Elstree Studios - Lifecast's John Schoonraad talks about his career making magic for the movies

Arguably some of the greatest moments in film are to be found in the almost imperceptible change of expression in an actor’s face, when the camera is so close you can count the hairs on their head and only after they finish speaking can you draw breath again.

But there is yet another art form playing its equal part augmenting the actor’s performance by its sheer presence: special effects.

Not computer-generated imagery (or CGI) made possible by green screen and technicians. But of the kind that grew out of the world of the American puppeteer and filmmaker, Jim Henson – life-like creatures and props as expressive and convincing as their human counterparts.

Meet the man behind a thousand masterful moments in movie making magic - John Schoonraad.

John Schoonraad, creative director at Lifecast Limited

Mr Schoonraad is the creative director at Lifecast Limited, a special effects and props workshop housed within Elstree Studios in Borehamwood.

He moved to Harrow from South Africa as a younger man and began his career as a fibrous plasterer at Elstree some 38 years ago.

He created Lifecast after more than 18 years in the business and today he runs the company with the help of his two sons, Tristan and Robin, who are each established special effects artists in their own right.

Among the many Hollywood blockbusters and TV hits under his belt, Mr Schoonraad and his Lifecast team have contributed to Ridley Scott’s Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan from Steven Spielberg, The Crown and Call the Midwife, and George Lucas’s epic space opera franchise, Star Wars.

The finger of Mr Schoonraad can be found in countless other moments in cinema and television the world over. But the demand for his talents is now being strongly felt from yet another industry wholly apart from the glittering silver screen.

Lifecast workshop

“More recently our creations are being used in medical simulations to assist people using medical training aids.

“Because the technology we’ve made for film is so realistic, such as in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, for instance, we’ve tried to adapt that technique so doctors have actual breathing mannequins as if it’s the real thing,” he said.

Indeed, some of the models created by the Lifecast team at Elstree have very authentic moving chest cavities and inert parted lips like a real-life unconscious person.

He added: “The body simulation market has grown in last three years due to the need from medical people the world over, and we currently provide services to America, Australia and all over Europe.”

A life-like model created by Lifecast

When asked how he became involved in this business all those years ago, he said: “I started as a fibrous plasterer. I had made pieces of plasterwork that goes into buildings and bits of my work had been used in Buckingham Palace.

“As an apprentice, we had people coming in who were also working in the film industry on things like Oliver and the 1969 drama the Battle of Britain, and I thought it sounded wonderful.

“I did a few other things first and travelled for some years, and finally one day my wife said, ‘why don’t you ring up Elstree Studios and give it a go’. So, I did. I told them about my apprenticeship, we moved out to Borehamwood and it went from there really.”

Mr Schoonraad joined the movie studio just as the American film director, Stanley Kubrick, had wrapped production of his psychological horror, The Shining, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall.

His first film was Green Ice with Ryan O'Neal. “I arrived at Elstree and there were colleagues there I just happened to know from college and that was it really. I always had a feeling about the things I wanted to do.

“I saw a huge dragon model on the set of Dragonslayer at Pinewood Studios and fell in love right there.

“I’ve worked on Star Wars and Dark Crystal and more recently Return to OZ and the latest Rambo film.

“But the real break in my career was going to Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop and later becoming prosthetic supervisor on The Four Feathers with Heath Ledger.”

A work in progress

While at Pinewood studios, Mr Schoonraad also worked on the set of the 1981 Bond film, For Your Eyes Only, starring Roger Moore.

“But I think the biggest buzz in my career,” he said, “was seeing the credits roll up on Saving Private Ryan and seeing my name there with my sons Tristan and Robin.

“They are established artists in their own right and Robin has worked on Star Wars and Harry Potter.

“But I think when I saw that I felt a very strong feeling of satisfactions and I’m never really satisfied.

“There are times when I’m watching Graham Norton and I think, ‘I’ve worked with everyone sitting there’.”

The Lifecast team often use life models to create their work, but they also employ the use of 3D printers for the sake of time-saving.

“We life cast them in bits or in one go. We worked on a film called Life with Jake Gyllenhall and Ryan Reynolds and we’ve had to make dummies for Mission Impossible, and certain props for films and television series like Silent Witness which has autopsy scenes.

“I still like to do life casts particularly for medical science projects, but if we are working with a very big famous person and they haven’t got much time 3D printing is much quicker.”

Mr Schoonraad has to be very careful about disclosing the projects he is currently working on for legal reasons, but the demand for his skill and experience seems to be never ending.

“I can’t really say too much about what we are doing now and what we have in the pipeline, but we are always doing things for films that are out there.

“We’ve recently done props for a series called Strike with broken bottles. Its bang, bang, bang all day long. We also just flew a dog out to Hungary, it goes on forever. And we also did something for the most recent Fast and Furious film. But those are the things I can only really mention.”

John Schoonraad

So the next time you find yourself retreating behind your duvet at that moment in the film where the bad guy is at last slain at the hand of some hulking protagonist, just know somewhere in all that gritty realism the hand of John Schoonraad and his Lifecast team are also likely at play.

For more information, visit http://lifecast.co.uk/