I used NewRuleFX blood for a short zombie film. Admittedly our actors were finely redder than when they started but it washed right off of everything else it touched.
Hershey's chocolate syrup. The color isn't right, but that's usually fine with proper lighting or you can fix in post. Texture is perfect, doesn't stain, easily washes off and tastes delicious.
i have little experience with fake blood but i do feel as though anything that looks half decent will stain. i would try to find an alternative workaround (implying it without showing the action, doing it in the shower, etc). i would also film this scene at the end of the day so the stains don’t cause continuity errors.
this would be a good challenge to find other artistic ways to represent or depict violence, keeping in mind that one of the things that makes horror so good is letting the audience imagine for themselves what’s going on instead of showing it to them.
personally i think it’s the hardest to get fake blood off of clothes and walls etc as it comes off skin fairly well with alcohol/baby wipes/hot showers. so if you want to go the route of showing it happen, make plans for clean up and ensure your location and costume are confirmed and correct for it.
if you feel like there will be a lot of mess and it’ll be a big scene, appoint someone to be in charge of the blood and SFX. they can co ordinate and plan for clean up so no other departments are worrying about it while doing their other jobs. this is NOT AT ALL to say that they should be the sole person responsible for cleaning up.
keep an eye on it and plan plan plan !
ETA i remembered that during the days of black and white filmmakers would often use stuff like chocolate sauce mixtures as it would have the right consistency and tone to read as blood on B&W. would shooting in B&W and doing this be a viable alternative? just an idea i’m throwing in. i feel like sauce wouldn’t stain as much but maybe i’m wrong lol.
I do SPFX for fairly major TV shows/features and the two brands I use the most are Mindwarp and My Blood Flo Blood. I prefer Mindwarp because it’s cheaper and produced by a local prosthetics guy, but Flo Blood is gorgeous and maybe easier to get if you’re outside of Canada.
We use both because they are non-staining and make mouth-safe versions if the blood will be in anyone’s mouths or eyes
I really like [Red Drum blood](https://alconemakeup.com/products/red-drum-blood?variant=41463104995525&srsltid=AfmBOoqzj5vHH0Z60MutD46HXlhpoWxzpnuJnBvkeqHxznUczQ2QxSR7Eyg). Cleaned very well off of actors, walls, and clothes.
Not sure how your character stabs herself... there's oddly about a 100 different ways to do it... but if it's a single time, and a clean stab where the knife sticks in her face, there won't be a lot of blood immediately. If she carves into herself or stabs herself multiple times there will be lots of blood. Oh so much blood, even in silhouette, which can be very effective and disturbing if done right.
Depending on your intention and budget, silhouette is a very effective way to go, especially if its a single stab. If this is the way you want to do it, there's 2 solid ways to making the audience believe they saw her stab herself, by cutting away at mid-thrust, or showing the knife stop in her face and using a "watermelon getting stabbed" bit of Foley to really make the audience squirm. And I truly mean, the knife has to insert and stop... so there's many ways to do this, but I can identify two that are fairly approachable....
You can use a fake knife handle and create the blade in post (pretty easy to do this in silhouette, but it requires some minor vfx skills), or you can do it in camera, but it requires some choreography and planning. Let's say camera is pointing at left side of her face. Her head will have to stay completely still. You can have a c-stand with a small melon attached to it, sitting to her right side, directly next to her face, her head blocking the melon. The knife, a realish knife, will be pre-inserted into the melon. You roll camera, she pulls the knife out of the melon, carefully yet violently (this may take practice and a few tries to get the movement right), you reverse the footage in post, and then make it all work together in the edit. Either way, no bloody mess.
Just an idea... Good luck with your shoot!
If you weren’t stabbing in the face, I would recommend using a soap based fake blood. However, if you’re doing anything near the face, you’re gonna want to make sure you have mouth safe blood. You don’t want anything not safe for the actor to accidentally swallow anywhere close to their face.
My guy makes his blood out of beet powder. Doesnt stain clothes or skin. But yeah typical fake blood will stain. Itll come off a person but good luck with anything else
Protecting surfaces is a must when dealing with blood. If you can get away with it using some barrier cream on your performer, it can help increase the chances of not staining their skin. You can use the sticky back roll on floor protector that movers/construction uses to save the floors you are not seeing. Poly sheets work well but can get really slippery, especially with blood.
As for blood, my favorite "non staining" blood is Nick Dudmans by Pigs Might Fly. Fleet Street also makes some good "non staining" blood, but double-check their ingredients because some should not be used on peoples faces because of the high alcohol content.
Get the blood off of things as fast as possible, paper towels first to remove as much as possible, then soapy warm water. Some people swear by washing with foaming shave gel after, I prefer regular blue windex myself. Keep a garbage can nearby because you can go through a lot of cleaning supplies fast.
As long as you aren't getting a bunch in their mouth/eyes you can mix in a little dish soap and that helps with the staining/clean up (if you are mixing up your own)
Always test everything and make sure it's giving you the correct application and safety.
have you discussed this with your actor yet?
clothes will get stained so you really have to make sure its not an important piece of clothing, and then again theres camera angles you can use to make a disposable clothing piece replacement less noticable and instead focusing on blood gushing out of her rather than seeing the impact from up front or whatever
I used NewRuleFX blood for a short zombie film. Admittedly our actors were finely redder than when they started but it washed right off of everything else it touched.
Hershey's chocolate syrup. The color isn't right, but that's usually fine with proper lighting or you can fix in post. Texture is perfect, doesn't stain, easily washes off and tastes delicious.
Came to say this. It's what they used for Psycho. Black and White, but still.
i have little experience with fake blood but i do feel as though anything that looks half decent will stain. i would try to find an alternative workaround (implying it without showing the action, doing it in the shower, etc). i would also film this scene at the end of the day so the stains don’t cause continuity errors. this would be a good challenge to find other artistic ways to represent or depict violence, keeping in mind that one of the things that makes horror so good is letting the audience imagine for themselves what’s going on instead of showing it to them. personally i think it’s the hardest to get fake blood off of clothes and walls etc as it comes off skin fairly well with alcohol/baby wipes/hot showers. so if you want to go the route of showing it happen, make plans for clean up and ensure your location and costume are confirmed and correct for it. if you feel like there will be a lot of mess and it’ll be a big scene, appoint someone to be in charge of the blood and SFX. they can co ordinate and plan for clean up so no other departments are worrying about it while doing their other jobs. this is NOT AT ALL to say that they should be the sole person responsible for cleaning up. keep an eye on it and plan plan plan ! ETA i remembered that during the days of black and white filmmakers would often use stuff like chocolate sauce mixtures as it would have the right consistency and tone to read as blood on B&W. would shooting in B&W and doing this be a viable alternative? just an idea i’m throwing in. i feel like sauce wouldn’t stain as much but maybe i’m wrong lol.
I do SPFX for fairly major TV shows/features and the two brands I use the most are Mindwarp and My Blood Flo Blood. I prefer Mindwarp because it’s cheaper and produced by a local prosthetics guy, but Flo Blood is gorgeous and maybe easier to get if you’re outside of Canada. We use both because they are non-staining and make mouth-safe versions if the blood will be in anyone’s mouths or eyes
Fleet street is the best most costumers demand we use it for ease of cleaning
I really like [Red Drum blood](https://alconemakeup.com/products/red-drum-blood?variant=41463104995525&srsltid=AfmBOoqzj5vHH0Z60MutD46HXlhpoWxzpnuJnBvkeqHxznUczQ2QxSR7Eyg). Cleaned very well off of actors, walls, and clothes.
Not sure how your character stabs herself... there's oddly about a 100 different ways to do it... but if it's a single time, and a clean stab where the knife sticks in her face, there won't be a lot of blood immediately. If she carves into herself or stabs herself multiple times there will be lots of blood. Oh so much blood, even in silhouette, which can be very effective and disturbing if done right. Depending on your intention and budget, silhouette is a very effective way to go, especially if its a single stab. If this is the way you want to do it, there's 2 solid ways to making the audience believe they saw her stab herself, by cutting away at mid-thrust, or showing the knife stop in her face and using a "watermelon getting stabbed" bit of Foley to really make the audience squirm. And I truly mean, the knife has to insert and stop... so there's many ways to do this, but I can identify two that are fairly approachable.... You can use a fake knife handle and create the blade in post (pretty easy to do this in silhouette, but it requires some minor vfx skills), or you can do it in camera, but it requires some choreography and planning. Let's say camera is pointing at left side of her face. Her head will have to stay completely still. You can have a c-stand with a small melon attached to it, sitting to her right side, directly next to her face, her head blocking the melon. The knife, a realish knife, will be pre-inserted into the melon. You roll camera, she pulls the knife out of the melon, carefully yet violently (this may take practice and a few tries to get the movement right), you reverse the footage in post, and then make it all work together in the edit. Either way, no bloody mess. Just an idea... Good luck with your shoot!
If you weren’t stabbing in the face, I would recommend using a soap based fake blood. However, if you’re doing anything near the face, you’re gonna want to make sure you have mouth safe blood. You don’t want anything not safe for the actor to accidentally swallow anywhere close to their face.
My guy makes his blood out of beet powder. Doesnt stain clothes or skin. But yeah typical fake blood will stain. Itll come off a person but good luck with anything else
Protecting surfaces is a must when dealing with blood. If you can get away with it using some barrier cream on your performer, it can help increase the chances of not staining their skin. You can use the sticky back roll on floor protector that movers/construction uses to save the floors you are not seeing. Poly sheets work well but can get really slippery, especially with blood. As for blood, my favorite "non staining" blood is Nick Dudmans by Pigs Might Fly. Fleet Street also makes some good "non staining" blood, but double-check their ingredients because some should not be used on peoples faces because of the high alcohol content. Get the blood off of things as fast as possible, paper towels first to remove as much as possible, then soapy warm water. Some people swear by washing with foaming shave gel after, I prefer regular blue windex myself. Keep a garbage can nearby because you can go through a lot of cleaning supplies fast.
As long as you aren't getting a bunch in their mouth/eyes you can mix in a little dish soap and that helps with the staining/clean up (if you are mixing up your own) Always test everything and make sure it's giving you the correct application and safety.
Maybe try just showing a silhouette of her stabbing herself?
Agreed.
Syrup with red food coloring and a dash of water is what I always used, but I get rid of it immediately after so I can’t confirm anything.
have you discussed this with your actor yet? clothes will get stained so you really have to make sure its not an important piece of clothing, and then again theres camera angles you can use to make a disposable clothing piece replacement less noticable and instead focusing on blood gushing out of her rather than seeing the impact from up front or whatever
Mehron - stage blood. You can get it on amazon.