How To Make A Static Image Look Horrific

[Lars Bunch]

Hi,

Here’s my 2 cents…

Don’t show much of it. What you can’t see can be a lot more frightening than what you can. When the mechanical shark looked too stupid to show in Jaws, it helped the film quite a lot.

Add a glistening sheen to it. Ridley Scott knew the value of wet and slimy in “Alien” I imagine you could use a glass effect with some evolution to give an undulating quality to the wet look.

Give it a sickly green cast. Perhaps even a bit of a glow. Unless it’s a tree, green doesn’t look too healthy.

These are the obvious things that come to mind immediately. You can probably think of more original ones. Anyway, my feeling is things that seem subtly unnatural tend to be more creepy than big “gross out” effects.

Hope this helps,

Lars

[Steve Roberts]

Bump up the saturation. More bright red in the red bits. Shiny. Wet. Sound of flies.

Cut the shot in stepped zooms. Boom-boom-boom. Medium-CU-BCU.

[Graham Quince]

I’d also suggest a close up of blood dripping from a dead hand. maybe also a close up of the pool it makes. That way your one shot has become three, which gives the audience less time to see it’s fake.

Graham

https://www.quinceweb.com – web design
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https://www.shiveringcactus.bravehost.com – Free FX for amateur films

[Michael Bayouth]

Thanks! Great idea!!

[Michael Bayouth]

Really good advice. Thanks! I’ll do it. Is the glass effect done with a 3rd party filter?

BayDog

[Michael Bayouth]

Yes, good suggestion – Thanks a lot.

BayDog