Melted plastic effect

[practicalproduction]

Hello!

I'm working on a documentary about UFOs and we are covering this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash-Landrum_incident case. We'll be doing a dramatic reconstruction of the incident and I'm trying to work out a practical way to recreate this bit;

'When she touched the car's dashboard, Vickie Landrum's hand pressed into the softened vinyl, leaving an imprint that was evident weeks later'

So far I've only though of covering the dashboard with black plasticine which should be easy to leave an inprint but I'm afraid this may look amateurish. Do you have any other suggestions as to how this could be pulled off?

Many thanks

 

[georgiahoosier]

Could you do it as just a close up of the actual "hand pressing"?
Then you could shoot it anywhere you wanted using your vinyl material over something squishy and then just refer to it in other shots.
If you had to show the print again just show it in close up.
For instance, show the actor reaching out either from the side or from the front towards the dash, then cut to the close up, mash the plastic, then go for a reaction shot of the actor.
Then the actor can respond to other actors with "did you see that?"
You probably wouldn't need a long shot of the entire dash with the imprint that way.

Hope that helps,
Neil

 

[A.D.]

+1 for Neil's suggestions.

I'd use plasticine though still, and texture the surface using a press-mould taken from the dash (or other suitable vinyl texture). Even if the actual dash isn't textured, the close-up would look better with some surface detail anyway, and help make the effect more convincing imo. The plasticine would also pick up the detail and shape of the actors hand really well. I guess it depends what kind of effect you're after - a perfect hand indent, or one with 'broader' and stretchier look to the indent (such as if you pushed your hand into a sheet for example)?

In case you're not familiar with them, a press mould is simply that. It's a mould of the surface made by pressing polymer clay/epoxy putty onto the object to be cloned. Once the mould has cured, you can then use this as a stamp to press the texture onto your black plasticine.

The main drawback I can think of, would be matching the matt/glossiness of the dash, but the plasticine can be coated if you need a sheen of course.

 

[wheatgrinder]

can you use a hair curler or soldering iron to melt in the indentations. (permanently modify the car)
Shoot the hand being pressed to the dash.
Use a tool to melt the dash so it looks like a hand was pressed into it.
Let it cool
Put the actors hand int the now cooled off but melted dash
Get actors reaction and shots of the actor pulling his hand away leaving the melted davits behind.. work it in the edit