Bathtub full of blood

[BloodyHandsProd]

What would be the best way to make a bathtub full of blood that is dark enough to not see the body inside the tub until it rises out of the "blood." I also need help making fake blood. I know everyone says it's so easy but it's really not. Anyone can make red liquid but realistic looking blood seems to be hard. I can't get it to be dark enough all the way through. It ends up being too transparent. I want it dark, thick, gorey and sick. If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear em.

[Brown Stained Abyss]

Hi! For my upcoming zombie film this girl gets killed in the bath, then raises out of it as a zombie. We just filled up the bath with water, then mixed about 2-3 litres of tomato ketchup in. I know ketchup usually sucks as blood, but when she came out the ketchup clung to her and it looked gross! I use the same formula (3 litres ketchup, lots of water mixed) for any scene involving lots and lots of blood. However, the bad thing about using this in a bath is the amount of residue left. We had to clean the bath for ages afterwards. I hope that might be useful!

[Mommy's Little Monster]

The only way to really make it thick is to use corn syrup, it will cost you quite a bit of cash. Then go about making your blood as usual, red food colouring (btw, the red you get in the bigger food colouring bottles is more concetrated than the red you get in the four pack of colours so go for the bigger bottles). Add green to make it opaque. If is is not merky enough you can also add milk, or condenced milk, just make sure you get your shot before it starts to go bad. Oh and a little water just so that your actor doesn't have a hard time wading through a thick goopy mess.

[goriddle]

I would say like I have said before... Acryllic paints. You can get large bottles of acryllic paint for very cheap. Do some experimenting and get the exact color of blood you want and then mix it into your water. It should clean off of the porcelain of a bathtub just fine.

[BloodyHandsProd]

Thanks Butcher, if it's not TOO hard to clean off i think i'll try it. Monster, thats the basic formula i try for blood, but i had the small bottles of food coloring, thanks for the tip, i think i'll try the bigger ones. and goriddle, i'll also see how easy it is to clean up paint and i may try that. ill let u know how it works.

[psycoanimism]

all the post sound great . ive got nothin new to post but depending on how deep it is you may want to put a black bag lining the bottom so it looks more opaque. with the large bottles of food coloring in the water.

well its worth a try..

later
psyco

[AJ]

Probably not such a hot idea to use paint if you are planning to have an actor in the bath. I assume your 'body rising out of water' will be one of your cast and not a puppet of some sort? You don't want acrylic residue getting in your eyes and orifices. ;D

You might try getting some extra large catering tubs of milkshake flavouring or ice cream syrup, mix some red and a dark chocolate colour into the water to get the right colour.

Also, if you shoot your shot locked-off, you will be able to more easily adjust the opacity of the water in post, using a photoshop overlay or similar.

[sinshine]

Not sure how much blood you actually need (full or half bath) but I've used about 20 black cherry and strawberry flavored jello packs mixed with the bath water and it worked great. It's really cheap and makes a great dessert for your crew when the shoot is complete ;D

I'm not entirely sure if this will work for a full bath full of water, but it costs only a few dollars to try.

Keep in mind, an object like a body won't stay submerged on it's own so "rising" to the surface of the blood/water may not be the way to go. Rather if someone was killed or was left bleeding to death in a tub that was filled to the brim (or overflowing with blood) and you wanted their zombie to "emerge" from the bath in a dramatic fashion...why not have the drain accidentally open and the "bath water" drain out leaving a blood soaked corpse behind that suddenly springs to life?

Just an idea.

[goriddle]

I think sometimes its ok to defy physics in movies for the sake of creativity

[aTomX]

When we needed a battub full of blood for our film we added cornstarch to the water to make it opaque, then added our cornsyrup and red food dye blood.
We darkened it more with green & blue food dye.

Chocolate syrup could also be used.

[SeanHope]

for a living person coming out of a tub, paint is not such a hot idea and also it's pretty expensive when you start going by the gallon.
Corn starch is probably the cheapest and most realistic way to go. the corn syrup is a nice touch - with the red dye #7, I would probably add a bit of black to grey the mix a bit. green, blue and even yellow work nice, though I would probably mix them separately and add them to the tub first - this will give your tub effect different color for your film.

also the thing to keep in mind is how long your actor can hold their breath and if then are going into the tub make sure they go into the mix slowly, to eliminate a lot of unessicary bubbles. if they have long hair, they should hold it back with both hands as they submerge.

Clean up, well you might stop up the drain in the tub, most drano or liquid plumber will help push the slow moving liquid through, also warm to hot water.

the actor will need to take a few showers as well and the dye will stain their skin and hair for a little bit. if your actor dyes their hair or has a perm the staining will probably stay with them longer.

[gordo]

One thing that has always got me is why people love corn syrup. Just use maple, you get more, its already darker, and you can get a gallon (near me at least) for about 6 bucks. Its what they used in Dead Alive for god sakes!

I would go maple(3 gallons?) to however much water left. Alot of red color and a nice sqeeze fo green.

[SeanHope]

real quicl on the corn syrup.
it's not a sugar like maple syrup. The biggest problem with working with sugars is if not cleaned properly affter use or if the person has to spend more than 6 hours in a vat of sugar - the body will actually absorb the sugar and then rot. female acters are the most vulnerable to this.
and
it fits blood texture better with out having to dilute it with water. the reason this is helpful is if your mixture sits for a bit it wont separate and then have to be mixed again and the foam taken off the top. Being able to control the consistancy and flow of the blood is always a big plus for your fx man.

[goriddle]

gross!

[Eva 02]

Have you considered not puting the actor in the tub until the actual scene? What I would use is just water and dye for it just sitting there, maybe laying a paper silhouette to look like a body. I men, blood isn't actually all that thick. Guts is thick, but blood is pretty light and sota watery. Plus, it can give the appearance that the tub had water in it, and the water turned red with bloodletting.

A cheap alternative for a lot of thick blood cheap is clear/light blue detergent and a lot of Adams Extract™ Red Food Colour. (the only drawback is it stings eyes, smells strong, and dries light)

At SAM'S they sell big vats of cheap detegent for $10, about 2½ of those could fill a bathtub. And they sell Adam's Extract at most grocer stores in big 1.5 fl oz(44 ml) for $1.50, it dries alone on white cloth exactly like real blood. I'm using it all the way for my movie. It's awesome. It does stain VERY easily, though.