How to pull off bloodshot and yellow eyes for alcoholic role!?

C

camsimonfilms

New member
I am currently working on a low budget drama that involves showing the deterioration of a Marine from alcoholism, It is highly important we sell this effect that he is always highly intoxicated visually. Towards the beginning of his binge drinking his eyes are almost always bloodshot, towards the end of the film when he is a full blown alcoholic his eyes will be more of a yellowish glossy look. I know they sell "bloodshot" contacts, but those run for about 200 dollars EACH which is not in the budget. Is anyone aware of any kind of eye drops that can cause those effects? The bloodshoot, maybe glossy and yellowish look?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
-Cam
 
I sure wouldn't put anything in my eyes that would have that sort of effect on them :)

Other than contact lenses (of which you'd need multiple sets, to represent the gradual changes in eye colour), i don't see any obvious solutions, unless you're lucky enough to have a cheap and masochistic visual effects person prepared to adjust the eyes in every frame in post production - that would give fabulous control over the gradual visual change, but also be a massive amount of work, I'd only recommend it if the eyes aren't usually visible (e.g. he usually hides behind sunglasses).
 
I've seen demo clips of how to do this using "Mocha" tracking software with After Effects. Very effective results creating monster eyes in the demo I saw.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor
 
Those posted above look cheap, fake, and overall horrendous; they would probably spoil the production value before increasing it. However, for ten dollars, I suppose you could try them.

SHARBOR said:
tracking software with After Effects. Very effective
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-Agreed

This is your best bet.
 
KyranFord said:
Those posted above look cheap, fake, and overall horrendous; they would probably spoil the production value before increasing it. However, for ten dollars, I suppose you could try them.
Click to expand...

Yeah. They sure do. Then again, you never know exactly how they'll come out on video. And yeah, for $10 I'd definitely give them a try before spending the time in AE. Always better to get it right when you shoot, than to fix it (or effect it?) in post.
 
Contact lenses are for pupils (unless you get pricey full-eye SFX jobs). The WHITES get red.

Moreso, the eyes get puffy, the "outlines" (red mucous membranes and where ladies put eyeliner) get red & swollen (don't ask how I know). So - outside the eyes, makeup can go a very long way - shadows/bags for puffiness, reddish (subtle) eyeliner, fade it to shading to make the eyes seem sunken (more for an overall tired & negative vibe than textbook drunk). So - some good reference images and a good makeup artist should go a very long way.

I'd venture a guess that that's 90% of what people really see that makes them think "drunk" or wasted or tired - vs. bloodshot whites - except for closeups.

What else gives you red whites? Swimming in a chlorinated pool does, and it's not permanently damaging. For me, putting a contact lens on inside out (hurts like a *****!) gives me bloodshot, red eyes for 5 minutes or so. Smoking a lot of weed seemed to do it when I was in "high" school.

There may be a way to safely irritate the whites for all I know - maybe ask an optician. There may be some old & safe hollywood trick for all we know - but don't DIY it without talking to an eye doc. Or use makeup for wider shots and track closeups as needed - you may be able to quickly tell a few key shots that could use some red. But it's a lot of work, tracking, rendering, saying "ahh, not quite" and redoing I'd bet.
 
It would be pretty easy to use resolve to track each eye and apply a color adjustment on them, I think you would only even be able to see the eyes were bloodshot on a med or cu anyway. Marijuana is legal in WA and CO now btw- just sayin...
 
Thought about that the other day when I was watching the new series True Detective. Uhm, I'll try not to give anything away.

In one scene McConaughey was drunk and had red, beaten eyes. I don't know how they did it, but it worked really well. Also, apart from the eyes, it's the overall feeling you get from a character who's always been looking good, clean and tidy. In this scene his tie is untied, the hair's a bit messy, the body posture and body language is different...

View attachment 81116

I've read that, while shooting The Big Lebowski, Jeff Bridges used to rub his knuckles in his eyes before doing a take if The Dude had been smoking. Perhaps start with that and some contact lens solution (totally harm free) to get the eyes a bit watery?

I don't know, but would be cool to know how to do it without using AE.
 
Giving someone bloodshot eyes is easy, just have someone blow smoke in their face.

For the yellow colour, talk to an Optometrist about putting fluorescein eye drops in the persons eye. It is used by optometrists, with a UV light, to look for damage in the cornea, and for retinal angiography, or something like that. It will temporarily make the eye look yellowish. However, it might also dilate the pupil, I can't remember.
 
I've done more than my fair share of roto eye shots using mocha and AE. It's not very much fun. Cameras and actors heads move, a lot. mocha is awesome but it doesn't really work 100% automatically on things that change perspective as much/as fast as eyes can. So you are almost always adjusting splines.

Here's a link to my VFX reel for the eye shots in Arabella (won 2nd this last Halloween in the DVXfest). These shots were painful and the doll doesn't blink or move.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?311820-Arabella&p=1986383216&viewfull=1#post1986383216

I did a few eye roto's for another festival entry (The Wolf Tree) with actual actors (I don't think any of that ended up in the film though). The film had used real SFX contacts for most of the shots but they didn't look that great so I offered to help, but it was very last minute. Only so much you can do with fixing bad looking SFX contacts six hours before the deadline.

I'd recommend against the cheap lenses, fixing that is harder than just doing the whole thing in post. High end lenses might be different but even then I'd say it's not worth risking an actors eyes over.

Plan a lot of time if you really want to do it entirely in post. It's doable, just expect to spend a lot of hours doing it.
 
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