Production Pursuits - Crafting A Crime Scene With Homemade Fake Blood

What’s up! It’s only been a couple of days since you last heard from me but I wanted to make a dent in this project since it's Valentine’s Day tomorrow! Now, I don't have a valentine but I still love this holiday because it's so beautiful seeing all the love around me. And of course dressing up in shades of red, pink, and white will never get old. My friends, Zahra and Peyton are planning to have a little Galentines (a subsection of valentines where girls, referred to as “gals” gather to celebrate valentines instead of with a significant other) get-together. Since I know I’ll be busy this week it makes sense to get ahead so I don't fall behind. 

My recent focus has been on crime scene production. For the crime board and some B-rolls of the crime scene, I need to have photos and videos of a bloody knife.

A sneak peak of the end product 

The whole process started with going on a side quest to some shops for materials. First up I wanted to get fake blood. I headed over to Target for this. I know that in the Halloween-centered months, Target is the spot for any mortifying makeup essentials. But of course, in February the focus is less on the startling graphics of fake blood and much more on the warming and love-filled Valentine's gifts. As expected, Target was out of stock of fake blood. At first, I was annoyed since I knew the next place I could check was Party City but it was very far away and I would have to buy a large and expensive quantity. Quickly, I realized this was a blessing in disguise. Considering the little spending money left in my budget I decided it was best off to make my fake blood. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to do this but I knew the materials had to be cheap and easily accessible. 

The footlong delicacy in question. 

I started thinking on my feet but I needed a little break to recollect and strategize what I was going to do. Luckily for me, Subway was right next door. I walked over and decided to get a little snack. Okay, I say little but it was quite literally the opposite. Subway is known for its foot-long sandwiches and they recently added a foot-long cookie to their menu. I saw the enormous cookie on TikTok when I was doing my daily social media scroll and thought now was the perfect opportunity to try it out. I am quite a big foodie and love trying out foods so any excuse including a creativity break I had to find something unusual to try out. I could only eat a fourth of the cookie in that sitting but the cookie made me ponder outside the box just as it was and outside of the box invention.   

 I had an idea so I headed over to my trusted low-cost store, the Dollar Tree. I asked my mom to drive me there and we went ahead and looked for what I needed. I was thinking of combining glue with a colorant like red paint to get the movement of blood and color. Since I wasn’t sure what glue I needed I just went ahead and got both white and clear glue. In the same crafts aisle, I found some bright red acrylic paint. The shop only had one red color so I just added it to my cart since I accepted I was going to make do with what I had. I checked for some red yarn and pins while I was here for the crime board but there was none to be found. I’ll have to alter my original plan for the crime board production but that is a problem for the future. 

While I was at the dollar store I also wanted to buy a knife to be the murder weapon. Obviously, at my house I had knives but I didn't want to risk ruining any knife and if I could remove the fake blood using the knife again for cutting up things for consumption could pose a huge health risk. Glue is non-toxic but it still would be risky.  I don't want to put my family in any danger so it just made sense to get a knife specifically for this project. As I wandered down the aisles to get the knife I found the baking section. Here I found food coloring. Immediately I exchanged the paint for food coloring. Food coloring is a watery substance with a darker hue more like blood so it made so much more sense to use. 

As I went through the store I had also picked up some accessory items like a magnifying glass and tools but as I assessed many carts in the end I realized they weren’t necessary and it wouldn’t be costly to get them. The items would be specific to just this project so it felt impossible to buy them since I wouldn’t have a purpose after the project. Overall they were just inessential so I didn't buy them. In the end, my Dollar Store haul came out to be $5.00, unlike the name suggests everything in the Dollar Store is $1.25 which is ironic. My remaining balance for my budget is now $18.03 to spend. I don't think I have anything major to buy so I think I’ll be under budget!

When I went home the case files from Amazon had also arrived so I picked up that package.

The final haul

After gathering all my materials I started strategizing how I was going to make the fake blood. I didn't have any tutorial I was following, just simply trial and error. I started by just mixing a small quantity of white glue and food coloring to see if my hypothetical idea of fake blood was even possible. To my surprise, it worked. I spread it onto the knife to see how the pigmentation was on the object. When I was handling the knife I made sure to be very careful and had my parents present and ready in case I needed any first aid. Luckily for me, I did not need to utilize them. Everything was going well so I made a larger batch of fake blood and spread it all over the surface of the knife. To avoid staining the floors I put the knife in a plastic bag and then poured the solution. This process of pouring the blood was more work than anticipated. The high quantity of food coloring used in the mixture made it stain very easily. I got a little bit of the mix on my finger and it stained immediately so I had to make sure the fake blood didn't get on the floor, my clothes, and my hands but also I had to spread it out since the glue took a long time to liquefy as it was thicker than blood would be. To spread out the mixture I used a hot glue stick since it was on-hand and I could risk getting it ruined with the stain. I also used the hot glue stick to pop any bubbles that formed as a result of pouring the mix. Now, my idea was that I could let the glue dry and then peel off the knife with glue attached and place it on the floor or counter and take crime scene pictures that way to reduce the mess of a liquid. I went ahead and left it overnight. 

The next day I came back and this idea didn't work as I had hoped. The dried glue was a significantly different color and dried in a stratified pattern which I did not expect. There were also a couple of bubbles on the surface. Overall it just looked super fake and when I tried to peel it off of the plastic bag it just peeled off in little bits. At this point, I knew there was no salvaging this idea so I went back to the drawing board. 

When I was pouring the fake blood it looked realistic as it was wet so I decided that I would take the pictures and videos I needed for the crime board and opening sequence while it was wet. I wanted to just pour the fake blood on top of the knife but that would cause a huge mess. I was doing this atop hardwood floors so it was bound that the glue would seep into the grooves of the flooring. I also knew I couldn’t use the plastic bag since it looked unrealistic. Then it came to me that I could lay clear plastic wrap on the floor so to the eye it looks like it's the floor but it doesn’t ruin the floor. I placed the knife with the remnants of dried blood on the protected floor and got the fake blood ready again. I made a couple of tweaks to enhance the color and transparency of the blood while I was at it. 

My new and improved fake blood recipe is as follows: 

• In a small container that you are willing to ruin, add 2 parts white glue and 1 part clear glue with a generous squirt of red food coloring. 

• Mix with a utensil of your choice. 

• Add in more food dye as needed.

• That’s it! Beware that anything the mixture touches is at risk of being stained, including your skin. 

  
  

  

After making the fake blood again I went ahead and distributed it as before and made sure to pop any bubbles. 

At this point, I took the pictures and videos I needed. The clips I needed were aerial close-ups of the knife. I wanted a somewhat fluid movement to the camera but it was difficult to not shake my arms since they were unable to lean against something to stabilize them. I took a couple of variations of the clip to choose the best one later in editing. As far as photos go, I needed one to put on the crime board. I took an aerial photo that had the knife framed in the middle since it was the most objective composition I could think of. I reviewed the footage and noticed that some stubborn bubbles would not pop so I’ll just have to live with that in the pictures. I also noticed that you could tell there was plastic on the floor. Now this is an issue I could not live with. I started playing around with the editing features just within my phone’s “Photos” app. I adjusted a couple of things but realized that lowering the “Brightness” significantly removed the glare that the plastic produced. This solved my problem so I wouldn’t have to refilm or restage the crime again. 

As you can tell there was a lot of back and forth and also on-the-spot thinking but it all worked out in the end plus I got to try Subway’s footlong cookie and made progress so I could spare time for my galentines festivities! Hoping all of you have a joyful Valentine's as well!