unforum

[sp103]

My Gripe is all of them with the exception of a select few have identified Slenderman in some fashion. A majority tow the line of ambiguity as if they don't want to make a statement about what "it" is.

Instead we get video, video, slenderman, video, video, circle with the X, video, video, slenderman, no updates for 3 months, faceCam video, video, slenderman.. rinse, repeat.

[Another_Creator]

One way that I try to help spread the newer series that I find as promising or flat-out good is by posting a list of links on my youtube channel. I have about 12 series listed so far. I don't know if this concept will help or not, but I figured that it was worth mentioning.

sp103, I agree. It would be better if more series were "ignorant" to the mythos and used more original symbolism.

[AngryDeepground]

What channel do you run? And to answer your question, I don't see a problem if there quality, but if it's not original, why put it up, your not doing the creator or audience favors.

[Another_Creator]

[AngryDeepground]

[12th]

I've mentioned this before, but I think one of the things that really should change is how the Slenderworks are constructed. This is sort of related to "cookie cutter" design, but that's a bit pejorative in my opinion. I'd rather consider that the mythos has certain formulas and it is very easy (and accessible!) to stick to formula for new (or burgeoning) works.

I think TJ of TJAP mentioned once on her OOG blog that Slendercreators have a duty to strike out new ground. Bend and break rules. Upset expectations. Don't care that people are saying "OMG that's not canon". Fuck that, you're making your own canon. Conventions are there to be tossed aside - or reworked. Imagine a Slender series where:

1. Slendy doesn't have a proxy.
2. The series is a podcast (audio only, "radio drama")
3. There are a set number of entries, which is known from the beginning ("in seven days you will die")*
4. Slendy talks.
5. Slendy never actually appears, but plenty of his "trademark"** effects and pheonomenon do.

There's that can be done with a mythos in which really the only seriously hard-core piece of canon is that "there's a tall, skinny guy without a face, wearing a suit, and it somethings a thing".

We don't have to go in blog format, or vlog format. I'd love to see (Or rather, hear) a podcast slendy blog. Take that first introduction of Marble Hornets and imagine what it would be like if when Jay said "tapes" he actually meant audio cassettes. Yeah, it's hard to imagine exactly, but I'm sure it still would have been awesome. Trosephim is pretty awesome that way.

You can see in my sig that I'm really interested in the "I Like Trees" Slenderblog, which actively crosses Slender Man mythos with Stephen King's Dark Tower-verse. A bit fan-fictionish, but still a perfectly reasonable syncretic adaptation. I just saw a trailhead the other day that's an interactive slendy-blog comic, like MS Paint Adventures. Maybe not exactly an original idea (nor exactly the best artwork), but I'd like to see how it turns out. We need evolution. Even into strange, unteneable directions.

All this to say, I think the thing that the community (rather than the mythos itself) needs is more innovation and people willing to break rules or set challenges for themselves. Treat it like the art it should be, even if it is crap art, or amateur art, or "oh fuck I'm just learning this, don't hurt me" art, or even failed art.


* I mentioned this a month or so back when The Hardest Choice ended. It wasn't a long vlog/blog series, although it ran several months. Despite the general inactivity, the conclusion gave it a lot of weight as a short-form blog/vlog series. Making some tight, short-form works rather than the en-vogue trend of making a slender series into "seasons" or open-ended might give some potent life to the community/mythos. What could someone do with their series if they knew they were going to have 13 entries or a month of blogging or only X amount of data files in which to build their Slenderwork around?


** Also, "trademark" Slender Man effects/tropes are the things that are making new Slenderworks into "cookie cutter" works. Those creators are getting too concerned with hitting the signposts and "authenticating" their work with reference to the existing "canon" of prior work that they aren't setting out their own traditions. It's understandable, the creators want immediate recognition that they are participating in the mythos, but there's nothing explicitly demanding that those "trademarks" are required or even necessary. Break some rules, ignore the traditions. Give your audience something unexpected.

[TheFallenenvoy]

I completely agree that the slenderverse has too many series...it annoys me especially because I run two, one of which somehow scraped just under 300 subscribers and the other of what I hope will be genuinely good quality.

the problem with me going alone and creating my own project is that it will just get lost along the tide of frankly shitty vlogs and I will get next to no viewership because the presumption is that it will just be terrible.
This applies to other things too...Afraidathome is one of my favorite series and yet SOMEHOW has yet to reach 100 subscribers and I have no fucking idea about why that is the case.

(I am fully aware that I have no exactly contributed to the discussing but...URGH SO MANY FEELS)

[Graved]

We need critics.
And reworked tag system: [Blog] for blogs, [Trailhead] for anything that's not a blog and additional [Closed] tag for finished projects.
And first post of trailhead thread should have useful links (wiki, youtube, twitter, Google+ etc.) and a short annotation.

[chasechan2050]

[zbeeblebrox]

[AngryDeepground]

It should be as long as the plot requires. If someone comes up with a confusing, and long plot that's interesting, we shouldn't rush it.

[zbeeblebrox]

Encouraging creators to make shorter series probably won't improve viewership anyway, but it never hurts to tighten up a story. From my limited experience in film, trust me: when in doubt, cut.

[AngryDeepground]

I reilize that minimal is best most of the time,but for some vlogs minimal can be a lot.

[12th]

I didn't mean to say that I thought ALL Slenderworks should be shorter, only that creators shouldn't be afraid of using the short form/limited series as a kind of challenge or artistic direction.

Really, I think my core question about this isn't whether the community/mythos is getting "thinner", the question is: what do we consider "thickness"? How can we foster it?

[zbeeblebrox]