Practising with Makeup

We had a lesson with Loz on how to use stage makeup and which products to use for certain injuries. The injuries include a black eye, 'cat scratches' on the cheek and blood coming the ear.

We had a practice using the makeup, applying it to a hand.

 This is a faint bruise created following the lines that are naturally on the hand. This will help us when making a black eye as we can follow the natural bone structure of our actor.

 This is making 'cat scratches' using a straw that has been cut at an angle. The blood being used here is called "scratch blood", this never dries out therefore is better for very thin, light scratches.

 More "cat scratches"

This is an example of what "liquid blood" looks like. Unlike 'scratch blood' it dries eventually because it is a liquid rather than a gel. We will use this blood to run from our actors ear.

When it comes to using fake blood we have to be careful of contamination, because it can get everywhere. It won't look realistic if there are specks of blood on the actors shirt before she has been "beaten up". This is why we are filming this shot (when Lottie is covered in blood) last so that there is no chance of contamination.

Left and below are some examples of what we would like to try and achieve. As we are only beginners when it comes to stage makeup we can't guarantee that the injuries will look as realistic as these.

Below is a photo of real cat scratches. If we could mimic these on the cheek of our actor I think that it would look really great. They are so simple so we aren't overwhelming the audience with blood and gore.