Blood pump

[unknownghost]

Hi,

I'm new here, great site tho!

I couldn't find anything about this, so I apologise if it's been posted before, maybe someone could point me in the right direction if it has?!

I am in the process of writing a short horror/zombie film which I am shooting in May/June.

I need some advice on an effect - someone gets there throat bitten and I want to pump/spurt a stream of blood out. I am on a very low budget and am up for trying anything!

A friend suggested using a balloon, but I doubt this would be forceful enough or would just burst the balloon. I guess a foot pump could work but where would the blood come from?

Hopefully you knowledgable lot may be able to help?

Thanks, Jon

[UFProductions]

Welcome! Topics like this exist, but not really specifically for a spurt of blood; as in a burst artery. What I have done is used a foot pump, I'll try try to explain here without diagrams, I can post those too if you want em'. Basically all you need is a 2 liter plastic bottle with a tight fitting cap and good hand-pump (try for the double action ones that expell air on both strokes) and about 15 feet of 1/4" OD plastic tubing. Drill two holes in the cap of the plastic bottle, glue a 5 foot length of the tubing into one of the holes, with only a little bit of it sticking into the bottle. Glue the remaining 10 feet into the other hole with enough tubing extending into the bottle that it reaches the bottom of the container. Now connect the first (short) tube to the pump and fill the bottle up with blood. When you pump air into the the bottle it will force the blood up and out the second tube. Hide it on the actor, and with different speeds of pumping you can replicate anything from a slow seeping bullet wound to a full on torn femoral artery gore-fest! Good luck and have fun.

[unknownghost]

Hey, thanks - that's kind of what I was thinking. The diagrams would be cool as well tho, if your able to ?

Cheers.

[UFProductions]

Sure thing, be a day or so though, I'm at school now. I'm planning on making a new one with an old water cooler bottle and an electric compressor for a parody we're making. Imagine 20 liters of blood gushing out of a chest wound in the space of 20 seconds and you'll see what I'm going for!

[unknownghost]

Sounds nice n'bloody!

Yeah mate, a couple of days is fine on the diagrams, I'm in no immediate rush.

Cheers again

[britishbulldog]

i take it from the use of language (cheers, mate) that your english, may i ask where u live?

[DEDFX]

You can see one being used on Troma's behind the scenes footage of "Tales From The Crapper". I never saw one until few months ago when I got the MYODM 5 DVD Box Set, I'd prob still suggest a 1 gallon weed sprayer, It's cheap and dependable.

[unknownghost]

britishbulldog - i could also be an aussie with that language! but no, you're right, im english.

i'm down in the south-east in Kent.

[ZombieKrieg2005]

Welcome to the forum

Thanks for the details ufp, was going to mock something up with a compressor but you cant control the airflow very well. thinking of using it for a stomach bleed for a short im contemplating, think Romeo and Juliet crossed with goodfellas with Hassidic uk Jews and extremist muslims... If I dont offend at least half the people who watch it I will be miffed off...

[britishbulldog]

when you say weedsprayer do you mean attaching a tube to it ?

[DEDFX]

Or just cutting the end piece off, I put a plastic hose from ACE Hardware at the end (didn't have to cut end piece off) of my 10 gallong weed sprayer, it has a trigger AND pump. Blood shoots outta it like a fire hydrant...

[UFProductions]

Somethimes velocity isn't the key...

[DEDFX]

I know, just saying how far I can get my pump to go, in reality blood doesn't really squirt, I think, just a lil bit if you hit a few veins or something.

[Grant]

You could just simply fill up a hose with fake blood and have a person on the other end blow really hard

[Bocca]

The WeedSprayer technique worked quite well for me in the past with the spurt.
there are loads of tutorials for it so look around

(wooo go Kent!)

[DEDFX]

If you wanna blow at the other end the tube wither has to be wide or pretty short, its hard getting the blood through a long or thing tube, some of you might know from experience.

[ProdigyFilmsinc.]

What has worked for Gyro in the past was one of those hospital drip bags. You fill that with the blood (or anything, He has used flour to simulate a bullet nody hit.) and then you just hide the bag in your actor's clothes and have the tube sticking out wherever you want it. The actor just squeezes the drip bag and, poof, out comes your gore. They are relatively cheap. You could get one for about a max of $10.

[DEDFX]

Or you could put the drip bag in your shoe so you can show the hands, also small syringes (without needles) works well, I'm trying to find some but can't.

[FabianJansen]

If you do decide to use a balloon you can stop it from bursting by sticking a small piece of masking tape or the like onto it and making the hole in the middle of the tape.