[reader50]

Were you planning a sequel, or just wanted to use the girls on another project? Either way, it's nice to know the movie studio is continuing.

[subego]

Hurling ourselves into TikTok is the plan, so these won’t be sequels precisely, but they’ll be in the same universe.

Right now, we’re in the process of redesigning our entire workflow into something which gets from shoot to finished product within a week.

Apple is doing its part by providing a camera that’s at least an order of magnitude less hassle.

[subego]

So, my big contribution to the advancement of motion picture science is to take one of those molded plastic cases EMTs use to schlep morphine and repurpose it for makeup. Unlike every other purpose-built makeup case in the goddamn world, it isn’t black, so the amount of time it can sit in the sun without the shit inside melting is greatly extended.

The one we have has adjustable plastic trays, a portion of which are used for hair accessories like bobby pins and rubber bands. Those end up migrating underneath the divider and the whole thing becomes a mess. If you’ve ever tried to corral washers with adjustable dividers, you know exactly the problem I’m talking about.

Any ideas? I guess my ideal is something I can squeeze out a thin bead of like caulk which will stay stuck to the plastic.

[reader50]

Plastic is hard to bond to permanently, unless you find the just-right chemical for that plastic.

You're on the right track with caulk - I'd use silicone caulk. Apply to the divider edge(s) before sliding it into the box. That's the only way you'll get a neat result.

[subego]

Yeah. I forgot to mention of course I have no idea what type of plastic it is.

I figured I needed to do it assembled or I won’t get the sealant in the right spot.

I know JB Weld plastic epoxy will stick, but very messy to apply.

[ghporter]

I agree with reader: cheap silicone caulk, and just a dab, will keep your dividers where you put them.

[subego]

I keep on forgetting I need to get to the Home Depot and check their options.

[subego]

Originally Posted by reader50 

Apply to the divider edge(s) before sliding it into the box. That's the only way you'll get a neat result.

Oh… I think I get what you’re saying now!

The problem here is they’re cross dividers, so getting those in without smearing everything on the already in-place dividers seems impractical.

I was imagining putting all the dividers in place and then caulking them all on both sides where they meet the base, if that makes sense. Another way to put it is not get the caulk under the dividers, but make a caulk wall on both sides of the space under the dividers

[ghporter]

It doesn’t take a lot. Not much at all. Don’t think you can apply it with just the tip that comes with the tube! It takes a lot more finesse. But that also means a LOT less mess than you’re picturing.

I’d suggest squeezing a small blob on a piece of wax paper, then using a flat toothpick to apply a tiny amount (like “I can see that there’s something there” tiny), primarily at the bottom of the edges that go into the slots. Then slide the dividers in smoothly and leave each one alone for several hours.

You may need to use several small blobs, as the stuff tends to cure pretty quickly, but this should get the job done.

[Brien]

E6000.

[subego]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

It doesn’t take a lot. Not much at all. Don’t think you can apply it with just the tip that comes with the tube! It takes a lot more finesse. But that also means a LOT less mess than you’re picturing.

I’d suggest squeezing a small blob on a piece of wax paper, then using a flat toothpick to apply a tiny amount (like “I can see that there’s something there” tiny), primarily at the bottom of the edges that go into the slots. Then slide the dividers in smoothly and leave each one alone for several hours.

You may need to use several small blobs, as the stuff tends to cure pretty quickly, but this should get the job done.

I’m worried I’m not explaining this properly (though I may just be misunderstanding). The issue isn’t the dividers staying in place. They do that fine. Here…



The problem is the gap between the divider walls and the tray floor. Bobby pins slip under that.

What I was imaging was a full caulk seal along the bottom of each divided section.

[andi*pandi]

if you don't want it permanent (for future rearranging) clear packing tape will do it for a section or two.

[subego]

Frigging brilliant!!!

[ghporter]

Your picture is quite enlightening. Yeah, I had the wrong idea. Andi's right. Good old transparent tape will do the trick easy, cheap, and only semi-permanently so you can change as needed in the future.

[ghporter]

On the subject of makeup for video/photography, did your production go for any “professional” stuff, or did you just use consumer makeup?

I’m looking into doing some portrait photography, and while I can find plenty of guidance for how, where, how much, etc., most web sites either ignore or omit brand names, or gush fangirlishly about specific products.

The latter ALWAYS comes off as a combination of chakra-enhancement, skin detoxification, granola and “save the planet” dreck.

So did any specific make up turn out to be great, horrible, OK but pricey, etc.?

[subego]

I unfortunately have almost zero experience with “naturalistic” looking makeup. What we do is deep into mime territory.

We mostly use Mehron and Ben Nye. They’re both “good enough” and haven’t given one of the actors a rash yet.

Mehron gets the edge from me for utilitarian reasons, like I can get it reliably on Amazon. Ben Nye has a retail only policy.

Unscented baby wipes are decent makeup removers. Pouring a bit of Skin So Soft on them ups the ease of removal. If you want the makeup not to come off, use acrylic paint instead of makeup and mix it with Krazy Glue.

[reader50]

Originally Posted by subego 

If you want the makeup not to come off, use acrylic paint instead of makeup and mix it with Krazy Glue.

Do I detect an on-set prank that happened in the recent past?

[subego]

Luckily, not working with anyone that diabolical.

I’ve never tried, but am told this is more or less how the pros do it when they need “action grade” makeup that won’t rub or sweat off. It needs to be powdered when done or you’ll glue yourself to things. For example, if it’s applied to your eyelids and you open your eyes before it’s powdered, it will glue them open.

Alcohol acts as a remover.


Edit: I should add the official recipe calls for prosthetic adhesive, which isn’t exactly Krazy Glue, but close. Altogether it’s known as “PAX paint”, for “prosthetic adhesive X (times) paint”.

[ghporter]

Since I haven’t seen all of your episodes, I hadn’t picked up on the “everyone’s makeup is done mime style.”

PAX seems to be quite the thing, but mostly in the effects end of makeup.

The last time I was into effects makeup, it was damnably hard to get anything to stick to mortician’s wax. We wound up using liquid latex as a base layer (still a challenge), then put makeup on that. Try applying liquid latex around a fishing line that’s stuck through a clump of wax that “hides” a non-pyro bullet hit. Then try putting makeup over that to blend it. Good luck! Also good luck with keeping the clump of wax ON the performer when you yank on the fishing line. Pre-scoring the wax does not always work for this sort of thing.

[subego]

This was my one foray into effects makeup. Only ended up getting used once.







Was the non-pyro bullet perchance inspired by this?

[ghporter]

I like the “Steam-Borg” appliance. Nice.

The non-pyro effect was not directly influenced by how they did those effects in The Godfather. But it may as well have been.

Working on a student film can get you some interesting experiences, and it often means channeling that old ‘30s trope “We can build a stage in the barn, Jane can make the costumes, and my mom knows music!” In our case, we were about two contacts away from talking to anyone with a pyro license, but time was running out for the project, so we had to get creative.

We hit the library and did tons of “physical book” research. The “button pulled through makeup” trick was in some fairly new (then) book, and we latched onto it.

Someday I’ll regale everyone about how I got shot on set. Lots of lessons learned, not much blood lost, and most importantly, we got the shot!

[subego]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I like the “Steam-Borg” appliance. Nice.

Thank you!

I’d definitely like to hear the getting shot story.

The biggest student film folly I can recall is our teacher told us lots of depth of field was important, so we shot everything at f/8.

On 200 speed film.

Indoors, to get a proper exposure, the lights needed to be so close to the actors’ faces by the end of the project they had gotten what amounted to a sunburn.

[ghporter]

SAFETY FIRST!!!!! Whenever using a REAL FIREARM in a theatrical production, do EXTENSIVE tests of all parts of the effect. ALL PARTS. And rehearse, rehearse, rehearse! Rehearsal could have shown us the flaw in our plans, and we could have corrected things.

We were working on this in the early 1980s, and the film is about a “post apocalypse/nightmare” scenario. We were shooting out in the sticks on property we had permission to use. Our heroine totes a LARGE revolver - in this case a 6” barreled S&W in .45 Auto. Yes, .45 Auto, using moon clips and everything, because the guy who let us use it also had a 1911, and he liked “common ammo.” The big honking revolver in the hands of the petite heroine was actually a story point.

Commercial blanks for .45 Auto were nonexistent then and there, so we made our own. AND TESTED THE CRAP OUT OF THEM. At 2 feet from the muzzle, the blanks did not damage a thin plastic bag, and at 3 feet it did not even damage the [email protected]$$ TP the University provided. The blanks “fluttered” the TP pretty vigorously, but nothing solid came out of the barrel to damage the TP. They made enough of a “bang” to use in post for where to add the sound effect, which is all we needed.

The shot has yours truly as a bad guy who tackles the heroine. She shakes off the tackle, spins around and shoots said bad guy with above mentioned revolver. Here’s the problem: the “tackle” was on a large pile of pea gravel for some reason. But nobody thought about what would happen when the heroine rolled on top of the revolver in that pea gravel.

What happened was that at least one piece of pea gravel wound up either in the loaded chamber or the barrel or both.

“Action!” I tackle, I’m shaken off, and we both stand, heroine aims and fires, and I react and fall on my back “dead.” When the director cut the scene, I spoke up: “Did we get the shot?” Yes we did. “Good, because I’ve been shot.” EVERYBODY was mortified - the actress with the gun, the director, everybody.

The pea gravel took a small bite out of the upper surface of my left shoulder, which bled a bit, and stung quite a lot. I still have the scar, but it sure doesn’t look at all like a gunshot wound.

No, I wasn’t the “armorer” on this project. That was the director, who took full responsibility for my owie. He (and several others with first aid experience) immediately took care of my tiny wound, and he also treated me to dinner and some really good beer.

We learned a LOT from that, fortunately almost benign, incident. A revolver WILL scoop up anything it can when rolled around in pea gravel/styrofoam/legos/etc., so the smart thing to do is to block the muzzle and all the cylinders with transparent tape. EVEN IF THE GUN IS, AND WILL REMAIN EMPTY.

It was also suddenly clear that the shot could have been set up differently, maybe broken into several shots - allowing an opportunity to do everything except the actual “bang” part with an unloaded weapon. And the “bang” part could have been staged to allow the heroine to not actually point the gun at yours truly.

[subego]

Excellent story and cautionary tale in one!

[subego]

Set decoration from eBay arrived broken. Sorry for the grody table.



There’s barely an 1/8” of the stick left on the log stand.

Any ideas? I don’t see glue working unless it was pinned, and drilling a hole inside the stick sounds like a recipe for failure. The only other option I can think of is drilling out the stick entirely and replacing it.

[Thorzdad]

Glue it back on, then build-up modeling clay/plasticine around the join, working out to blend with the bark? Paint the clay to match.

Will it be subject to a lot of manipulation?

[andi*pandi]

a new stick seems easier than hiding the break. You could even use metal if you don't want to worry about matching stain color etc.

[reader50]

Stick appears to be a dowel rod. You can buy those in 3ft (1m) lengths, with most any desired thickness. Cut as needed.

I'd drill it out and replace. Then try to match the stain color. Next time, order the version that's assembly-required.

[subego]

Thanks all for the replies! I think I’ll drill it out.

We also may simply get another bird.

[Laminar]

Does it have to be exactly that tall? Drill out what's left inside the base and shove the bird down in there. Now it's 1/2" shorter but still works?

[subego]

Excellent idea!

For the moment, we’ve settled on acquiring another bird. I’ll only go into the repair if the new bird doesn’t suffice, or we decide we want two.

[andi*pandi]

Two birds is better than one.

[subego]

This is true, and I discovered I don’t have to drill out the bird. That’s a friction join.