This is Part One of a multitude of common posts that cover how to make props and decorations seem real and how to avoid costly mistakes.
I’ll try and find pictures for this to compare the differences but in the end all that matters is that whatever you are creating, for whatever reason, make it look real.
OK so here’s one example. I chose Christmas decorations to showcase this because that’s what most people decorate for, and Christmas decorations, unlike Halloween, tends to be neat and organized.
This is a good example of ruining the ‘magic’ of your decorations. No longer are you to believe that the icicle lights are real. You are taken out of the moment, and in the end, the spirit of the holiday.
This is what I refer to as, ‘Making it real.’ Everything I do, in any application, is meant to look as real as possible. If it doesn’t look real, people won’t buy into the experience, regardless of the holiday or occasion.
A quick example. Using the image above. You have a few choices:
- 1. Leave it as it is.
- 2. Finish the project and wrap it fully around the roof’s eaves to make it look real. By this I mean don’t let it stop halfway across the eave.
- 3. If you can’t make it fully around, hide the extra lights in some fashion. Use your imagination.
- What I have done is: take a light bulb out which causes a good portion of the string to die out.
- Hide the rest in a black box or bag and hide it between the eave and the roof so you can’t see it.
So which one would you rather do?