Making a Mask- Practical Task

For this task we were given a potato sack and were asked to transform it into a mask. We were allowed to do anything we liked with it.

Inspiration

I got my inspiration from these images:

I believe that these are very simple ways of making a creepy looking mask. The effect of the bloodied eyes and mouth, make the mask look like there is a face on it, therefore making it look doll or 'scarecrow' like. I also believe that this look doesn't require many materials or difficult procedures to produce.

 

Production

First of all, I laid all of my materials out on a table.

For my mask, all i needed was some fake blood, rope, tea/coffee and some scissors.

I then measured roughly the length that I wanted my mask to be and then cut off the excess. This was to be used as a 'tester' piece so that I could try different techniques to see which ones worked the best.

Next, I experimented with my tester piece of material by rubbing it in some dirt to make the mask look dirty and scruffy. At first, it looked good and effective, however, due to the material structure, the dirt did not stay on very well and after a few minutes, it looked like it did originally.

I then decided to test the best way to apply the blood. First of all, I squeezed a small amount out of the tube straight onto the mask and then blended it out using the end of the tube. This was the end result:

My next 'blood test' was to apply the blood exactly the same way as the last test but this time from the inside of the mask. This was because the effect that I wanted to create was as if the person wearing the mask was bleeding whilst wearing it.

The next test was applying the blood straight from the tube and then dabbing it with a tissue to create a faded effect.

The last blood test I did, was applying the blood straight from the tube but from a height. This was to try and create a 'splattered' effect. I then dabbed the blood a little with a tissue afterwards to create a more realistic effect.

I then turned my tester pieces of material inside-out to see what the tests would look like 'the other way'. Overall, I believe that they did not look as good as on the other side of the material. (top left: applied from the inside, top right: applied from the 'right' side, bottom left: 'splattered' effect, bottom right: 'dabbed' on).

Overall, my I believe that the best effect was the 'dabbing' effect mixed with applying it straight from the tube. This is because these two mixed together looked the most realistic for the look that I was going for.

My next set of tests was to dye the rope. Originally, the rope was white and didn't look bloody or dirty enough.

My first test was dying the rope with tea. To do this I put some water in a bowl and split open a teabag, putting the contents into the water. I then put the rope into the tea mixture and rubbed the tea granules onto the rope to add more colour.

The next test was dying the rope in coffee. To do this I put a small amount of water into a bowl and added lots of granulated coffee. I then put the rope into the coffee and rubbed some of the undissolved granules onto the rope.

Next I put some fake blood on half of each test to make it look bloodied and more gory (top left: coffee with blood, top right: tea with blood bottom left: coffee without blood, bottom right: tea without blood).

Overall, I preferred the effect of the coffee with blood as I believed that it looked most effective.

Next I started the 'real thing'. First of all, I put some blood straight from the tube onto roughly where the mouth of the person would go.

I then 'dabbed' around it with some tissue and added some more straight from the tube in the middle of the already existing blood and some more around it. Then, using the tissue with the excess blood on it, I 'dabbed' some of it roughly where the rope would go on the neck to make it seem as if the persons neck was bleeding slightly as well.

I then decided to to the same thing at the top of the mask to look as if the person has a head injury.

I then dyed the rope in the coffee and added fake blood to it using the same method as I did for my test.

I then put my mask on my model:

Post Production

Next, I edited the shots on my phone to make the colours look more realistic and to make the overall appearance appear more professional and realistic.

First of all, I added a filter to the photographs to make the blood look a deeper red, rather than a bright red. This made the blood look more realistic.

Next, I made the image darker. This was again to make the blood look a deeper shade of red. I also did this to remove any other bright colours. Usually in horror films, there are no bright colours or lighting. This is to make the scene look dull and more sinister.

I then removed some of the colour in the image, again for reasons mentioned above.

To experiment, I added some more colour in to see what the effect of it would be. Overall, I preferred the image with less colour as it looked more fitting for my inspiration and the 'look' that I was aiming for.

Here is an image of the saturation levels in the image.

I then applied these adjustments to all of the other photographs that I took. Here is the final result:

Peer Feedback

When I presented my final product to my class, they had both good and constructive points about it. Overall, they liked the use and positioning of the blood and the overall inspiration of my mask, however, to improve, they suggested that I research how to tie a noose style knot to make it seem more realistic.