Depicting Murder Scenes

[mysterialize]

I'm mostly referring to drawing here, but writing tips are always nice too.

I know the most common way of handling murder scene images in VNs is to just show a black screen with a splash of blood on it, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips or ideas for more creative ways of showing them. Examples are particularly nice.

Basically, what I'm looking for is a way to show a murder scene while keeping it from appearing too disgusting. Disturbing is just fine, since it is a murder scene and all, and that's kind of the point, but not many people actually want to see insane amounts of gore. I want to have a picture that someone can look at for a while without getting light headed and sick to their stomach.

I'd also like to hear how much blood and gore people are usually able to take in a VN, both in writing and drawing. I know people's tolerance tend to be a lot higher for writing, but I'm sure most people have a line that they'd rather not have crossed even then.

In my case, I have a fairly high tolerance for violence in both art and writing. I was able to watch Kara no Kyoukai all the way through, and enjoy it quite thoroughly. XD So blood for me is usually fine in most circumstances. However, I absolutely can't stand any sort of injury to the eyes, for some reason. Needles also always make me cringe, though that's more of a phobia than anything.

[Blue Sky]

Draw different sequences of the actual crime scene rather than the body, and once the protag happens upon it, show their horror-stricken face.

There, no body has to be shown. :)

[AllegroDiRossi]

I especially love the scene in the Revolutionary Girl Utena movie where Anthy shows Utena her scars/hole-in-her-heart/other-symbolic-mumbo-jumbo. You can see how it's expressed in the SPOILERIFIC CLIP here at 1:25:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00aPq2BI_W8

If you were to implement something like this, you could show the location and severity of the wound without showing the gory details. In fact, if you can, watch the whole Revolutionary Girl Utena movie, it's chock full of lush imagery and unique ways of expressing symbolism that might be perfect for VN inspiration.

[papillon]

the first thing that comes to mind is a scene from an anime somewhere where we're seeing the crazed killer repeatedly stabbing someone - but the focus is on his face, so we see his face being insane and we see his hand moving but the actual impact of the knife in flesh is off camera - we know he hits something from the sound and the occasional spray of blood. that allows it to be quite violent and disturbing without dealing with the problems of disgust/narm that could come from seeing the other bit.

however if you're trying to keep your killer a mystery that wouldn't work.

when finding murder scenes, often there's a lot of blood but most of the mangled corpse is conveniently blocked from view by furniture so you only see hands or feet sticking out

[mugenjohncel]

- CONTENT NO LONGER RELEVANT -

[Wintermoon]

I know the most common way of handling murder scene images in VNs is to just show a black screen with a splash of blood on it, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips or ideas for more creative ways of showing them. Examples are particularly nice.

That's the way うみねこのなく頃に (Umineko no Naku Koro ni) depicts it, but I don't know if that's really typical. Umineko just has a very minimalistic approach to art in general. IIRC, the 逆転裁判 (Ace Attorney) series showed actual bodies.

It's easy to draw murder scenes without drawing gore. Just draw a sleeping person who is never going to wake up again. The victim does not even need to have a visible wound.

[usul]

Watch a bunch of Hitchcock movies, he was a master of suspense. His murders scenes are classics.

[usul]

Oh and Mugen, that's disgusting! How come her socks are all pristine white?

[Lunethex]

Depicting Murder Scenes?... OHO!... I think I could help you on this one...

But first here is an example... (see attachment)

See it... isn't it a sad scene... very moving... enough to move a truck... so...

I suggest you'd go for the "poor unfortunate person" looks... you know, when you looked at the victim you'd feel pity lot's of it... sympathy and other similar emotions... think of sad things like... after having a nice and happy breakfast together with her family, her life was prematurely cut short by a violent and sudden death. Her dreams, hopes, past, happiness and... and... THIS IS MOE!!! YES MORE BLOOD!!! DIE LITTLE GIRL! DIE!!! BWAHAHAHA!!! ... err...

*ehem*

Anyway... For the pose... I suggest you have a camera with a timer... and "re-create" the scene... you will act as if you're being stabbed and then you fall into the ground... make sure you'd fall naturally... "BLAG!" say cheese and wait for the camera to take shot... use picture as reference...

Trust me, you'll be murdering little girls in no time...

"POOF" (Disappears)

Edit:
Come to think of it... I haven't drawn any guro of little girls in quite a while... ahh... I think I'll draw some right now...

She trolled one too many message boards with that cell phone.

[prezzey]

How about silhouettes? I'm pretty sure I've seen them used in murder scenes in games, I just don't remember offhand exactly where.

That works better with animation than with still images, though.

[Ghurdrich]

How about silhouettes? I'm pretty sure I've seen them used in murder scenes in games, I just don't remember offhand exactly where.

I was about to say the same thing, but prezzey ninja'd me. This is a personal taste, but I really like this sort of style. For example, I did this fanart modification in Photoshop in around 5 minutes. I'll also link the original for comparison.

Original: (WARNING, CONTAINS FATE/STAY NIGHT SPOILERS) Note all the blood
Silhouette: Note how cool this is

Now, considering how bloody the original is, it might be considered unsettling to someone, I guess, but anyways, that's not the point. You can transfer the same principle to anything. You take your murder scene, and you take the humanity from it. It might be an actual silhouette, or maybe they're behind a curtain, or maybe you're just seeing the shadows on the wall (A personal favorite). All of these use the same basic principle, and apply it to something otherwise disturbing. It takes maybe 5 minutes to modify an existing image, and it would probably be even easier to draw from scratch. At any rate, it's the opposite of what you would want to do in your writing. Take the humanity away from your art (with shadows etc,) and have it all displayed in your writing. Narration is a lot less 'brutal' than art can be.

Personally, I have quite a high tolerance. There are obviously things that push the limit, but they're pretty far off, and someone has to really be trying to make me lose my lunch (IE dissected people, inhumane torture (Humane torture? o_0)), we all know the drill, I'm sure. I guess it just depends on who you're keying your VN to. Something made for Guro fetishists is not going to please the masses, obviously. But those are extremes. Often a lot of people will want to see some blood as a reality check. They want to see exactly what is going on so they can make the call of 'Oh, yeah, that guy's dead, for sure.' Whereas anything other than directly witnessing the murder could potentially lead to doubt. So just keep your audience in mind.

[blankd]

Context sensitive: if its post murder and even after the authorities get there, chalk outline.

If its actually occurring you can do a scene shot with implied force going around and REALLY avoid blood you could use your SFX/text. (Stabs will mostly require SFX as they are very close quarters... Blunt object, use a "shake effect", gun shot can be a before/after with wherever the bullet went in the BG)

Hope that helps.

[Colo]

Phoenix Wright Youtube video (kick)

Right in the beginning, the first scene "shows" a murder. I think that the way they did it was very good. I think that this is not too offensive.

If I would have that scene in my VN, I would first show them talking. After that, show him raising the statue, hitting her with it and then the scene as it is in the video

Hope, that this is something like you thought of...

[Glasskitten]

'Fraid I have naught to add to the discussion itself, as I've never really been tasteful enough to think about the subject for my own purposes, but I just wanted to say...why, Scary Poofy Guy, why?? I just don't get it.

*brings the Lucky Star girl some flowers*

[dizzcity]

I'm going to take a slightly different approach here, and say that HOW you show a murder scene of secondary importance to WHY you show a murder scene. In other words, the way you depict a murder scene can depend on what sort of emotional and dramatic effect you want for it to have in your story.

- If you want the audience to be disgusted at the murderer and want to bring him to justice, then gore / crazed violence may be appropriate.
- If you want the audience to be frightened that they could become the next victim, then a more subtle, suspenseful approach is better. (Uncertainty is a powerful tool to create fear. Either reveal the method, the murderer, or the time/place for murder, but not the other two.)
- If you want the audience to feel suspense and agony on behalf of a third character that they hope will survive, then follow Hitchcock and show the method and the murderer, but leave the TIMING of the murder unknown. The build-up to the murder becomes more important than the actual murder scene itself, so the murder can be simply handled with a close-up of the face and a splash of blood.
- Likewise, if the goal is to investigate a murder, and the murder is just treated as the intro to a detective story, then the dehumanising approach mentioned above may be useful.

So... WHY do you want the murder to happen?
-Dizzy-