Friday, December 7, 2012

Shark Attack

I recently flew down to Florida to work on an Outdoor Channel show called "Lived to Tell". True stories about amazing survivals. The first a story of a man lost in the Everglades for four days then two shark attacks.

Most of the makeups were out of kit, but there were a few pros-aide transfer pieces I sculpted for each of the shark attack stories. In one story, a boy tries to fight the shark off by punching it in the face to only severely cut his hands on the sharp teeth. The other a large shark bite for the upper thigh, where the victim was bit.

For both shark stories the makeups and prosthetics had to withstand the long days and ocean water. Happily, all the prosthetics and makeup lasted through hours in the ocean.




Our Everglades survivor. Makeup done with theatrical dirt, tattoo inks and Fleet Street blood.


Pros-aide transfer gashes on hands. Painted with tattoo inks and Fleet Street blood.


The victim after the attack, dragged to shore. We used a marine friendly blood made of fruit punch concentrate, imitation maple syrup and karo syrup. Delicious!


The fiberglass shark.


Early morning application on our picture boat. This is a large pros-aide transfer appliance. Our actor playing the victim is the actual real life person who was attacked by a bull shark. Not only did the appliance need to look like the bite but it had to cover the huge scar on our heroes thigh.


Attack!! Shark and shark "wranglers".


The bite.


The bite with more blood. I filled the "gash" in with Ben Nye thick blood and Fleet Street drying blood in Fresh Blood. This seemed to be the best combination of bloods to stay on in our very wet environment. We of course added tons of our homemade blood as well.