Fiction Adaptation: Test Shoot

I wanted to have a test shoot with my actor so that I could practice how to create the bite mark, get him to try the contact lenses and just generally go through the script with him, so that he was more prepared on what to do, when it came to the actual shoot.

As I didn't have a makeup artist anymore, I decided to go out and buy some FX items, so that I was able to create the bite marks, etc. myself.

I brought gel blood, vampire teeth, lip pencils, a colour wheel, moulding wax, scaring liquid, food colouring and some tools to help with putting the makeup on.

For a scene in my film I have the 'Hooded stranger' aka Charlie lick blood off his lips. As I was unsure whether gel blood was edible, I went online and looked on youtube to see how to make edible fake blood.

I am across a video, where you can mix, golden syrup, flour and food colouring, to make edible blood. I had all these ingredients, except I used self-raising flour instead of normal flour. I didn't follow the measurements from the video, however I was quite pleased with how the blood came out.

I wanted to practice the bite mark, before I had my test shoot with Max. My nan volunteered and I drew the bite mark. Here is how it ended: 

Now that I had some practice I was ready for the test shoot with Max.

Test shoot with Max

I first of all wanted to draw the bite mark and see how it turned out on Max. I first outlined the teeth, went around the outline with red pencil and blended it out so that it didn't look as neat. I went around the outline of the teeth marks with white pencil, so that I knew where I was going to put the scaring liquid. Scaring liquid was a great investment because when the liquid dries it creates indentations in the skin, and the more layers you use, the more deeper the dents look. I used about seven layers in the third image. I did try to add some wax to the edges of the bite, however it was really messy to deal with, so I decided that I wouldn't use the wax for the shoot, as it would take too long to do.

The test shoot was also a good way to test other pieces of makeup that I was hoping to use for the real shoot. I wanted to make sure that Max tried on the contact lenses beforehand, so that I knew whether they irritated him or not. Max has never tried contact lenses before, however when he put them in, they were fine. Luckily I will be able to use these contacts for the shoot.

Here is an image, of Max wearing one of the contacts:

Overall the test shoot went great, I was able to test the makeup out and was also able to shoot a couple of test scenes with my camera. Luckily Charlie was in so I was able to film them doing the attack scene together. After doing this test shoot, I feel much more prepared for the actual shoot.