Any tips for NOT having hokey looking creature?

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
When making a creature feature, what are some directing / cinematography tips for NOT making the footage look cheap and hokey? I am thinking of horror movies like werewolf, zombie, scarecrow, Jeepers Creepers, etc. Is there some some guideline in terms of the number of frames to use for creature shots, so that the viewer does not have time to register costume fakeness? Use dim light and shadows? Other? I plan to make a short horror film and will buy some creature stuff (fake hands, dental prosthesis, maybe a mask or maybe not) from certain websites, but short of having a big Hollywood special effects makeup budget what can be done to minimize a creature in a horror flick looking cheap and fake on screen? Thank you all in advance for any tips, ideas.
~randall
 
just checking - are you saying the creatures looked hoakie in those movies or not ?

the only things I can think of right off are

LIGHTING
HAZE
GOO

Lighting. Extra care with the lighting, use lots of shadow, make an amazing shot that partially obscures the thingy, less is more anyway. Even though I don't remember the execution of the creature in Jeepers Creepers as particularly hoaky, I thought the whole idea of it was bad. The second I realized what we were dealing with was essentialy the Creature from the Black Lagoon with wings, I checked out - too bad because I loved that movie up until they revealed the creature halfway through. Thank God Speilberg's shark didn't work so he could have used it more or jaws would likely not be half the classic we think of it as. - but the idea with lighting is that the shot will be so awesome that it will lift the quality of the creature up to the shot, the lighting, composition, music all "selling" it.

Haze. A professional hazer which you can rent fairly cheeply and should probably be a must for a horror shoot anyway can help hide latex fakeness to a degree. Basically diffusing or thickening up the air between the lens and the skin. BUT haze hazes the background more than the subject which is one of the reasons it's widely used - to add depth. So you have to use a lot of it for it to obscure the actual subject of your shot in anyway.

Goo. It's a cheesey old trick but a little wetness can make a latex puppet look more alive and real.

Duration. Yes. If it's a problem practical effect then not staying on the shot too long can really help a lot too, and, less is more, especialy in horror with very few exception.
 
I am not saying the creatures in those films looked hokey, I just would not want my low budget flick creature to look hokey, if that is even possible. So any tricks from a shooting perspective that will help, that is what I am looking for. All I have made is two short films so far, and no creature. I don't want my creature flick to look like a $10 halloween costume was used. I do figure I will have to fork over a few hundred for fake arms, feet, mask, etc. to get that stuff from any of several online supply places, and I figure to do hire out if needed some seamstress work for parts of a creature costume if needed.

Even if the final footage will make heavy use of dim light and shadows, I should still shoot the original with good lighting though right? But have shadows in the original (well lit) footage?

I never heard of a hazer, any link to what that would be, where I could buy or rent one? If I shoot outdoors, is that going to even be doable if there is any sort of breeze which would blow the haze chemical away? I guess in a barn or something I could use the haze though. Or blow it in upwind then roll camera as the haze floats into the scene?

And yeah it seems to me that in creature horror there are often orchestral hit or cue points of intense music as we see the creature but only for a brief second, or less, maybe with camera motion, to confuse the viewer brain so the viewer does not have time to register makeup effects.


Thanks again.
 
A hazer is a kind of fancy smoke machine. Smoke machines are a pain in the butt to shoot with because you have to wait till they are ready and they output inconsistently etc.

A hazer is always on and kind of emits a controlled mist. If you've ever watched the X-Files you've seen one in action. It's used to create depth in the same way that far off mountains look hazy. Because there is more atmosphere between you and the mountains. So when yous a hazer there's more atmosphere between your camera and the wall than between you and your subject. It's also used, a la the X-files, to make beams of light from flashlights, windows, or between barn slats visible. That's how you get that flashlight effect. YOu can use the hazer so subtley you can't really tell it's there and you can still get the flashlight beam effect. You can use more for atmosphere. Too much and you can't see your actors. Hazers are the reason it seems like no one ever dusts in hollywood movies whenever they open the curtaiins and these shafts of light appear.

You can see a smoke machine used as a hazer in all the films on this page, including outdoor examples.
http://frenchquarterfeatures.com/privatescreening
I worked with a hazer on my last short though and I will never go back to smoke machines.

I don't know about working with a hazer outdoors, but the smoke machine did OK for us. It wasn't that windy. We did get a great effect accidentally when the wind suddenly blew and the "mist" or smoke machine smoke crossed the screen at the same moment as the actor's major character change. (LMTF when she's kneeling outside looking up to Heaven).
 
Less is usually more - watch Alien and count the tiny number of shots where the Alien is actually visible. But making those few shots count is a matter of planning and good shot design. Working with monsters is like working with children and animals, you never know quite what will happen when you turn the camera on...
 
phudsontx said:
Remember darkness is your friend. Work your "creature" in the shadows as much as possible.
Click to expand...


I was gonna say the same thing. Even great looking creatures can look "hokey" for some reason when fully lit, and overexposed in scenes as mentioned re: Alien.

It's easier and more effective to capitalize on people's imaginations and it doesn't even cost that much.

.
 
Watch "Alien" best creature movie ever. I think you only see it a couple times in the whole movie.

Like they said, shadows are your friend. Not seeing the creature is often scarier than seeing the creature.
 
Yeah, i was actually going to suggest watching Aliens in slo-motion. One of the best films at hiding the deficiencies in the creature costumes.
 
Alien is certainly good, but also consider what story you're doing and what the best way to hide the monster would be.

Signs hid the aliens by showing the POV of the main character who always just catches glimpses of the them (an arm, a leg, ect...). The Myst, obvious, hid monsters in myst. Lord of the Rings hid the ringwrath's faces in dark hoods, slow motion, and a heavy use of music around them.

If you have a good story, generally you can find the best way to hide them from looking at what opportunities the story presents.
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
Haze. A professional hazer which you can rent fairly cheeply and should probably be a must for a horror shoot anyway can help hide latex fakeness to a degree. Basically diffusing or thickening up the air between the lens and the skin. BUT haze hazes the background more than the subject which is one of the reasons it's widely used - to add depth. So you have to use a lot of it for it to obscure the actual subject of your shot in anyway.
Click to expand...

If you want to go the cheap route you can use incense...I was on a set where they were using incense, but the DP had a thick greek accent so he kept saying what sounded like, "more INCEST on the set please!".
 
The trick is to not break your audiences suspension of disbelief.

Get your audience immersed in the story and empathizing with your protagonist before you reveal your monster, and then only show glimpses. (People's imagination is much scarier than anything you can show.) :thumbsup:

If you notice in Jaws and Alien the creatures weren't shown until later in the film and then only briefly.
 
I'm glad Jack Daniel Stanley mentioned Jeepers Creepers -- I felt the same way. I really liked the first part of that film, right up until the monster thing came out.
 
Yeah I'm a big fan of older horror films where this was more the case, actually. Now days the trend seems to be show as much gore as possible and show the creature fully, in CG, and it's just not working out for me. I find it far scarier when I am not shown much of the creature at all, because it's so true that it's much scarier in your imagination than it is shown for very long.

The whole gore / guts / blood thing that has been popular for a while now, and torture, is absolutely not scary in the slightest even tiniest amount. Gore is not scary. It's gross. That's it. Whenever this trend took over, it needs to go away, because there haven't been nearly as many good horror movies lately as there should be.
 
Some good tips on not showing it at all.

Jaws is a very famous example. Brilliant use of POV shots. Check out Rogue for a film that tried to eumlate the tension built in that way but failed (IMHO). Major reason for that was that the Director never set up the fear factor by showing a terrifying death. The opening scene in Jaws instantly lets us know the swimmers are in danger. Rogue tried to get that tension in without showing a violent death to set it up.

American Werewolf in London has a good scene where a guy is chased in the London Underground. You never see the assailant, you just see a distorted POV as it runs at him, then cut away to hear the result.

Added on top of that as well: Sound signature is very important. Give it a noise it makes that is horrible and you can use to ratchet up tension (it's gettin closer but you can't even see it). See ET for a good example (There's a guy with keys looking for ET, they make them sound horrible as he approaches). The Grudge was good as well, that horrible sound of her bones squelching as he moves...

Other than that it is hard to say without knowing what the creature is...some things are going to be harder to make real than others.

I'm no expert on make-up, but I would have thought texture would be very important. Some types of skin/effects are probably easy to create. others look a bit shady no matter how much you have to spend. Even Jurassic Park had rubbery looking models (eg the new-born raptors).
 
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Ive been learning creature effects for about 5 years now. Mostly sculpting and molding props, helmets like the one in my avatar. Im doing the effects for my own film as well in june. For teeth you can go to dental distortions and buy a nice set for 20 bucks . Ive made my own but it is time consuming, they have all sorts of teeth. I would say watch alien for sheer atmosphere. Also one of my favorite scenes is from the film legend a witch named meg mucklebones!! Check out the lighting in that scene it takes place within a swamp. On the low budget side check out the original evil dead, the fog, and peter jacksons first film BAD TASTE shot in 16mm. He did all the effects for the film himself. Quite a task. Sure it looks a little goofy but you can see the hard work that went into it. Check this website out it has many tutorials and good people that can answer your technical creature problems plus they are in the industry.

http://www.theeffectslab.com/

Cheers!
 
Less is definitely more when it comes to avoiding hokey looking creatures. Go for a simple concept if you don't have the budget and time to execute a overwrought design. One trick is to make everything as normal as possible except for that one detail... whatever that is. Also good scary creatures mostly have a distinct character and goal, bad ones just stroll around purposelessly growling and gnashing.

Don't forget to ask around among local make-up artists, many are dreaming of getting a chance to do a cool creature instead of just hide up wrinkles and morning after eyes.

BTW one of best creepy film monsters is Meryl Streep in "Falling in Love", she's so needy, clingy and uptight it makes me wanna crawl out of my skin.
 
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