Investigation into Special FX Makeup!

I have decided to do an investigation into my expertise, special effects makeup. After our decision from the genre research, about doing a slasher genre film opening for our coursework, I started researching into the types of special fx makeup that we could use to make it look really impacting, along with realistic. Researching on Google "Slasher Film inspired Special Effects Makeup", It came up with the following images, of which I was inspired by:

 The picture on the left shows the palm of the hand covered in blisters, portraying a burnt effect. The effect, though subtle, is effective.

 The picture to the right shows a hand holding a jaggedly cut wound of which looks very painful. This effect shows lots of detail within the wound and is quite repulsive, which is the reaction that is wanted in a slasher film.

The image to the left shows someone cutting into their wrist with a knife. This effect is both effective and shocking- two good qualities for the slasher genre.


The Equipment used- and
my special box of SFXM!

With these few images in mind, I decided to do a few experiments to create similar, but not exactly the same, pieces of gory makeup. Below, you can see some of the trials that I did.

The equipment that I used was:

• Liquid Latex
• Nose and scar wax
• A bruise wheel
• Fake blood
• Various application tools such as a file brush of which I used to scrape the nose and scare wax out of the tub...

The nose and scar wax i
applied to my models hand

Applying liquid latex onto my models
hand.

1. First i used a sponge to apply the  liquid latex onto my models (my sister) hand- this is where i would do my first application. For inspiration of the applications i did in this investigation, i just i saved a few images that i found from typing "special effects makeup" into Google.



Final piece- side view

2. After three layers of the liquid latex, i applied some nose and scar wax onto the "wound" area, blending it into my models hand so that the point of skin transferring to nose and scar wax was not distinguishable. It was a slightly different colour to my models hand, however after putting on all of the makeup, it was not noticeable.



The carved wound and the added
colours to add depth and bruises.

3. Scraping off the excess nose and scar wax, i carved into the wax the wound that i wanted to create, making sure that there was a slight raised edge around where i wanted the wound to be.

4. I then added black to the inside edges of the wound and a purple/red to the inside. The black would create depth and the purple/ red would add to the colour of the blood. I also added some bruising makeup around the wound.



Final piece- inside view

Final piece- close up

5. Finally, i added fake blood to the made wound, applying more within the actual wound, and small amounts around it to make it look more realistic.

6. The finished piece can be seen to the  left and above. This piece is a wound that could be used as a type of torture wound within our film opening, for example.

It took around 5 minuets to create this wound, including drying time of the materials, which was really rather quick, so when we do start to complete our film opening, the special fx makeup won't be a great issue in terms of time for the simple pieces such as this.



Burn Makeup-  Full View


After this experiment, i then completed two more, using the same method of application, equipment and materials. The first is a burn piece on the hand. This piece could be used as a really nasty burn within our film opening. The final piece is shown below:

Burn makeup - Side View



Burn makeup- Close up











The second piece that I did was a jagged, raw and aggravated slash on the wrist. This I thought could apply to cuts, bite marks, rips in the skin, and really anything like that, within our coursework final product. The finished product is shown below:


Slash on wrist- Side view



Slash on wrist- Close up

After having completed these effects, however, I found that there were a few extra, more complex pieces on Google, that I could have a go at creating. Below shows the few i really found eye catching:

Above shows a really nasty chemical burn. This burn, different to the other, game me inspiration to try out an effect, of which will be shown below.

To the left is another type of burn wound that has melted the skin on the face and mouth together, making it stretch when the model opens their mouth.

Below shows the photos of the responses that I made from these new inspirations: