This is kind of a weird question, but here goes. In recent years, a lot of movies seem to have got pretty graphic with showing people vomiting on screen. (In the past, they’d rush off to the bathroom and you’d hear it, but we’d generally be spared the visuals.)
Does anyone know how they fake this? I’d assume a handy mouthful of vegetable soup or something similar, to be ejected at the appropriate moment – if it weren’t for the fact that sometimes the actor in question can be talking beforehand in the same shot, with no cut away in order to fill up. How do they do that?? Is there an Oscar somewhere for “Best dialogue with a mouthful of fake vomit”?
(I know, all the magic of the silver screen and this is what I’m puzzling over… :rolleyes: )
Does the actor put his or her hands to the mouth just before blowing? There may be a tube up the actor’s sleeve, ejecting the condensed cream of asparagus soup or whatever.
A number of movie effects take into consideration that unless there is a reference (such as a change in focus) the movie screen has no depth.
It’s pretty clear that the Mr Creosote scenes in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life had some kind of hose attached to Terry Jones’ right shoulder. The hose is arranged so that if Jones turned his head to the right, his face would hide the hose and the spray of vomit* would appear to come from the area of his mouth.
This works as long as the camera is fairly fixed, as long as the actor hits his marks and turns his head the same way every time, and the camera doesn’t actually look far enough to see into the actor’s mouth.
Terry Gilliam’s fake vomit in the “Crunchy Frog” sketch for Live at the Hollywood Bowl was just a mouthful of beef stew.
I haven’t seen any recent on-screen vomits but it’s possible that someone is daring enough to use CGI vomit. Do you have a particular example?
*Actually, the vomit was soup. The film commentary between Jones and Gilliam doesn’t coincide on what kind of soup. One said minestrone, one said vegetable. I remember an interview with Eric Idle that said it was some kind of Russian soup. Sheesh.
[hijack]This reminds me of working at McDonald’s with a friend who used to pretend to vomit by filling his mouth with Big Mac sauce. Surprisingly realistic![/hijack]