ok finnished my paper on ghosts , kinda felt good getting my theories on paper . sigh saddly it’s just more reasons to haul me off to the funny farm..
oh well.
i’m not nuts i have photos
ginger i need the cut text tag again i can’t seem to get it to work..
3 hollywood ghost story examples.
The grudge, thirteen ghosts , Pirates of the Caribbean, lord of the rings ,return of the king.
The Grudge.
Directed by Takashi Shimizu
Writing credits (WGA)
Takashi Shimizu (film Ju-On: The Grudge)
Stephen Susco (screenplay)
Kory Jones …. visual effects supervisor: Reality Check Studios
Yuuichi Matsui …. special makeup effects artist (as Yuichi Matsui)
Fumihiro Miyoshi …. assistant special effects makeup
almst everything done in this movies was done wih the actor contorting herself with no rigs and makup.
They used a lot of traditional camera tricks and lighting tricks . And it presented a very creepy ,ghoul done in the traditonal asian horror style.. with long camera shots and slow tense sceans leading up to the punch when you see the action happen very fast ..
Note the grudge being directed by a Japanese’s director still held very true to asian horror .. long shots lots of building tension.. although in some ways i think it held up better without the sound ..
Thir13en Ghosts (ya gotta love the cheesy 1337.)
Directed by Steve Beck
I really feel for these people ,.. although both are very campy 13ghosts was campy gore and cheesy typical American horror.
This one although it had a large visual effects department it apppeared that most of the work was done with riggs .. and prothetics..their was some obvious wire work ,and i think the CG shots were more the machanics of the “house/machine” then the ghosts them selves..Thir13en Ghosts was alot of fast edits and composits .. and was basically a low budget horror movie of the late 90’s.. with a great cheesy tagline to boot .”Terror has multiplied” .. it relied on grossout
now the next 2. pirates of the Caribbean .. this one is throw back to Ray Harryhausen’s …. Jason and the Argonauts.
Pirates needed it’s supernatural entites top be more solid rotting corpseish , and as they described it in the comentary. The pirites were whole in normal light and shadow and were only reviled as “greed embodied” when the moonlight struck them.. best example of how that theory worked was Will sticking a bomb in a pirates chest them pushing him into the shodows so he nolonger could access the bomb to remove it . He of course then “blew up off screen in a very cartoony fashion..
In pirates the rotting men had to hold to very high detail and look like the actors they represented so a more soild real chater was developed.. by I.L.M. As oposed to the army of the dead in Lord of the Rings .Return of the King.
The mixed styles of lord of the rings where they used a varity of effects to show the dead ,smoky hands clawing from the grounfd , multi pass composits of live actors in various prothststics , and CG rendered massive ghosts , the ghosts had no feet they fadded off to completely transparent at about the knees .
Objects that hit them would passthrough their bodies leaving only , a parted mist ..
The artists from Lord of the Rings did go to see , Pirates of the Caribean1 to see how they did their effects because they were shooting the halls of the daed at the same time Pirets primered .. and they acctully felt that ILM was showing them up..
Personally I think the look they mastered in LotR:RotK for their ghosts was perfect for the story they were telling .
Notes from the art depeartment ,they used prothstesics crafted by weta digital , and UV reactant glow paint in the wide sceans on the city of the dead . They also used knowlged they had gathered on other Peter Jackon films ie. The Frightners , .. to get an idea of the proper translucentcy of a ghostly figure.
Part two,
The special effeccts of the dead and ghost photos..
Ghosts in photos:
Now a lot of this is speculation on what the human eye can see and what a camera that operates simply by decoding the electro magnetic spectrum can see.. In some ways a camera can see a greater reange of the spectrum then we can . It will react to things the human brain will filter out , because a camera is unbiased it takes that wich is in frount of it and translates it to either film or a digital record.. You can get ghosts on either digital or regular film cameras . I prefer digital because it’s an instant result..
Latent Energy Theory..
Energy can not be created of destroyed .
Human beings run on electricity. And it is my belief that the soul is in essece electric ..
Now reardles of your religion . And i’m not claiming that we can’t move on to our respective heavens or hells , i’m just thingking we leave a foot print where we pass ..
If a soul has been working and living in a place for a long time . Their is a chance that they can leave a mark on that place . It seems to be more common to leave a mark when a event of great emotion sorronding death has occurred . But in essence we all leve reminders of our presence wher ever we go..
and some areas I think retain those presentces long then others ..
places like Savannah that are in such proximity to highly unstable magnetic fields like the burmuda triange . I think are stronger areas for these events to hold any electric they can to a place . These voids that hold this enery can be created by a physica lnatural phenomona or by messing with things that shoukd not be messed with . Ie: spells ,majik,oujia boards .( basically anything that can open a metea-physical portal and then isn’t properly closed .)
battle field park has just finnished going through a major clean up . dirt has been removed .. when you physically change a place it can stirs up energies ..like why i think the Landings is so haunted ,is because they have built houses on top of battle fields .. it’s bad enough that there is latent enery there. But to stirr it up further isn’t good .
Other physiscal things that hint towards the percence of ghosts , are temputure drops .
All of the orb pictures i got were taken in cold spots .
For a hollywood referance . And slowly become one of my most appriciated directors is M. Night Shyamalan the sixth sense.. observances made in this film are very representivie to the exspeciances you would fell uppon encountering a ghost.
Cold spots . Tingling feeling like your being watched. All comom and all very real themes to follow ..
To be honest no one knows..What really causes ghosts .
I have two more theories interwoven that are …
1 demons.. some ghosts aren’t really people,….their other things malicious things … like a poltergeist that moves things isn’t really a dead person it’s a type of demon that feeds off negative energy..
and 2 human /animal ghosts ., these are normal ghosts that don’t know their dead or have unfinished bizness. 2 examples of unfinished bizness ghosts are , the ghosts in the old iron works house on Habersham in Savannah , when she died her husband was supposed to get her a big funeral with white horses etc. instead he used the company iron hauling mules … so she is waiting to be taken out right she stands on the 3rd floor and haunts what is now a bed and breakfast ..
examples ..
Savannah we know for a fact is haunted ..
Savannah is the place of many burials , wars , battles , and violent deathes .
Savannah has a history of voodoo. And African Majik.
Common ghosts in Savannah ,
Specters, : a vision of something that isn’t there normally human in form but sometimes animal EI: the cat on Habersham .
In Japan they also beleve that apperitions are demons . Now keep in mind in Japan Yoma (demons) can be good or bad it’s more of a representaion of a non human or no longer human spiritual entity where as in western cultures demon equals bad ,angel is good, and ghost is either/or ,or nutural . Depending on the culture their is a diferenrt break down in the theory ..
Some of Savannahs Specters:
Anna , who was 16 and “lives ” in the 1790 bed and breakfast on Lincon street. in Savannah , .she had relations with a sailor , and got pregnant. well he left for a last tour promised he’d come back . then never did , she committed suicide . and still haunts the inn. she likes taking nice undergarments and sometimes keeps them . their lots of stories about Anna ..
ghosts that don’t know their dead or are missing something and are held her till they find it .
Ernest, the ghost in Matts house was a bit psyco at first then when he realized that matt and i are a bit more sensitive .. and would talk to him , he calmed down…
and has “helped ” us out but having things we lost appear for us etc.
Ernest lost and arm in battle we think he probably died in surgery .. but he appears in an artillery uniform , worn by the British during the Spanish American war .. except his right sleeve is pinned up .
then the ghosts in the Marshall house basement on Broughton . they didn’t start haunting till the GBA found a bunch of human remains left over from the field hospital and moved said remains to Atlanta .. so now we have disturbed sites .. and the ghosts are looking for their missing limbs ..
Unfinished bissnes ghosts ghost that arn’t whole or are looking for something falls under the latent energy thoey in that effect that sometimes you shouldn’t stir the pot.
Often in Savannah places that weren’t haunted become haunted after they find remains and have them removed . So some things are best just left alone .thats another reason why i think battle field park may become more haunted . Or why colonial park is as haunted as it is .. both places have had scared ground desturbed ..
Ecto Plasam: a formless mistlike substance that floats in huanted areas . As seen in Colonial Park Cemetary, and as captured on film around the Statue of John Wesley (note i for what ever reason am not allowed to use my digicams near this staue , they have on several occasions turned off unexspectedly. )
Scarriest encounter with Ectoplasam ,was driving home one night and about a block up from the our store we had to stop at a red light ., and the dogs went nuts .. we felt a chill in the car and they started ferociously barking at nothing next to the bus stop. which was next to guess what ,a funeral home ..I can tell you we took off as soon as the light went green . It was protective barking not just random woofs ..
an I kept seeing something nasty behind my eyes . like a half rotted face . And mist in the mirror.
And most common to hsow up on recordable mediums.
Orbs: usually these show up on film or in pictures because I live in such a heveily “disturbed “ area Orbs are pretty easy to come by .. now in Japan . Ghosts are represented as ORBs, almost exclusivly. Thats why in anime if you see a floting ball that represents the spirt in it’s most pure form..
There are several ways you can discribe orbs . There is a thing called , Ball lighting … and some instanced of ghostly activity seem to have a lot of these “orbs” that take on the charterists of ball lighting in greater numbers in these haunted areas ..
following are the facts we know about Ball lighting from observations .
Facts - Taken from http://www.crystalinks.com/lightballs.html
- Ball lightning is usually spherical in shape, between a centimeter and a meter in diameter.
- Ball lightning comes in every color of the rainbow. No one color seems to be characteristic of ball lightning. It is not unheard of for ball lightning to change both its size and color. Though it is not especially bright, it is easily seen in daylight.
- Ball lightning can move at speeds of several meters per second. . .or simply sit still. Many reports describe ball lightning as spinning or rotating; others say that a lack of asymmetry makes it impossible to tell if the ball lightning is moving on its axis.
- Ball lightning has been known to pass through walls.
- Ball lightning has been known to be cool to the touch.
- Ball lightning has been known to melt walls.
- Ball lightning has been known to quietly dissipate.
- Ball lightning has been known to last from under five seconds to as long as a minute
- Ball lightning has been known to explode violently.
- Ball lightning has been known to pulse.
- Ball lightning has been known to melt peoples’ faces off.
- Ball lightning has been known to appear out of nowhere.
- You can make ball lightning in your microwave.
- You could die making ball lightning in your microwave.
- Ball lightning has been known to rise demonically from the ground.
- Ball lightning has been known to be white, yellow, red or green.
- Ball lightning has been known to appear in flying planes.
- Ball lightning has been known to kill people.
- Ball lightning has been known to appear in flying planes.
As with all unexplained phenomena - there is no one accepted theory that accounts for all the characteristics of ball lightning. The majority of current theories can be grouped into one of two categories:
- Ball lightning is actually a case of mistaken identity and can be easily accounted for using accepted scientific fact
Ball lightning is as of yet an unexplainable phenomen
Orbs: usually these show up on film or in pictures because I live in such a heveily “disturbed “ area Orbs are pretty easy to come by ..
the following pages have pictures taken only a few seconds apart with a clean lens on a simple Sony Cyber shot digi cam. These are at 1 Fen ct on the Landings at Matts Dads house.
Obvious and very bright orb located next to bench.
Taken only a few second after wards same angle no orb.
(Well if you look close the orb as moved and dimmed its’ now near the far steps ..)
As far as recreating ghost effects , thats really not to difficult . Mirrors , glass reflects trick lighting . For the old fasion way.
Then the more interesteing and controlled effects can be done using particals , green screen, Shake , renderman shaders and hudini .
What will be the mosot challenging part of this project for me will be recreating the machine shop of the round house in 3-d as it had been in it’s prime .And posibly modling a train to use as a prop. Spectarssi can recreate with a little compositing and period custumes .which i plan on emplying some frineds to hel pme design and create .
I will be working closely with the roundhouse to get the period feeling correct.. and posibly use referances from ther period photos to recreate the establishing shots for the period in a large detatiled digital-matt painting .
Because ghosts can really only be broken into 3 catagories . The orb, ectoplasam and specters .
Orbs usually only show up after the fact in pictures like mine from above. People don’t really see orbs they feel them . Same with some ectoplasum and spectures . You may only see it in your perrifial vison then it’s gone so any ghosts reacting with actors are usually seen out of that actors feild of view , but felt. Much like in the sixth sense ghosts presents are assosiated with drop in temputure. Again a shake composite of water vapor fogging when it leaves someones mouth.
Oh ‘one last thing … Savannah is a void. it traps ghosts and spirits here and quite a few locals belive this too. their is a stronger peresence between out demention and the next , and it sometimes trapps spirits. Thats why once your here it’s very hard to leave ..
I swear to you, you can feel it tugging at your soul when you leave I-95..
Referances gathered from the internet .
And DVD commentaries .
Referance used :
The pirets of the Caribean DVD, commentary tracks
The Lord of the rings DVD. commentary tracks 1-4
Thir13en Ghosts DVD observances ,
The Grudge DVD Comentary track
Observances made from The Sixth Sense
Imdb.com for info on respective movies creators ,
images taken by me with no photo shoping or retouching thats how the camera saw them.
Other referances where noted .
Definitions taken from wiki.com the free web encyclodedia.
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