This five-part section goes in depth into movie blood and bullet hit effects on the skin. My goal is to make these pages a thorough and detailed resource for filmmakers. Some of the films whose special makeup effects I'll explore include TAXI DRIVER, THE GODFATHER I and II, THE DEER HUNTER, BLUE VELVET - as well as two films I've done, DEADLY FORCE and JAVA HEAT. I am not going to cover CGI blood (aside from brief comments) as I am no fan of it. These pages are about practical effects, or as we used to call them: Effects.
With the exception of JAVA HEAT, the sequences I examine are from the 1970s and 1980s. In those days when a special effect was in a script, one had to figure out a way to create it, apply it on an actor (usually), make the effect work in real time, plus it had to be repeatable. The methods of creation back then were the same as they are now: head scratching, hard work, and burning the midnight oil.
Filmmaking is all about problem solving - and effects work has presented its share of nuts to be cracked since special effects men and cinematographers parted the Red Sea for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS in 1923 (long before that, actually). Creating something you've never done before , devising a way to execute a tricky effect... that's always the fun and challenging part.
Here is a 1:02 minute sequence from my FX reel with some gunplay mayhem and bloodletting I've created over the years. (Special thanks to Charlie Sheen, Miguel Ferrer, Bruce Campbell, Scott Glenn, Paul Shenar and Reggie Bannister for dishing out lead justice - or simply taking a bullet for the team.)