HCF Exclusive Interview with FX Master SHAUNE HARRISON





shaune-harrisonShaune Harrison is one of the UK’s most talented special make-up artists and effects designers, working on movies such as Sleepy Hollow, The Fifth Element, The Mummy, Star Wars (Episode 1 and 2), Hellraiser 4 and Captain America: The First Avenger. After holding a workshop demonstration at last year’s Grimmfest 2013 film festival in Manchester, I sat down with Shaune to discuss his work on blockbuster to indie movies and his upcoming FX school in Manchester city centre.

Hi Shaune, thanks for speaking to us. What was it about FX that made you want to persue a career in it?
At the time, I was so young, maybe 10 or 11 years old. I never thought of it as a career, I just wanted to create monsters. Being that age, I had no idea how to make stuff so I kind of just got my Action Men and chopped their heads off and stuff like that. It just got more and more elaborate to the point where I was making bodies in my bedroom. My parents were going “what are you doing? Go and get a job”. I didn’t go to college. I think they were annoyed that I didn’t want to go out. I thought, “No, I want to make monsters for a living. I’m going to do that.” I didn’t know how to get into it. It’s probably a naive way of getting into a career. Like, ‘I don’t know how to get into it but I will give it my best shot’. All my friends said, “you’d never do it.” And I was like, “ok, I’m going to prove I can do it”.

I’m from the North-West of England. There’s no film industry up here so I just did it in my bedroom for 6 or 7 years, to the point where I thought “I can do this as a job”. Again, a naive way of thinking, back then. I kind of just started sending work out. I literally put a load of photos in an envelope and sent it to Pinewood Studios, as I knew there was a company there and also to Shepperton. They were kinda going “ok, it’s interesting. You’re a bit rubbish though.” I look back to the stuff that I did and it is shit but I could see that there was potential. I built Gremlins, robots, Terminator arms, creatures.. things which people don’t really do anymore. I think it’s because it’s all there on the internet. You can google anything. People can go”I want to do an SFX course”, “I want to do a bullet hit” and it’s like, “Do you know how much make up there is out there?”. Do Frankenstein from the original movie. Do something that’s really cool. Don’t do a bullet hit. That’s kind of why I wanted to do this makeup school. I want people to learn other things. I will teach you to do an old age makeup or a witch from Sleeping Beauty or something. We will do the whole thing the way it should be done. So people go “ahh, I didn’t know you do it like that”, as opposed to learning a bullet hit or a cut.

shaune-harrison-red-skull-captain-america
Shaune Harrison working on Huge Weaving as Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger

Will you be running workshops or courses that last several weeks?
We’ve got all sorts. We’ve got weekend courses, evening courses, 2/4/6/12 weeks courses… It depends on what people want to do. If someone wants to do a two week sculpting course, we’ll do a two week sculpting class. If they want to do a six week full on prosthetic course, where they’d literally do everything exactly the same way we’d do a film makeup, we can do that. That’s the way I want everyone to be taught. For instance, you use this material like the way we used it on Harry Potter. You’d mould it like we did on World War Z. So everyone absolutely knows they’ve not been cheated. I’ve taught at schools were they’re using materials which are 20 years out of date. It’s terrifying that people still do that, especially when people have paid a lot of money to do the course.

At my school, they all come out with certificates and I’ve got industry friends who’ll employ people. There’s workshops that will give placements for people too. I’ve worked at all the big places and can recommend people to them. They can get in first hand rather than hundreds of students trying to get a job on a film with exactly the same type of work. Every student will do their own thing. It’s all different. It’s down to them if they want to make themselves look good. I can do it to a point… It’s difficult, at the end of the day, if you haven’t got any talent.

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/75892233[/vimeo]

If someone is a complete novice to make up and effects and has no artistic talent, will your courses still be accessible to them?
Yeah! You can literally tell within a few days if a person is good at a particular art. You can go “look, you’ll never be a sculptor, but that doesn’t matter. You can make prosthetics or you can paint.” You could have a long career doing that. Not every person has to sculpt to be a make-up artist. I just did that ‘cos we all kind of did everything, which is kind of that lost art. We sculpt, mould, design, paint, apply… you do the whole thing from start to finish, whereas not everyone needs to do that. Some people will just concentrate on doing a really cool paintjob. I’ve got friends, who, all they do is paint creatures. They paint creatures on Harry Potter, The Wolfman, the new Guardians of the Galaxy. All they do is paint and they earn a lot of money doing it. But it’s hard work. It’s not an easy job. It’s long hours. The average day is 11 hours, 8am til 7pm. That’s your normal working hours. That’s not even with make-up involved.

SFX master Shaune Harrison turning a Grimmlin into a zombie at Grimmfest 2013
SFX master Shaune Harrison turning a Grimmlin into a zombie at Grimmfest 2013

You’ve mentioned how some films are quite strict on what they require you to create. Which film would you say gave you the most creative freedom?
Nightbreed, weirdly. We just made anything. Clive (Barker) said ‘do whatever you want to do’. We had about 20 real designs and Clive said ‘just go and make something… make me a monster’. Whereas all the other films, like Harry Potter was very regimental as it was all based on the books. You can’t go off kilter and do your own thing. You’ve got to do exactly what they asked you to. Most films, big budget ones, are like that anyway. You’re not allowed to think. You’re just an artist to make stuff for their films. You kind of just do it and do the best you can.

Would you say working on the bigger movies where you’re restricted earns you enough money to work on the low budget ones which give more creative freedom?

Absolutely. I did World War Z, and after that I did Grabbers. It was brilliant. We designed all the creatures and we worked with the director, producer and visual effects people to make what was right for the movie. Every single thing we made was used in the film. That’s what we had to do. You work with all the resources you’ve got, which is brilliant.

Thank you Shaune for your time.

You can keep up to date with Shaune Harrison’s Make-Up Academy on Facebook and the official website. Take a sneak peek into the world of his craft by following his blog.

Avatar photo
About Bat 4511 Articles
I love practical effects, stop-motion animation and gore, but most of all I love a good story! I adore B-movies and exploitation films in many of their guises and also have a soft spot for creature features. I review a wide range of media including movies, TV series, books and videogames. I'm a massive fan of author Hunter S. Thompson and I enjoy various genre of videogames with Kingdom Hearts and Harvest Moon two of my all time favs. Currently playing: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Yakuza Zero and Mafia III.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*