[ Photo provided to China Daily]

Nowadays, most sci-fi blockbusters are shot on greenscreen soundstages, where the actors usually have to use their imaginations to picture the aliens or monsters in mind. But stars in Jurassic World 2 have a much better, if not slightly more terrifying, working environment.

And one of the key elements behind the enduring popularity of the dinosaur-disaster-themed franchise is its blend of physical effects and computer-generated images to create its visual feast.

In the new movie, Bayona reveals that the special-effects artists made a lot of animatronic dinosaurs, which he believes were "very helpful to the actors".

Animatronic dinosaurs are robotic puppets that have people hiding inside the creatures' bodies to manipulate their movements, such as opening their mouths or turning their heads.

"The Jurassic universe is grounded. It's not fantasy. The franchise is special because it's talking about our relationship with dinosaurs, and the interaction is more real than ever," explains the 43-year-old director.

And besides, Bayona - who is perhaps best known for his 2007 horror film The Orphanage - has plenty of tricks up his sleeve to make his actors appear genuinely terrified.

"We made an agreement that I have permission to scare them from time to time. When I was on the set, I played sudden roaring sounds from my computer to capture the actors' reaction on camera. You should have seen the faces of these people," says the director, wearing a big smile.

The lifelike props even scared the stars' children. Howard recalls her daughter, Beatrice, and Pratt's son, Jack, came to the film set one day, and were allowed to touch Blue. But Blue was so realistic that the young girl was too scared to approach it, and she kept muttering, "I want to go".