unforum

[Aperion]

What do you want to see?/What are you sick of?

[Das Omega]

I'm pretty tired of seeing an ARG, roughly around post 2-4, go "Some friend of mine showed me Marble Hornets", and then use that as the excuse for Slendy's later appearance.
Yeah, yeah, we all know about Marble Hornets. But surely there are more imaginative ways to be introduced to the Mythos.

[Snippet]

Do Not Want:

• Blogs and vlogs using the (X). I really think this MH - idea has been overused. It's like every single one of them using the exact Masky-Mask. There are so many symbols, why not establish an own symbol for SM?
  
  
• Introduce SM by "Huh, and then there was this tall guy in a suit, like, just standig there and staring, LOL."

Do Want:

Dunno - surprise me

[Unwanted4Murder]

I think I speak for the majority of the people here when I say I want to see people break free from the mold a little bit more. All the Slender Man stories I've seen have the same basic premise - some guy sees Slender Man, starts freaking out, and slowly goes bonkers. I couldn't tell you how to break the mold, which is why I'm not doing a story of my own, but I just don't see the point of rehashing a story a million times if you're not gonna bother to bring something new to the story.

Also, a really violent Slender Man story, like some of the original SA ones, would be pretty cool... the special effects would probably be pretty hard to pull off on a low budget though.

[Grim Joker]

I like the whole Operator Symbol thing, it adds to a concrete mythos of Slenderman. That's kind of what I want to see, something that sticks to the core of Slenderman better than series before it. Like, how he always burns things down, kidnaps children, has tentacles, things like that.

I don't want to see giant jumps in the mythos, like the whole Breaker blog where he captures Slenderman and talks to him etc. etc.

And remember, the less you see of your villain and the more mysterious he is, the more scary he is.

I also really liked how EverymanHYBRID brought in The Rake, a completely different monster that meshes well with the feel of the mythos.

That's just me spitballing, though.

[Aperion]

So far I agree

[Mattwan]

Great idea for a topic!

Do not want:

* Harsh audio distortion. Burying sounds in the mix is cool, so's backwards audio and even a little autotuning. Once you start sounding like a Dalek with a sore throat, though, it's time to dial it back.

* Slendy appears, weird stuff starts happening, then...weird stuff keeps happening. That can be interesting and even exciting, but you need some extra plot to keep things going.

* Maybe a controversial one, but I don't want an exploration of Slenders, his motivations, his background, or his favorite breakfast cereal. For me, at least, he works because he's an unknowable cosmic horror.

* Slenderman sickness. This isn't bad in itself, but it seems like nobody can convincingly fake coughs on cue. The video distortion is enough to let us know himself is lurking somewhere; you don't have to hack up a lung to drive the point home.

Yes, please:

* A story in which the protagonists never realize Slender Man is involved. The audience sees glimpses of him, but the actors never realize why their lives have gone all Lovecraftian.

* Contradicting one of my do-not-wants, a story in which the protagonists' health gets increasingly, realistically worse over the course of the story could be interesting. A badly faked cough is (to me) annoying; a convincingly portrayed analog of radiation sickness could really be something.

* Some focus on how the characters' lives in general are being affected by SM's stalking. After a point, you're not going to be able to stay in school or keep your job with all this going on. Make those totally mundane bits of your life falling apart a part of the story.

* A "Psycho" twist. Since we all grew up knowing about the famous shower scene, we miss that one of the truly shocking aspects of Psycho was the protagonist being killed halfway through the movie. That was, I'm told, very unsettling to contemporary viewers. Something like the EMH trio being killed by the Rake in "Cops checked", then Alex kicking up his own video investigation.

[Das Omega]

I may be the minority in this opinion, but something else I'm sick of: Der Ritter.
I don't really like Slender Man having a backstory to start with, but if we absolutely had to give him one, surely it could have been something higher quality than Der Ritter. The concept in itself isn't bad, just the execution. It really messes with my disbelief when the entire backstory of Slender Man can be disproved after less than a minute of internet research. If you're going to claim a woodcut was made by a famous German artist, at least pick a real famous German artist, preferably the one who made the woodcut which you shopped for the Der Ritter picture, so at least there's some connection with reality.

But maybe that's just me ranting.

As for what I'd like to see, I think maybe some experimentation with the genre and story style. Not something as radical as Breaker; that just ended up appearing clumsily done and unrealistic. But maybe stretch the boundaries of Slendy's genre restrictions a bit; throw in some action, maybe comedy, etc. It would be hard to pull off, so the best bet may just to be small steps to test out the water before making any huge genre shifts, but it would be something new.

[SickSlickMan]

What do I WANT to see?

I want to see some more diverse characters. Part of the reason why I fell out with the Slender blogs is that all the characters just felt like cheap cardboard cut outs. I think the main reason is that they just don't flesh out enough. I use this example a lot, but Dreams in Darkness, Damien felt like a real character because he had that backstory, he had all those fucked up things in his life that affected him, and it gave him more depth (though the added factor of a split personality definitely helped that along). Jeff from EMH has his search for Jessa and that whole mysterious past of his. Zeke from Seeking Truth was a smart ass that had anger management issues and childhood paranoia.

People often overlook how much things like this really help make a character real. It creates a story within a story. Find some things to flesh your characters out, make them seem like real characters.

[Demongel]

I'd like to see more people who want to make a Slender Man blog/vlog read House of Leaves, play through the Silent Hill series, and watch Jacob's Ladder and The Mist. They're all very reflective of the Slender Man style and could prove as vast inspiration for originality.

[SickSlickMan]

[RatheadSyndicate]

RHS's Slender-Commandments...

*Thou shalt not ape Marble Hornets, make reference to Marble Hornets, steal ideas from Marble Hornets, or in any way execute clumsy homages to Marble Hornets.

*Thou shalt not make another series about teenage/twenty-something buds palling around until, ZOMG SLONDER!

*Thou shalt find new and interesting locales. The woods behind your house look more or less the same as the woods behind everyone's house. Surely there are Slenderman enthusiasts living outside of the United States who can pull something together (I myself am currently living in South Korea and have thought of putting together a webseries in my neck of the woods... might be interesting).

*Thou shalt post something interesting, or thou shalt post nothing at all. Posting a video in which your protagonist complains that they don't understand what is happening will only prompt your audience to say, "Yeah, neither do we," and such action shall hereafter be thought of as a mortal sin.

*Thou shalt have fun. If thou hast no fun, why in hell workest thee on thy damned series?

*Thou shalt adlib believably.

*Thou shalt give thine audience something to do. Clues, treasure hunts, character interactivity, etc.

*Thou shalt not capture, kill, defeat, befriend, dance with, ship, or otherwise Spikeify Slenderman.

*Thy characters shalt be smart enough to operate door handles and recognize stoplights. If they art utterly oblivious in Chapter 15 of a 17 chapter series, they deserve whatever misfortune they recieveth. Including audience disinterest.

*Thou shalt build a turtle fence (okay, this one is just bullshit. Sorry.)

[Demongel]

[Benjamin Learner]

Do want: Tentacles, epic effects/distortion, storyline advancement, subtlety, violence, easy to follow, TWISTS!, mythos, women characters, believability

Do not want: Dull 7+ minute videos where NOTHING significant happens, directly copying or "homaging" already existing series, siren sounds whenever slender man appears (that's just dumb), lisps >_>

[blahblah]

Want:
More vlogish type vids.

Patience. Establish legit character first.

Reference to the ORIGINAL mythos

Interaction within other characters, not just running from slendy but kinda the effects of him also

Less:
Taking a walk at night with camera for 8 minutes.

"Hey guys i ate s(X)me y(x)gurt t(x)day.

Edit 2 days later.
Omgomg idk how i typed that without me knowing it
11010100101011010100101"

Less of omg i saw marble hornets that shits not real man

Less of ranting about other blogs.