Teen Drinking

            Well, we all know what holiday is coming up. Everyone enjoys this time of year, especially teens. Why? You get a lot of time off of school. Less responsibilities, more free time, more sleep, and food. It’s a time when everyone can lighten their moods a little bit.

            However, with this lovely time off of stress from school, kids take advantage and take things a little too far. They think something is a good idea and then end up regretting things in the end. That’s right, I am talking about drinking. According to MassMoms.com a large number, around 1,200 people will die around the holiday season due to alcohol and drug use. How many of those people were of age? Rarely anyone will ever know.

            Why is it so popular? There is a lot of stress around the holidays. Some people relieve it with a hobby, or a vacation. Others, use alcohol and drugs. While yes, it is more common in young adults and people over the drinking age, it is also seen a lot in teens. There is always peer pressure in any relationship. Whether it be to go to a certain event, wear certain clothes, or to even do something you shouldn’t, it tends to be there. When you get into a relationship with negative peer pressure is when you start seeing the problems.

            “Oh it’s just one time!” “Come on don’t be a baby!” “Don’t worry, no one will know, you’ll be fine, trust me!” That’s what it all starts with. And then, maybe you don’t get caught, maybe you didn’t have any consequences. When that happens, people tend to repeat what they did. There is a sense of excitement in what you do when you could get caught. You get an adrenaline rush and it feels fun. With no school during the holiday break, it’s easier for kids to get away with things. Parents still work, parents get lenient. There are so many opportunities for kids to go out and not have to face anything or anyone the next day. This makes kids think that drinking is okay, especially since they can “just sleep it off” the next day. Well what happens when it can affect the things you are involved in?

            Words spread fast. Especially when there are multiple witnesses. With all the new social media websites, and the need to look cool, kids are posting more and more pictures and statuses about what they are doing. Around New Year’s there are a lot of parties, and a lot of access to alcohol. You can just about get anyone to supply you with it at the right cost. So what happens when a picture is put up of you drunk doing something embarrassing or there is a revealing comment? There can be many bad things that come with it. There is a chance you could get kicked out of a club or activity, even fired or demoted from a job! It is not something to kid around with! Nowadays people underage really need to step back and think about what they are really willing to risk to have that thirty minute high from “having fun”.

Sober as always,

-Hangin’ from a clothesline

Body Odor

 

BO, Rankness, reek, stench. Sound familiar? If you are a teenager, it should. Nowadays in high school all over, and even in middle schools now, the smell of body odor is commonly known. Or should I say smelled?

Is there something different going on in the school districts? Are they feeding us something that makes us smell? Not exactly. While the food we eat does sometimes affect the way we smell, the school food is not doing this, unless it’s your breath. I know, you wish it was so that we could blame yet another bad thing on the school, but no. They aren’t completely out to humiliate us.

Truth is, there is a lot more going on in kids’ lives today than there was years ago. We are busier, and have more stress. Stress sweat is known to have the most odor of all sweats. Why is this? Well, it has to do a lot with the chemicals released while stressing over something rather than the regular sweat we perspire while participating in an event.

Sometimes we cannot help the fact that we have sweat through our deodorant. Other times, we can. For example: On a normal school day, why do people smell like a skunk in the hallways? I would like to blame it either on the family of the child not pressuring the child enough to wear deodorant and keep up with their hygiene, or purely on the laziness of current generations.

Let’s be honest. If we lived in a different time period, women wouldn’t be seem without gloves, nor men without their pocket watches. So at what point did we decide that deodorant wasn’t a necessary thing to have when going out in public? Was it when public schools decided it was okay to wear pajama or sweat pants to school? Or maybe when dry shampoo was invented so that we thought it was okay not to shower.

All I know is that I am recently finding more and more people that smell like body odor in the halls of my school. What are some ways to help prevent this smell? Let me help! Make a routine every morning. You could even make a list and post it on something you look at every morning (like a mirror) if you feel you would forget to stick to the routine. Have a check list you go through before you leave the house of all the things you need before you leave. Put deodorant on those lists! It may sound pointless now, but let me tell you, when I first started to smell in middle school that list made my life a whole lot easier, and less embarrassing!

If the list doesn’t prove helpful make an emergency kit to keep in your car or backpack. Some ideas of objects to keep in it are hand sanitizer, breath mints, a comb, deodorant, body spray, pain reliever, and body lotion. Believe it or not, this kit can really be a lifesaver!

Have a buddy you can trust and aren’t embarrassed in front of to be there to remind you or even tell you when you start to smell to other people. It is a fact that some people cannot smell their own body odor. To have someone else there to count on can definitely help you during those times when your nose doesn’t pick it up.

If none of these methods work for you, or you have used them successfully and you still smell you can go to a doctor and talk about a product that can help reduce the intensity of your body odor. There are many things that can be a help, even if you don’t think they would be of use.

For now, just hang in there if your school smells like mine. It should get better with time. There are subtle hints you can use to tell a peer that they need to check up on their deodorant usage. If that doesn’t work there is always the method of using something that smells good to hold by you while you are by the person who smells. This is a savior especially if you do not feel comfortable saying anything or if it is against their religion. Good luck with the lovely body odor of the current generations we live with. May your smell be ever in your favor.

 

-Hangin’ from a clothesline

subpost: Synonyms courtesy of word hippo @ http://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/another-word-for/body_odor.html

Sharkiesha

            If you are a teenager in the lovely US of A then you have probably heard about a nice little lady named Sharkiesha. Keep in mind “lady” is used loosely. She was made famous from a YouTube video of her fighting. What a way to make money! Just about everyone has seen or heard something about Sharkiesha. Each and every time one of us say something about the video, it makes other people watch which makes her even more famous.

            I myself just watched the video for the first time. Let me tell you it is nothing special. In fact, the comments tend to be more amusing than the actual fight. Basically, how it goes down is there are two women standing, talking about God know what. They shuffle around for a little while and then all of a sudden Sharkiesha “sucker punches” the woman she is talking to.

            Due to the fact that the woman was not expecting or prepared to be hit, she falls to the ground and rolls to a nearby fence. Sharkiesha proceeds to hit her and then kick her in the face before one of these women’s friends pull her away. How lovely to know that your “friends” can just watch you sit there getting beat and all they say is “oh my God,” for minutes. However, do not fear! These friends finally come to this poor girl’s recue!

            Yes, they did finally step in and pull Sharkiesha away! Oh so nice of them! Well, that didn’t stop Sharkiesha’s anger. She proceeded to try and go back to keep fighting with this girl. Yet these faithful friends kept her back and the other girl safe! Thank goodness!

            If you are sitting there reading this and thinking that it is pretty childish, that’s because it is. But leave it up to America to get in her business and make everything about the video become popular. She has had interviews with news stations, comments, video views, t-shirts, and even sayings made about her! What does this do but to encourage not only her but the rest of America to keep on doing childish things like get into fights and be made famous by the video of it being posted on YouTube? Absolutely nothing. It does not help us grow as a country what so ever. There is no economical nor educational value to our country by watching this video or making fan wear about it. All it does is make a fight even more popular than it needs to be.

            So before you decide to go around spreading news of the video or even getting fan wear, think about what the honest benefit of it is. That is all.

-Hangin’ from a clothesline

Celebrity Crushes

Who is your celebrity crush? Would you consider yourself a little obsessive over them? I’d say most teenage girls are. What exactly draws you to this crush? Is it their looks, sense of style, or their talent? There are many aspects that draw us to someone. The only problem with celebrities is that they are normally out of our reach.  This of course sucks! But let’s be honest. Sometimes the fact that they aren’t available to us makes us only want them more!

Well that just helps us get rid of the obsession so much! With the obsession often growing day by day, we start to follow what happens to our crush more and more. Then all of a sudden, we see that our crush has gotten a significant other. At first we feel heartbroken. Then we either start to get angry or we feel happy for our crush. What normally determines this? Believe it or not, we want our crush to be with us, someone like us, or someone we also like. When our crushes find someone that follows that, we begin to be happy for them and end up rooting for that celebrity couple.

Then there is the opposite side of things. When our crush gets involved with someone we don’t like we end up becoming mad. This is often what we see on social media sites being expressed through statuses. This is what we see trending lately. That and jealousy.

It happens to the best of us. Jealousy sucks. But at least if you experience it, you know that you are human! This jealousy happens when our crush ends up with someone we know and like, yet our obsession gets in the way of us being happy for the couple. It is all in our heads starting with us thinking that we have a chance with who we think we are in love with. Crazy how our hormones can mess up how we think as well as our common sense.  This is a heads up. Although you may thing that this celebrity is all that and a bag of chips, they have faults just like all the significant others we end up hating after our crushes find them. And yes, while you think that you may have a chance; it is very rare that our celebrity crushes will ever even acknowledge that we exist. Sad but true. So go on ranting about how you are so mad that so and so are together, you will just add to the rest of the social network population.

As always,

-Hangin’ from a clothesline

Facebook to Twitter?

                Nowadays no matter a person’s age or status, a lot tend to have a social media profile of some sort. People of older ages tend to have a Facebook. Younger people have something called a Twitter. People ask, “What’s the difference?” Well, on Facebook a person makes a status. Once that status is made, and of their friends can comment on, like or share it. No one has to see it if they don’t extend the original status. However, on Twitter, in order to “like” or comment on something, you have to “retweet” it or “reply” to the original status maker. Sound similar? Well it isn’t. On Twitter if you reply to someone or retweet it, it is able to be seen by anyone who follows you.

                This also means that everyone who follows you can see what the other person has posted. This may interfere with what the other person may have wanted with their privacy. While some people do not set the option to have requests sent to be followed, others might. They may not allow some people to follow them for specific reasons. Just like you would not accept a friend request on Facebook.

                Another feature similar to Facebook is Twitter’s ability to post pictures. You can add them to an update like any other status. But the same thing follows with pictures as it does regular statuses. You cannot comment on them. If you post something on Twitter and want to “tag” someone in it, then instead of writing the person’s name, you have to hit the at symbol (@) and then proceed to type their username instead of the name that they put in their header. If anyone does mention you in a status, you can go to your activity. This is very similar to Facebook’s notifications. The only feature in the notification portion is that you cannot get or send any of those annoying requests.

                Remember messaging? Twitter has that as well. They call it direct messaging. There really isn’t any difference between that and Facebook’s messaging. They not only serve the same purpose, but they appear in just about the same way. There is, however, a smaller limit on the amount of characters you can use on Twitter than there is on Facebook. This does limit what you can say, but also makes you think harder about revising! Who knew that there was some sort of educational value in Twitter?! Well there ya go, there’s just about everything about the similarities between Twitter and Facebook!

-Hangin’ from a clothesline

Instagram Direct

                I’m sure many of you have heard about snapchat. It is a sort of messaging program that allows you to send a photo or short video to a friend for a set amount of time. After that, the picture or video “disappears”. Well guess what that led to.

            Inappropriate pictures being sent. Everyone thinks you can get around being caught because it is direct and then is gone. The only trouble with this is screenshots. Almost everyone knows how to do one.

            There is a similar problem with instagram. Most parents are worried about their children having an instagram. Until now I haven’t seen why. On instagram you can make settings to that if anyone wants to follow you, they have to have their request approved before they can see any of your information or photos. Any inappropriate comments or photos can be seen by many and can be flagged or the person can be blocked. Now, they have added a new feature much like snapchat to instagram.

            Parents beware: now your children have been introduced to something as dangerous, if not more than snapchat. If you choose to trust your children and let them make mistakes to learn from them if they must, then hey, at least you know there is a new possibility.

            If you monitor your children, I would suggest seeing their direct feed. If there is a constant person or messages at odd hours on the feed, you might want to ask who they are talking to or what about. Make sure they are aware if there are screenshots and all the potential dangers that could come with this feature. You can never be too careful or prepared nowadays.

            Back to the parents who put a lot of trust into their kids. My parents do this and I seem to have come out fine. If your kids are the same way, I congratulate you! Less stress! However, if you are starting to get concerns, there are many approaches you could take.

            If your child is constantly on these sites or programs around you, you might ask them to explain the idea of it while showing you around their profile. It is a way to show interest in the site instead of what they are posting. This will not only give you an idea of what’s going on, but it will help you keep your trust and happiness with your child.

            Another way to see what is going on with your child’s profile without looking snoopy is to get your own and start participating! Once you have your own you can visit their profile all you want and they will never know! Good luck!:)

-Hangin’ from a clothesline

Apocalypse?

You look around. All clear. You run into the grocery store to grab first aid treatment for your family. Next thing you know, there is an undead thing running at you trying to eat your face off.

Possible? Maybe. Probable? Not really. However, movies about this are on the rise! Let’s be honest. The fact that your neighbor could one day try to eat you is kind of creepy. According to some scientists, there is a gene that could possibly create a zombie apocalypse. I’m pretty sure we all remember the man that ate his friend’s face off after doing bath salts. There is proof that this off the wall extremely creepy thing could happen. And that my friends, is why there is such rant and rave about these zombie apocalypse movies!

For a lot of people there is nothing scarier than this rotting human running after you to try and eat you. They often look gross and when they attack it is often gruesome. It’s all part of the act the directors have the actors put on for you. The grosser and scarier these creatures look the more likely the audience will get scared. When they see another movie with the same kind of creatures and scare factor, they will likely come to watch it.

When the movies grow from these slow moving creatures, to running extra strong creatures, like in World War Z, it adds a new thrill factor! Now these things can actually run after you and smash through car windows with their heads to get to your pulsing flesh! What the heck! They get more and more invincible! There is less and less of a chance at our survival! What is there left for us to do!?

These movies have gone through shooting the zombies through the head, to moving to a place where they have heard zombies were nonexistent, to a vaccination so that zombies couldn’t detect you. There have been so many solutions and it seems as if a lot of them never come out too good for us humans.
This also adds to the rave of these movies. People almost always end up dying. If I’m not mistaken, people tend to be pretty afraid of that. If not, then people at least like to go and make fun of all the “dumb” aspects of the movies or make fun of the people that go and jump during an intense part… (cough cough me).

So whether you are the person that is extremely afraid of the possible apocalypse and go to better prepare yourself for what may come to be, or you like to make fun of those afraid, you still go and add to the very popular movie audience

*jumps*
-Hangin’ from a clothesline

Netflix

There is a little thing called Netflix. Boy oh boy is it popular. If for some odd reason you have no clue what Netflix is, then I am here to help. Some people either don’t have the time or are too lazy to go to a video rental store. Netflix is right there for you. You basically pay a monthly membership fee, and then you can either send video requests in to be sent to your home, or you can use the Netflix app on any device with internet connection.

Personally, I find that Netflix has become a minor addiction to teens. What better to do on a day when you are grounded or home alone than to watch some classic movies and television shows? There is a wide variety of flicks on Netflix (quite a suiting name I might add). Whether you are looking for a drama television show to a sci-fi movie, they have you covered.

The only downside, like any other rental store, is that sometimes you have to wait for a movie or series to come out. Newer movies sometimes aren't available for instant play which means you have to order them and wait however many days for the actual disk to come in the mail. Yet it is still better than a hit and miss at the rental store.

Do you like classics? Netflix covers from way back to just last month! There is no way you can go wrong with the genre of movies you like to watch. Don’t like talking to people? No problem! You don’t have to communicate with anyone! Worried about late fees? Use the instant play feature online and you never have a disk to take responsibility over!

There is the argument that this will only add on to the problem that cell phones and social media sites give us. The inability to have face to face interaction. Yes, I do see your point there. Lately, generations have been turning to cellular devices and social media sites to talk to people simply for the reason that it is less pressuring to say something to someone while right in front of them. While yes, it does add on to that, you would still have to have a face to face interaction with someone if you wanted to see the film right when it came out. Or say if you wanted goodies to snack on while watching these flicks. This application does not completely serve all your needs for the cinema life. It does make renting things easier but no, it does not make you a hermit.

There are obviously more upsides than downsides to Netflix. If I changed your mind and you decided to rent from Netflix, go me! If not, that’s alright too.

As always
-Hangin' from a clothesline

Ask.fm

In our current generation, and probably generations before, people find that it is easier to say things when not face to face. For example, the majority of people would agree that they find it easier to ask or tell a person something through social media or texting. They only thing is, the person you ask can find out who you are and the after effects can still be awkward. What could possibly eliminate this possible embarrassment?

 

You guessed it, make the questions anonymous. Ask.fm does exactly that. You can simply “ask” someone a question, get an answer, and no one would ever know that you asked it. For some people who ask regular questions this might be a positive thing. However, there is a dark side as well.

 

Bullying and sexual harassment. Yes, these things really do happen. Over a certain period of time someone thought it would be okay to ask a “dirty” or inappropriate question since after all, it is anonymous. While it is your decision to answer the questions you are “asked”, there really isn’t much of a way to avoid a plain old comment. As if face to face and bullying isn’t hard enough to deal with and eliminate, the genius creator of ask.fm has enabled yet another way to cyber bully.

 

It is already suggested that 3.2 million children are bullied each year. With an anonymous questioner, it is nearly impossible to put a stop to that specific bully, let alone try and cut down on our bullying rates.

 

Schools say that they are a “no bully zone”. But what does that really mean? Have a talk with the bully? Switch a few classes? While that is fine and dandy, it doesn’t completely eliminate the bully. Nor does it affect the way they will act at home. Yes, it is appreciated that schools insist that they won’t put up with it, but there are still a lot of loop holes.

 

I did not mean to turn this topic into bullying, however ask.fm does enable it. While there are some major negatives, there are some positives as well. When you can ask something without any worries or regret you may boost your self-confidence and maybe even the person you are questioning. It is another way to connect to people. You get a rush from the excitement that comes with finding out that someone may think you are cute or funny.

 

Long story short, ask.fm is an option. Use it or not, just be aware of what CAN come with it. It may not be what you expected.

 

-Hangin’ from a clothesline

The Conjuring: Burn

                Due to the fact that The Conjuring doesn’t have very many digital effects, so you’ll have to deal with the fact that I am using three makeup effects. There is a moment where the mother in the movie gets possessed and when she tries to go outside she starts burning up from the sun. Therefore, I am going to tell you how to get a pretty cool burn.

                There are some pretty cool burn kits that you can get in a Halloween makeup set. If you use that, a red crème makeup, a black powder, Vaseline, and a red powder or maybe even fake blood. This effect shouldn’t be too complicated. The hardest part I can think of would be applying the burn.

                First thing is first, moisturize you finger tips. Then you can thinly smear the burn around your cheeks and chin. Once the burn is on and differentiated in depth, then you can start adding color. Wherever the burn is not, you can mix the red crème and the Vaseline then, apply it. You can also add a small amount on top of the burn you can even add a little of the mixture to the tip of your nose. Let the mixture set in to your skin for a little, making it dry a little bit.

Once that is done, you can start adding some burnt areas to your face. Take the black powder and apply it to around the burns where the mixture is not. You can add it to your nose, across your forehead, and on your chin. To make it really look like it has affected your whole face, you can put a light amount over your eye, eyebrows, in your nostril, and your lips. To make it look like you weren’t directly burnt in one spot, you can add a small amount of red powder to your face. If you add some to areas of your forehead, on your nose, your lips, your chin, and your eyelid, it will look more realistic.

                Blending still applies here. You need to make this burnt look run into your ear. Just add some black and the mixture to your ear. To make it blend even more, you can slightly start to lighten up the black across your face. You can also add some of the mixture to your face.

                Depending on the burn, it may start to puss. You can add spots of the mixture on top of the burn in certain areas. Sometimes a plain, almost yellow-like gel will come out. If you have a yellow, you can mix that with Vaseline as well and apply that to spots on the burn. The more puss, the creepier.

                I hope you have fun trying to ruin your face!

Dramatic exit—Director J

The Conjuring: Witch

                There is more than one creepy figure in The Conjuring. The witch is one of them. To get the exact look of the witch, it would take a long time and it would take a lot of advanced techniques. Therefore, I am going to get you to the basics and leave you with the option to go further.

                All you will need is white red and blue crème makeup, second day hair, skin wax, a grey hairspray, grey eyeliner, some fake blood and teeth, a white or grey powder, and some contacts that make your eyes look glazed over. For more precise details you can try a pencil of the above colors.

                You should start by applying the white crème makeup to your entire face and down your neck to where the neckline of your clothes starts. Apply it thick so that you look very white and not just pale. The next step would be to add some veins. Moisturize your hands, especially your fingertips, and make very small sausages out of the skin wax. You can place them around your face with some bigger ones around your neck. Blend or smudge them into your neck. Add some white crème over the veins and then put some light blue lines on top so that you can really see the blood in them. You can also put a very small amount of the white crème on top of the blue so that it really blends.

                To get the nose of the witch you need to play around with some more skin wax. Add a lot of it to the bridge and tip of the nose. Add a lot of white crème to it to once again, blend! To finish off the rest of the face you can make various facial expressions and fill the lines in with the grey pencil. This will make you look even more gross and old. If the lines look too obvious, you can do like any other time, and add a little bit of white crème makeup over what really sticks out. Blending is always key! Once everything is done you should add a light amount of powder over the crème so that it sticks.

                Now you have the basic face done. That means it’s time to add some blood to your face. Take the red crème makeup and apply it all around your eyes and mouth.  Your eyebrows should be covered and it should go down to your bags. Unlike the eyes, the mouth should be messy. You can smear it to your cheeks and make it look really gruesome. If you have a black eye pencil handy you can add that to your eyes like normal, and to your lips, but that is completely optional.

                The last touch on your face would be to add some fake blood to around your mouth. Keep in mind, some fake blood may stain. Therefore, if you have a big important thing the next day, I wouldn’t do this look. If you are going through with it, you should add it to around your lips and don’t mind if it gets sloppy, if you are possessed, you aren’t going to care what you look like. If you get the kind that can go in your mouth, you should add it to your fake teeth as well. When you put the teeth in, don’t try to make it perfect without getting blood on other things or smudging the blood. The same motto applies.

                You should now have the main facial look to your costume. The last step would be to deal with your second day hair. Second day hair should look pretty greasy. If you are lucky enough and it doesn’t look greasy, you should add a little bit of lotion to the roots of your hair. Your part, if any, should go down the middle. Now it would be time to spray the grey hairspray into your hair. Not all over, just one the roots. DO NOT BRUSH THROUGH YOUR HAIR!!! It needs to look extremely careless.

                Last but not least, add the old school dress. When you add that, you can go around haunting people’s dreams! Good luck!

Dramatic exit-- Director J

The Conjuring: Annabelle

            First of all, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!! Now for the real fun. I watched The Conjuring the other day. I was expecting a lot more but hey, it was still worth watching. There is a pretty scary looking doll that I think would be pretty easy to replicate on someone for oh, let’s say a Halloween costume? ;)

            She more or less looks like a Raggedy Ann doll with a few adjustments here and there. All you should need is a braided wig with bangs (or your own hair), two red bows, a pinkish red lipstick, grey eye shadow, a pale foundation as well as a brown, some pink blush, a red lip pencil, maybe a little fake blood, some brushes, and obviously your costume.

            You can go ahead and start by putting the very light foundation all over your face. Next, you should take a thinner brush that you would use for any other eye shadow and put the grey all around your eyes, from your bags to your brows, and make sure to blend it making the outsides darker than the part closest to your actual eye. This may look weird at first, but if you add a little mascara to your eyelashes then it shouldn’t look as unusual.  You could also try playing around with a shade of blue to put just on your eyelids to make it look like you were a pretty little doll before you were possessedJ.

            The next step would be to add a little bit of pink blush to your cheek bones. On Annabelle, the blush is in a very small circle, therefore you probably shouldn't apply it like a normal person would. I suggest using a stiffer circular brush. This will create better definition. You can then start adding some of the “contouring” or decaying as I would like to think of it. There are some lines in the diagonals of her mouth and around her nose as well as her temples. If you blend these well, it will look like she is skinnier than normal.

            There are a few scratches on her cheeks and her chin. The scratches on her cheeks are near where you put the blush. If you can make the area you are going to put the scratch a darker pink or even a red then it will look more realistic. Now time to make the actual scratch. You can take the red lip pencil and lightly draw a few lines here and there. After you have the lines down, you can add a little bit of the fake blood on top. It won't look perfect but it will be pretty close.

            When all of that is done, you can add any extra touches you feel necessary. Other than that, you should pretty much have everything down. The last step would be to put on the wig or do your hair and put the bows in. Once you have your costume on you can go around creeping people out! J

Dramatic exit-- Director J

Hellboy: Falling Scenes

In the very first Hellboy, made in 2004, there are a lot of falling scenes. You could have seen that coming from an action film. Something I noticed was that there was something weird going on from the scene before to the falling scene. I couldn’t quite figure out what exactly it was, but then it hit me. All this fishiness was due to a switch between real filming and animation!

One minute you are watching actual actors running and fighting in or on top of buildings, and the next you are watching some animated character falling from a window or edge. You probably have to be more keen to detail to really notice any difference, but that’s just what happens when you have watched the film so many times.

I’d like to discuss the difference in effects between switching from real film to animation, and using actual stunt doubles to finish the scene off. First we will start with real film to animation. While if done correctly, it can be effective, you also have to consider that it takes so much more time to actually make the animated scene and be able to merge it into the scene before so that it isn’t completely noticeable to switch. You need someone who is extremely educated and experienced in the animation field to be able to even make the scene let alone merge it. This will really slow you down and cost you a lot of money.

Keep in mind, a stunt double is definitely no rodeo either. They are also very expensive! You have to pay them, and also have a paramedic team on hand incase there is a large accident or injury if the stunt gets done the wrong way. You can’t just hire anyone off the street and call it good. Therefore this also takes up a lot of time and money. Stunts are no joke, and definitely not something amateur. I would definitely suggest to wait a bit until you try a serious stunt so that you are assured that everything will go smoothly and run with minimal fall backs.

So now we are faced with the question, which one would you suggest? Well, if you were to take the cost out of everything and be left with just the fact that you have the choice between using a scene with a stunt double or an animated scene, I would suggest the stunt double.

There are timelines for everything even when you are a grown person and you have to keep that in mind. You can’t spend months upon months just making the scene. You have to think about how you can merge it in the most effective way. That way would be to use real film. There is less of a chance that a person is going to catch the fact that you switch actors rather than switching film techniques. There is also the fact that it is going to take less time to film a separate person and link the scenes rather than merging filming techniques as well.

With all that in mind, I wish you the best of luck!

Dramatic exit-- Director J

Hellboy: Prince Nuada

It’s that time of year when all the Halloween stores are open. I figured I could talk about making yourself a person from Hellboy that involves a wig, Prince Nuada. He is from the second Hellboy, but oh well. With that being said, you need a long white wig, a wig cap, white crème makeup, and black eyeliner pencil.

This makeup is also very simple do to the face that most of it just has to do with blending and having a steady hand. Your whole face needs to be covered in the white crème makeup. This includes your eyebrows, lips, ears, and neck!!! If you don’t blend, you might as well just be wearing a mask. After you get your entire face covered in white you can apply a white powder to make the crème set. This will prevent the makeup from coming off on clothing and other people as well. Now is the time to add the lines on your face. These lines need to be thin and light, so make sure to sharpen your black eyeliner pencil before beginning. The prince has a line going laterally across his nose and cheekbones curving to the original curves already on his face. They start at the very end of his cheekbones facing down. Then they curve up and over his cheekbones dropping into a droop under the Lacrimal Caruncle, otherwise known as the very inside of your eye closest to your nose, curving over your knows and mirroring on the other side.

Prince Nuada also has various straight lines on his forehead. I would go with five. One starting on the bottom half of your forehead right above your eyes and ending about at your eyebrows, and then four on the outside of that line, tapering in height. Nuada also has a few of these lines on his chin. Three would be a good amount. They should be placed just about the same as the lines on the forehead, one lower in the middle and two tapered off the sides. Like many other people the Prince also has some light lines by where the lines are when he smiles. If you smile and apply lightly in the crease, it should turn out just about the same as his.

Although his entire face is white, he does have some dark accents to him. His eyes and lips are black. For his eyes, you lightly want to apply all around the actual eye, including the top and bottom eyelid. You can smudge these to make them look more cloudy and less edgy. As for his lips, all you have to do is either use black lipstick, or your black eyeliner will do just fine. Apply the liner or lipstick just like you would any other lip or chap stick and then lightly blot so that the black doesn’t get on your teeth.
Last but not least, you should apply the lovely long white hair!J First, if you have long hair, you should tie it back into a pony tail and then put the wig cap over it. If you are a guy, then you can just skip the ponytail and go straight to the wig cap. When all of that fun stuff is over with you can finally add the finishing touch! The wig!!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, Prince Nuada!!

Dramatic exit--Director J

Hellboy: Hellboy

Hellboy has been one of my family’s favorites since near the time it came out in 2004. We are all pretty much sci-fi geeks in our own ways. I especially am a nerd for paranormal action movies. I heard that the Make-A-Wish Foundation made a little boy into Hellboy for his wish and so I thought it would be cool to make that happen for anyone reading this.

When I think of Hellboy I think of a juice-head devil with his horns cut off. I figured out how to get the look of him pretty easily until it came to his horns. I couldn’t figure out where you could get something that looked like them. Then I had an idea. All you will need for this is a red crème base, a bit of a darker red, either in pencil form or you could buy another crème and just use a small thin paint brush, red paint (w/ brush), a bald cap with brown/ black hair on the sides, skin wax, black eyeliner, a sponge, and two hairspray caps with no design.

This is going to be very easy for people to accomplish due to the fact that there isn’t a whole lot about Hellboy’s face. The first thing you will need to do is to take an eye pencil of any kind and draw the circles of the hairspray caps on each side of your forehead, right by the point of your eyebrows. This will have the area where you need to put the skin wax marked out. The next step would be to put the skin wax sausage on top of the circles you drew on your forehead (remember, you need to have your hands and finger tips moisturized to not melt the skin wax).  Once you get the circle of skin wax thick enough to stick the hairspray caps in, you can smudge the sides into your forehead to make it look like it eases into the horns. At this point you can paint the hairspray caps with the red paint and set out to dry while you get the rest of your face ready.

Now that the shape of your face is going to be ready you can start to get the color. You will need to apply the red crème makeup to your entire face, including your ears, eyebrows, the skin wax, and blending to your neck. Once you are all red, you can add the lines of Hellboy’s face to yours. Take the darker red and start at the crease of the sides of your nose. Take it all the way down to where if you suck in your cheeks like a fish, the crease will stop. You can also make some curved lines above your eyebrows, right where the first line from your raised eyebrows lies. You can apply a small amount of powder to your face to set the color on so that it doesn’t come off of your face. By now the paint should be dry on the caps. You can press them into the deepest part of the skin wax on your forehead. If they are too big, you can shave them down and then put them back in. Once applied, you should smudge a little bit of the skin wax on the outer walls of the caps so that they stay better.

Now that you know where everything on your face is, you can apply the bald cap. Once the bald cap is on you will need to make the skin of that red as well. The line from the bald cap should not be that noticeable. Once all of that is done you can add some of the final touches. You can take the darker red and the sponge and dab the color onto your horns to create texture. You can also take the black eye pencil and draw cracks on them almost like a wooden cork. You can draw lines on the side as well, then cover it all with a light layer of the lighter red makeup so it doesn’t look like you just have lines drawn onto you horns. If you would like you can also apply a light amount of black eyeliner to the top part of your eyelids to make you look “darker”. Make sure you blend it so that it is almost a grey. If you don’t blend well then it will not look right by any means.

You are almost done!!! Now it is time to apply the final small amount of powder for the stick and your costume! Be very careful with this makeup on! It will smudge very easily and the horns can fall off if you hit or touch them too much!

Hope you have fun being Hellboy!

Dramatic exit-- Director J

Evil Dead 1981: Running scene

                What many don’t know is that there is more to think about than just running while you film. They obviously didn’t really get that when they filmed The Evil Dead in 1981. Then again, like many people know, we have developed a lot technologically since then. You can look many different places for fancy ways to do things. You could also try and buy these super cool super advances and super expensive tools and machines. OR you could just control yourself and try something that costs no money at all! If I were you, I would go with the second option.

                To get a good effect of actually running in the eyes of a victim or attacker, or just to make it feel like the viewer is running with the character, the camera man has to have a lot of self control. The first thing the camera man needs to know is how to lock their elbows. When you lock them, there is less bounce in your arms and it is easier to keep the camera steady. A famous line is that two heads are better than one. Well, that goes for hands to camera as well. If you hold the camera normally with one hand and with one under the camera, it gives you more control and stability.

                Now that you have the top half of your body taken care of and controlled, you can worry about the bottom half. Even though you have more control of your camera and you have stability, you still cannot run like a mad man. You really have to think about how you are running. You can’t simply run normally. You have to stiffen your legs and take small steps. The smaller the steps, the steadier the shot will be. If you don’t like this, you can always try to take long glide like steps. This won’t make you go as fast, but if will be steadier than a normal run.

                One of the other options, assuming you are good with computer video editors, you can film the actor running in slow motion and you simply walking, and then when you upload the video you can speed the scene up. This will allow you to film normally and not even worry about running while filming. The only trouble I can think of about this would be that the sound would be tricky to edit. The only way I could think of would be to tape with things pre-marked and then record over the video like they do in music videos. Like I said before, this is possible, but you would have to be pretty advanced.

Dramatic exit—Director J

Evil Dead 1981: Demon

                Well, this one should be fun. There is this pretty cool demon that I had my eyes on to recreate. This demon is pretty creepy for 1981. I was actually impressed to see is in The Evil Dead. This effect is a bit more advanced so you will need to get a few more things than usual. You can go to any Halloween store and get a few makeup kits. These are just for the colors and some extra accessories. You can get a zombie and a Frankenstein kit. Then zombie kit will help with the colors and Frankenstein for staples. You will also need liquid latex, tweezers, a few brushes, grey hair spray, and some white powder.

                 The first thing you will need to do is cover your entire face with the white crème makeup provided in the zombie kit. Next you can put some black and red around your eyes. Red should go to your nose and a bit on your forehead. We will be putting a gash on your forehead more towards the end. A light amount of black should be applied to your eyebrows and your lips. The next step is to apply the texture to your face. This is done by using liquid latex and single ply toilet paper. Make sure there is no design on the toilet paper. So basically buy the cheapest brand possible, they tend to have less designs on them. You apply each layer by layer, alternating between first liquid latex and then toilet paper until you get the thickness you want.

                Before the liquid latex is fully dried, you can make is smudge on the top of your forehead, the bridge of your nose, around your cheeks by where you smile, and under your eyes. You can also choose the side of your forehead you want the gash to go on. Take the tweezers and lightly separate the width you would like.

                While you allow that to dry, you can go ahead and spray your hair gray. Your hair should look messy so don’t worry about styling it or making sure it doesn't get messed up. Once the liquid latex is a bit drier you can start applying more color to your face. You should see light amounts of where previous color was previously applied. You can apply black around the gash and under your eyes. If you decided to make more cuts or tears then you should apply black to all of those areas as well. You should add some more/ a darker red to the very deepest part of the gashes or cuts.

                In the very end you should apply white powder to your entire face excluding the cuts and your eyes where the liquid latex has been smudged down. If you want and have the extra materials you could also add some black eye liner lines lightly to your chin with some water over it to look like drool and black matte eye shadow to your eyebrows to make them look dustier. If you did end up getting the fake staples then you can apply them to the large gash on your forehead. Whether you use skin wax, stick the staples into the already used latex, or apply using fresh liquid latex, you should make sure they are stable and won’t bother you the rest of the time. When you are done you can go ahead and apply some white power to the staples to make them look old like the rest of the face that you just created.

                Some of this stuff may come off throughout the day, so it would be wise to carry around your liquid latex so that you can do minor fixes when needed. Something else you could try is to spray some hairspray on your face so that there is less of a chance of all the powder coming off.

                Have fun scaring people!:)

Dramatic exit—Director J

Evil Dead 1981: Possessed Hand

                The Evil Dead 1981 version is much different than the 2013 version. Some movies back then were better than movies today. Honestly, I wouldn't consider this to be one of them, even though I wasn't a major fan of the newer one in the first place. Back then special effects were much different and obviously not as advanced, but I decided it would be fun to try and bring the past back to life by doing some of the effects in a more modern way.

            In the very beginning of the movie, one of the characters gets possessed to draw something while she was sketching. Her hand turned a blue-gray and it looked as if her veins were popping out of her hand. She was obviously scared and shaking so when you go to make your hand possessed, it doesn't have to be perfect unless you will be holding still or letting people inspect your hands at a close range. All you will need for this is a white creme makeup, skin wax, a variety of widths of brushes, and a matte gray and blue eye shadow. None of this should have glitter or sparkles due to the fact that if you are all shimmery it will look just like makeup and not a special effect.

            You really won’t want to do this on a hand that has a lot of hair on it due to the fact that it makes the removal much harder. If possible, you should shave the hand. If not, then make sure the person who this is being done on knows that there may be a little pain with the removal of the skin wax. You shouldn't need to use much wax, but it is always nice to have a heads up.

            Like any other time you are working with skin wax, you need to moisturize your hands, especially at your finger tips. Melted skin wax is the worst! Anyhow, unlike before, you want to use very little amounts of skin wax due to the fact that veins aren't the size of a wound like I have discussed before. You can play around with your hands and flex to get an idea of how large you actually want the skin wax sausage to be. A good estimate of how many you should make is about three. One vein should run from between your middle finger and ring finger to your wrist, one from between your middle and pointer fingers to your wrist by your thumb, and another running from one of the other veins to your wrist. Keep in mind, that is just a suggestion and you can adjust to a situation.  Once the veins are blended in you can start applying the white creme base.

            The creme should not be caked on, but just light enough to make your skin look powdered. The next step is to dust a gray matte shadow to the hand to make it look dusty and old. The next step would be to apply different shades of blue to the raised part of the veins you previously applied. If you really want you can also try a plum color as well to show depth. Once you get the right shade you can dust a little bit more gray eye shadow over the whole hand to finish it off.

            Some more options would consist of “contouring” your fingers and other bones in your hand to make the hand look sickly. When showing people you can have the hand shake and be very stiff. If you blend well, wear long sleeves, and act the part, this effect could really be pulled off nicely.

Dramatic exit—Director J

Harry Potter: Bellatrix Lestrange

Bellatrix Lestrange is one of the really cool characters in Harry Potter. Her character isn’t very dry and she gets a lot of cool parts in the script. Bellatrix is known as a very attractive lady that is a bit beaten up from spending her time in Azkaban. I know it’s close to Halloween, so I thought it’d be a great time to write about an easy character to dress up as!

All you need is a black dress, a wand, an eye shadow palette, lip gloss, a hair curler, a teasing brush, and some powder foundation and bronzer. If you are a girl I am assuming you have most of these things around the house, if not, you can get all of the above at Wal-Mart for under fifty dollars. This shouldn’t take much time unless you have very thick hair that is hard to handle. You could also try hair rollers. 

The first step is to start on your hair because some people sweat while using hot hair accessories and you do not want to sweat your makeup off. Depending on whether you have thin or thick hair you should divide your hair into three to five sections. The tighter the curls you can make the better. Once you get all of your hair curled you should brush through it so that the curls start to look frizzy. The next step is to tease your hair. You should start by grabbing a small section of the top of your hair and spray some hair spray in it. By then you can comb that section of hair backwards and it should stick up like the beef stick guy’s hair. You can do that to multiple layers of your hair to get the thickness and height you prefer and then you can comb over the top to make it smoother. You can pin any part of your hair back that you want to be out of the way or you can style it according to which movie you want to base your look off of.

Now that your hair is done you can move onto your makeup. You want to be pretty pale because she was in Azkaban so she didn’t get much sun. You can apply a light shade of foundation all over your face and be sure to blend down to your neck. The next step is to add a dirty look to her face. You can either use a dark bronzer with a narrow thick brush, or you can also use a grey eye shadow. This can be anywhere on your face, but I recommend to put it on one side of your forehead and to one cheek so it looks evenly distributed. This should be rough yet blended. Bellatrix doesn’t wear much in terms of eye shadow but if you would like you can add a small amount of pink or red to the eyelid. The one thing Bellatrix is big on is her lip gloss. I would use a plum color to show how dark she is.

Last but not least, all you have to do is add a black dress and a wand to your new style and there you are!

Dramatic exit—Director J

Harry Potter: Wand Effect

        Have you ever wanted to make it look like you were casting a spell on someone on video? Let's be honest, we all have thought it would be cool at some point or another. This how-to is going to follow along with many of my other effect how-tos. You will need a video editor, some assets, a wand, and obviously the film that is going to play in the background.

         Here we go. You can obviously choose any wand that you want because the effect really doesn't have anything to do with the way it looks. First thing is first. You need to have the scene filmed that you want the effect in. Obviously the effect will only be a few frames from the scene, but you need to make sure it will seem and look organic. Once you have the scene uploaded, you can add another thing on called a null. Basically, just something to go on top of the scene already uploaded. You can take a picture of a sparkler and add that to the null scene at the frame with the pointed wand in the direction you want the effect to go. You can play around with the size and transparentness of the sparkler to make it seem like it is fading in and out. The next step is to add something that looks like a line of fire. You may wonder why we would even be playing around with fire for a Harry Potter wand effect. Well, truth be old, if you flip it upside down, add a glow to it, and make the flame a bit transparent, it looks really cool and honestly not that much like fire. You can also add a 3-D effect to the flame to make it look like it is going towards and passed your camera to the target of choice.

         You need to make sure that everything is attached to the flame and blended well. Otherwise it will look just like pictures attached to a video. Next step would be to add a lens effect. You can play around with the ones that your editing software allows you, and choose the one that best fits the scenario. Lens flares tend to work the best when playing around with flames. At the very end you can look at what color scheme you want to use in the general video after you blend all the frames together, and then you have this lovely wand trick.

         Last but not least, if you want to add a small explosion then a vinegar bomb would look pretty cool. All you need for a vinegar bomb, is vinegar of your choice, baking soda, saran wrap, and a plastic bottle. It's easy and not very time consuming. If you don't want an explosion and just want sounds, some software have their own sounds and some don't. If yours doesn't, then I'm sure you can find some somewhere on the internet.

        Hope this helped!!

Dramatic exit-- Director J

Harry Potter: Dobby

            Well, I’m a big Harry Potter fan. In fact, I was that stupid teenage girl in the audience that cried when Dobby died. It gets me every time. I’m a teenager, give me a break. Anyhow, I got recent inspiration to re-watch the entire series. And as soon as Dobby died, it hit me. This would be a great how-to! This is going to require some special makeup that is often seasonal, so I’m sorry in advance.

 

            There is crème makeup that many people get around Halloween due to the fact there are a lot of Halloween stores around town. People can also get them during football season because so many people like to paint their bodies for games. You will need a skin color, yellow, light brown, and white. This will give you the perfect tone of Dobby’s skin. Green crème will help with the eyes. Something to mix on and with will also be called for. To get the dirty house-elf look you can use a dark powder with a fluffy brush so it is dusted on and doesn’t actually look like makeup. To get the lines and depth of Dobby’s face you can use brown eye pencils and skin wax for extra oomph. You will also need a black eyeliner and crème. You can buy ears like Dobby’s at Halloween stores or you can search for them online. For his nose, you might be better off just using skin wax.

 

 

                Dobby’s eyes are generally bigger than the common human eye, therefore you can use a special trick to get big eyes without using much. Basically, once you mix the color you want for the skin tone of Dobby, you can start applying all over your face and down your neck, until you reach the point that is going to be covered by clothing. Two to three coats should do the trick. Next would be to make the lines of Dobby’s forehead. You should take your brown eye pencil and make sure that it is sharp enough to make a precise line. He has many wrinkles like an old person with a few more characterizing lines. If you make an angry face and lightly draw in the natural lines your face already has, then you have half the work easily done. There are three curving lines on his forehead that really shouldn’t be on your angry face. However, if you raise your eyebrows, you can get a general idea of where and what the lines should look like. If you squint your eyes you can get the defining lines that Dobby has near his bulbous green eyes. There are only a few more lines you should have to draw in. When you smile really hard, you have lines around your mouth. Pencil those in. Last, but not least, Dobby has some pretty bad bags under his eyes. Let’s face it, being a house-elf is tiring work!

 

                The next step would be to blend these lovely lines in. The lighter you applied them, the easier it will be. If these lines didn’t give you the depth you wanted in Dobby’s face then you can add skin wax in between the three major lines in the forehead and smudge those in to make more dramatic changes in depth. Now you have the basics. You may ask, well my eyes look really tiny, how do I get the huge bulbous ones? I’m getting to that now. If you close your eyes and roughly paint a large circle to your eyebrows and a little over then fill in, INCLUDING YOUR EYEBROWS, then you get a large eye started. Dobby doesn’t have eyebrows, so don’t worry about looking weird. Next is to add the pupil and iris. Dobby has very beautiful green eyes. You can mix many different shades to get all the different rings and parts to come out with a black dot in the middle. Just make a smaller circle within the white that you already painted.  The eyes are really based on opinion so I’m not going to go into detail about how to make eyes. If you can mix a light brown that isn't much darker than the original shade you used all over your face to go around the eyes it adds depth and detail. Dobby doesn't have eyebrows or eyelashes so adding hair won't be necessary.


               Now you have every other feature excluding the nose and ears. You already have the ears from buying or making them, not sure what you would like to do. To make the nose we are going to go back to the skin wax. His nose is very large and triangular. You can add layer on layer of skin wax until you get the shape you would like. I suggest using a picture to base the nose off of. Just keep in mind, the skin wax melts very quickly. If you add lotion or Vaseline to your fingers then it won't melt as fast while you work with it.


               Any other details or questions you might need help with, feel free to post as a comment and I’ll get back to ya!


Dramatic exit-- Director J