Secondary Research

For my secondary research, I believed it would be beneficial for our group to look at how bruises are made using makeup and how fake blood is created. I believed this would be beneficial as it is key skills for each of our ideas, therefore when we come to a final decision on which idea to go with, we will have valuable resources. I looked at three different videos and trialed the tutorials to see how they work in person. I trialed these ideas as I wanted to achieve the most realistic effect.   

Fake Blood 

This is the first video I looked at, I believe that the most realistic fake blood could be achieved by following this video however I did not have access to corn syrup so, therefore, I found another video, that did not include corn syrup. What I liked most about this video is that the man incorporated blue dye which gives it a darker more realistic effect. 

In the next video I watched, I found that I had access to all the materials, so I decided to replicate it.

Ingredients:

To create this fake blood I used one tablespoon of Colacoa /chocolate powder, one glass of water, a whole tube of red food colouring, and half a jar of powdered sugar 300g, and a blender. 

Step 1: to begin creating the fake blood I added firstly one glass of water, then I added the sugar, then I added the chocolate powder, and then finally added the red food colouring before blending everything together. I reduced the amount of each ingredient from the original video as the blender was not big enough to hold the amounts suggested. 

  
  

Step 2: I blended the ingredients together to form the fake blood, it took around 10seconds for the ingredients to come together. 

 

Once the fake blood was created I sampled it, I discovered that this recipe created very runny blood. When the blood was applied to the skin it looked quite realistic, however, if I was to re-do this experiment I would add more sugar to get a thicker consistency as this would have been more realistic. After I had finished creating the fake blood, I was curious to see if the blue dye from the first video would create a deeper red when added to the mixture. I decided to test my theory.

 After adding a few drops of the blue dye to the mixture, it turned brown and did not have the completion of blood at all, I am glad I tested this as I am aware of this if I decide to follow this recipe again. Another key element that I thought was beneficial with this recipe is the fact that it is edible, this means that there are no complications with having this blood on the face close to the mouth.

The result when blue was added:

The cleanup: In the end, another positive of this fake blood was that it was very easy to remove and clean it left no residue or marks on the skin or on the surfaces of the kitchen. To remove all that was needed was water. 

A comparison of the two results: 

Mine:

Videos: 

In this trial, I discovered that when this is actually created it is much more liquid like that in the original video, I believe this could be due to the lack of sugar in mine compared to the video itself. I believe this fake blood is quite successful as it has a very easy cleanup and created the effect wanted for scenes wanting to use masses of fake blood such as Jana's idea or Gite's idea.

 Following the process of the video, I did not receive the same substance, therefore I would be hesitant to try this recipe again on my shoot day, I believe that the first video including the corn starch will give me a better result as this allows the substance to be thicker this means for our shoot day we will need to pre-order corn syrup.

 Bruises 

I decided to look at bruises as this can cross into the top three ideas that my group has had for an opening title sequence. Jana's idea with a man being killed will require fake blood and bruises to show injury and signs of struggle. Gite's idea will require these two items to reflect the same, and if we follow my horror idea we will need these two areas of knowledge to realistically show a girl going through these horror experiences, such as a failed lobotomy (blood running past the eye), bruises from the men dragging her into the building, etc. 

This video showed an easy way to achieve realistic bruises and used cheap equipment to create this effect.

I followed the steps of this tutorial to see how the results would actually look. 

What is required:

• Dark green eye shadow 
• yellow mustard eye shadow 
• plumb purple eyeshadow 
• dark purple eyeshadow 
• red eyeshadow
• light pink blush  
• dark pink blush 

Step 1: I started by applying the light pink blush around my arm as the first layer, with this I incorporated the dark pink to create a medium-light pink as the base of the bruise. 

 

Step 2: After this in a circular motion around the bruise, I applied the green. This allowed for a border of the bruise and gave the bruise more depth. With my brush, I blended the pink together with the green to have it work together to produce the start of a realistic-looking bruise. 

Step 3: To enhance the colour of the bruise I added yellow eyeshadow and dapped it into the green this gives more colours to the green area which allows it to look more like a fresh bruise. 

 

Step 4: I then added the 2 different purples inside the bruise into different locations mainly circling inside the green this allowed for the bruise to look more realistic. I started with the lighter purple/plum purple as this allowed me to have an outline of how it would look once the deeper purple was applied. Adding the purple made the bruise look deeper and therefore more painful.

Step 5: Finally I added hard dabs of red into the center of the bruise, this gave the effect that blood vessels had been burst, which made the bruise look more realistic, I added more of each colour to give, stronger, deeper tones and then gently blended the colours together. 

I was strongly impressed with the result of this video, I believed that the bruise looked very realistic. I tested the bruise on my mum to see if she was convinced by its appearance and she was repulsed by its appearance which I believe makes the result a success. 

The removal:The removal was very easy again with this all that was required was a make-up removal wipe and the bruise was instantly gone.  

Comparison between the two results:

Mine:

Videos: 

This video in the end gives you a very close comparison to what she has created with a realistic look, out of the two trials I believe this one was the most effective as it gave something we can actually use and have all the equipment to create.

Following the video exactly I was able to create a highly realistic bruise, therefore I would be very comfortable with using this method again when it comes to my actual shoot day.