Joe Kerr said:
okay, these are good, but i need, a larger effect for Blood splatter like if i had a machete and i was hacking someone up on the ground...
and i need some ideas for an arrow hit....
any more things/rigs for machete deaths...
be creative,
thanks
-joe
For the splatter, it really all depends on what size brush you use, and how much blood is on the brush. If you have the biggest brush you can find and just completely coat it with blood, you could get the effect that you want, but seriously, any other way, and it would look stupid and unrealistic. But if you just want a whole bunch of blood to shoot across the room, just put it in a container and flick your wrist so it goes flying in a few directions.
An arrow hit is easy. This is all done in the editing room. The beginning of the shot, the actor already has the arrow in them, but on the end of the arrow, you have to attach extremely fine fishing line. It has to be fine enough so that it won't register on camera. I'm going to assume you're going to be using mini-DV, so that shouldn't be too hard to work out. Okay, the beginning of the shot, the arrow is in them and he's in a death/cringe pose, and then you yank it away as fast as humanly possible, so that it looks like the arrow is flying backwards out of him. As it's yanked out, the actor would go into a more normal pose. When editing this, you simply reverse the playback, so that it plays backwards. If everyone did their parts right, it should look like the actor is standing there, and then the arrow comes in and hits them and they react to it. For any shot showing the arrow in the person, you just do that, have the arrow in them and film it. The arrow hit shot should only last a fraction of a second.
To make it look like someone has an arrow in them, you can do one of two things. If you want the arrow to go right through the person, cut the arrow in half and remove part of the center so it looks like the arrow is actually going through the person. Then attach both parts with some wire, and bend the wire so it will go around the actor's body and still conform to it. You have to make sure that the arrow looks like it's straight, or otherwise the illusin is ruined. The actor wears the rig under their clothing, and you cut two small wholes in the clothing for the arrow to go through. If you just want the tip in him, cut the front of the arrow off, and attach some sort of plate or prosthetic to the end. Use spirit gum to glue the prosthetic to the actor's body. Cut a small whole the clothing for the arrow, and you're set. Just dress with blood, and it should be good.
Here's something for a machete death. If you have a high end costume or makeup store near you, or you could probably order one online, get a machete with a section of it cut out. It should be able to fit to a part of someone's body, like the neck, head, arm, leg, abdomen. You fit it to a person's body, and that's how it is in the beginning of the shot. Then the weapon is yanked away from the body very fast. Again, this is played in reverse in by editing it. THIS IS ONLY for the shot of the machete going into the body. Nothing else. There are other rigs and effects for other things, which I may get into later. There wouldn't be any blood in this, because most of the shot would be of the body before it's hit. This would only last about half a second. All of the reaction shots and following shots would have blood. This can also be gone with knives and axes.
*Note, you can make a real machete into what I'm talking about, but it's very dangerous unless you have some metal working skills. You can dull down the blade, measure the part of the actor's body that you want the machete to go into, and cut that out. This can also be done with fake plastic weapons, which while much safer and easier, looks really bad on camera. I only use dulled down metal blades for my movies.
An easy way to dull down metal blades is to simply put clear skotch tape of the sharp side. It shouldn't register on camera if you don't use it for closeups. But beware, using real metal blades is still extremely dangerous, even if they're dulled down. They must be used with extreme caution.
I'm sorry if what I'm saying might not be coming across very clearly. I have a lot to say, and it's hard to articulate it all by typing. If you have any specific questions, just ask. I can also tell you a little about prosthetics and things, if you want to know about that.
And a suggestion, since it's Halloween time, go to any Halloween store you can find and completely raid it for supplies. You could find a lot of useful things in those stores.