Myfriend who is finishing a 40 minute film, wants to shoot a practical title shot of the movie along the lines of "The Thing." I suggested someone wipe out on a skateboard/ cut to a shot of cement, blood splashes down and forms the title of the movie. Neither of us have any idea how to accomplish this without cg. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Just some brainstorming, but maybe....

shoot the sidewalk clean.
Then stencil on the title in fake blood.
Shoot that.
After, try using a blower of some kind, (maybe a hairdryer with heat off) to get some directional flow off the letters to simulate that the blood was flying in some direction before hitting the ground.
Shoot this as well.

Finally, shoot some reference video of the fake blood being splashed onto the pavement. Just some flicks of a paint brush or something. This should give you an idea of what the camera really sees when the blood flys into frame and hits the ground.

Then in photoshop or whatever, you could clean the images up and use your reference video as a guide to create a sequence of frames (shouldn't need more than 3-4 frames of "animation") to simulate the clean pavement getting the blood splashed on in the form of your title.

Find a hill that is cement.

Take some skateboard wax, and draw the title in wax.

take a bucket of blood, spill it on the wax. It wont adhere to the wax but it will adhere to the cement. So, the title will emerge from a pool of blood.

I think Matthew is on the right track. But, instead of waxing over the title, wax around the title. This way, when the "blood" runs, your title will be red blood. And use something other than paint. You may need to try this several times, and paint may not be the easiest to clean up.

Just had a wierd idea. Green glitter. You can then chroma it to dark red, but not the right consistancy/texture.

The idea to stencil it in wax sounds like it will work. Do you know of anything else that would make the liquid stick to the cement to help the effect.

Just the rough texture of the cement should work. Make sure you have a thick fluid, and the pitch of your cement isn't too great. try it out, and experiment with different mixtures.

Ahhhh...blood. I can give you a good recipe for blood. Use Karo(?) corn syrup and red food coloring. Not only will it clean up easily, it's ok to put in your mouth for that type of fx. Probably cheaper than paint too.

Good luck!

-gb-

I really like that idea of using wax. Good one!

One note is that you could potentially use patio block or even a concrete sheet (sold at home improvement stores for use in ceramic tile jobs) as a "stand in" for a real pavemtent.

This would let you experiment with different angles and lighting etc. without splattering blood all over a public pavement. :p

The problem with syrup is, it gets really runny when warm. If the sidewalk is hot, it will run too fast... unless you refrigerate the mixture before using it.

The problem with syrup is, it gets really runny when warm. If the sidewalk is hot, it will run too fast... unless you refrigerate the mixture before using it.

True Keith, but it can be thickened with a little corn starch if necessary in place of refrigeration. :-)

-gb-

Temperature isn't a problem right now. 13 degrees celcius in Nova Scotia and this has been one of the warmest days this year so far.

Oh yeah... You're one of them Northerners. Nevermind ;)