What style of series do you enjoy the most?

This is just out of personal interest, what type of series do you guys enjoy the most?
Ones that are written down in the style of a Blog or story,
Ones that are filmed on a daily/weekly/monthly basis from a POV camera, or Vlog style,
Or ones that are filmed in the style of a film (where characters don't acknowlege the existence of a camera being present.)
The information I find here might become relevant if I possibly want to prepare a new series in the future, or continue my ongoing one.

I kind of like the idea of a "Blair Witch Project"-style vlog. Is it cheesy? Yeah, but that's just kind of my taste. I definitely like the weekly updated kind of vlogs, though.
I don't know too much about blogs, so I can't really say much on those.

It throws me off when the camera isn't POV in these series. The slender mythos were kinda built on that Blair witch style of filming and I don't like it when it leaves that plan of reality. The characters should be aware of the viewers and the camera.

I'm also much more preferential to Vlogs then Blogs. Blogs have a tendancy to get too interconnected for me to follow, or I have trouble getting into the story, since slender man is pretty visual to me. But Eh, I've read a few good ones.

Also, I know it's not part of your question, but I typically perfer immersive vlogs. Or something where I can really get into the story and the plot, or at the very least, it has to have a pretty excellent mystery. No mystery, no interest.

CheckersValentine wrote:

It throws me off when the camera isn't POV in these series. The slender mythos were kinda built on that Blair witch style of filming and I don't like it when it leaves that plan of reality. The characters should be aware of the viewers and the camera.

I'm also much more preferential to Vlogs then Blogs. Blogs have a tendancy to get too interconnected for me to follow, or I have trouble getting into the story, since slender man is pretty visual to me. But Eh, I've read a few good ones.

Also, I know it's not part of your question, but I typically perfer immersive vlogs. Or something where I can really get into the story and the plot, or at the very least, it has to have a pretty excellent mystery. No mystery, no interest.

I think I understand what you're getting at with preferring POV over a more "Movie style" of filming. Would you say the reason you prefer that style is because it seems less organized, but more real? Almost like actual footage thats been found in someones discarded camera somewhere?
I guess each style has its own pros and cons. Anything can happen with a written blog, and the creator isn't restricted to a budget or reality. For example, I could write about a massive mile long spaceship coming down from the sky, and blasting a chunk out of Mt. Everest, but if I wanted to do a film version of that, I would either need some top notch CGI stuff, or a massive budget, which for an indie film maker is out of the question.

After diving into the mythos over the last month, I have to say I'd like to see more done as a straight narrative and not as "found footage". Although that can be really effective ( Marble Hornets and others) some are...much less so. Also the blogs by nature have a certain sameness. I suppose a lot of it IS necessity, Found Footage being low tech/lower budget and you do skirt things involving more special effects. That is fine to degree as the suggestion of what we think we see can more more frightening than the reality of what we do see. It spurs creativity.

I dunno, I guess being a writer , I appreciate the sometimes ingenious works I've seen and read, but would love to see a movie with no breaking the fourth wall, etc.

I'm kicking around ideas for a feature length screenplay based on Slender Man, but it'd have to be fan fiction only and shared here for instance, not for any commercial gain. But seeing as the creations here are pretty basic, blog/ vlog / the occasional long format found footage movie...but just a screenplay format tale may not be as accepted.

I'm more of a fan of... how do I put it? The 'forgotten camera' perspective.

I like to see certain scenes in a point of view that reflects that of a camera left to capture the madness, a third-person- yet still very much first POV for the camera. A relevant example would be of ToTheArk's entries in which the camera gives the perspective of a scene, but from another angle, still retaining that we are watching through a camera.

Cameras that were once in the protagonist's hands now sprawled across the floor, to turn just enough to capture the events.

Can I envision a third-person omniscient POV working for a Slender series? Mayhaps, I believe it could be achieved.

I can only get into blogs if they are heavily riddled with arg elements across a tight and engaging plot. Only ReveandRevelations fits that bill right now, in my mind.

I personally like the "Watcher watching the unknowing" look. Like an example from a series I'm making up right now:

A young man is walking around a field filming the wildlife for a documentary. He's frustrated because he hasn't had any luck finding any fauna, so he just films some flora and takes the footage home. He puts what he filmed that day on the internets.

A couple days later, there's a video reply to his video from another random account. The reply is from an account with only 2 videos. Both of which show the original young man walking around the forest filming. These videos are badly distorted and manipulated.

/end_horrible_example

I guess what I like most about this is the uneasy feeling it gives me. Like, if the original guy can be watched without knowing it, then maybe I can be? Maybe I'm not safe in the haven I keep myself in? Just adds to the creepy factor.

I think that regardless of cheesiness the "point of view" type of Vlogs are the best. The other seem too staged and like the individual was specifically going after Slenderman which is just not a smart move to begin with.

Bebop wrote:

snip

That sounds pretty awesome, I wouldn't mind watching it when you post it!


OT: I prefer the "found footage" type of video. It just feels more...real, to me. I've always loved found footage. Even though I know it's all fake, I enjoy watching it with the perception of "what if this was all real?" It adds a...closeness to the characters that normal footage cannot give. You feel like a part of the series, like you're there with them.

If it's filmed in normal movie style, then you feel just like that...like you're just watching a movie.

^THIS
I like it too...
The normal movie style takes the emotion away...

To some extent I prefer blogs/stories because there tend to be few constraints on what you can do and because - if well done - they enable the characters to become more "human", people who work or go to school or have friends and are not absolutely defined by their interactions with the Slender Man. As a consumer of Slender content, I like being able to read more into characters and events, speculate what the author meant with a certain word, or try to imagine the physical world around them; this tends to be a bit more restrained in vlogs, because as a viewer you're given much of what you see.

While I haven't seen a ton of non-"found footage" or first person POV Slender Man series, I would love to see more. Who's to say that a movie-style Slender series couldn't be scary? To some extent it could be more so, because there's the added element of dramatic irony, where at least for a while the audience knows, and is likely tense about, things that the characters are unaware of.

It's tough. I think blogs often give more detailed stories and interesting characters, where vlogs often fail to draw me into their plots or characters at all. Vlogs also tend to start really slowly, much slower than blogs, because blogs take place in a world that assumes if you're looking at the blog you're already part of a network of Runners and Proxies, so they dive right in.

At the same time, vlogs are almost always scarier, and since the Operator is a pretty visual character, that can make a big difference. Another problem is budget though. Blogs use your imagination to make Slenderp do basically anything. But video series need actual visual effects, which generally means there's less HS factor involved in the antics.

That probably forces them to be more subtle-scary, which isn't all bad, but it's be nice to see our favorite asshole businessman telefrag someone in a video series.

Blogs are also far more likely to draw me out of the story, because I think about how long it can take to post something and so many of these are supposed to be on the run or have bizarre codes or font changes and it just doesn't seem like it'd be worth the effort.

I suppose I'd like to see a video series in a high budget, non-vlog fashion, with some of the narrative features of the blogs but without the downside of actually being blogs. But that will never happen.