You've got blood, and you've got the scenes in which to use it. Awesome. If you're doing a cop drama, a western, or something where a bloody circle is enough to convey the point of a gunshot wound, you can get by. People don't bleed in a simple way, but unless you really want a reaction that comes from more realistic or elaborate wounds you get the point across. As always, once the audience gets it you're best served moving on. If you're doing a horror movie, however, you'll probably want something a little meatier. You need gore.
The first thing is to pick your blood type, as discussed last time. Now you want to play a little with that blood. For added meaty texture, add some instant oatmeal. Not a whole lot, just enough for some bits and chunks. Other materials and foods can be used, like crisped or puffed rice, corn flakes, and other morning grains. Experiment, but I'd start with instant oatmeal as your median. That's the clots, flesh, and other good stuff that comes from a wound. If somebody is shot, there's a hole. What used to fill that hole went somewhere, right? You may want to make some deep red concentrate to soak the oatmeal, oats, paper, or any other textures you feel like adding. The redder it is, the less you will have white patches floating in your blood, so the less fake it will seem.
Scoop it out and either set it to dry somewhere, lightly toast it, add it directly to the blood, or apply directly to the victim. It will be jagged and nasty. Add your fake blood delicately enough to not wash away the wound you've created. The drier the clot mix and the thicker the blood, the better off you are.
For simple bullet wounds, paint out some dark red and black on the area getting shot. Take a small button, tie some fairly strong string to it, and put it where you want the wound. Take latex, clay, or whatever else you want to use as fake flesh, and put it over the button so the string is still coming through. Smooth it out then add make-up so it matches the actor's flesh seamlessly. Holding the edges so the fake flesh doesn't pull off, yank the string. Ot will pop a nice bullet hole out. Add some clot and blood, and you're good to go. For slash wounds you can do the same thing, only lay the string (or fishing line) under the flesh, then pull it up from one end to the other.
For burns, something to play with is the paper towel. Get some thick ones that won't tear easily on their own. Lay down a layer of liquid latex on the burn area, then apply the paper towel quickly. Hold it in place until the latex dries. If it crinkles a little, that's okay. Burns aren't perfect, in case you didn't know. Holding the burn in place, pull the excess towel off the edges. If you want to doa few layers, go for it. Have some red, brown, and black dye ready. Get a few good sponges, one for each color. Dip the sponge in the dye, squeeze out the excess, then dab the burn. Take your time. Too much will let it tear too easily while you work, plus the color will bleed too fast. If you're designing the burn, you want to control the levels of hurt. You probably don't want a crinkly black patch, right? As it dries, the towel may crack and blister and take shape. That's probably what the cooling skin would do as well.
There are several ways to spray the blood, some of which were discussed in the last article. Since we're adding flesh to this, just plan ahead and build the tubes and straws in under the flesh or into any fake arms or legs or whatever might get hacked off. If instead of a hose to spray, you just need a blood pack to run from something like a stab wound, that's easy enough. Try zip-lock bags, balloons, heat-sealing small packets, or any number of thin containers. If you're using it on a live person instead of a cutaway effect, put something strung between their skin and the blood pack. This will minimize the risk of actually stabbing or slicing them during the effect, which means the action itself can have a little more realism. You shouldn't be using actual sharp objects anyway, but just in case. It's a good idea to remove the sharp edge from any weapons. Grind it down so it's nice and rounded. It will still shoot the same. If you have a blood pack to go through, just sharpen maybe a millimeter or so, or have a tiny pin that can drag across the seal on the effect. Accidentally killing your actors can wreak havoc on continuity. Always have first aid kits available just in case.
If you need intestines, get some nylons, some cotton (sold in big bags), and either some small rubber bands or some brown string. stuff the nylon with cotton to the thickness you'd like the intestine. If you touch your thumb and index finger together, you should be able to run the length of the intestine. Again, use more or less for effect. Every few inches either place a rubber band, or, for a better look, tie or sew a stitch of string around the intestine. You only want to pull it in a little bit so it doesn't look like a hose, not pinch it off like sausage links. Dab it with fake blood and other color as you see fit. For extra effect, look up images of intestines and add lines and detail with string, yarn, markers, etc.
For all wounds, a little research isn't a bad idea if you can stomach it. If you want realism, you need to see what real looks like. It's also fine to stylize the violence if you're just trying to wow the audience. An axe to the head in real life wouldn't have the same effect as how it does in a Sam Raimi movie. Which gets a better reaction? Knowing what would really happen and then going a different way will come across differently than just not knowing. If you're going over the top you should know how far to push it. Does the blood spray twice as far? Is there three times as much? Do they keep bleeding for minutes after they should have?
Look at your work through the camera as you go, adjusting the lighting and color when needed. What may look fake in real life may look perfect on video, and vice versa. Run quick tests, detailed tests, and if possible pick a day before you start filming at all to design and beta test your gags. Maybe you'll come up with some cool new ideas as you go, but at least you will minimize the things that go wrong. For the record, something will go wrong. It's unavoidable. Hope it's just something small.
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| Make Me Proud |
Every other Monday
Exploring everything you should consider as you make your
indie masterpiece.
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| Patrick Storck |
Patrick hails from Baltimore, MD, where playing by the rules is frowned upon. Only average things come from playing it safe.
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