Semi-OT: Zombie Make up

[dean]

Odinn7's costume thread reminded me of something I've been trying to figure out: Zombie make-up.

A the start of the year I resolved to make a short zombie film spoof, but due to personal circumstances, amongst which was starting full time work for the first time, I had to put the film on hold.  But now that I'm all settled in and a little bored, I've decided to get it back on the road again.  

Originally it was going to be pretty sub-standard, as a bit of fun.  But now I've decided to actually put a slight bit of effort on the effects-front, amongst which will be the make-up effects.

Since I'm planning on having it black and white, colour isn't an issue, but I'm after something that looks suitably 'dead' but puts as little strain on the budget as possible [with a budget of 0 I'm sure that'll be peachy!]

Anyways, I'm going to do a bit of a search online, but thought I'd check my head in to see about your thoughts.

[odinn7]

Ok...I don't know how this would fit but I had to point this out.

My daughter likes to take left over large taco shells (soft shells) and chew out little spots for the eyes and mouth and then put them on her face. I was amazed the first time she did this as it reminded me of Leatherface since it really looked like dead skin. The difficult part is getting it to stay together, otherwise, great costume for a 6 year old. Now, perhaps you could use something like this?

[Scottie]

We all know the popular trivia that Hitchcock used chocolate syrup for the drain sequence of Psycho. It works. Oatmeal looks good no matter if it's in color or black and white. The texture and consistency is great for any number of things ranging from spewing puss sores to infectious vomit. A little stage makeup to darken the eye sockets is good. Tear up some clothes with some scissors and then run them over with your car to get nice ragged clothing. Stick pieces of 2x4 in your actor's pants to get them to walk with an appropriate stiff leggedness. What other characteristics of zombies are you looking for?

[peter johnson]

For very good zombie faces, get a base makeup -- the greasy/semi-liquid stuff you put on first -- that approximates the actors' real skin tone/color --
Spread evenly & thinly all over the whole face -- don't forget the ears and neck, otherwise you get that bad "Masque" effect, which you don't want --
Then, take cheap drugstore/kiddie "clown white" makeup & make a streak down the nose, blending off to the sides as you go -- The clown white will blend with the base canvas background to start to make lovely whitish and greyish "dead skin" highlights -- remember to blend, blend in circular motions, trying to follow the natural contours of the face.  
Next, get red and grey eyebrow pencils & color in the curves around the nose, under the eyes and above the eyes & then go back and blend blend in lightly with your fingers.  
Take the grey pencil and lightly enunciate the cheekbones down to past the mouth -- again, blend it in/no sharp lines --
Next, take the red pecil and make dots -- about 7 or 8 -- at random points all over your face and neck & then blending lightly with fingers.  
Red, of course, won't show on black and white film, but what it will look like is rotting, dead flesh -- a tone neither black nor white, but an odd grey --
This is a fantastic recipie that I've used in several short films and some TV (Homemovies) --
peter johnson/denny crane

[dean]

All excellent suggestions.  Wasn't going to go too crazy with the make-up effect.  Just something easy and simple which made the actors look suitably dead.  The clothes and stuff is easy, but I know nothing of make-up, and asking a friend, who actually studied that sort of thing [make-up related things] and they were no help at all.

So yeah, thanks.  Hopefully I'll get the time to find some of the right materials and to actually film the bloody thing.  Pun intended.

If it does get off the ground, I'll post a copy of it, but it'll be a while off yet I'd imagine.

[Shadowphile]

White glue also can be used to simulate hanging flaps of skin.  You can even build it up in layers to make thicker tears.