at 42E together and were also laid off recently at the same time.

Thanks for the update. As an aside, I believe Twitchy's initials are S.P. If that's the case, he and Rent-a-clown girl were the ones directly responsible for making the TDK poster (Joker eyes and mouth on the brick wall) that is made up of the mosaic of the images we sent in to RDK. If so, would you please thank them the next time you see them? It was a nice piece of work and I'm happy to have been able to get it.

Thanks!

 

[Anita18]

Thanks for the update. As an aside, I believe Twitchy's initials are S.P. If that's the case, he and Rent-a-clown girl were the ones directly responsible for making the TDK poster (Joker eyes and mouth on the brick wall) that is made up of the mosaic of the images we sent in to RDK. If so, would you please thank them the next time you see them? It was a nice piece of work and I'm happy to have been able to get it.

Thanks!

Heh, I keep on forgetting to do that.

If you're on Unfiction and are in the SoCal area (I don't know if you are), do drop by the next ARGparty! We had two Unfiction members come on Saturday.

Yeah, the ARG-making process is definitely more transparent on Unfiction, but I promised not to use names in case WB marketing was

 

[NickyTea]

What is unfiction?

 

[Lightning257]

Heh, I keep on forgetting to do that.

If you're on Unfiction and are in the SoCal area (I don't know if you are), do drop by the next ARGparty! We had two Unfiction members come on Saturday.

Yeah, the ARG-making process is definitely more transparent on Unfiction, but I promised not to use names in case WB marketing was

Chicago here, so attendance is not an option. And I figured names were...discouraged, so I tried to give minimal information that would allow confirmation.

 

[Lightning257]

What is unfiction?

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/

It's a group that was sort of our "competitor" in solving the ARG puzzles.

 

[Anita18]

What is unfiction?

Unfiction is a forum dedicated to ARGs. I still find it hilarious that the TDK ARG never got a separate forum of its own on Unfiction. But I think it was bigger on SHH anyway.

 

[ross2287]

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/

It's a group that was sort of our "competitor" in solving the ARG puzzles.

And we kicked their asses!

 

[byte19]

 

[Magenta666]

i had never even heard of them

 

[musecuts]

Anita, thanks for getting this info. It helped me relive those days of frantically running to my computer trying to solve puzzles from last year. Oh, the good ol days...

 

[Anita18]

Oh, and I just remembered another thing that was rather

Twitchy, along with being Joker, was also "Glenn Barhyte," and he stayed up until like 3am trying to get SHHers to find that stupid SID file. Apparently they had integrated the file number right into the signature line of an email response from the WATW tipline, but nobody got it. So he had to write the emails himself, still including that signature line.

And then finally I think he just mentioned it in the email, because it was 3am and he had to go to sleep.

 

[Lightning257]

Just looked back through the messages from the tipline, and looks like it was here:

From : "Tips" <[email protected]>
To : #######
Subject : Re: We Are The Answer Tip
Date : Mon, Apr 07, 2008 04:22 PM


Thank you for your submission. Officer Francis Notaro is currently being
investigated to determine his guilt or innocence.

We Are The Answer will keep the citizens of Gotham informed regarding this, and other,
investigations of police officers.

UmVmOg0KSUE4MjM0OTcxDQpJQTgzNzYxMjENCklBODM4ODU1NQ0KDQo=

 

[Anita18]

Just looked back through the messages from the tipline, and looks like it was here:

From : "Tips" <[email protected]>
To : #######
Subject : Re: We Are The Answer Tip
Date : Mon, Apr 07, 2008 04:22 PM


Thank you for your submission. Officer Francis Notaro is currently being
investigated to determine his guilt or innocence.

We Are The Answer will keep the citizens of Gotham informed regarding this, and other,
investigations of police officers.

UmVmOg0KSUE4MjM0OTcxDQpJQTgzNzYxMjENCklBODM4ODU1NQ0KDQo=

It actually wasn't that one. I asked about the Base64 one (the example you quoted), and they said it was JUST the SID reference number typed into the signature line. I really have no idea which email it was supposed to be, I don't have it on the Wiki. I caught the game when Twitchy was answering emails as Glenn Barhyte.