Gun Blow back demo

Recently i have been working on a demo for realistic gun blow back using adobe after effects. 

Basically what i did to achieve this is took my primary footage of the actor (Will Robinson) pretending to shoot a gun. I then imported this footage into after effects. I then duplicated the layer and using the pen tool drew a mask around the slider (top part of the gun) and dragged it backwards to give the effect the slider was flying back. I then added a motion blur to make the movement appear to have more of a motion because the animation only lasts 1 frame to give a realistic speed so i needed to make the animation look smother. 

Next i needed to create the exposure of the barrel and slide guide which would normally occur when the slide recoils. I did this by finding a "clean plate" which is a scene in the video where the background behind the gun is shown. I then duplicated the footage at this point and reduced it to 1 frame long (the same as the slide recoil) and moved it to the point that the slide flys back. Then using by changing the layer merge to difference and changing the opacity of the "clean plate" aligned where the barrel and slide guide would appear. Then using the pen tool again created a mask around the area I wanted to get rid of everything except for the barrel and guide. Then using a preset of nozzle flash (which i downloaded as part of the action movie essentials pack) added the nozzle flash from the barrel when the gun is shot. The to get the black and white effect I de-saturated the footage and played with the brightness and contrast until i got an effect i was happy with. 

Masks in Films

I recently came up with the idea of having my main character (The Auditor) being masked. I could not, however, think of an idea for a mask for him to wear. I turned to the Internet to research masks used in films and comics in the past. From comics mainly I got the small stereotypical band mask which just covers the strip of skin around your eyes. I considered this but then thought because I am already using a style similar to that used in The Spirit and The Spirit wears one of these masks it may look like i am just ripping off the character! The other types of mask were generally full face or 3/4 face covering but were all unique.

Next I looked at films. There are a few films that stood out because of masked characters such as Friday the 13th, for the hockey mask donning "Jason", V is for Vendetta, for the Mardi Gras styled Guy Fawkes mask that "V" wears and The Strangers, for the sack styled mask that the leader of "The Strangers". I did not want to use a hockey mask for sure because of the image people get of Jason when they see Hockey masks in films. I was very interested in the Mardi Gras styled masks and the sack mask however.
All though used at festivals, some had a really creepy sense about them because as well as hiding the wearers face they also , alot of the time, give the face a new shape or chandes facial fatures

I am definatley considering a beaked mardi-gras mask, similar to the picture on the right. (above)
I also liked the sack style mask. This is because it is very mysterious. Although I like it i'm not sure how suited it would be to my charecter or film because of what people associate with that type of mask. Normally when people think or see a sack mask they link it with executioners and killers (well different types of killer to the Auditor any way!!). I do still like the idea but I think if I were to use this idea I would compromise. So instead of using a sack mask I could use a balaclava (but preferably not black as these are too often associated with robbers).

At the moment it's a choice between sack styled mask/white balaclava and a mardi-gras styled beak mask.