Archive for the 'Movies & TV' Category

Blackhawk Down, directed by Ridley Scott. Shot in Rabat, Morrocco in 2001.

There are many items that we manufacture at Lifecast that fall under the category of props. Here are just a few.

Radford Wallis, supplied us with a brief to “Make 6 figures in as many days?” (their previous contractor had found the time scale too short). This is one of those impossible challenges, that I just couldn’t resist!

These 6 figures had to be scaled up from inch high plastic figures, (the kind you find in architectural models). to 5’11”. All having the same head, though different poses. They were christened “Bob” by the Radford Wallis team, and as I said earlier, it was such a cool idea, that I couldn‘t resist it. So how do you make 6 figures in 6 days?
Well, with the help from five sculptors, myself and two good technicians, that’s how we did it.

The reason for the rush, was that Radford Wallis had booked a team of cameramen, to TAKE THE FIGURES TO BE FILMED ON VARIOUS LOCATIONS, AROUND LONDON, INCLUDING THE underground and Buckingham Palace. As you can see, these are not lifecast‘s, but polystyrene sculpts.  Suffice to say, we delivered on time, in-fact they were picked up at six in the morning on the 6th day. Just in time to get myself down on location, for a day on “Silent Witness”.

john-rambo-iv

Picture Source: Ain’t It Cool News
by Alex Billington

John Rambo , the 4th in this iconic series of Sylvester Stallone classics. .

Under the very professional banner of SFX, headed by Alex Gunn , is definitely one to watch. When it comes to action movies they don’t come better.

John Schoonraad and his team of prosthetic make up artists, Darren Robinson , Tristan Schoonraad , & Per Kapper had some very challenging and interesting work to do on this movie, including many photo realistic dummies close to camera, decapited heads, arms & legs, extreme throat prosthetics &, all in the space of ten weeks while filming was already taking place. There were in excess of seven full body casts and sculpts plus some six heads, hands, arms legs, & bellies. These were of local hill tribe people, with most of the communication being done through Thai interpreters. Their ages, ranging from six years to seventy.

There were over sixteen positions proposed & of these, Mr. Stallone chose
seven. It was a pleasure to work with him, and such a professional film crew. We could not have met the targets, had it not been for the Thai prosthetic team headed by Vasit Suchitta , affectionately known as Mr Moo, who’s tireless support was an inspiration to us all. Thai people never shout or get angry.

I’m putting this film down as one that I will never forget. The standard of work was very high, & a special thanks goes to Darren Robinson for his tireless devotion to his work, always meeting almost impossible dead-lines. Thankyou to my son, Tristan for his inspired sculpting on some of the dummies. Sly seemed to like his the best, & to Per Kapper for holding the fort so well when left to fend for himself on set and for knowing where every-thing was in the work shop.

We are also proud to say that our work takes up a good chunk of the teaser trailer out now. You can follow the link from this site.

In fact a great big thanks to all the crew, who were the tightest I have ever had the pleasure to work with and to the people of the Kingdom of Thailand who made this film very special.

And in closing, working with Sylvester Stallone was cool. This man knows about prosthetics, he knows what they can do, and what they can’t, very impressive..

Click here to watch the trailer

For the film ‘Saving Private Ryan’ many lifecasts were made for creating dead and wounded soldiers. Included in these, the man himself – Tom Hanks.
Due to the large number of dummies required many subjects were recruited for lifecast treatment.

An engaging young man (Giovano Rabbisi). He quite calmly requested having an eye left open during his lifecast. This was no problem, although quite eerie for me being watched while the process was taking place. We could always do the other eye later to match. However, it proved to be a bonus, since I could get so close. The open eye was kept as reference to sculpt the other eye.

When Rankin commissioned the lifecasts for ‘ meltdown’ he wanted to give the appearance of women melting in the sun.
Two fashion models were lifecast and wax casts were made out of silicone moulds. The rest is Rankin magic as the photo’s supplied show.

An interesting job, asking for photo-realistic manequins to go in their stores on an international basis. london, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Berlin & Santa Barbara.

We did various models of male & female, from two basic body types. These having a variety of looks that would fit in with the country that they were intended for. They looked just like real people, & it was reported that customers would often be seen approaching them with questions…Job done!