How to use makeup in a SFX way- implementation

 Making the Wounds For Our Film

After getting the materials that I bought along with the additional research into Rigid Collodion and Scar Wax I was able to execute the murder scenes makeup. But before I give you a sneak peek into how the makeup turned out on set I must first show you the practice that I did before arriving on set.

Trying at Home

For this I had the person shave both their arms and legs for better application of the Scar Wax.

This is a video of me doing the wound makeup using scar wax. Unfortunately this subject could not have rigid collodion on their skin so I did not get to practice it before filming. However it was not needed (which the explanation will be later in the blog)

On Set Makeup

The actor came shaved allowing for me to skip out on an awkward moment. Also it helped make the process much faster.

Wound Makeup

Wound Makeup

What Could be Fixed?

Due to some misunderstandings with the Cinematographer I was told to complete the makeup look to early. This caused the actor to feel uncomfortable as the Scar Wax cannot be used long term. As time went on the makeup began to shift so it caused me to have to do some sprucing up more often than if I was told to do the makeup later. Also after realizing that the scene had to be pushed back after finishing up the Scar Wax I decided against using Rigid Collodion as it is basically a glue and long term use can cause real harm to the actor. Also, after the miscommunication it caused some staining on the actor with the fake blood after removal but luckily that was combatted with some hot water. 

What Went Right?

I do believe I was able to make the crime scene look pretty realistic along with the makeup looking fine enough to be believable. Also, the application of the wound onto the actor went very smoothly allowing for filming to not be halted as I finished rather quickly. The shade for the bruising effect look very nice against the actors skin allowing for an enhanced realism look. For some areas the more vibrant blood was used to show that while the victim was dead the killer felt a little more resentment and did another slash.

What Have I Learned?

I definitely learned to ask more questions as the situation with the makeup could've been easy to avoid. Also I learned that not every skin type is the same. For the practice that I did at home application was decent but on the actor it was way to slidy even with the baby powder. This made me realize that I should have done a separate meet up with the actor to try out everything before diving right in.