Compressed Air Body Hits
Using a Weed Sprayer
What you'll need:
A pump-up insecticide sprayer - Its worth investing in a new one as a used sprayer might have some insecticide in and you don't want to kill yourself off before you get to shoot your movie.
Garden Hose - You probably need about 2 metres which you might be able to chop off your normal house. Failing that getting a good length to cut up is useful as you can experiment with different lengths for different purposes.
Fake Blood - For a whole bunch of recipes try the gore category.
Gaffer Tape
Sponge - You'll need to rip it into little pieces so buy a cheap car sponge.
Blu-tak - The putty type stuff used to stick up posters.
Old Shirt
Step One - Cut approx. a 2 metre length from your garden hose reel. About an inch up from one end you need to make a hole big enough to put your little finger in. This is where the blood will be ejected from. We used a heated screwdriver to melt through the hose as it was pretty tough. Probably not recommended though as it gave off these awful fumes. Best to do it in a well ventilated place so you don't pass out.
Step Two - Bung up the end you have made the extra hole in using Blu-Tak. By forcing the blood to fly out of the extra hole instead of the end of the tube it sprays out rather than jets out.
Step Three - Unscrew the spray nozzle from the insecticide sprayer. Attach the unmodified end of the tube to the empty sprayer. Now to work on your biceps! Give the sprayer about 150 pumps. The first 100 or so should be easy but by the end it should start getting more difficult. All this energy is being stored as pressure and when you push the trigger all the energy will be released at once, blasting the blood out.
Step Four - Gently pour in about 20ml of your fake blood to the modified end of the hose. You may need to thin the blood mixture with water to make it less 'gloopy' (err...that sounds technical). Bung up the side hole with pieces of sponge. Ideally use red sponge as this will fly out when you trigger the sprayer looking like chunks of flesh. Mmm...nice!
Step Five - Make a hole in the back of the shirt and feed the tube over the actor's shoulder and down to the area that is going to be 'shot'. Tape the tube in place at the front with the side hole facing forwards.
MOST IMPORTANT BIT!!!:Have the actor get down on his knees and get an assistant to hold the sprayer as high as possible for 30 seconds. This allows the blood to run down and prime the tube. The blood should now all be in the last part of the tube held back by the bits of sponge.
Step Six - The shirt here has been prepared by scoring with a knife. The side hole of the hose should be lined up with the hole in the shirt. Use gaffer tape on the inside of the shirt to close the shirt up.
Step Seven - Have the assistant who will fire the trigger, out of camera shot on the ground.
When positioning the camera, be careful. You don't want blood all over the camera. If you are straight on get a good distance away and zoom in.
Step Eight - Push the trigger!! Ker-BLAM!! Blood flies everywhere. Gore City!
(written in the Eejit's Guide to Low Budget Filmmaking. If you would like to see this file in its original home, go to www.exposure.co.uk)
Pictures of the above technique:(from www.exposure.co.uk)
Picture 1
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Picture 4
If your weed sprayer has a valve on it that you cannot take off, or the air doesn't move out fast enough:
First make a blood packet, available in the gore section, then run some tubing from the magic wand (valve thing) into the bad of blood. Things like, for example, making a blood hit... using gaffer tape and a non-strecthy yet not-too-thick plastic film, make a bag, and fill it with your blood mixture. Run some airline tubing from the metal wand, across the floor, up your actor's pantleg, and into the bag of blood. Tape or hot-glue it in place (if you hot glue, do it BEFORE you attach the bag to the actor, or course).
Then, on cue, squeeze the valve trigger, the air rushes into the bag (you did remember to pump up the tank, didn't you), and it blows up spectacularly.
Or, you can cut the end off the metal wand, leaving a straight pipe, and dip it in red jello, to which you have added stringy bits, aim, and splatter.
Using an Air Compressor
Run a thin tube from your source, with Y Connectors, and each tube signifigantly longer than the others.
Tape three or four areas down, run the tube over the talent's shoulder and down the back along a leg.
Blood should fill from plug at hit "site" to the shoulder. Off camera, massively load up your pump. I would suggest using an air tank pressurised to 110 or 120 psi or an air compressor up to full capacity.
The thinner tubing must join into larger tubing until it hits the air source.
Depending on the length of each tube, you can experiment on how long or how far apart each will go off.
If you're looking to do hits without compressed air, go here:
Mechanical Body Hits
