Why we did this
While creating our trailer, we came up with many different ideas that we were going to use. One of these ideas was to have horror makeup within our trailer. In this video I made an open cut wound across the arm, we experimented with many different ideas but we finally came to a choice of this. The other ideas that we thought of as well as this was having cuts across the joint and neck, unfortunately with these ideas we didn't record them.
How we did this
When I was making this open cut wound on my arm I mainly did it with tissue and makeup. To do this you would need kitchen roll, I chose kitchen roll because it gave the effect of the cut looking deeper into the skin. The second item that you would need is PVA glue, this helps you to keep the kitchen roll stuck onto your arm and being able to layer the kitchen roll up as well. You will then need a hair dryer to help the drying process become quicker. You then take some scissors and make a cut through the kitchen roll, this gives the effect of the skin being open for the wound. You then take the hair dryer again because the inside of the kitchen roll that you just cut open can still be wet from the glue.
After all of the tissue is dry, you take some white makeup paint to cover any branding logos or patterns that may be on the kitchen roll. Once you have covered the kitchen roll with the white makeup paint, you then take a foundation that is the same or similar to the skin colour on your arms, you then put this over the white paint on top of the kitchen roll to make it look like your skin. when I did this I had to mix two colours together to get the right match for my skin tone. After you have done this, you have the choice to either set the foundation on your arm with a setting powder to stop the fake blood and foundation mixing together or you can leave it to give the wound that shiny affect.
You then start to make the cut look like an open cut wound, you firstly take a dark coloured eye shadow to give around the cut that bruised effect. preferably I would use a dark brown because it looks more natural than black eye shadow. once you have made the cut look bruised, you then take the fake blood and start to paint the inside of the wound, I did this with a small paint brush because I was then able to get into the corners of the wound so that it covered underneath the kitchen roll as well. I then took a special effects wax that was coloured red, this helped the wound look more realistic because it made it look like there was chunks within the wound, basically making the cut look deeper than it really is. Once you have put the wax into the cut you then get the fake blood again and start to drip it down your arm, this gives the effect that it is a fresh wound and quite painful. I feel like if you didn't put any of the fake blood down the arm it would just look like a horrible burn. After you have focused on the inside of the cut, you then start to take some of the fake blood and blend it around your arm to make the cut look more sore and infected. once you have done all of these steps, your open cut is ready.
After all of the tissue is dry, you take some white makeup paint to cover any branding logos or patterns that may be on the kitchen roll. Once you have covered the kitchen roll with the white makeup paint, you then take a foundation that is the same or similar to the skin colour on your arms, you then put this over the white paint on top of the kitchen roll to make it look like your skin. when I did this I had to mix two colours together to get the right match for my skin tone. After you have done this, you have the choice to either set the foundation on your arm with a setting powder to stop the fake blood and foundation mixing together or you can leave it to give the wound that shiny affect.
You then start to make the cut look like an open cut wound, you firstly take a dark coloured eye shadow to give around the cut that bruised effect. preferably I would use a dark brown because it looks more natural than black eye shadow. once you have made the cut look bruised, you then take the fake blood and start to paint the inside of the wound, I did this with a small paint brush because I was then able to get into the corners of the wound so that it covered underneath the kitchen roll as well. I then took a special effects wax that was coloured red, this helped the wound look more realistic because it made it look like there was chunks within the wound, basically making the cut look deeper than it really is. Once you have put the wax into the cut you then get the fake blood again and start to drip it down your arm, this gives the effect that it is a fresh wound and quite painful. I feel like if you didn't put any of the fake blood down the arm it would just look like a horrible burn. After you have focused on the inside of the cut, you then start to take some of the fake blood and blend it around your arm to make the cut look more sore and infected. once you have done all of these steps, your open cut is ready.
Final thoughts
My final thoughts on the special effects makeup turned out to be better than I expected. Overall, the process of making the cut was well over an hour but i've noticed that the more effort you put into the makeup the more realistic it turns out to be. In the end we didn't use any of the special effects makeup as we started to change our ideas on what we wanted to do for our trailer.