What Is The Best Way To Produce Blood And Gore Scenes?

Many film and TV productions have some blood and gore in them, but there are many different options when it comes to producing the special effects, not least because the productions may range from true-to-life crime to science fiction.

Blood is always a compelling prop, because death and gore can be a major part of any drama or film. This can range from crime scenes in cop shows to the blood and guts of a classic horror film such as Jaws.

If you are planning to make a production using our film studios in Manchester, there are many different options when it comes to the props and effects you need.

What Special Effects Were Used In Jaws?

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is a classic example of how realistic horror effects can be produced with the use of excellent props and a lot of fake blood, in this case, quite necessarily, mixed with water:

• The use of a mechanical model shark called Bruce, long before CGI was available

• Three models had to be used, because the hydraulic systems were prone to damage from seawater

• Some scenes used footage of real sharks, such as an attack on an underwater diving cage

These techniques produced the effects of the shark, with lots of fake blood to deal with the effects of people being caught up in its jaws. In addition, there were further props in the form of severed human body parts, adding to the horror.

Even the climax of the film, where the main protagonist uses a rifle to shoot the air canister in the shark’s mouth, causing an explosion that blows it to bits, was a creative use of props. Bruce was stuffed with explosives and real animal guts for his screen denouement.

With the models often suffering malfunctions and filming running behind schedule, there was plenty of improvisation in filming, with very little of Bruce being visible most of the time, but the final result, aided by the unforgettable score, was a cinematic masterpiece.

How Can Props Be Used For Comedy Gore?

Gore can be represented in many different ways. Jaws is a classic example of horror, as are zombie apocalypse films such as 28 Days Later. On the other hand, it can be achieved for comedy purposes, such as Shaun of the Dead or Black Sheep.

The latter film is a classic example of props and puppets, made by Weeto Workshop, being used to recreate the carnivorous sheep (while using real sheep in some scenes) without any need for CGI. Lots of fake blood and some real intestines could be added for the effects.

What Black Sheep showed was that an original film could be made without resort to CGI, with a mix of indoor studio and location shoots, the latter being required anyway for its setting in rural New Zealand.

Weeto Workshop carried out extensive work on props, puppets and prosthetics, but some films have taken a much more low-tech approach.

A classic example is the 1963 film Blood Feast, a production whose overriding theme is almost as self-explanatory as Snakes on a Plane. Its low-budget approach meant this really was the stuff of strawberry jam and tomato ketchup.

Of course, blood and gore can be represented in other ways. A classic approach is that taken by Raiders of the Lost Ark, in the shot where Indiana Jones is involved in a punch-up with a burly German mechanic next to an aircraft that is slowly rotating.

In this memorable scene, Indiana is losing the fist fight, but the movement of the plane means his opponent is cut down by the propeller. This is not shown directly, but the scene shows the blood splattering across the plane’s wings.

How Was The Melting Face Special Effect Produced?

This effect is carried out in a film that does not skimp on gruesome scenes. Indeed, the climax of the film produced one of the most memorable examples of props and special effects in history, with the ‘melting face’ scene.

In that case, a mix of wax, gelatin and dye had been carefully and painstakingly painted and layered onto a stone skull, with the melting effect being generated using a heat lamp and a time-lapse camera.

At the same time, the film had plenty of standard scenes with lots of fake blood from fights, cuts, grazes and bullet wounds.

All of these were achieved without CGI, which may encourage you to use lots of blood and guts where appropriate in your production. This is only to be expected.

For example, crime drama series like Happy Valley or The Bill had lots of blood, but no CGI, although the former did use special effects for the scene in which the main antagonist, Tommy Lee Royce, sets himself alight in the final episode.

Human dramas are, by nature, easier to achieve without using special effects. The same can never be said of horror, fantasy and science fiction. This creates all manner of opportunities for special effects to play a role, not least in scenes of death and bloodshed.

Is There A Place For CGI In Blood And Guts Scenes?

If Black Sheep and Jaws are examples of props and models being used for this purpose, CGI may be used in other instances where the original creature does not exist in the current world.

An example of this is the 2018 film The Meg, based on the idea of a giant megalodon shark, a supposedly extinct creature that is accidentally released during a diving expedition and wreaks predictable carnage.

Unlike the real sharks and sheep used in Jaws and Black Sheep, this requires CGI to recreate a 75ft long monster that, thankfully, really does belong to the distant past.

This is not to say that Jaws might not have used CGI had it been available. Indeed, having fried the next shark with an electrical cable in Jaws 2, the second sequel, Jaws 3D, sought to tap into this screen technology, with fans wearing 3D specs in the cinema.

Ultimately, however, while you may need special effects for monster sharks and man-eating sheep, blood and severed body parts need not be produced by CGI. However high-tech your other effects, some effects can be quite simple to deploy while still being effective.