Make-up FX: Burns

by Marc Fratto

In Strange Things Happen at Sundown, there's a scene where a vampire has holy water thrown in her face, and she suffers third degree burns. This effect was done fairly easily, and in about 45 minutes. Here's how we did it.

Here is actress Livia Llewellyn with her burn makeup....

MATERIALS NEEDED: liquid latex grease makeup pencils (red, pink, purple, black, flesh colored) rice krispies vaseline gel blood (either can be bought in a costume shop, or made by adding red and drop of blue food coloring to vaseline)

Burns can be tough. They certainly take a lot of experimentation to get the right look down. I had been experimenting with burns ever since I was a teenager and got my first bottle of liquid latex.

The first thing I did was add a coat of liquid latex to the actresses' face. (ps. please don't get any in her eyes, or up her nostrils!) As the latex begins to dry, I took rice kripsies, crushed them in my fingers and placed them on the latex where they would stick as the latex dried. Be sure to crush them up enough so the look like small little bubbles. But don't turn them into a powder. There should be some consistency there.

As the latex dries, cut away some holes in the latex, exposing the actors skin, in little pockets. You can make them anywhere between 1/4 of an inch and inch and a half.

Put some liquid latex on your hand. Let it dry, and then peel it off in strips. Gently lay the strips across the actor's face, and even stretch them out a little, giving the appearance of stretched and burned skin.

Now for the coloring. Now this all depends on the color of your actor's skin. if your actor is white, then the holes in the face should appear black. Find the pockets of latex where you created the holes, and color the inside shades of black, and purple. Use red-ish tones to color the rest of the actor's face, adding in dashes of pink and black, along some of the stretched latex strips. Again, this will require some practice. Practice it on your hand prior to the shoot.

If your actor is black, you must do the reverse. Use the pink for inside the latex holes, to make them more visible, and again, use dashes of red and pink on the actors face, and across the strips of strewn latex.

Gel blood is very effective in adding some gooey highlights to a burn. You can usually find this online, or in some local Halloween costume shop. You can also make it by adding red and a drop of blue coloring to Vaseline.

After it's all done, lightly smear some clear Vaseline all over the actor's face, to give the appearing of a wet oozing burn. You can also put in dashes of fake blood, to giving a wet bloody look as well. Don't over do the blood though, just a little dash here or there.This will all remove with a vigorous washing with soap and water. It might take a while. Also be careful when peeling off the latex from the actors face. It's never pleasant.

Learn more about Marc Fratto and STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN AT SUNDOWN by visiting Insane-O-Rama.com

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