Horror

[Orwell]

How would you go about creating a external feeling of horror? External, because I don't want to use the music for a quick jump timed to the footage, which doesn't really work in an amv anyways. Obviously the right footage will help, your not going to make horror out of a comedy, but short of animating it yourself, your unlikely to have footage to fit every part of what your editing. Is there any particular subtleties you'd have or create going on in the background to add to the unsettling feeling? Color/quality manipulation? Accentuate parts of the video for added emphasis on the focus of the footage? Or a small detail and ignoring a otherwise normal scene?

For those who have worked on something like this in-depth, could you please give a bit more information on specifically what you did in your program to achieve this?

[madbunny]

horror usually doesn't translate very well unless you're in the right mood. The problem, is that you only have a very short time to set that mood up in an AMV. Good luck with that.

http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=92264 This one worked well I thought.

[jasper-isis]

I don't claim to be an expert on this, but here's some stuff that I learned:

1. Create a point of view. In other words, make it seem as if the audience is watching the events unfold from within the video (or at least through a camera within the video). A slowly bobbing "camera" motion might help this, as migh a few blurs placed strategeically throughout the video, to give it that unfocused look. Put a blur or light shadow around the edge of the video to emulate peripheral vision.

2. Build up tension by not revealing scary images right away. Fade in to a zoomed-in shot of an image, pause a short while, then quickly pull out at some loud noise to reveal the entire image (somewhat cheap, but it works!). Apply some kind of distoring effect (could just be a strong blur) to a clip and slowly peel it back as you transition into the clip.

3. Synch little things in the footage to sounds in the music. It give off an uncanny feeling.

4. Desaturate your footage to maybe -70%. It helps to keep the mood somber.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm sure you can find more techniques by watching a horror movie or two.

... And it looks like Madbunny already beat me to posting my video as an example. I really don't mean to plug, but the it uses to some extent all of the techniques that I mentioned above, so you might want to check it out to see if the methods might work for you.

[Fall_Child42]

your not going to make horror out of a comedy,

...


http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... p?v=119088

>.>

[requiett]

Any connaisseur of the macabre can tell you that horror is all in the atmosphere. The most useful advice I can offer is this:

Horror isn't about what you show, but rather the lack thereof.

Negative space, and cutting vital scenes short goes a long way in creating a more disturbing tone. Short outbursts of unrecognizable imagery, or even subliminal messages give a more schizophrenic impression. My favorite method, if it can be administered, is using sketchy, dark, thick noise and lines to obscure the video in certain areas as though a mental patient were scribbling them on the screen at 10x normal speed.

These are just technical suggestions, and good pacing of horror always comes at the editor's intent and discretion. Difficulty-wise, I think it's the hardest kind of video to pull off, but the most rewarding if done successfully.

[Minion]

Negative space, and cutting vital scenes short goes a long way in creating a more disturbing tone. Short outbursts of unrecognizable imagery, or even subliminal messages give a more schizophrenic impression.

x2

[requiett]

Incidentally, this would be a perfect opportunity for me to demonstrate two of my favorite examples of the horror short.

David Firth's "Hell" uses a lot of the types of techniques I described above in what is the most disturbing claymation I've ever seen.
http://www.fat-pie.com/hell.htm

Kamoc's "Is That You?" uses simple Flash techniques in what is the most impressively structured music video I've seen on the org. It remains my favorite "AMV" to date.
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=35420

[Fall_Child42]

David Firth's "Hell" uses a lot of the types of techniques I described above in what is the most disturbing claymation I've ever seen.
http://www.fat-pie.com/hell.htm

Man David Firth is amazing, and everything I see from him makes me more convinced he himself is slightly disturbed. A master of both horror and comedy that guy.

Anywho I suppose I can post what I originally was going to (but i didn't want to double post)

For me I've found the single factor for making a scene disturbing or frightening is the sounds associated with it, if you have the right type of slow dark, or fast sketchy, style of music horror becomes less difficult to make. Then comes the appropriate image selection and manipulation, such as the great techniques illustrated by req.

But you arn't going to find anything really scary with the Benny Hill theme as the background music (unless of course you modify the theme somehow, I've seen great stuff done with modified children's songs)

[EvaFan]

Any connaisseur of the macabre can tell you that horror is all in the atmosphere.

Negative space, and cutting vital scenes short goes a long way in creating a more disturbing tone. Short outbursts of unrecognizable imagery, or even subliminal messages give a more schizophrenic impression.

Difficulty-wise, I think it's the hardest kind of video to pull off, but the most rewarding if done successfully.

I agree 100%, mankind fears that which it cannot understand. Implement tons of things that are weird and totally out of the ordinary for horror. It's true that horror is probably the most hardest category. You HAVE to use lots of effects to do horror, the reg just isn't enough. Plus it takes a creative mind to make the viewer feel a sense of "uneasiness" durring an AMV.

Horror isn't just vampires and ghosts... It's not just fear or being scared... It's not just spiders and shit... You know? It's more then that...

[godix]

I have yet to see an AMV that came close to bringing out a horror reaction in me. I've seen some that I admired for what they tried to do but none that actually distrubed me. I think it's because a huge aspect of psychological horror is when something is 'off' in a scene. Take Sixth Sense for example, the scene take stuck with me the longest was the boys 'wanna see my dads gun' scene. Even the first time I watched the movie I knew exactly what was coming as soon as the words were out of his mouth and the gore in that scene is equal to stuff I've seen on Saturday Night Live. Despite that it was still the most effective scene in the movie for me because the boy is acting so normally but there's one huge thing off in that scene (yeah yeah, I'm trying to avoid spoilers even though the movies is like seven years old). I don't think AMVs can do that though. They're cartoons so it's already 'off' from reality and we're all used to seeing Elfin Lied, Paranoia Agent, or even whatever the anime is where the girl slices off peoples heads with a baseball bat which conditions us to expect and be unimpressed by something being off from reality.

So basically what I'm saying, if you wanna try horror in AMVs try spending the first part of the video grounding it in every day mundane activities before throwing in the horror part. Once you do throw in the horror part then follow the others advise. Don't clearly show what's going on. Blur, quick flashes of something innocent yet ominous, and other effects like that. Sync your audio well (think 'cat scares'). If you start off showing people dying with blood and guts going everywhere then it isn't a horror video, it's Fist of the Northstar.