Final October Vid update (for now!)

So, as plans are want to do, the plans for this project have changed from the last update haha! The Violet Woods pixel art project has been put on hold unfortunately, and the two planned videos I had for this have turned to three, with a maybe-possible-fourth if i can get it to look right.

Below is the order of how they'll be uploaded to tumblr, maybe starting on the first of october. Not sure when I'm going to release them yet.

(theres mild flashing in the first one, be warned!)

A. 003 

B. PSA 1 

C. 001 

And if you don't want to take the time decoding ciphers but want to know the general story, badabing badaboom, sit down with a snack and let's get into it.

Each video has a message at the beginning that decodes to "A message from beyond the stars brought to you by the ever illustrious translator", followed by two letters of the code cracked for you, as each video has its own cipher.

The translator is a central character in the story. In 001, he speaks directly to the viewer. The coded text reads "Hello. If you are watching this, if you can understand this. You are not crazy, you are chosen. I am the ever illustrious translator. I am your friend. I speak on behalf of the stars above and those beyond. You are not alone. You are not unloved. You are not forgotten. You are not useless. You are not unsalvageable. Accept our embrace and we will keep you safe."

Then the music winds down with a creepy skeleton staring at you. Neat! Fun fact, while most of the music and real footage in these things are taken from stock, copyright-free sources, I actually made the music that plays in 001!

At any rate, the translator is the person who is making these videos and broadcasting them; in the story's canon, he's the artist and musician and creative force that's talking to the public on "behalf of the stars". He's fond of weird, flashy imagery -- as you can see in 003 -- but tends to slightly change his style with each broadcast. Whether he's a human or "from the stars" himself is never revealed, but he does write "see you later space cowboys" at the end of 003.

Maybe aliens watch anime, I dunno.

Speaking of 003, the main text translates to a much more simple: "We see you. We are here. We will keep you safe. Obey us. Love us. We will save you." The text inside the astronaut's helmet reads "Those who disobey suffocate" with the Os missing. There's actually three scenes that I had to motion track that are unfortunately hard to see on tumblr -- one where red lights move in the sky, the second one where an almost invisible figure pops up on the left hand screen, and the final figure that appears before the street lights "blow out". Unfortunate, but at least you'll know what they are hah! 

The video shows you motifs that occur throughout the entire series: eyes, skulls/skeletons, magic circle-like symbols, a particular spaceship, general space stuff, and an uncomfortable repetition of being asked to "love and obey" whatever these stars are. 

We'll get back to these broadcasts in a second, particularly in reference to 003's different intro, but for now: PSA 1

There's two types of videos, differentiated as numbered broadcasts and PSAs. PSAs are all done with the same blue background, white vector imagery, and the fourth incomplete video is another PSA.

The one shown here translates to "Are you tired of living? Is your ordinary life making you sad? Did [human name] reject your prom invite? We can help you in three easy steps. One: Isolate yourself. Two: Open your heart and eyes to the stars. Three: accept our embrace. Obey us. Love us. And we will keep you safe and happy." -- all with a modified text-to-speech lady speaking the coded words.

Pretty straightforward in its meaning. the PSAs, chronologically, start happening some time after the initial broadcasts. 

Rolling back around, in 003, you hear morse code in the background. While it's a little hard to discern, it essentially boils down to some rogue group saying "remember, not all of the stars in the sky are real. Don't listen to them, fight for yourself" (or something akin to it, because like a doofus, i misplaced my own translation.)

The first thing you see in 003 is what almost looks like a government warning or classification at the beginning, telling whoever's watching not to rebroadcast the transmission. In actuality, the video has been recovered by agents working for these aliens; they don't want this video that's been somehow tampered with going out again, lest the morse code make it to the wrong ears.

The old noises of a cassette tape are sort of red herrings; they're sound effects that were put in by the translator in the original copy. But why does the warning pop up afterwards and seem like its glitching out? Is it because I hadn't thought of the story yet and thought it looked cool and it's too much work to re-render? Shh, don't worry bout it.

This is also where the words "star-asc material" show up, and where the series will get its name of "Star Ascended Material", or SAM for short.

The fourth video, if it ever comes out, is another PSA that has a slowed down version of the American national anthem in the background, essentially asking the viewer to "stay vigilant" and report to the stars about any conflicting remarks their neighbors might make, such as:  "If you hear the stars whisper, don't listen to them", "the stars are lying to you", and "don't let them take me". This PSA is meant for people who are fully indoctrinated into whatever crazy alien cult thing is going on.

So what's the cause of all of this? There's a lot that can't be gleamed from these videos alone, but if I ever decide to expand the project --

In the story, aliens have stumbled upon Earth and are absolutely fascinated to find that humans share a similar genetic makeup to them, most notably their skeletal structure. The symbol you see of the half-ship-half-skull is the symbol of their military/exploration force, which should be telling of their similar anatomy.

These aliens decide, literally, to start messing around with human civilization for funsies, just to see what humans will do.

So they contract the translator and start giving him videos to make, giving him a lot of creative freedom while delivering their message. Everything about "loving and obeying" them is less serious, more "lmao guys let's see how they react to it I wonder if they'll start worshiping us," to which another alien was probably like "Xxyzzlk you absolute ledge."

Anyways.

These videos go out through all sorts of means almost miraculously, and about a third of the United States' population can see them. Sometimes they pop up at 3am on a random TV station, other times they're apparently uploaded online, sometimes you only hear the message or music on the radio. What's consistent is that anytime someone's tried to record these messages -- well, they can't. Their phones shut off or the video doesn't save, etc. If a "non-chosen" person is sitting in the room with them when a broadcast pops up, they won't be able to see or hear what the "chosen" person can, or they'll have a memory lapse. 

People can only see these videos for themselves if theyre chosen and talk about them via word of mouth (or conspiracy forum) to others. 

In canon, these people can read the coded messages immediately as if they weren't scrambled at all, and the videos don't have the M=A, L=T or what have you that I've included.

It'd be further noted that only people in the United States are seeing these weird videos or experiencing paranormal activity regarding the aliens. This was done on purpose, as the aliens are trying to see how much they can push a divide between those that receive their messages and those that don't see anything. They're also studying a second divide -- those outside of the US who aren't having this problem at all, and the US itself. Even when this divide starts to bring about violence, the aliens don't do much to stop it -- initially, at least.

SO, that's pretty much the plot; Aliens are just having a laugh with humankind through cryptic videos. It's a fun story I hope to keep expanding on, if only because I get to practice my video editing more haha!

TLDR: I have a fictional-alien-shaped hole in my heart that I'm filling with my own content. Happy (pre) Halloween.