Jurassic Park

Makayla Lovelace

Professor Juenger

9/17/18

Film 115

                                                                 Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park was a groundbreaking movie that changed the film industry in many ways. Before this movie was released people would use mostly visual effects in films that would consist of matte painting ,backdrops ,and stop-motion that continued to develop over 60 years in 1993 Jurassic Park was released.  The film was far more different from other movies of that time, because of the new found film technique. Computer generated images were used throughout the film to give a realistic image of the dinosaurs to enhance the texture of their skin to their movements. As I watched the film I looked at it from a different perspective paying close attention to the effects that were used in the movie. The film had a great balance when it came to using practical, visual and special effects.

One good source of practical effects in the film would be the dinosaurs themselves, the dinosaurs were computerized robots that were used to project lifelike movements of actual dinosaurs. In addition, I recently watched the behind scenes of Jurassic Park and it was very interesting to see how the Stan Winston crew rehearsed with the dinosaurs and everything about the movements of the dinosaurs seem very natural nothing didn’t seem robotic at all. American film director Stan Winston was the mastermind behind creating the animatronics for the film. Also, the film became known as some of his best work with special makeup effects. The movie pushed the limits of using visual effects and computer images and other cool effects in the film that made the movie seem like it was created before its time and become a glimpse of the next generation of technology would be cinematography. One of the best examples of visual effect in Jurassic Park would be when Ellie, Alan, and John first arrived at Jurassic Park amazed by the sight of the brachiosaurus and birds near the lake of water.

The scene seemed like it was a surreal moment for the characters because they were paleontologists so, it was like a dream come true to see dinosaurs alive.

Filmmakers did a remarkable job of blending the elements of the film together nothing was overused or misused everything was perfect. Furthermore they hid the early stages of C.G.I  with other effects such as visual effects and practical effects so there would be an emphasis on the realism in the film for not only dinosaurs but for the characters and scenery to capture the attention and emotion of watchers so they could have sense of connection with the film, Jurassic Park stills holds up the standards of today’s special effects because as said earlier the movie was released before its time so the film itself  was a “ blueprint” for movies of today’s film era. Most movies today are totally reliant on C.G.I to there point where it’s sometimes overused. Technology has improved over the last 25 years which makes C.G.I a more versatile technique to use in today’s films then it was in 1993, because of the resources and the film standards that was set for that specific period of time.

Special effect designer Michael Lantieri designed the special dinosaurs effects. According to Lantieri the hardest scene to shoot in the movie was the cup of water that was rippling on the dashboard of the cars when the T-rex was moving towards the vehicles. Lantieri mastered the water rippling by connecting the cup to a string that ran through the floorboard of the car and tuned the strings and began to pluck the strings to create perfect thuds of water to give the dinosaur support by emulating the size and impact a dinosaur would have in a modern world. The movie won three academy  awards one of which was the award for best visual effects in a film that well deserved it’s very interesting to learn about everything that goes into creating a film and all of the cool aspects that come along to make the movie appealing to watchers and  be as real as possible to give watchers sense of connection to film so they can visualize themselves in place of the characters to give a reaction to the film.

In conclusion, Jurassic Park was a good movie full of action and adventure. Before I was aware of the different techniques in film, I thought that Jurassic Park was great a movie with a lot of cool tricks in the movie. I always wondered how they used dinosaurs throughout the film it was a great learning experience. I recommend people watch the film to grasp a better understanding of the movie and learn how the effects were used to create Jurassic Park.