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How to make your own DIY air-powered blood squibs

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Movie special effects usually come with a big price tag. They can be complicated, requiring specialised (and licensed) skill sets. Some are also very dangerous if not performed correctly. Blood squibs are no exception. They’re the packs that you see explode whenever somebody gets shot in a movie or TV show.

Traditionally, squibs hold a small explosive charge that detonates on demand. You’ll generally need to be licensed in order to create and use them, and there are all kinds of safety checks. There are safer options, though. Such as this one shown in this video from John Hess at Filmmaker IQ. We see us how to make our own (relatively) safe squibs using a very minimal list of ingredients..

From bugs to poison: the weird history of fake blood

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Nowadays you can simply buy fake blood, even online. But if you don’t have a high budget and you’re filming the next Texas Chainsaw Massacre – you will probably still want to rely on DIY blood. Ketchup doesn’t really work, so – what’s the perfect recipe?

Before cinema and TV, there were only theaters. And in theater, a red handkerchief symbolized blood. However, the directors wanted something less symbolic and more realistic. And that’s when they started searching for the perfect recipe for stage blood. They came up with some pretty weird recipes over the years.

This Is How To Make Fake Blood And How It’s Been Used Throughout History

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Blood is crucial to movies. And it is not just the gore-filled, army oriented, zombie killing movies. Every time someone get hit and need to bleed a bit, there is the issue of where blood comes from.

Of course, you can not use real blood. There are moral and ethical issues with that. Not to mention the hygiene catastrophe that would unfold with  real blood. But then, movies have been showing blood for a really long time. So how do they do it? Using fake blood.

This tutorial from Filmmaker IQ shows how to make fake blood and how fake blood was used throughout the cinematic timeline.

One of the interesting facts on the tutorial is that much of the blood was cut out from films during the 1930 because of self censorship coming from the big Hollywood studios (A.K.A the Hays code). Then in the 50’s the code died, when television came in, among other reasons.

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