Fake Blood in B&W film

[arigram]

What is a good off-the-counter liquid or combination of liquids that passes well as thick, black blood?
Soy sauce is too runny and loses its darkness.

 

[Ian Grant]

Your sick.

I'll send Doctor Deniz to perform your frontal lobotamy The wife's great surgeon when sober

Heinz Tomato Ketchup looks more real

Ian

 

[Vaughn]

Tomato sauce (catsup) with a little blue food coloring added to darken it?

Reminds me of a John Prine song in which he asks the musical question, "Do you know what blood looks like in a black and white video?" and to which he answers, "Shadows!"

 

[Ian Grant]

Now John Prine's music is far more important than Ari's post, a must Ari.

Ian

 

[Andy K]

HP Sauce. Or Bovril.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Isn't the traditional movie product corn syrup with something to make it red?

 

[tomkatf]

The film makers are the experts...

Stage Blood 'R US...

HTH!

Best,
Tom

 

[arigram]

Thank you all.
I guess you couldn't resist the thread title...
Tom's quite comprehensive list, has chocolate syrup as suggested by Hitchcock,
which sounds good!
Plus my model will complain less than if I treated her like
delicious BBQ meat...

 

[pgomena]

Chocolate syrup was what an old acquaintance used in his home-made b&w horror flicks. Looked pretty darned convincing to me!

Peter Gomena

 

[Gatsby1923]

Alfred Hitchcock used Bosco Chocolate Syrup.... If you have seen any old Hitchcock movies the effect is very "Bloody"

 

[Vaughn]

Now John Prine's music is far more important than Ari's post, a must Ari.

Ian

Does John Prine have an international audience?

Catsup must look pretty good when using ortho film! But I would think a model would approve of chocolate sauce over a barbeque sauce!

Vaughn

 

[arigram]

Now John Prine's music is far more important than Ari's post, a must Ari.

Sorry Ian, I miss the reference as I don't know his music.

 

[pentaxuser]

Alfred Hitchcock used Bosco Chocolate Syrup.... If you have seen any old Hitchcock movies the effect is very "Bloody"

Presumably as in the shower scene in Psycho. As a dark brown colour this sounds right to me. It struck me that tomato ketchup would be far too red and thus too pale for panchromatic film. However in any scene such as the shower scene when blood mixes and is diluted by water, it does it in a certain way and I'd have thought that a substance such as chocolate sauce would behave radically different when mixed with water. I wonder what the trick is to make sauce act like blood in water while still looking like blood?

pentaxuser

 

[rusty71]

Presumably as in the shower scene in Psycho. As a dark brown colour this sounds right to me. It struck me that tomato ketchup would be far too red and thus too pale for panchromatic film. However in any scene such as the shower scene when blood mixes and is diluted by water, it does it in a certain way and I'd have thought that a substance such as chocolate sauce would behave radically different when mixed with water. I wonder what the trick is to make sauce act like blood in water while still looking like blood?

pentaxuser

A friend worked in Hollywood FX dept. He said they chilled down the Hershey's chocolate syrup to make it thicker. Also that shower was COLD in Psycho.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks Rusty for the info. It can be an interesting talking point now both for Psycho fans and those enjoying B&W films. Some stand out for being B&W. Psycho is one and High Noon is another.

pentaxuser

 

[Edwardv]

I find Smucker's Dove Dark Chocolate has a nice deep color and contrast.

 

[Moopheus]

George Romero used Bosco for Night of the Living Dead.