Evaluation of Special FX- Flashbacks

The special effects makeup pieces that I made for the flashbacks that we shot included:

• The open stomach
• Bloody wounds and bruises

During the preparation before shooting, when I was applying the open stomach to our victim, Raman recorded the creation process, of which I then edited and turned into a tutorial/overview of how I made this effect. This is shown in the video below: 

As you can see, most of the special effects pieces, only look really good, once the blood has been added to the made wound, however, I feel that this piece went really well.

Below, there are photos, in different angles and lighting, of the special effects makeup pieces that were applied to our victim.

The photos on this row show the blood smeared all over the victims face, a few bruises and cuts on the skin in different places that she was hit.

I am reasonably pleased with this effect, however, I would have preferred the look of sprayed blood on her face, rather than smeared, to make it look more authentic. However, as a viewer, and as the flash back scenes only show for a few seconds, I wouldn't think this would be a large problem.

On this row, the photos show the blood covering the gloves of the killer as he is cutting into the victim, pulling different body materials out from her stomach.


I really like this effect, looking really gory and gruesome, with different bits of the prosthetic coming away from our victims stomach, adding to the effect. This specific effect went much better than expected.

To the left shows the stomach wound in the lighting that we filmed it in, with all the fake blood covering her arm and clothing also applied, adding to the gory aspect to these quick flash back shots.

I was overall, really pleased with this stomach wound application, providing the appropriate effect for what we wanted to portray in these flashback scenes.

 To the right, the flashback, looking at the blood dripping off of the victims hand can be seen, really portraying death, pain and murder, the blood looking fresh and realistic.

I am, again, really happy with the outcome of this, the blood looking the appropriate red colour, rather than becoming a pink, unrealistic colouring, producing this nice, gruesome effect.

Overall, I was very pleased with the special effects makeup in this flashback scene, the effects proving to look even better on camera, than the did in real life. I am pleased that I tried out and experimented with techniques before shooting, however, to be able to create these high quality pieces that are perfect to be able to put in our film opening.

Evaluation of Special FX makeup- Chase Scene Filming

To the left and right, you can see the final designs that I carried out for the special effects makeup on our victim and killer.

The killer, shown on the left, has the words "ADORE AND ENDURE ME" and "A+E" carved into his face at various places, looking pink and quite raw. The final product of this went quite well however the placement of the different "A+E" wounds looked a little odd. If I was able to do it again, I would add more of the "A+E" scars in more areas of the skin to make it look more like an obsession.

The victim has smudged makeup, a bleeding cut on her forehead and tear streaks down her cheeks. I was pleased with this finish, however I feel that it needed more intense makeup on the eyes to really over exaggerate her profession.


To the killer, I also added the planned "dry skin" effect to his hands, adding bruising and torn skin where he imposingly had punched the victim, but due to his soft fragile hands, they have been damaged quite badly. and to the victim, I added yellow bruised hand marks on her arms to show that he had been trying to restrain her. The finish of the hands, I feel, went exactly how I planned and was very realistic.

During filming, a feature in this scene was that the victim had cut herself on a sharp branch when running in the woods away from her killer. To create this, I made a quick wound on her arm, in the location that the branch would have caught her, adding a lot of gore to it so that the dripping blood that it left on the branch looked reasonable and not too over the top- trying to keep the idea that this is a slasher film, making it necessary for it to be gruesome to meet conventions. I do feel, however, that because I was forced to do this fake wound in such a rush in a difficult environment, it wasn't as realistic looking as it could have been.


Overall, I feel that this section of special effects makeup for shooting went really well, getting through the preparation stage fairly quickly, and with a good length of filming time to capture the shots that we had planned.

Final Mock ups of the Special Effects makeup that will be used

Now that we are at the point where we have got our actors, we have finalised our storyboard, we've done a large amount of deconstructions into different aspects of our initial idea and we have tried out, revised and developed our practical ideas throughout the entirety of our coursework so far, we now need to tie up loose ends and start planning the days that we are going to film.

But before we do this, a few other aspects of our filming process need to be trialed to see how they will turn out on camera, and whether they are a success, and if not, how we will need to adapt our plan to accommodate this obstacle.

Below, you can see a documented investigation into the different special effects makeup that we have planned to have within our film opening. To ensure that each effect is done correctly- so that it looks realistic on camera-, I have also done a range of options for each effect so that we can choose what would be most appropriate for each scene.

The special effects that we will be using:

• Sfx makeup on the victim- running away from the killer
• the fake pregnant belly before the killer has got his victim
• the fake pregnant belly that has been ripped into by the killer
• bloody masses that will be taken out of our victim- organs, intestines, umbilical cord, foetus etc
• blood splatter on victim as cut into stomach
• the "adore and endure me" scars/cuts on the killers skin
• the killers hands

Victims initial appearance when running away from killer

To the left, right and below, you can see different experimental makeup pieces that I carried out, looking at what aspects to use during filming in our real film opening.

Since our victim is going to be a prostitute, I have thought about the hair and makeup that she would have, but due to being chased by the killer, it has run, been smudged and is messy. This is shown in the photo to the left. I also added some liquid latex along the cheeks to symbolise tear streaks down her face, really creating the look that she

I then did a separate investigation of different bruises, and cuts on the victim that would be present. These are shown below:

Fake stomach

Before:
The victim, in the chase scene in the woods, will have to be shown as being pregnant. To do this, I needed to create a fake pregnant belly that was of a good quality, so that our actor can still run, without it falling apart.

To do this, I used a You Tube video that I found, to help:


After watching this, I found that I needed to get the following, to be able to make:

• plastic straps
• safety pins
• scissors
• plain white t-shirt
• hot glue gun
• a pillow

The steps that I took to make the final fake stomach:

1. I took the pillow, emptying it of just over half of its contents.


2. I then took safety pins, shaping the pillow to look more like a stomach shape.

3. Once I did this, I took a white t-shirt that I got from Primark, covering this initial shape, fixing it onto the pillow with hot glue.

4. Taking just some string that I found in the cupboard, I strapped the fake stomach onto myself, to see if it gave the correct shape for a pregnant stomach.

Below shows the final effect this gave:

Apart from the bad quality photographs, I feel that this application will be perfect for our film opening. It is simple, but effective, and will be exactly what we need for the chase scene.

After:

I then had to create another fake pregnant belly, but this one is the one that will be shown after the killer has murdered his victim. Below shows a step by step record of how I did this:

Bloody masses

During the death scene, the killer will be shown to be taking different "bloody masses" out of his victims open stomach. To do this, I thought we could buy different organs from the supermarket, putting lots of fake blood on them, for the killer to then pull out of his victim, placing them in a bowl.

Blood splatter

Adore and endure me scars on the killers skin

Another feature to do with our killer is that he will have "Adore & Endure Me" and "A&E" carved into his skin, on various different areas of his face and arms.

For this investigation, I decided only to do one "scar", on my forehead- a difficult place to apply special effects makeup- as I didn't want to use up too much of my supplies.

First I applied two layers of liquid latex as the base, spreading nose and scar wax on top to simulate the skin that is going to be manipulated.

With the side of an object, I "carved" the words "ADORE + ENDURE ME" - I did the longer version as a compromise to only creating one scar- into the nose and scar wax.

Filling in the carved words with  red and black coloring's, I added bruising with my bruise wheel, and applied the fake blood.

Three different versions of the "scars" are shown below:

 

 

 I personally prefer the piece to the top right as it isn't so bloody that it looks really fresh, but it does look recent and quite shocking, which is what we want the audience to react to. Also, the one with the most blood reduces the visibility in the actual words that are carved into the forehead, which is not what we want, and the piece with the least blood shows off the irregularity in the skin smoothness of the forehead, showing the makeup too much for my liking. The piece in the middle is the best, and this is the one that I shall do for our final film opening sequence.

 

Hands of killer

I have already done a post on the investigation of what the killers hands will look like, but I never fully finalised it.

Knowing, now, that the killer will be an ex-surgeon, and he will have gloves on quite a lot, to perform his murders, I decided to do another investigation, this time, taking this  information into account.

For this investigation, I applied liquid latex onto my entire hand, leaving it to dry, and simply dabbing it with a white powder- giving the effect of dry/blistering skin. I wanted to represent the look your hands have after wearing gloves for an enormant amount of time, as if you have been in water for too long, and your hands become soft and wrinkly.

To the left and above, you can see the final result, of which I was very pleased with and intend to use within our film opening.

Death Scene Number One- Trial

For my practical investigation this week, I have decided to do one of the death scenes that will be shown in the film opening as a photo in the diary and/or a small clip- as if a memory.

However, during the half term that I had to do this, I could not find any willing participants to be the model for this scene as it was inconvenient for them to come over at one time, or they were busy doing other things. In the end, I had to do it as a last minuet thing with my sister, who was not very willing, but agreed to help me out. This was quite worrying to me, being that if someone couldn't give up an hour or two of their time, how would we get a few people to do the whole film opening. This is an issue that we will have to address soon.

So on the day before we went back to school, I attempted to create this scene:

The location of this death scene is an alleyway next to my house, at around 5 pm. The location is shown in the pictures to the left and right, and as shown, I experimented with the lighting before hand to get an idea of what type of lighting would be appropriate.


To the left you can see the motion sensor light from the garage, giving off a visible beam towards the ground in front of the building. This could be where the body is shown.

To the right is the same alleyway, but with the main light not working and a pale light shining towards garage. This low- key lighting gives an eerie effects, adding tension to the image.

To the left is another low-key lighting effect, however, the camera is angled towards the garage, coming from the wall, as if its in the view of someone who is hiding- possibly in the killers point of view.

The final photo to the right shows an even darker lighting, illuminating only a small section, making the image go into darkness- adding to the tension and the fear of the unknown.

After putting the special effects makeup on my model, I positioned her on the floor of the alleyway, as if she had been attacked and murdered- her throat slashed. Below shows the shots of this scene:

 To the left and right shows my model at a close up shot with her throat slit and blood on her shirt, with bruises on her face, and dirt on her all over her- as if she had been in a struggle, restrained and murdered.
The lighting is quite high-key, illuminating the face- the photographs would be more appropriate as police shots of a victim than the killers shots of his work, or a memory- not wanting to be caught, and more subtle when killing the victim.

The photograph to the left has more appropriate mise en scene, being that the victims eyes are closed, the blood is illuminated against the light shirt, and the lighting is more low-key, for the killers memory, or is photograph of his victim.

The final photo above shows my victim from further away, the light from the motion sensor light streaming down on her. It is, however a photo that would not be taken by the killer- or be in his memory of his victim, as the mise en scene isn't quite right.

The finished result of this first death scene for our killers diary turned out to be okay, however, I do feel that we need to do it again, using this as a trial death scene and an example of what obstacles we will have to avoid or overcome. I will be doing another post, planning the death scenes that we are going to create- where they will be located, the way the killer will kill his victim and the type of person that our killer is going to be focusing on.

Killers hands Special Effects Investigation

Because of our idea of the killers diary, I decided to do an investigation into what the killers hands would look like- being that there may be close ups of it within the film opening that we are going to make, when the killer is writing in the diary.

Researching around, I could not find any inspiration for "killers hands" in any slasher movies, or even on Google. Not even the film seven was much help, as even though in the opening credits you see sections of the killers fingers, you never see his entire hand. This being said, I had a go anyway, improvising on the different hands that our killer could have.

The first thing that I did was to cover the hand in liquid latex. This, when the fingers were touching, made the latex stick to itself, making strings of the material going between her fingers, which I thought was a really cool effect.

I then pulled holes in the latex, adding layers of it so that it looked like blisters and saws. I then covered the hand in old looking scars, as if the killer had been badly burnt several years ago. This could possibly link to a back story of the killer, showing the motivation for killing people, for him. Above is an image of the final product.

I then tried out another design for the killers hands. A much more subtle makeup showing some nasty scrapes and blisters on the skin, along with a couple of older scars across the hand. This would be a more realistic representation of the hand, however the deformity of burn scars or another modification would be good as an introduction to the back story of why the killer is doing what he is doing.

The final experimental hand for the killer that I created was the one shown above. This is a rather gory, however linking to the slasher genre, piece with three nasty wounds. The first, and most obvious is the finger that has been cut off. Then there is a knuckle injury and a horrible looking blister. This design is rather extreme, and could be used as a thing towards the end of the film- of which we wont be doing- but its a good idea- or after a particularly nasty struggle of one of his victims.

Overall, from the different experiments that I have carried out, I feel that if we combine the idea of a physical deformity leading to the back story of his motivation to kill, and this deformity being a shock to the audience, making him look therefore scarier, but also the less gory more subtle look to make it look more natural- he wouldn't have open bloody wounds all the time.

Special Effects Tutorial that I created

Below shows a video tutorial of how I created, as a responses to some of the images I have already looked at, an interactive effect of a chemical hand burn:

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: