Ok have some of the characters have lunch/supper(or some kind of meeting) in an office break room in another building where none of them work. It can’t be in the same building that any of them work in for this to work and you have to somehow make it known to the audience that these people aren’t supposed to be in this setting without being blatant about it. Perhaps have some other people in the background asking each other who these people are and then having the original group leave the building and go back to their offices somewhere else. Ok not scary, but strange.
You funny. I like. Throw in some midgets and we have a movie.
Do lots of stuff that only the most observant or nit-picky will notice. Have five or six extras. They should be odd-looking in some way, but not overtly distracting. Have one of them in every scene with people in the background. The hero wakes up in his hotel room and goes down to the lobby. The teenaged girl with the curly red hair is flirting with the desk clerk. He gets on the bus. The bald guy in the horn-rims is sitting behind him, reading a book. He gets out and goes to the restaurant where he was supposed to meet someone. One of the waiters is the tall skinny Rastafarian. The someone shows up. Now the Rasta guy is gone, but the red-haired girl is back, sitting at one of the tables in the back. They finish doing whatever they were doing. They shake hands and leave. As our protagonist surveys the scene, the pregnant housewife takes a seat on the bench behind him. He walks off a little ways, and passes the guy with the spiky black hair and the goatee who is talking to the Rastafarian. He goes into another building, and the guy in the horn-rims is sitting in one of the chairs in the lobby, still reading the same book.
They don’t have to be in every single scene. They don’t even have to be in every single scene with two or three extras in the background. They must, of course, be presented in such a manner that the people who do notice them realize it was done purposely, and not out of any laziness on the casting department’s part. Maybe they will be explained by the plot, maybe not. But they are in enough scenes that people will get a weird subliminal feeling that something is not quite right, even if they don’t notice.
I need really twisted stuff from the subconcious you didn’t even know you could ever think that kind of stuff up.
Have the character go to the drug store or whatever to pick up photos. S/He opens the folder with the photos, and sees pictures of him/herself, but driving to work, pulling out garbage, etc. like a stalker took them. Why were they in his/her name? Interesting plot.
Make every scene in the night. Under the neon and streetlight glow of a city, it adds a great amount of grunge and substance.
Have their car color change every scene.
I remember a really weird ream. I dreamt that I was at a concert. In the distance, there was a rock outcropping deal chock full of trees. I remember that there were lights dancing at the top. I left and investigated futher. At the top, in a a clearing, there were lights dancing among standing stones. A small shack was in the distance. The dream scare the hell out of me, and I still don’t know why.
Ball lightning and other weather freaks are cool.
Change the time of the movie. First scene, model 50’s family with Johnny and Jeannie sitting next to the radio, Dad with a pipe reading the paper, and Mom in the kitchen. Era furniture, clothing, etc. Jeannie’s boyfriend come to pick her up, and he is dressed in an era- neutral cothing style, like jeans and a leather jacket. They walk outside, and step into his car, a new model, like '98 or so. Next scene, it looks like the 90s. Next, guys in zoot suits in the 20s. Mix it up, but keep the characters the same. They don’t notice the time changes.
Along with the above post, strange talking in the background. Stuff that is just barely audiable, a high, dispair-filled voice would do it. It could set premonition for later scenes.
Time to stop posting after midnight! I’ll think of some more later.
Whatever you do, have a reason for having it in the film. Something that can be picked up on in the context of the movie. Audiences tend not to be very sophisticated (and I can say that about some critics, as well) and they often don’t “get it”.
On the other hand, it’s art. You can do what you want! 