Dummy Mary

The completed Dummy and costume

I want a shot where Mary starts to fall with the noose around her neck as the image freezes, for this we needed a dummy Mary. This would also allow me to place the actual noose around Marys neck for a shot also, without any personal risk to Richard, who had agreed to be my stuntman for the final hanging shot (I asked him due to his knowledge of ropes and climbing) or Sharon the actor playing Mary.

As I only wanted her head and shoulders in shot a full body dummy was not necessary. The head would be hooded and so a lifelike dummy head thankfully would not be required, but I did want to be able to see the bag being sucked in and out of its mouth

Materials for the head. The conduit isn't shown.

As I already own a polystyrene head that wears a hat in the spare bedroom I decided to sacrifice this to the project and took a trip out to B&Q to buy 4m of tubing and connectors I called into the Redcross charity shop on route and picked up a pillow case for the hood.

Once home I took the barrel from the garden sprayer from which the handle for the flash unit was made and heated it up over the stove. I then pushed this into the mouth until it met with a pre-existing hole that runs vertically through the head (presumably for a stand).
I then fed the tube through the neck and out through the mouth, wound 1" gaffa tape around the end  and pulled the tube back until it jam fitted back into the mouth.

I had planned to use an air pump with an adapted connector to breath for the head but after testing this wasn't necessary as holding the tube in my mouth whist breathing heavily was effective.

The constructed breathing rig and hood

The neck end of the tube was then fed through a 1m length of electrical conduit tubing which was then pushed up into the neck again packing the outside with tape to a jam fit, whist taking care not to obstruct the tube where it bends to the mouth.

To build the shoulders I used a plastic coat hanger as a frame to build on with padding using foam garden chair seats which I adhered to the frame and shaped with electricians tape.

Seat cushions give bulk to the frame

Marys Shawl is Iconic of her due to 'the' photograph, which is prolifically distributed in digital and printed publications globally, I knew we had to have one.  Kyle and I journeyed out on a hunt through Hartlepools many charity shops. I had decided that it was probably best to look for materials that matched the photo as closely as possible, like coats and coat linings, and adapt them to suit rather than trying to find something perfect first time.The best thing that we found had ok material but was very small as it had was a fitted jacket. My thoughts on the matter had been to effectively pull the arms inside and stitch up but this was going to leave it very tight and not very effective. I went to discuss this with my mam who enjoys making and adapting clothes and ask her advice. she had the great idea of opening out the undersides of the sleeves and the sides of the body, then stitching the body seams to the sleeve seams. Even better she offered to do it for me. The finished cape looks like a real garment and will be worn by Sharon and the dummy in the production
At the same time my mother stitched up and cut down the pillow case into a hood.

My Mothers cape-creation

The ensemble is a little bit freaky especially when breathing.

To complete the effect I made a quick release rope collar by tying off the ends of the rope so as not to frey with easy snap twine which could be worn without risk by the actor and stuntman next to the rope hanging from the jib.