Greyfalken

New note from LT about Universal: It has come to Mr. Fell's attention that Universal has intensified it's objection to our work. He directs you all to disregard this nonsense, and to stay the course. Ignatia Himmel, Esq. Senior Executive Counsel

I see what you're looking at, but...I'm not sure. I kind of think the "curved top" is just part of the filler design. For that to be the symbol, it would be placed awfully far up in the top-right of this section, which doesn't match the previous symbols' locations, which are more centered in their sections. I believe the three lines across the Director's chest are part of the symbol, with possibly more of it existing below this picture where they meet (though I don't think we have that photo yet). Also, to extend your theory about the photos themselves, the photos that made up the "Carnival of Madness" symbol all had clowns (Jack, Eddie, Midway of the Bizarre) and the photos that made up the Scythe symbol all featured coffins. EDIT: Well, maybe not. Part of the Scythe is on the Midway of the Bizarre banner photo, which doesn't feature a coffin. But there are still three photos with coffins placed around a symbol that LT says has been used on sarcophagi, coffins, and caskets, which is interesting.

To be fair, I didn't particularly like considering them crosshairs, but that seemed to fit with the theory of symbol = house. Of course, I wasn't really sure about that theory, either, since the design looks like it's only going to have 5-6 symbols. Even if it has six, there are eight houses. Minus the "past icons" house (which would probably be represented by the lantern itself), that still left one house unaccounted for. It's still possible that they represent scare zones (aren't there five?) but I do like your theory about them representing icons. Also, I'm wondering who wrote that latest post on Facebook? Was it Ignatia? Because the term "my predecessor" seems to imply that the Cell Director formerly occupied the position now held by the person who wrote it...

Huh, that's weird. I must be doing something wrong, then. When I open them up (in GIMP), I have to shrink the Midway of the Bizzare pic down the match the dimensions of the version on the LT.com site to get it to line up with the others. And then I'm having trouble getting the Chainsaw Drill Team and the Eddie photos to match up perfectly even though I'm almost 100% positive that they go together.

So you're telling me that this photo and this photo fit together without any alteration?

Uh...you kind of have to resize them if you're using the ones from the "AR 081010 UPDATE 08-17-10" post on the LT Facebook page. They're huge, in comparison to the others. Also, Dinosaur Pirate, the Eddie pic should go on top of the cross -- it fills in the rest of it.

One of the problems with printing out the photos/lines to arrange them is that some of them need to be scaled in size to fit with each other. That means a lot of trial-and-error when printing them. For now, at least, it seems easier to just use a photo-editing program.

I suppose, but I just don't really see anything new in the enhanced version. Right now, it seems like the most helpful thing would be to get newer versions of the second and third sets of photos with the darker burn marks. Also, the last set of photos.

LT just posted an "enhanced" version of the close-up. It doesn't help with the scratched-out text, but the symbol is clearer (read: redrawn). Not sure how that helps, though...

Something else I just noticed...the outer circle drawn on the sketch isn't present in the burns on the photos. EDIT: Also, now that I've started doing some manipulation of the pictures on my own and taken a closer look at them, I'm not sure that that's the cross on the left of the surveillance photo. The spiral lines around it don't match. EDIT2: Or maybe it is, I don't know. The scythe section does seem to match up to the cross section when putting the photos together, so...hmm. We really need newer versions of the second and third sets of pictures to see the lines better.

Then I guess we'll also need to figure out what the symbols mean... Scythe = Good Harvest?

Just wanted to point out, if someone hasn't mentioned it yet, that the design appears to have separate "divisions" filled with a single unique symbol in addition to the lantern-esque spiral lines. In the surveillance image, the left-most section contains the "cross" design, the middle one has what appears to be a scythe, and the right one has...well, it's a little hard to tell. Whatever's on top of the Director, if the photo placements posted earlier are correct.

The latest Analysis Request on the LT website seems to indicate that there are more photos incoming: "Note: Additional files in C.I.L. for review, authentication and release."

Wow, a lot of stuff to comment on... The state of the printouts: As Dave Moseley pointed out a couple pages back, I believe that what LT is now saying implies that the original digital photos do not have the burn marks. This is similar to a thought I had last weekend (and, as I mentioned, asked IH about) though my theory was that they were burned somehow after the Cell Director printed them out. Instead, however, it seems that the marks are appearing on their own. I wonder if other things (like the blood) are appearing as part of the deterioration, too? I guess we just have to wait and see. The differences between the original and burned photos: The blood stains are, of course, very obvious. No issues there. The Lion, however, I believe to be another case of Photoshopping in the original image. I think someone in Marketing just decided to tilt his arm a little to give the picture a bit more balance. Not saying it's not a difference, just that I doubt it's due to supernatural causes. The latest LT advisory: This excites me a little: "Investigations into former Cell Director’s activities and communications." Are we going to get to see his diary soon? I hope so (...mostly because then I can start filling in more of my timeline).

As you may have seen someone mention on the Facebook page, all but one of the original images are available on the current HHN XX website. The only one missing is the Torture Truck, but keep in mind that there's still a section of the website labeled "Coming Soon"...just because we didn't have "legitimate" access to one of the originals right away, doesn't mean we weren't going to get it later. Remember how surprised LT sounded about the Collective's progress on these images? Also, thanks for the .gifs! I didn't realize how dramatic the difference in burn marks was...

Nope, these are not different pictures. Dinosaur Pirate is correct, the original "archive" photo was photoshopped. It's incredibly obvious due to one small thing in the picture that everyone seems to have overlooked. Look between the middle-front clown's thumb and finger in the archive picture. You see that triangle of fabric? Now look where the same clown's hat is in the burnt picture. They forgot to photoshop out his hat in the archive picture. I am almost entirely positive that this is all due to the fact that we do not have the correct video frames and they aren't of the same resolution that Universal has. Until we have at least the same frame, there's no use comparing them directly because of course things are going to be in different positions or blurred. This is the only thing I've seen posted about so far that appears to be legitimately different.

The second set of images is not up yet. But it should be soon, given that the printouts were being authenticated by the CIL over the weekend. EDIT: Actually, now that I read the advisory again, it sounds like "being authenticated by the CIL" and "being reviewed by Senior Staff" are the same thing. Whatever, they should be up in the next couple of days, regardless.

I'm not sure if this is going to be important, but in the interest of full disclosure (and particularly in light of what LT has said in today's advisory) I figured I would post it. Over the weekend, I tried to ask Ignatia whether the burn marks were already in the images that the CFO printed out, or if the printouts themselves were burned (based on a random theory I had). Given her response, she...seemed to have misunderstood my question? Maybe, I think. But anyways, here is what she replied with: "Imaging appears to taking effect post-development. Original media 35 mm film stock (except for video transferred frames)." *shrug*

Just got a response to two questions I asked Ms. Himmel. 1) The Universal employee has not been identified yet. 2) The other evidence found is indeed more images and they are currently in preliminary review by the CIL.

Setting aside the photo discussion for a moment, I thought I'd go ahead and post the timeline that I've been maintaining on the LT Facebook page, for those who haven't seen it (I'm not sure how many people actually use the discussion board there). I find it helps to keep track of everything this way and it gives a better idea of how things are interconnected. Also, I imagine it will become more important as we start to find out more about what's happened in the past. Anyways, here's what I've got so far. Let me know if anything's missing or incorrect. ----- Sometime prior to January 22nd, 2010 An unnamed Universal Orlando Art & Design employee contacts an unnamed LT Cell Director by phone. The only detail of this conversation currently known is that the Universal employee requested to remain anonymous. January 22nd, 2010, 10:48AM The same unnamed Universal employee sends an e-mail (subject: "Important Information") to the unnamed LT Cell Director via the Universal e-mail system to prove his/her identity and deliver a set of photo images "to someone on the outside". The employee claims that something is "very very wrong" and asks the Cell Director to take a "close look" at the photos. They are five images from previous Halloween Horror Nights Events that contain strange burn marks that form a pattern similar to (but not exactly like) the lantern featured on the HHN website. February 6th, 2010, sometime between 12 and 12:47PM LT surveillance records one side of a phone conversation between the unnamed LT Cell Director and what is assumed to be the unnamed Universal employee. References are made to "the LANTERN" and that something is "clearly NOT RIGHT" and no one can stop "it". Voice analysis suggests "abject fear" on the part of the Cell Director. Call ends at 12:47PM. Sometime after February 6th, 2010 ("earlier this year") The unnamed LT Cell Director is suspended and then terminated from LT. He/she immediately vacates his/her residence and disappears. LT "intellectually sanitizes" his/her former office and discovers "a body of evidence". July 30th, 2010 LT posts an advisory to the Collective, opening a case based on these events and authorizing investigation by CFOs. The e-mail and phone conversation are posted to the LT website. August 8th, 2010 LT's Central Investigation Lab (CIL) authenticates the photos from the Universal employee's e-mail and identifies anomalies. They are unable to reach any conclusions. August 8th, 2010 LT Senior Staff begin a review of the photos, with plans to release them to the Collective after the review is complete. August 10th, 2010 An Analysis Request to the Collective regarding the anomalies discovered in the photos is generated, but is held for several days at the request of LT Senior Staff. August 13th, 2010 The photos sent by the Universal employee are released to the Collective for analysis on the LT website.

If you mess with the color levels on the first and third photos, you can get a little bit clearer picture of the burns. I couldn't get it to work very well with the other ones, though. EDIT: Is the HHN site down for anyone else? I was going to go look at the new photos posted there, but I can't seem to access it (403 error)...

I think that's a bit of an optical illusion due to the photo beneath it. If you look really close at just the burn marks, it appears to be a circle with spikes pointing inwards from the sides.

So the Cell Director would have known what the full image was, and seeing these parts of it would've tipped him off? Makes sense.

I don't know...the Universal employee seemed to imply in the e-mail that looking at these pictures alone would reveal something.

There's something odd about the pattern, though...most of the lines seem to match those seen on the lantern, but some of them obviously don't. The double parallel lines in pics 3 and 5, for instance. I'm trying to piece the pictures together, like a puzzle, to see if the patterns make up a larger picture, but it's kind of hard due to the background noise of the photos themselves. Anyone else see anything? EDIT: There are also more pictures on the HHN site now.