unforum

[Lucas Auraelius]

[Lithp]

That's...kind of hard to avoid.

As early as Call of Cthulhu, said monster was seen regenerating his head.

Regeneration is a superpower.

You really can't have a monster like this without giving it "superpowers."

[ChildOfAtom]

[Zaden]

Something that's been bothering me, even in some of the major Slender Man series', is lack of reason for characters to be afraid of the Slender Man. Sure there are some characters who would see him, freak out and just take off running through the woods. Some people are like that.

However, there are definitely people more along the lines of, "Whoa, what is that? Is that a person?" followed by slowly walking up to him to get a closer look. He looks like a mannequin in a business suit. What makes your characters afraid of him?

I had this problem towards the end of Marble Hornets. The beginning of Marble Hornets was great. Absolutely amazing. Terrifying. But the creators chose a certain lore for the Operator: He does not actually kill people. 60 or 70 Entries into the series, he'd show up and... he's just not scary any more. Jay isn't in any danger. Tim isn't in any danger. He's just there, standing still (He only ever moved in the first season, another thing I didn't like), he's gonna mess up your electronics, eat your memories for a bit, knock you on conscious, give you some coughs, but come on, you're gonna be fine. You've run into him before and you were fine.

Once again, Slender Man and the Operator have some overlaps but they also have their differences. Slender Man kills, abducts and mutilates in his origin stories. The Operator takes away memories and steals DEAD bodies after someone ELSE kills for him.

Give your characters a reason to be afraid.

[wildboyintraining]

@Zaden I think it's because of the psychological torture he can do. That's what kept happening in MH and the other series. That's one of the reasons why they're afraid. Although, I do see where the original question comes from in some series. Especially if it's just random, if they don't ask questions, or say why they're afraid.

[Zaden]

[Cyan507]

I never want to see Slenderman in the first video.

I never want to hear long whiny monologues that have barely been written never mind rehearsed.

I never want to see an entry that the actors have not thoroughly rehearsed.

I never want to see glitches and distortions copied from other series or from royalty free youtube videos, gotta all be in house.

I never want to hear an up and coming series drop names of bigger ones unless they have express permission to do so.

I never want to see a series which hasn't less than 3 videos ahead planned out and write the story as they go.

I never want to hear a piss poor excuse from the protagonist to hold a camera.

I never want to wait 6 months for a video that doesn't advance the story.

I never want to see any political or social issues raised in a series.

I never want to see a slenderman with empty eye sockets and bone structure, gotta have that features mannequin shit boy.

I never want death to be a throwaway trope in a series, if someone dies I want to feel it.

I never want to see messy crossovers that don't advance story and make things harder to understand.

I never want to see drone shots, seriously. Don't do this.

I never want to see the same startup again. E.g. student film, fitness vlogs etc.

I never want to see a slendervlog with female protagonists for the sake of "being different." There are dozens of slendeevlogs with women characters, it's not a big deal anymore.

I never want to hear people say "slenderman" in their series.

I never want to hear people talk about slenderman in great detail in their series. Unless they're in Third Act and about to kill him.

[The Slender Man]

I'm pretty sure every single slenderseries ever made uses at least a few of those tropes, Cyan. I think Everyman HYBRID uses almost all of them. Marble Hornets also used a few but then it was the first one to use them.

[Cyan507]

[TheFallenSeven]

Things I wouldn't want to see in a Slender series:

1.) The first 3 videos only consisting of glitches and confusion with no story line or purpose
2.) A series without a story
3.) A series that use non-original ideas
4.) The audio being horrible(this follows the rule about audio > video)
5.) Someone just sitting there and talking/crying...you gotta have some visuals
6.) A series needs more than one character
7.) A series where its main premise is to run away from the danger(slender) instead of having goals..a purpose..or a way to defeat the enemy
8.) I wouldn't want to watch a series and then have the main character die at the end unless it was meaningful... (God knows I'm guilty of that)
9.) Even worse than number 8, please don't quit on a series and have no ending at all. Stick with it till the end.
10.) Please, please, please...for the love of God! Do not get into animation with slenderman or any CGI effects unless you know what you are doing! You are better off using practical effects!! (Go to Goodwill to find a slendy get-up..it will be cheap) I've seen too many videos with an animated Slenderman that's not tracked into the footage so it's floating around on the screen.
11.) Don't say Slenderman in the series(I think someone mentioned this so credit to them) and also don't look him up on the internet in the series

P.S. If you are doing the whole found footage look to your series:
1.) Don't make your viewer throw up
2.) Make sure you plan out what your filming and what good angles you could get
3.) There really is no way to give your viewer a good excuse to why you have a camera, haha. You could come up with another reason among all the others, but people will still find a way to poke fun at it. Maybe have a series where they cut off your hand and replace it with a camera that has an infinite charged battery and infinite storage.

[Zaden]

Some of those huge laundry lists are way too picky and need reasoning behind them. Like, I will never understand the awkward verbal dancing around I see in series because people are all "can't say the 'S' word!"

He's called the Slender Man. I don't see what's wrong with that. It's what Victor Surge called him. But no, I've seen scenes that looked terrible when two characters try to talk to each other and play a stupidly forced pronoun game.

"That thing!"
"What thing?"
"The thing, the thing I have been seeing!"
"What have you been seeing?"
"Blah horsecrap horsecrap horsecrap stalking me horsecrap dreams horsecrap"

When you encounter something weird, at least in our generation, pretty much the first thing you do is ask someone about it or look it up on the Internet. It makes your stories MUCH more believable.

"Guys, this thing has been following me for months but I didn't even once think to Google it." Yeah, right. Said nobody with a computer ever.

[TheFallenSeven]

It's just my opinion really. "Slenderman" kind of sounds stupid to me and I've never taken it seriously. I much prefer calling it "The Operator." And when it comes to the internet, it wouldn't personally be my first go to move. For me, if I saw slendy and didn't know about him, I'd probably be creeped out and try to avoid going any closer to him. If anything, I would leave that area and go back home(unless I was at home). Once I was home I wouldn't look it up online. I'd probably try to forget about it and continue on. Now if slendy was more threatening and after me I guess I may try to search it up on the internet,but what's the purpose really? The viewers don't really care if you search "white face guy with suit" and learn about the Slenderman. The Slenderman could be something different or unique in their series...Looking up what Slenderman is may get rid of any chances of creating your own version of slender. But yeah...Slender man just sounds kind of dumb so I think ppl should come up and try new names like tree man...Or something else based on the features/powers you give him. I'm guessing that viewers care about what you do with "slender" and what your story is. To me, saying Slenderman just limits the makers creativity.

[Cyan507]