Makeup effects, Bill?

For blood, I've had good luck with a mixture of Karo corn syrup, chocolate sauce (for richness of color), and red food coloring. The main thing I would say is to not use very much food color. If you do, the blood looks neon and fake. Just use enough to get red highlights out of the goo that the chocolate syrup gives. If you want the blood to move (trickling down a wall, pooling out on a floor), use more corn syrup. It provides more motion and it's usually lighter than the chocolate.

You're right about the Karo, although I've never mixed chocolate syrup into the blood. I usually mix a little green food color to take the color of the red down. As for burns, a easy way to do it is to use karo to glue down tissue paper (Kleenex) onto the skin. You could use the Karo blood to do that and then powder it down with charcoal powder to give it a charred look. It will be messy, but should work. The Karo is water soluable so it shouldn't be that hard to take off. Good luck.

This board is just full of useful information!!! (well useful to me anyway...)

anyone know how to make fake guts, I always wonder just what those extras have to eat in the zombie movies.

or maybe no one does, but does anyone know how to make steam then? Like when a vampire touches a cross and its hand starts steaming etc. Is there any way you could do that with just plain make up effects or do they add that in later? Inquiring minds want to know.

Ok, the guts in many films are real pig guts. I make mine out of hot pour, but that is very dangerous stuff. You can make intestines by brushing latex out on a smooth surface. Once it is dry, you then lay cotton on top and roll the latex over it like a burrito.
As for the smoke effects, they are mostly done with smoking units and tubes. Some may use AB smoke, but I find that to be very dangerous and accidently burned an assistant with that stuff. It is best to leave that effect to professionals.

So they eat pig guts? ...Eeew... anyways thanks for the tips.

For a movie I worked on, they did a burning, smoking hand effect the cheap way. In the scene a curling iron was forced into a woman's hand and smoke comes out, and all the effects guy did was string a tube up the actresses' arm and blow cigarette smoke in from the other end. Worked just fine.

You could use A/B smoke for that. If it isn't coming in contact with someone.

It is 2 chemicals that smoke when they come in contact with each other.

Does anyone know how to make it look like there is blood gushing from a wound? Is there a cheap way to do this?

Buy a very sharp knife.

Damn, I never thought of that...

I would think about just insurting a tube underneath the clothing, and then pump blood at the end of it?

- Fixxxer

Several ways to make blood gush from a wound... By the way I'm not an experienced make-up effects artist, I just read books and think about what I would need to see to make me believe this is real.

Blood as established, Karo mixed with red food coloring, I add a little blue to give it a dark look. Also I'm not sure but I believe your best bet is to go with the clear karo syrup, not the maple house kind you use for pancakes, although it could work too.

For some cheap effects on blood gushing you could buy some condoms, yes do not be afraid! Fill them with your blood mixture and tape them to the victim’s body. This works best for stunts where the actor is wearing clothes and the skin isn't revealed, you could easily walk up to the person and pop the bag. Although you should be very cautious especially if attempting to cut the bag with a real knife. This technique actually works with different stunts as well, like Last House on the Left, the women who falls in the pool gets her throat cut, but what actually happens is under her shirt is a bag filled with blood, when the actor appears to cut her throat the women pops the bag and the blood shoots up, looking as if she really did cut her, good stuff.

Intestines, well yes you could always use real ones, but that’s kind of nasty to me, anyway...here's my take. Buy some more condoms, or well rubber balloons, what everyone you want. Fill them with peanut butter and jelly and connect them all together, soak them in some of your blood mixture and there you have it. Not sure if it's a good effect, but it's worth a try.

Also some of the greatest effects can be achieved right at your very own home. Suppose you are filming a scene where zombies are eating, well take some left over chicken mix it around in your blood mixture, if you really have some money to spare you could do it with steaks also. So you see it's really not that hard, just think what would you have to see to make you believe it's real. Also tubes come in handy as well, just tape them to the victim or what have you, make sure they are concealed and just pump the blood through. There you go that’s my take.

Or, if you're as averse to eating corn syrupy leftovers as I am, you could just have your zombies like their meat well-done.

Condoms. Is there anything they can't do?

I just found a few awesome tips on random gore:

Coming Out of A Grave

I decided to put this in the "Gore" section, cuz usually when someone come out of a grave they're all decayed and stuff and its usually pretty gross. Cool, huh?

First, dig a hole, then shore up the hole by building a wood box to line it (so it doesn't fall in) then either cover the hole with spandex and sod or fill the hole with soft moss and peat moss from a plant nursery... that's all there is to it. If you use spandex: stake the edges tight and cut a slit big enough for the talent, then cover with sod and moss.

Also, if you like, get an old vaccuum hose,plug one end and drill holes in it. (1/4" is O.K.) Then pipe a smoke machine into it to have smoke as the corpse emerges from the hole.

Stab Wounds

One the best way to do stab wounds (but one of the most dangerous ways) is to do this:
-Take a knife and file it down so it's as dull as possible.
-Now strap a piece of sheet metal to the person being stabbed.
-Strap on some sytrofoam over that. Just enough so it doesn't make too big of a bump.
-Affix a blood packet (blood-filled condoms work best) to the styrofoam.
-Now, when the scene starts, have the killer stab the styrofoam. (Gently!!)
-The blood will run down, and when the killer takes their hand away the knife will stay in the stabee's "chest"
Also, to just slice someone, put a small tube of blood on one side of the knife and run that side against the person's skin. A sponge also works just fine. In Thurston James book, "The Theater Props Handbook", he gives detailed instructions on how to make a blood knife with a syringe in the handle for spewing out the blood. It's a little hard, and probably looks no better than the sponge idea.
You could of course always buy one of those knives that retract into their blades...

Falling
Very high falls have to be done by the power of suggestion. Use multiple shots of one falling to suggest them falling a long time, then cut to them hitting the ground. (They only have to hit the ground from 2 feet up.) If you sprinkle Fuller's Earth on the ground, when the actor hits it will make a nice fog of dust. This is what they did in Evil Dead II, when Ash falls out of the time portal and onto the ground. He was in fact jumping off a 6 foot ladder onto a pad loaded with Fuller's Earth. This effect is also used in "The Wild Bunch." When a man falls off a roof, look closely and you CAN SEE HIM HIT THE GROUND. They dug a hole for the pad and put Fuller's Earth on it.

Electrocution

Stick your actor lit in a very dark room.
Cover a light with foil so that light only shines on the actor.
Set up 1 or more camera flashes or get a strobe light behind your actor so when they go off the bright light makes a sort of bright halo around the guy. (It would help if you had some smoke or dust in the air.)
Lay in some really good electrical sound fx, such as the hum and zap sounds of high-voltage. Overdub that on your video at just the right time and make lots of VERY quick jump cuts of the actor with the strobes behind him from slighty different angles. When played back, you could get a convincing electric-arc feel.

(Edited because I'm an idiot)