Special effects make-up

My practical source of inspiration I have decided to explore is special effects make-up. As in my research I looked at the slasher horror genre, so thought this would be a good oppurtunity to experiment what different make-up effects I could create which we could then use when filming our coursework. The sort of effects I wanted to make were stab wounds, to make it seem as if someone had been slashed with a knife as this is a common injury in horror movies. I found some examples of what I wanted to make first:

Firstly I watched some YouTube videos that showed methods to make effective slasher wounds, some of the ones I found were very detailed and too complex to be able to create without special equipment, but I did manage to find one which was exactly what I was looking for and gave  clear detailed instructions of what to do and also told me what equipment I'd need to do it:

 

Once I knew what I needed to create that specific effect, I went to hobbycraft and as it is near Halloween I was able to purchase red and black face paint, fake blood and special scar wax that was needed to shape the actual wound and make it look realistic. After buying these items I then asked Ellie to be the model I did the make-up on and I was ready to start.

Along with the materials I bought I also got a leaflet which gave a few examples of what you could make with the equipment, I looked through the pages and found one similar to what I wanted to do on Ellie so I then used this as well as the YouTube clip as a guideline.

Step 1: I began by taking a suitable amount of scar wax and mixing it with water to soften it, which I then applied to Ellie's face as accurately as possible. 

Step 2: I then used the white scraper that came in the pack I bought to cut two lines in the scar wax and dig out the middle to create the shape of the wound.

Step 3: I then began to paint the middle of the wound, beginning with black paint and then using red over the top to create a more realistic looking cut colour than just an unnatural bright red, also mixing the two colours together meant that it was more than one colour which is what we wanted. 

Step 4: I fully coloured the cut and then applied foundation over the top of the scar wax so that the cut blended in with her skin and looked more natural.

Step 5: I finally added the fake blood to the cut which created a drip down her face and also mixed well with the face paint to making the whole wound look more realistic. 

After having this opportunity to experiment with special effects make-up and see what I could produce, I now know exactly what I  will have to do to make the same sort of effect when filming our coursework to create realistic looking wounds on our actors. I would make some changes when doing this again, firstly when I started I was unsure on how to use the wax which made it go lumpy, next time I will know what to do immediately, also I didn't have a foundation which matched Ellie's exact skin tone, so next time I do this I will make sure to check in advance that the foundation we use is the same colour as the actors skin. Apart from these minor flaws, I think this was very productive and helpful towards our filming in the future and has helped me to expand my knowledge in the slasher horror genre.

Genre Investigation - Slasher

'A slasher film is a sub-genre of horror film, and at times thriller, typically involving a mysterious psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims usually in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe. Although the term 'slasher' may be used as a generic term for any horror film involving graphic acts of murder, the slasher as a genre has its own set of characteristics which set it apart from related genres like the splatter film'

Within slasher films, there are many conventions including:

Mysterious psychopathic killer

• Masked 
• Disfigured
• Weapon of choice e.g. knife, chainsaw
• Childhood trauma/revenge
• Often silent and unstoppable
• Will never die
• e.g. Freddie Krueger, Michael Myers
• Stalking and killing

The final girl 

• Virgin
• Unlikely to be blonde, never promiscuous
• Sexually promiscuous characters ALWAYS die

Location 

• Usually a suburb or quiet town
• Safe
• Or a place that the killer identifies with – e.g. When Myers comes back to his house in Haddonfield (in Halloween)

Examples of slashers

• Halloween
• Friday the 13th
• My Bloody Valentine
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• A Nightmare on Elm Street
• Scream

Holly's work

I looked at 'Halloween' the 2007 remake which was written, produced and directed by Rob Zombie, who is a famous horror director and is behind many other films such as House of 1000 Corpses. The film is a remake of the original which was made in 1978. The films main protaganist is Michael Myers.  

Michael Myers and how he fits into the Slasher genre

Here, Michael is wearing a mask, covering his face. He refers to himself as 'ugly' as a child and says that is why he wears it. He also enjoys making them.

Below, as a child, Michael wore a mask whilst killing his family, showing signs of emotional distress/trauma in his childhood. In this remake, his family is shown to be dysfunctional - his mum a stripper, he gets verbally abused by his step-father and they are a relatively poor family.

 Michael always gets up, even after being shot, shows he is unbeatable and powerful. 

Here, the 'virgin' girl, Laurie, Michael's sister. She can be seen to be the 'girl next door' type. Nothing promiscuous about the way she dresses or acts, she even jokes about her lack of sexual experience in the film.

Location - family home in suburban area. Also set in Michael's old home (where he murdered his family)

Sexually promiscuous characters about to be killed by Michael - typical genre convention. 

Michael's weapon of choice - a butchers knife.

Mia's Work

I focused on the remake 2010 version of 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' when looking into the genre of slasher horror, it is directed by Samuel Bayer and written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer it revolves around a group of teenagers who are being stalked in their dreams by an enigmatic man named Freddy Krueger. Chased and chastised by this finger-bladed demon, it is the awakening of old memories and the denials of a past of retribution that spurns this hellish vision of a dreamlike state and turns death into a nightmare reality.

This film contains many classic slasher horror conventions that typically come up in many films, for example, the killer Freddy Krueger comes from a traumatic background, has a specific weapon he kills all his victims with (razor fingers), is deformed as he was burnt, and is unstoppable. The film includes the convention of sexual promiscuity in teenagers resulting in their eventual death. It also has a 'final girl' which is very common, it is Nancy in this film she is seen as lonely, quiet, socially awkward, but strong which are the usual characteristics.

This picture from the film shows Freddy Krueger's deformed face after he has been burnt by the angry parents of his victims.

This picture shows clearly the specific weapon Freddy uses to kill his victims. This also portrays the idea of sexual promiscuity in teenagers leading to their death as the girl is naked in the bath.

These pictures show a common setting that slasher horror films use, which is a suburban school. It adds a sense of realism to the film and creates fear within the audience.

 This shows the final girl looking innocent and scared for her life as the killer is approaching her, but she is always kept alive until the very end.

 This presents the killer in lots of shadows and darkness, as he is further away it provides a build up for him to reach the victim which slasher horror films do often to create fear.

Mise en Scene in Slasher

We decided to look at slasher films and I looked at Mise en Scene in particular. I thought about how I wanted the killer in our slasher to come across. Firstly, I thought back to conventions of slasher films and about how the killers often are masked, due to disfigurement or wanting to hide their identity. I looked into the different killers from many slashers, including Jason Voorhees from ‘Friday the 13^th’ and Ghostface from ‘Scream’, as well as some less well-known faces such as those from ‘The Strangers’ and the killer from ‘The Collector’.

We also saw that killers are often wearing masks that resemble clowns or dolls and also seem to be Halloween themed – like Michael Myers in ‘Halloween’.

I went to Asda and looked in the Halloween section for clown masks and came across a doll-faced plastic mask at a low cost. I thought the mask already looked creepy and was perfect for our killer. I also purchased fake blood to splatter across the mask to add to the slasher theme.

Here are the finished results, with use of under lighting to cast shadows on the face in order to add more mystery and suspense to the character.

Another important aspect of a killer in a slasher film is the killer’s choice of weapon. During research, I found many different types of weapon. For example, Leatherface usually uses a chainsaw (hence the Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Freddy Krueger has a glove which has knives for fingers and Michael Myers from Halloween often uses a butchers knife.

We had to think of something original but easy to make at a low cost. We wanted it to be something that hadn’t been previously used but that would also do a lot of damage to a victim. We firstly thought of a trap-like construction, like in the Saw films. But after trying to develop this idea we abandoned it as it would cost too much and we don’t have the tools or skills to make such contraptions.

Instead, we wanted something signature like a knife or machete. We then considered something normal like a golf-club or bat, to make the killer seem more realistic. After all, if you make something normal seem petrifying, it’s going to affect the audience more and make them feel terrified. We then thought of a weapon like the one pictured below, a bat with nails sticking out the end, with bits of meat and blood splattered across it. Unfortunately, we couldn't source a bat at a low enough cost and so we decided to think of another weapon. Whilst searching through a toolbox I came across a rusty old hand-saw. Immediately I thought of 'The Strangers' and how they used normal every-day items to torment their victims.

 

Here are the finished results:

I think the saw and the mask work well together, for me it makes the character seem simply mad, perhaps just killing for the fun of it, much like the characters in 'The Strangers'