The ON/OFF Camera Discussion

[Justin]

Are we to assume that everything seen on the roleplay board is viewable on ESEN TV, and thus viable to use as subject matter, or are we to be deciding what is or isn't perceived as "ON AIR" in the roleplays?

Or are we just going with "Figure it out."?

 

[Aaron]

Personal Philosophy. Nothing is off camera. If people get touchy, I always lead with "I heard on the dirt sheets Bob Blow, is using cocaine, and that his wife is being sold for a new television". Or the paparazzi. Or whatever. Good thing we live in a panoptic society.

 

[Ernie]

Personal Philosophy. Nothing is off camera. If people get touchy, I always lead with "I heard on the dirt sheets Bob Blow, is using cocaine, and that his wife is being sold for a new television". Or the paparazzi. Or whatever. Good thing we live in a panoptic society.

I heard the same thing on twitter.

 

[User Poets]

My philosophy has always been that if you see "FADEIN" then it's on camera. Otherwise, it's not and it's really up to the context to decide what is or is not 'public' knowledge. Non-televised in a bar, you've got witnesses. Non-televised in your bedroom, you've got peeping toms.

 

[Eastwood]

Personally, unless I'm directly addressing the audience/my opponent, I tend to think of things as off-camera.

 

[Damien]

Personal Philosophy. Nothing is off camera. If people get touchy, I always lead with "I heard on the dirt sheets Bob Blow, is using cocaine, and that his wife is being sold for a new television". Or the paparazzi. Or whatever. Good thing we live in a panoptic society.

This.

I always assume everything written in an RP is on camera. Why would it be part of the RP if it wasn't?

If you're writing it then someone can see it. There's ways to get Bob Blow snorting coke in an RP without it happening on camera.

If I read:

We fade out Bob and Dave head into the stall and shut the door behind them.

====

Fade in on Bob wiping the lid of the toilet down as Dave checked his nose in the mirror.

Then it's pretty obvious what they've been doing, but it's still assumption. You don't know for sure, but the effect is still there.

If you're just flat out writing:

Bob and Dave head into the stall, Bob pulled out a boulder the size of Dave's head and procceeded to cut away at it with his credit card. Dave rolled a twenty up and passed it to Bob, who used it to do a line.

Then that's fair game.

There's always a way to imply that something has happened off camera if you really don't want it to be viewed as 'on camera'.

So if it's written down I take it mean it's on camera.

That's my 2 cents.

 

[DEF_Vagabond]

This.

I always assume everything written in an RP is on camera. Why would it be part of the RP if it wasn't?

If you're writing it then someone can see it. There's ways to get Bob Blow snorting coke in an RP without it happening on camera.

If I read:

We fade out Bob and Dave head into the stall and shut the door behind them.

====

Fade in on Bob wiping the lid of the toilet down as Dave checked his nose in the mirror.

Then it's pretty obvious what they've been doing, but it's still assumption. You don't know for sure, but the effect is still there.

If you're just flat out writing:

Bob and Dave head into the stall, Bob pulled out a boulder the size of Dave's head and procceeded to cut away at it with his credit card. Dave rolled a twenty up and passed it to Bob, who used it to do a line.

Then that's fair game.

There's always a way to imply that something has happened off camera if you really don't want it to be viewed as 'on camera'.

So if it's written down I take it mean it's on camera.

That's my 2 cents.

Well put, bro.

 

[JLevinson]

I have always personally felt more comfortable with the idea that if it happens in RP, it would be something you could see on TV on a wrestling program. I prefer to think of my characters as existing in a legitimate league where they'd cut promos or do interviews rather than a soap opera which follows their day to day life, but intelligent people have disagreed and they're entitled.

I don't think the judges have made any sort of preference known and are accepting of either format.

 

[Deacon]

I can give you MY view (as a judge). If you write it, it's public knowledge. Even down to your thoughts, as I view those as a blog or some other similar writing that the wrestler has opted to put up for the world to see.

To me, responding with, "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't do cocaine." When you clearly state that the character is doing cocaine is fine, as long as that denial is part of the overall story (first sign of getting better is admitting there is a problem *GRIN*). But you can't OUT OF KAYFABE state this and complain to the judges. It's written. It's public. You don't want that to be part of your RP battle, keep it out.

If you put it in the Hype area for RPs, that might work better, especially if you let your opponent know that it's off-camera. As a judge, I won't be reading the Hype RPs unless I just want to, as anything there can be on or off camera...and I have enough reading and writing to do w/ this first round!!! Would some schmuck potentially use Hype stuff anyway? I guess, but I wouldn't see why - he should be able to work off your normal stuff or pitch you an angle that he's wanting to use with the Hype stuff. And if you make it clear & they do it anyway, I would just pull a CM Punk and say, "it's none of your business." and ignore such a point he's made. Depending on how you work it, I think it could even work to your benefit.

 

[Jesse Ramey]

Bob and Dave head into the stall, Bob pulled out a boulder the size of Dave's head and procceeded to cut away at it with his credit card. Dave rolled a twenty up and passed it to Bob, who used it to do a line.

FYI, you'd get more realism points from me if you said razor blade, not credit card.

 

[Justin]

Why?

I always used a credit card.

Or library card.

Pet Smart card.

Best Buy card.

Whatever's handy, really. Rarely did I ever have a razor handy.

 

[Jesse Ramey]

You must not have been getting any good sticky, hard stuff... lol The only way we could cut it was with a razor. Don't have to worry about that now though, been clean of everything except smoking cigs for around a year now.

 

[Justin]

I'm far enough away from any big cities that by the time the **** came down the pipeline it was generally 3/4 stomped.

 

[Jesse Ramey]

That makes a ton of sense then, we wouldn't buy anything from here. We'd make five hour road trips down to North Carolina to get good stuff, it was well worth it. lol

 

[Damien]

FYI, you'd get more realism points from me if you said razor blade, not credit card.

I only get high on life.And weed.But mainly life.

 

[Aaron]

I think we need to use Bob Blow as a jobber in the next ULTRATITLE. for the record.

 

[Damien]

I think we need to use Bob Blow as a jobber in the next ULTRATITLE. for the record.

I think Bob Blow is going to win the next ULTRATITLE.

 

[Aaron]

I think Bob Blow is going to win the next ULTRATITLE.

Because he doesn't do CoooCAINNNEE.

 

[LQJT86C]

My opinion: If I can read it, the audience can see it. Otherwise you're just writing fan-fic about the life and times of Randy The Ram for the pleasure of the OOC viewing audience. While that's nice and all, you're not giving your opponent anything he can react to. And that's kind of the point.

That said, I'm not a judge!

 

[Steve]

i don't buy into the theory 'if its in the rp you can see it.' I don't think the judges have said they're looking for strictly 'promo' style role-play. I'm sure if somebody wanted to they could do the 2 max roleplays in storyline format. The intent is to show who best gets their character over.

I'm sure Pete would say a good deal of Eli's round one role-play wasn't meant to be seen on camera, but when he gets to the promo with Rudy, well there you start pulling what you need/want to react.

I was always annoyed when someone responded to something meant to be off-air.

We're all putting our characters over and should be free to do so how we like. I think the judges just warned it needs to be fairly realistic and pertain to the ultratitle somehow.

If someone does all storyline/off camera against you, fine. Just put your character over better in the way you want to write.

As Pete said, generally when you see (FADEIN) you're writing a bit that would air on tv.