Displaying thoughts of a character on screen

[The M.O.]

I'm starting to plan imagery for a project. Part of it requires displaying thoughts of a character. Originally this was going to be part of filmed sequence, a short video with real actors. It seemed a bit simpler then, as I could have the actors sound bites sound ethereal while overlaid on footage of the actor.
Now this is going to be part of a Renpy project, with no audible voice I'm left with trying to find another way to display thoughts.

Have any of you seen a solid looking way of displaying a character is thinking,? The traditional comic book way is to have little bubbles leading to a cloud, I will have text around the character more than likely, just not with bubbles.

Any ideas for me?

 

[bozoplace]

When you're quoting a source, use quotation marks to indicate a character's thoughts, and make it clear in your prose that you are quoting thoughts, not speech: ... If you're writing fiction, you may style a character's thoughts in italics or quotation marks.

 

[The M.O.]

Thanks for the laying out the scheme for writing only. However, I left something out. My characters will be engaged in something off the beaten track. 'Mind control'.

While I was writing this for film, as I said, it was easier to get across that the characters were doing something out of the ordinary with audio. I feel I need a solid way to convey this event is happening to a viewer.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Have any of you seen a solid looking way of displaying a character is thinking,? The traditional comic book way is to have little bubbles leading to a cloud, I will have text around the character more than likely, just not with bubbles.

Blur, blur and blurry blurred blur.

When a character is thinking, he cut itself from reality, not really hearing what sounds surround him, nor really seeing what's in front of his eyes.
For your movie idea you probably thought about muffling the surrounding sounds, while making the inner voice of the actor sound like it was said on a small piece (deeper with a very little touch of resonance), you just have to do the same, but visually. So you blur everything but the head of the character, that is, it, sharpened. It's not "as simple as that", because you need to find the right balance between the two, and obviously not effectively limit to the sole head (it's more a question of surrounding halo of clarity), but it's also not really more difficult than that.

 

[The M.O.]

That's very interesting. That seems just the ticket. I really look forward to experimenting until I get it right. Thanks.