Ten years ago an 18carat Golden Acorn was buried somewhere in the beautiful English countryside. It remains there yet today, and waits to be found! Might YOU be the one to find this magical treasure?!
Clues in order to discover the Golden Acorn are being given on the Nuts in May YouTube Channel. I was so happy when David, the creator of the Quercus Circus Armchair treasure hunt, agreed to answer the following Six Questions. It will be wonderful to learn more about this hunt! David has recently released a few entertaining videos, with more to come, containing the clues needed to find the Golden Acorn. It is out there to be found, and he is determined to have his treasure found!
So let’s hear what else he has to say on how we can discover this incredible buried treasure! Enjoy! (also enter for your chance to win a set of MW’s Quest Charms (details below) and Join discussions on the MW Forum!)
Six Questions with David:
- 1Q) The Golden Acorn, encased in a Sterling Silver Orb, is a stunning treasure! In the video, you mention the hunt is actually a relaunch of a previous hunt from 10 years ago. That’s a long time! What inspired you to create the first hunt, and then what inspired you to relaunch it?
PIXELS AND FILM GRAIN
I’ve been dabbling in filmmaking on and off during most of my adult life. Back in 2009, I was scratching around for a new idea/angle for a short film. I stumbled upon my old copy of Kit Williams ‘Masquerade’, which hadn’t seen the light of day for about 30 years. The book’s discovery motivated me into watching some old interviews and articles about Kit. Apparently, one of his main inspirations for ‘Masquerade’ was to encourage individuals to study and take a closer look at his artwork. This struck a chord with me, because my interest in filmmaking has always gone far beyond the basic contents of a film frame.
Ever since watching Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film ‘Blow Up’ I have been fascinated by the idea of studying film at a pixel level. If you have ever seen documentaries about the John F. Kennedy assassination, this will give you a better idea of what I mean. Because when researchers watch the famous Abraham Zapruder 8mm film, they are studying the pixels or film grain, rather than the general frame image. Of course at that kind of level, with enough imagination, you are able to extract a thousand false scenarios with regard to hidden gunmen or gun muzzle flashes etc… Don’t come to the wrong conclusion with the Quercus Circus films, I didn’t delve down to quite that depth of detail, but the initial inspiration was there; pixels and film grain.
THE BEATLES
I have always been interested in is urban myths, particularly urban myths based around the Beatles. The alleged hidden clues and symbolism in some of their album artwork suggesting that Paul Mccartney was dead for example, which was partly deduced by the color, the choice of clothes they wore and the order they walked across the famous zebra crossing for their ‘Abbey Road’ album cover. I find it absolutely fascinating how Beatles fans were able to extract this information (however false) out of innocent publicity photos, by studying the images or in some cases, listening to songs backwards. Their imaginations twisted reality into some incredible stories and accusations, which in time became full blown conspiracy theories. That is of course worth taking note of when creating a treasure hunt, particularly when creating a treasure hunt with film/video, because unlike paintings in a book or words on paper, film contains a lot more information, many more facets. So no matter how careful you are about eliminating unwanted and potentially misleading information, sometimes it manages to creep in. I was very careful, after all it took me 18 months to stage, film and edit what ended up being approximately 9 minutes of QC footage.
The title of Film No.2 is a kind of spin off from the Beatles song ‘Glass Onion’ which has apt connotations of both transparency and multiple layers. I will come back to the subject of layers in my answers for question 2.
APPLE INC.
The arrival of the iPhone 4 was my final piece of inspiration. The first smartphone to feature a full HD display, meant that I could compress high-resolution film footage down to an acceptable and usable frame and bit rate. Enabling the iPhone 4 to provide every resource required to find the Golden Acorn. The only additional tool needed by the treasure hunter would be a spade to dig the treasure up with.
Unfortunately, the Apple app. stores success was partly responsible for the failure of the initial launch of the iPhone version of Quercus Circus. In 2009 (the genesis of Quercus Circus) there was a huge demand for unique iPhone applications. However, by the time the treasure hunt had been written, staged, filmed, edited and programmed etc… the iPhone application market had got to the point of saturation. My own life had also changed, my daughter was born the same year as the launch and we had also started to build a new home/life here in France, this left me with little spare time to continue to promote QC.
10 years on, circumstances have changed. I now have a lot more time to invest into my numerous creative projects. Two months into my youtube channel project, I stumbled upon a box of props I used for some of the QC films. This prompted me to incorporate the treasure hunt into the ‘Nuts in May’ channel which would allow me to migrate the hunt from it’s former static iPhone app. existence.
- 2Q) How would you rate the difficulty of Quercus Circus? In watching some of the Short Films with clues, I’ve noticed not all is in English. If able to translate what is being said, is that all that is needed? Do you feel someone only familiar with the English Language can still solve your treasure hunt?
Treading very carefully with my answers, because I’m in a lot of danger of giving too much away. First of all you have got to understand that I created QC for the general public, as well as treasure hunt enthusiasts like your good selves. After much research and contemplation I understood that as a whole we all have a lot of distraction and limited time in our lives, which leads to less patience and attention span. So I came to the conclusion that I would have to build two levels into the treasure hunt. Catering for the enthusiast and for the first timer (of all ages). Therefore it was important that each film could be solved by simple research on a smartphone via Google, Google Maps, youtube, Wikipedia etc… So my model was kind of like the letter ‘D’. From point to point you can take the longer curved route, which is more challenging but long and bendy with many twists and turns. It also has more distractions, all of which are valid (but no intentional red herrings, that I assure you).
Alternatively, you could take the straight route. Based on my interest and knowledge of urban myths, I realized that most individuals would unintentionally take that longer route and ignore the obvious. Every piece of feedback I have had on QC indicates that searchers have taken the long curved route, accept feedback I received from a 13 year old girl and a 9 year old boy. Both of whom at different unconnected times during the early days of QC, guessed two of the locations. Because it was so early on, I panicked a bit, concerned that the straight short and direct route was just that; too short and direct. A child’s mind reacts to the obvious, to what it sees there in front of him/her not the hidden background story and noise. Remember, I built QC to be solved with the help of Google, so do a search on some of the things that are immediately obvious, maybe get your children or grandchildren to have a look at the films and see what they deduce from a child’s point of view.
Think of it in terms of King Arthur – the boy king, successfully pulling the sword from the stone, after many powerful lords and knights had failed to do so.
The fourth film is in French, but to solve this final clue, a perfect word for word translation is not required. So Google ‘translate’ would be the ideal tool to overcome the potential language barrier, unless you know somebody who has good knowledge of the French language of course. I filmed some of the final scenes of film No.4 in Montpellier (France) and intentionally included a link or bridge to what would be the second Quercus Circus treasure hunt, which I intended to launch in France. I had planned 5 treasure hunts, each of which to be launched 4 years apart on a leap year – Quercus Circus was originally launched on 29th February 2012. I liked the idea of using that one elusive day like a magic doorway to another reality.
Yes, a good (but not perfect) grasp of the English language is required to solve Quercus Circus. However, I did attempt to avoid overly complicating the language side of things in the hidden clues by using a kind of commonly understood published sense of the language. Unfortunately I can’t expand much more on this point.
The structure of Quercus Circus:
The Folktale – Rufus is given one of the five Golden acorns by the tree on the lonely hill. It isn’t imperative to know this, but the lonely hill does exist and is identifiable location and also has past links to alleged buried gold.
‘Before you begin any good story, it’s important to establish where that story began’.
The 4 films – Represent each of the locations Rufus stopped at on his journey to bury the Golden Acorn. The 4 locations exist, but the films were not shot/filmed at the actual locations, that would be to easy of course. Each film contains clues, which identify each location. Each film also contains one or more clues, which help to locate the Acorns exact burial place.
- 3Q) Do you feel someone working from the US, or from another country than the UK, will be able to discover the exact location of the buried Acorn with the clues? What advice might you give out of country searchers? If someone from out of country were to message you the correct location, and include exactly how they solved the clues for that location, could they claim the prize without actually retrieving the treasure? Or will they need a contact or travel there themselves to dig it up?
Yes, the treasure hunt is totally solvable from afar/overseas, as I have already stated, the tools found on a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer are all you need, plus the spade of course.
I would be more than willing to go and dig up treasure on the finder’s behalf, based on them providing me with the correct deduction of the location (or thereabouts location). I would even film the unearthing adventure and make a vlog of it for all to see. Although I live in France, I regularly visit family in England, so it would be no bother at all. So please, do not let distance put you off getting involved with the hunt – it’s also covid19 friendly.
- 4Q) Can you share how deep the Acorn is buried? Might a metal detector be needed to find its exact spot, if only the general location is deduced through the clues? Or is the precise spot provided once all clues are realized? Is the location of the Acorn easily assessable all year round?
The Acorn is buried at a depth of 50cm. A metal detector could be used to help locate it, but I did encase it in a cast iron chest, to help throw metal detectorists off the scent. However, the exact spot is indicated in the clues provided within a spade’s width of accuracy. Yes the location is accessible all year round, but is a sensitive location, hence my attempts to ensure that it is precisely located before spades cut into the ground. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for causing any damage to the site.
- 5Q) Have you personally worked on other armchair treasure hunts? If so, what have you enjoyed about them? Had any particular hunts, history, treasures, etc. influenced the making of Quercus Circus?
I did work on ‘Masquerade’ as a 10 year old, although I didn’t get very far. I found it very enchanting and it obviously had an impact on me in later years. That was one of the reasons I decided upon the name ‘Quercus Circus’ it’s partly found in Masquerade, that’s not an additional clue – just a play on the words. In case you didn’t already know, Quercus Circus (in the old tongue) roughly means ‘Oak Circle’. I did also dabble in Le Chouette D’or for a bit, after launching QC. It was then that I discovered that there is an important but unintentional link between Chouette D’or and one of the QC film clues.
- 6Q) What did you enjoy most about creating this hunt, and what do you hope searchers for the Golden Acorn experience while working on it? How long do you think it will take for the Acorn to be found?
It was the research that I found most enjoyable, in many ways this was the easiest part of the process. Because once this was completed and I had committed to a specific path, the hard work really began by transforming that information into workable scenes.
Quercus Circus contains many more things than just tracing Rufus’s quest to bury the Golden Acorn. It’s designed to also be a journey of discovery and enlightenment (without muddying the waters). My aim is that searchers make all of the links and discoveries I did during my research – there is an amazing forgotten world to discover, if you dig deep enough.
How long it will take for the acorn to be found is obviously very difficult to predict and therefore I won’t try and predict it. With the interaction of my future ‘Nuts in May’ vlogs I guess potentially I have some control over that outcome. But ultimately I want searchers to find their own path without too much prompting by me.
Thank you very much Jenny for giving me the opportunity to answer your 6 fantastic questions. I do hope you and your readers / members have enjoyed this little insight into the world of Quercus Circus.
I welcome as much feedback as searchers/treasure hunters can give me on their progress, either on the MW forum or the comments section of my youtube channel ‘Nuts in May’
This of course will allow me to monitor your progress etc… Please note that I will only give out additional pointers and clues to the buried Golden Acorns location via ‘Nuts in May’ vlogs and never on a one to one individual basis. Please do make a point of subscribing to my youtube channel if you haven’t already and click the notification bell to ensure you are notified of future potential Quercus Circus clue uploads. If nothing else I will also try and entertain you along the way.
Good luck and remember ‘Coincidences do not exist, buried treasure does’
David.
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