This is the place for discussion and voting on various aspects of werewolf life, social ideas, physical appearance, etc. Also a place to vote on how a werewolf should look.
Shadu wrote:the transformation should be determined by the full moon. i think you are not using the moon as the triger for the transformation but i think it should play an important part in the very first transformation, from then on well it can work however you choose. now in speed i guess well it can vary from days to seconds because of this, and it can be used as the closer to the full moon you are infected the more painfull the first time is.
The way the moon plays into the transformation, as I think it is going to be, is that the sight of a Full Moon can "trick" a werewolf into shifting,(mostly because they expect it to...though it really has no real effect at all, aside from psycological). The Moon does not govern the transformations at all. A werewolfs first transformation could be at any time of the month, durring the light of day, or the shadow of night.
...of course, that could change on the whim of the writers or the director.
Please Forgive the Occasional Outburst of my Inner Sage ... for he is Oblivious to Sarcasm, and not Easily Silenced.
I think if changes need to be able to go back and forth, and aren't just one-way, they need to take at least a little while.
Days and days seems a bit much, unless they are never transforming back again.
Instantaneous just seems silly and sloppy to me. It implies just a bit more "magic as an excuse" than I'm comfortable with personally.
Besides... transformation scenes are cool. And if there's a lengthy transformation, this implies at least some sort of "cost", especially if it's uncomfortable. It's not something someone can do at the drop of a hat.
My werewolves can shift in about two or three craniosacral cycles, or about 12-20 seconds.
But, that's those who were either born with it or have had it for several years. Someone newly infected shifts a lot more slowly and has a harder time with it. It's painless to those who are accustomed, but the first shift of a converted lycanthrope is like waking up in the middle of open abdominal surgery.
I admit I'm fudging a bit on plausibility here, but since my werewolves take a week or more to convert over, that's time enough to alter every cell of the body.
Taking a Gestalt approach, since it's the "in" thing...
Boy, was that a hard question! I thought and thought about it, but I had to say "Over Hours" and only because in your film, you might want to work the transformation slipping in through the actual full moon phase of the real moon, although I can totally understand why people voted differently. You may want to keep in mind that whichever timeframe you pick for the movie, you will want to make sure you explain that in the film.
Just dont have it done really fast. In Van Hellsing, it was over in seconds; not very suspenful. I loved the AAWIL transformation. It lasted a good while without getting boring. I really like seeing the small details in the changing.
While it may be more "realistic" and "natural" for a full transformation from a human to a wolf or wolf hybrid to occur over a half hour or more, with regards to this movie, which is what this message board is supposed to be about, are audiences, even TF fans such as myself, really going to have the patience to sit through a half hour TF scene? That's even overkill for my standards, not to mention it would kill the flow of the movie and grind the plot to a halt. I think a TF on film shouldn't take longer than six minutes, tops. I think 3-5 minutes is ideal, at least film wise, not "let's say werewolves are real" wise. I think the time duration of the TFs in the first "Howling" and "American Werewolf in London" were good times to judge by. Any longer would just be too long.
I would think that that would depend on the Werewlf's age and experience - the ability to let go and not fight the shift.
One part of Robert Mcammon's The Wolf's Hour that I really liked was the contest the werewolf had with the train. He wanted to get so fast that he could start pacing the full speed locomotive as a human and shift while running fast enough to pass in front of the train.
