Demon Effect

Like the Ghost in the Mirror effect there is a whole wave of these demonic shorts. And when I say short I mean short (most last only 10 seconds). In preparation for our own ‘How to…’ Blunt film I’ve picked three at random to give you a flavour of what’s out there. Be aware that most of these vids have somebody looking into the camera in a dozy way, hamming up the ‘I know something you don’t’ or the ‘I have no idea what’s about to happen’ quality.

Andrews Demon Face Warp Screaming

Andrew approaches the camera as if it’s the first time he has ever seen one and then breaks into his scream. The overall effect is not bad but a little bit too exaggerated.

Scary Movie

This film has a girl with pigtails embarrassingly trying to look cute before she suddenly flashes us her witch face (that’s not a euphemism). Unlike most of the other Demon vids the scary face is not so extreme and all the more scary for it. Shame about the acting.

Scariest Demon Face Ever!

This video at least tries to incorporate the demon faces into some kind of storyline as a couple of kids try to frighten another by pulling scary faces. Unfortunately the faces aren’t that horrific and I don’t like the way the camera zooms in as the face morphs and then back out again as they change back to normal. This film is slightly embarrassing too. There is a trilogy of these scariest faces films and the last one has some pretty good Demons in.

Coming soon more film making tips from Blunt Productions.

Zombie Mash Up

Here’s an interesting book to make into a film – I’m told the film rights have already been sold. I’m tempted to buy it although I think the joke might wear thin after reading  just the title.

I’ve sourced this great image though of Elizabeth kicking a zombie’s head in.

The Ghost in the mirror effect: how it’s done.

This little effect is one of the simplest you can do with Adobe After Effects or similar video compositing software. These days even editing apps like Premiere and FCP have the tools to do it but we’re using After Effects because we’re used to it.  There’s a step by step guide below but firstly, here’s the film:

To do it for yourself, first film the action on one side of the mirror and then without moving the camera or changing the lighting shoot the action on the other side. We’ll call these two shots the ‘Mirror  shot’ (for what you see in the mirror) and the ‘Action shot’ (for the live actor standing in front of the mirror)

Drag the Mirror shot into the composition window and use the pen tool to make a mask around the mirror. This is to indicate what part you’ll be cutting out:

When you have done the mask it should look something like this:

If you look in the Mirror shot in the timeline you’ll see your new mask (by default it will be called Mask 1). In order to make an invisible join between the Mirror and Action shots, feather the mask.

This makes the mask  boundary fuzzy, so when applied to the mask, it makes the layer look like this:

Then drop your Action shot into the composition window:

and simply plonk your feathered, masked Mirror shot on top. If you haven’t been moving your camera around between shooting these two parts it should fit snugly, like so:

One last note: remember to move the two layers so that the action in the Mirror and Action shots syncs as closely as possible. Some people have done this by starting off using just the action shot and its own reflection but this often leads to a jump cut when they cut to the mirror shot. If you’ve got the patience and a good actor who can replicate the same moves exactly you can get it looking pretty good. After all, it’s the sudden unsynching of action that results in the scary quality of this technique.

Try it yourself!  Scary or not, it’s a good exercise to help you get the hang of After Effects, masks and layering of video layers.

Coming Soon

An interview with Ben Slotover who will be talking about Jim and Heinz in the run up to Blunt’s Jim & Heinz week. So stay tuned fellow film makers.

Someone ruined Star Wars way before George Lucas did it.

If you’re new to the Blunt Productions site you won’t have seen this, and even if you’ve been coming here for years you probably never found it on the old site either as it was hidden away in a backwater. However with the recent repeating of all the Star Wars films on successive Saturdays on Channel 5, plus the runup to the Xmas season upon us now the two Freak days are past (namely Halloween and Guy Fawkes), it’s time to dig out the old STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL!

Warning: previous experience of this abomination will not protect you.

Ghost in the Mirror

I’ve recently become intrigued by a mini genre centred around somebody looking in the mirror and seeing a different reflection of themselves. Sometimes the face becomes contorted, sometimes the person at the mirror looks away and fails to notice the ghostly apparition in front of them. These are just the sort of films that lead you from one related link to the next. Of course the more you see the more ridiculous it becomes as every Tom, Dick and Harry tries out their latest editing software.

I’ll run through a few of them

Creepy Grudge Ghost Girl in the Mirror!

This is a typical example. Shame about the noticable edits though but I like the sudden zoom up to the girls face. I’m trying to figure out how they did that? A tutorial is promised at the side but when you go to the website it says that that’s still under construction.

Demon in My Mirror

This one has a Demon instead of a ghost. Mixing it a bit eh? I like the way sometimes with these videos that the zoom into a Demon face causes camera interference.

Ghost in the Mirror

This has to be one of the worst examples. For a whole minute a rather camp oriental lad looks at himself in the mirror whilst fiddling with what looks like some makeup. A slushy tune accompanies the action suggesting (to me) perhaps a coming to terms with his sexuality. He drops the lid of a lipstick and with a noticable edit his reflection stays standing in the mirror. On the floor he looks up and screams in terror. It’s worth reading some of the caustic comments to show how angry people get if a film wastes over a minute of their time.

Watch Out! Blunt Productions will be creating their own tutorial on this spooky youtube genre.

Coming Soon – The art of Demon faces.

Scenes we’d like to see…

It seems ironic that the latest Jim and Heinz film Critical Error=True starts with Heinz bemoaning the loss of an article he wrote online, when the precise same thing just happened to me as I tried to write about the bloody film.  Another spooky coincidence is that Tarkovsky’s film Stalker , which Critical Error=True references, had to be shot again in its entirety when the Soviet film lab fucked up all the negatives.

Writing and editing Critical Error involved a lot of research into the history of data storage, ‘Research’ which quickly turned into ‘wasting a load of time getting sidetracked’. And before I kicked myself back to actual productive work I pondered these two questions:

1. Are they going to remake Stalker like they remade Tarkovsky’s Solaris?

2. If they remake Stalker , wouldn’t it be cool if it was a blaxploitation remake, like they did with Get Carter?

Zero Budget Horror Sound Effects. Halloween Bonus.

We forgot to post this classic Blunt Film where we show how with the addition of horror sound effects you can make an otherwise normal scene utterly creepy…