Wesley Scoggins
Indy Mogul
Wesley's Weekly HOW TO: Eye Tear
Almost everybody one day wants a dramatic Kill Bill-style eye grab in their own film. It's just too cool to pass up, so I'm going to show you how to do a similar effect for almost nothing.
For this you'll need:
- A Small ball, either a gum ball, a super bouncy ball, or a Pingpong ball
- Some Liquid Latex
- And for the stem, either more liquid latex or a piece of foam
- The foam head. (Optional, only if you really need to show a close up of the fingers entering the eye socket.)
I started to make my eyeball with a 25-cent piece of chewing gum from a gumball machine at the local supermarket. I suggest this option because it's the cheapest and easiest route for most people, but you might have to look a bit harder if your area doesn't have a super market or a dollar store with Gumball Machines.
The next step was obviously to paint it white. I had to use a couple of coats because the blue dye soaked into the paint. Then I let it dry.
Next step was to go in on the head. I cut out the section for the eyeball with my scalpel, and painted the inside of it red after I carved it out to my liking.
After the eye was dry, I attached the 'nerve stem' made out of a strip of liquid latex. I attached it to the back of the eye with Liquid latex, and then let it dry.
I then took a picture of a pupil, printed it out, and glued it on the front of the eye with a dot of liquid latex.
Then I painted the stem and the back of the eye with red paint.
After it dried I checked the size and it fit perfectly.
I made a hole in the back of the socket and shoved the end of the stem in there with a dab of Liquid Latex. I used a needle to stick it in there and waited for it to dry.
I attached thin pieces of latex over the eye to simulate eyelids, attaching them with Liquid Latex, and painting them flesh color.
You could add lots of fake blood in the socket, or even put a blood shooter behind it for the close up. The secret to making it work on film, is the reaction shot. To do the effect you make your person reach forward and stop just before they touch the actor's eye that will be torn out.
Then for the close-up, you go to the fake head and show your eye tear-er pop out the fake eye.
THEN, go back to your actor who got their eye torn out, get them to grab at their eye socket and cover it up (This also obscures the fact that they aren't really missing an eye), and in their hand have them hold a small zip-lock bag of fake blood with a hole in it, so when they squeeze their eye and scream, they can squeeze all of the fake blood out of the hole in the bag and have it squirt out around their finger tips.
You don't even need to use the styrofoam head if you don't want a close-up, just show your eye tearer dashing forward, and just cut to them pulling the fake eye back in their hand, then cut to the reaction shot, which is similar to the effect in Kill Bill, you don't really see a close-up because she does the move so quickly.
Lastly, here is the link to the Pupil image I made for this.
It's already sized properly, and if you have photoshop you can adjust the lightness and hue and get any color you want.
Hope this helps, and if you have any questions or comments, please post below.
-Wes
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