Heh, I need to pick more brains.
Right, I've got my main charrie and some vague idea of what's going to happen. But that's not what's bothering me. My problem is that I want to occasionally trap him in this alternate universe of sorts. Everything is the same as in real life but its changed slightly.
So far the only effects I can think of are having everything covered in rust but that's already been done in Silent Hill. Love the idea but I don't think I should use it. *sigh*
The next one is having everything seem black and white, or grainy like in an old film. This idea is okay but oddly doesn't appeal to me, nor does it feel particularly original.
So does anyone else have any ideas as to what I could do?
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0 / 50,000
avr. 24, 2008 - 07 53
This might not be original (I don't usually read or watch stuff like this) but what about having the colors of everything be off. Like, the Sky could be green, the grass could be blue, etc. Depending on how obvious you want to make it to the character that he is in an alternate universe, the colors could be subtly different or strikingly so...
18,542 / 50,000
avr. 24, 2008 - 09 36
Make the changes subtle. Little things that make your character think things aren't quite right. He's driven down this road a thousand times ... but he could have sworn it was flat, and now there's a little rise to it. Didn't that house have two trees in front of it, instead of three? When did that hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop he likes become an antique store? And it's run by the same people, who swear it's always been an antique store. And they know him. They think he's pulling their legs about the sandwich shop. His best friend's red Chevy pickup is a Dodge. He comes home and his wife's hair is straight instead of permed. His garage door has a row of rectangle windows across the top, and before it had fan-shaped panes, to match the front door ... which now has a rectangle window on top. That peony by the front door -- isn't that supposed to be a rose bush? There are all sorts of small changes that can make him think things are off kilter and set his teeth on edge, especially if everyone around him acts as though it's always been this way.
0 / 50,000
avr. 24, 2008 - 09 53
I agree with the above poster, subtle is much better. Have you ever seen the TV show Sliders? In it, Quinn Mallory creates a device that lets him jump through alternate dimensions. Yada yada, the device breaks and he can't get home, so he keeps on "sliding" through the portals hoping that the next one will take him back home. Sure, they'd have quick shots of alternate dimensions in grays, streets that were abandoned that should be busy (due to some massive tsunami or something similar), but for the most part, especially the better episodes, the differences weren't immediately apparent. In one particular episode, there was a billboard advertising "birth control soda" which was the first clue they weren't home. In another, everything was just way too clean. Yet another had a magazine cover which advertised a national sport that no one had heard of before.
Granted, the effect here was intended for "hope I'm home /no longer hope I'm home, just hope I can't make it out of here alive" in a TV kind of way that made it less intense, but what really worked is that until the characters were 100% sure they weren't home, even the viewer didn't quite know where they were. I mean, after all, it looked right. Right?
10,691 / 50,000
avr. 24, 2008 - 12 27
I really like the idea of subtle differences being brought into the life of the character allowing him/her to slowly realize what is happening. Buit if you would like additional ideas, I would suggest that you could have the alternate dimension have something different that is dramatic like the absence of daylight. With a little imagination you could effectively explain what people would be like if there were no daylight. I don't know if this was going to be a monster/science fiction story, but you could also throw in creatures/demons that thrive in this dimension since there is no sunlight. Or if you don't want to go that dramatic, you could make the world like a big desert because of something that happened in that dimensions past.
Good luck. It sounds like a fun story.
Cavscoutgh
56,008 / 50,000
avr. 29, 2008 - 10 36
HP Lovecraft loved the idea of non-Euclidean geometry - things coming together at odd angles, corners that don't match up, etc. He didn't always convey the fundamental creepiness of this (there's only so many times you can write 'non-Euclidean' and stay scary), but I think there's some great potential there.
The novel "House of Leaves" has a great take on this. The house is slightly bigger on the inside than the outside; people measured it over and over again, but there was always this gap. How is this possible? Evil closet, that's how.
I think people have already mentioned familiar objects that are slightly off - another good one.
Oooh, and creepy noises in the distance. Like the sound of the wind sounds like distant screams or something - or as in "The Langoliers", the sound of static or crumpling paper way way quiet. Similarly, seeing creepy images in everyday textures (like carpet or wood grain).