Genius Hour 1.8

Horror Movie Special Effects Makeup:

For my final project, I decided to attempt a full face Freddy Krueger special effect on myself. This was set up to be particularly challenging and to use multiple techniques that I have practiced over the course of this project. I had never done a full face special effect on myself, but I was optimistic.

1.  If you look at a picture of Freddy, you will see that he does not have eyebrows. As I was not keen on shaving my eyebrows for a Genius Hour, I had to learn how to cover them with makeup. The disappearing eyebrows trick was something that I thought I would never have to use. I learned how to do this while watching drag queens do their makeup. The process starts with coating the eyebrow with several layers of disappearing purple Elmer's glue stick. After the eyebrow was smoothed back out, I then covered it in skin tone powder and concealer.  I looked like a crackhead, but suffering is necessary for makeup sometimes.

2. I traced the burn wounds out on my face using red cream makeup, then covered all of the empty space in liquid latex and some with Kleenex to give a more wrinkled, aged look. In all of the following pictures my expression does not change, and that's because I literally could not move my face under all the latex.

3. I finally had to finish off the look with a lot of painting and shading work, which is the thing that I feel the least confident in. 

I was not particularly happy with how this turned out, but I know where I made mistakes and how to fix them if I attempt this again. However, that likely will not happen as removing all the latex from my face was incredibly painful and I would not like to repeat that again.

Genius Hour 1.7

Horror Movie Special Effects Makeup:

Earlier in the year, I was a bit worried about where I would take my Genius Hour after Haunted House was complete. However, I found another opportunity to practice special effects makeup in my "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" video. Our chapter topic is blindness, so we had Hannah playing Oedipus in part of the video. In the story of Oedipus, he blinds himself so I had to replicate this with makeup. My challenge was that Hannah is allergic to liquid latex, the only molding material I have ever used. I decided to try tissues covered in liquid Elmer's glue as an alternative.

1. The special effects makeup needed to cover Hannah's eye, so I used a cotton pad to shield her eye from getting any glue or tissue stuck in it. I covered the thin layers of tissue with glue using my fingers. Any sort of applicator would get stuck in the delicate tissue otherwise. The glue and tissue did not end up being transparent, so I had to add a step that I did not expect in the beginning. The tissue was also impossible to maneuver or smooth, making the wound appear really raised, bumpy, and unnatural.

2. I then used foundation with a hint of red face paint to cover the tissue. By this time it was relatively dry, so I felt confident enough to apply the foundation and paint mixture with a paint brush.

3. I then painted the gash through the tissue and over the eye using cream paints and a paintbrI ush. I based the wound in brown, blending out towards red. At this stage, the tissue hardened and it was incredibly difficult to blend, but I made my best attempt.

4. Finally, I did my trademark dripping of fake blood. The blood did dissolve the tissue, so I had to be sparing in my application.

The effect turned out decently at the end, but it's nothing that I'm super proud of. Working with the tissue and glue was generally not a very good time and I will not be using it again unless it's absolutely necessary for me to do so.

Genius Hour 1.6

Horror Movie Special Effects Makeup:

This week's Genius Hour was the thing that I have been building up to this entire time, the Key Club Haunted House. This year I was put in charge of the special effects makeup for all actors and actresses. All of the makeup that I used was donated from Walmart to the Haunted House, so there were some products that were unfamiliar to me.  Another challenge that I had to overcome was time constraints. It was simply not possible for me to do intricate makeup on every actor, but the last night I had some extra time on my hands. I decided to do a little more complex of a look for McKenzie Hirsch, as she showed up early. Her character was a deranged doctor in the Nosocomephobia (fear of hospitals) room.

1. The first thing I did was to layer on white face paint to give my model a sickly pallor. This paint was incredibly difficult to blend, so I eventually called it good enough. As the actors are in low light most of the time, having super neat makeup is less important than having really dramatic makeup.

2. Next I created a base for a gash on the forehead with tissue covered in liquid latex. I've found through trial and error that only using latex does not make a super puffy wound. Because of the low light, I wanted a really dramatic wound with a large base.

3. I then added some brown and red to the wound to imitate the flesh. Because I was not using my own supplies, I had to use eyeshadow to create a fake bruise. I did not have a suitable maroon to add to the bruise, so I only used brown and purple. This was fine for my purpose, because I did not need a hyper-realistic bruise.

4. I then used more of the brown and purple to create bags under the eyes. To create the illusion that my model had been violently operating on patients, I splattered fake blood on her face. To create a more realistic spatter, I poured the blood onto my hand and flicked it onto her face. This made it look more natural than if I had painted it on.