A couple of years ago, I worked on a show called That Pretty, Pretty, which involved vast quantities of blood. The problem was that the blood needed to spray the walls and then disappear by the next scene. I figure with Halloween just around the corner, that people might want another trick up their sleeve.
The answer? Disappearing ink. I loaded a water canon with disappearing in and did massive blasts of blood on the walls as people were shot.
You have to fiddle with the proportions a bit depending on the effect you want. This is the original recipe that I used.
http://chemistry.about.com/od/
And here is the recipe for the canon effect blood. Please do note that because of the lye this can’t go anywhere near the actor’s face. Seriously, this can blind people if it gets in the eyes. This is for walls or inanimate objects only. Even that… test it first. It’s got some nasty chemicals.
- 3 tablespoons lye
- 1 bottle rubbing alcohol
- 6 tablespoons phenothylene
- 6 tubes blue ink (you could use thymolphthalein but I used this http://www.bonanzle.com/
booths/dsimporting/items/24_ Disappearing_Ink__Wholesale_ Joke_Party_favor . Without that, the blood is too pink to be believable.) - Fill with water to the 3500 ml mark.
It does lose its potency when exposed to air, so you need to keep it in an air tight container and not make it more than a day ahead.
Cool! I know someone who will be ready for this in about six years.
Excellent.