unforum

[N Spencer]

Request: Making a Slendy video-story for Dummies

[Snippet]

Hey N Spencer.

If I were you, I'd take a look at this thread:

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=30578

Many of us posted their opinion regarding the dos and don'ts of Slender Man stories there. Mostly the don'ts, but you'll find many good ideas and inspirations.

Maybe you could also look for help in the board for PM's. I'll edit the link into this post.

Edit: Here's the link to the PM Help Board. http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/index.php?f=8

I hope that was helpful =)

[Vagrant Lustoid]

I assume from the way you phrased the question that you've already got the ideas and storyline basics down and just want the technical and visual aspects?

[Endless_Serpents]

I have no idea about none o' this, but in my misinformed opinion:

If you started filming your Slenderman prop in a fairly still environment, like a woodland clearing without so much as a breeze, and no running water near by

then in editing put tons of static over the scene using whatever dohicky does that

then filmed your prop in a different spot in this clearing

thats how you do teleportation

[N Spencer on an iPod]

Posting from iPod & I don't remember my password, hence the username change.

@vagrant lustoid

yes, that's what I'm hoping to get a few pointers on. I've got the where and most of the what, but am still working on the who and have nothing for the how.

@endless_serpents

I was thinking more along the "you walk through a door and you're suddenly somewhere else" teleportation, like when j was chasing the masked man in the abondoned cliche house.

[NoMoreGaems]

Film a poorly lit hallway, with a dark room on the other side of a door. Walk through the doorway, stop filming.
Find another room, and make it dark. Start filming, turn on the lights, and establish that the door is gone.
Hiding edits in the dark is fairly easy. If the sound grain changes too much, dub over your character huffing and puffing to hide the transition. If you want to go from lit room to lit room, it's a bit trickier, and you probably have to hide the edits either in jerky camera motions (the "hitchcock swipe") or else get really clever with how the clips transition, such as using two identical doors to two different rooms and fading from one clip to the other, or timing a horizontal wipe juuust perfectly so the door appears to open into a room it's not actually attached to.

Slender teleportation is far easier. Film the slenderman moving out of sight in one location, stop the film, get him to another location, start the film, and have him appear from nowhere. Check Tribe Twelve "Submission 6" for a good example, when he leans out of frame in the distance and then into frame right up close.

Speaking of Slenderman, he's really what the audience is here to see amirite. What you'll need is a long jacket, a shirt, a tie, a pair of long black slacks, and something to bald up the head. You'll notice he's usually shot from a distance, and/or with indistinct lighting. This is so you don't notice that his "skin" is just stockings. A few layers of flesh colored stockings can get you a nice, featureless head. Won't look natural under good lighting, but that's no great concern. The long clothes can usually be purchased fairly long, and then lengthened as needed via some black fabric attached using hemming tape.

For a stationary Slenderman, a good choice is putting a sweater and some sweatpants inside the suit, then stuff those with plastic bags or pillow fluff or straw or whatever. Once you have your slender scarecrow, you can run some stiff wires through him to establish a pose, then hang him up in the background or attach him to a skateboard and have him levitate along the ground or do whatever.

For a mobile, humanoid Slenderman, you'll need someone skinny who's got good balance. Get a pair of painter's stilts at a hardware store, and mask off the bottoms using black fabric. Shoot him from the ankles up so it's not obvious. You could also build fake arms if you want him to look really alien.

Speaking of alien, if you want something more exotic out of your Slenderman that's certainly doable, but will require more effort. For example, I've considered making a slenderman with multiple arms, done using puppetry. Make scarecrow arms, mount them onto the performer, then have one or two puppeteers offscreen guiding the limbs using fishing line. Or, you could go the Tribe Twelve route, and give him tentacles via digital editing. I dunno how they did their's, but I'd probably do it via Adobe Photoshop's animation functions.

What I'd be interested in is seeing how to make a Slenderface that's not just a guy wearing stockings. There's gotta be a way to make a mask that looks like featureless skin...

Oh, and some cheap scare tricks:

Have your character witness Slenderman entering a room. Character enters a room, it's completely empty.

Sirens, children crying, and animals howling are all sounds that automatically put people on edge. See EverymanHYBRID's "Joke's Over" for a good example of this in action.

Jump cuts to someone staring into the camera are terrifying. Don't abuse this or people will say you're just making screamers.

This one doesn't work as well in a series that doesn't feature music or other metatextual effects, but having something in the background that the characters don't notice for a few seconds before it suddenly becomes OMG IMPORTANT can be scary. Admittedly, this is the core philosophy of the Slenderman Mythos, but it's a good tactic that's exploited in quite a few films. Likewise, anything that's missed at first glance but becomes apparent after a second look or closer study.

Combining the two, exploit inappropriate eye contact. Having a character staring into the camera for just a few seconds too long can really be unsettling: See, for example, the EverymanHYBRID Ustream where Evan's wandering through the background and eventually stops with purple tape over his mouth and stares directly into the camera for a second before vanishing.

In general, and I think this is really the root behind most of these tricks: When you see something dangerous, but then lose track of it and don't know where it is, that's ten times the paranoia of suspecting something dangerous is around.

Final note: Don't make a slenderseries alone. A few extra people on set is always good. Someone to be or work your Slenderman, someone to help with the camera and set, so on.

[N Spencer]

Mmkay, thanks.

I'm thinking of making a change from an indoors location to an outdoors, preferably in a daylight to nighttime or vice versa situation, So I might need to use something like a "big bright flash of light" or "mass of distortion" transition effect. It'll probs work really well even if both have to be dark thoughl; my two potential sets (If I get this started) are radically different in the night sky department, although both are similar in the foresty and looking isolated department (I can show some example photos if you like)

Just a few more questions.

1. How do you prefer your Maskies? Sneaky hackers who post confusing youtube videos, or rock-em sock-em maskies that make use of slendy teleportation to take the fight to you?

2. Is it cliched if they find a way to fend off a slender, only to realise there's more of them?

3. If the motivation to look through stuff is because a friend or family member died/went insane, is it acceptable for a character to get visibly sad if they see/hear something that has a strong connection to the relationship between them? Or to rage if someone insults said dead/insane person?

[NoMoreGaems]

I think we'll need to see some example photos for the teleportation. EverymanHYBRID's 78 of 76 featured a daytime indoors/nighttime outdoors teleportation fairly well. And keep in mind, anything can be "darkness" if you get the lighting right. In one dark locale, hitchcock swipe to a shot of your camera right up against a wall or tree, so your shadow obscures the area, and pull back to reveal the new setting.

1: I don't much care for maskies, but that's personal preference and will vary from person to person. Sneaky hacker is easier to do, but people will call ripoff. Dangerous physical adversary is a bit trickier, but could be cool.

2: Nope. I've actually really wanted to see something like that for a while, especially since the guys behind Marble Hornets revealed an idea they had for a final entry that never was, where Alex was driving down a foggy night road and the slenderman was under every street light.

3: Totally acceptable. Giving your characters emotional weight is very important to the audience forming connections with them (EverymanHYBRID is excellent at this).

[N Spencer]

What do you mean by the example photos for teleportation? Like, of the before and after areas?

Either way, next time I go to the other place (should be a definite over these holidays) I'll take some photos of the area. do you put photos up as attachments?

[NoMoreGaems]

Yeah, pics like that. And you click "add an attachment" to the left of the main posting area.

[N Spencer]

 

[chizuru]

[N Spencer]

It's been raining all day, so you get stormy day pictures for now.

Attached with this are three pictures from three sides of the house where I'm hoping to film when I eventually start, and a picture of, with few exceptions, what every door in this house looks like.

This door is my before area.

[Guestguy2187]

That door looks rather...foreboding

[Vagrant Lustoid]

Nice place, you're Australian? Which area of Australia you in, man? (Assuming my keen eye-spotting of eucalyptus and a hills-hoist are correct)