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The Making of Jurassic Park #2
Making of the Lost World
SOMETHING HAS SURVIVED . . .
Steven Spielberg wowed the world with his film version of Michael Crichton's blockbuster Jurassic Park. That film's breakthrough special effects really brought dinosaurs back from extinction. Now the mighty dinosaurs are about to rule movie theaters again, with Steven Spielberg back in the director's chair and his team of brilliant effects wizards back on the job. Here is your chance to slip behind the cameras and into the studios, workshops, and locations for a look at this summer's most eagerly anticipated film, The Lost World: Jurassic Park!
Share the excitement as dino-mania stirs again when Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment announce the film project and storyboard artists set to work
Follow the amazing process of bringing dinosaurs to life--from the preliminary sketches to the Stan Winston Studio sculptures
Watch a computer-generated dinosaur learn to walk . . . and run . . . and eat . . . courtesy of Dennis Muren and Industrial Light & Magic's Academy© award-winning team of SFX geniuses
Join director Steven Spielberg and cast members, Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard, Vince Vaughn, Vanessa Lee Chester, Peter Stormare, Lord Richard Attenborough, Harvey Jason, Richard Schiff, and Thomas Duffy, and producers Gerald R. Molen and Colin Wilson on the sets at Universal Studios and on location in Northern California and Hawaii
Something Has Survived. . . . Be among the very first to see just what that "something" is!
From a tiny gleam in the director's eye to a magical feature release, Cinefex magazine editor Jody Duncan takes you on an eye-popping, fully illustrated whirlwind tour through a process as amazing and entertaining as the finished product.
Steven Spielberg wowed the world with his film version of Michael Crichton's blockbuster Jurassic Park. That film's breakthrough special effects really brought dinosaurs back from extinction. Now the mighty dinosaurs are about to rule movie theaters again, with Steven Spielberg back in the director's chair and his team of brilliant effects wizards back on the job. Here is your chance to slip behind the cameras and into the studios, workshops, and locations for a look at this summer's most eagerly anticipated film, The Lost World: Jurassic Park!
Share the excitement as dino-mania stirs again when Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment announce the film project and storyboard artists set to work
Follow the amazing process of bringing dinosaurs to life--from the preliminary sketches to the Stan Winston Studio sculptures
Watch a computer-generated dinosaur learn to walk . . . and run . . . and eat . . . courtesy of Dennis Muren and Industrial Light & Magic's Academy© award-winning team of SFX geniuses
Join director Steven Spielberg and cast members, Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard, Vince Vaughn, Vanessa Lee Chester, Peter Stormare, Lord Richard Attenborough, Harvey Jason, Richard Schiff, and Thomas Duffy, and producers Gerald R. Molen and Colin Wilson on the sets at Universal Studios and on location in Northern California and Hawaii
Something Has Survived. . . . Be among the very first to see just what that "something" is!
From a tiny gleam in the director's eye to a magical feature release, Cinefex magazine editor Jody Duncan takes you on an eye-popping, fully illustrated whirlwind tour through a process as amazing and entertaining as the finished product.
161 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 20, 2017
A thorough and detailed look into the production of the “Jurassic Park” sequel that marked Steven Spielberg’s return to directing after a three-year hiatus, this is an excellent read. Breaking the process down over 11 chapters (though the last is a good interview with Spielberg), we follow this from the very start - a brainstorming session at Dive! restaurant - through pre-production (a lot of focus on the script, Stan Winston Studios and location scouting), production (with plenty of on-set anecdotes) and then post. Duncan does a superb job - clear writing and obviously very knowledgable about her subject - and the only fault I could find is that I wanted it to be longer. Unfortunately for me (I love visual effects), this does suffer with the now-common ailment of ‘post production wizardry’ featuring clearly staged pictures of people sitting around staring at computer monitors. There are some nice shots of the model unit, led by Lorne Peterson, but too many of the computer animators doing stuff that just doesn’t translate into a picture. Well designed and brim full of design illustrations and on-set photographs, this is how “making of” books should be done and I very highly recommend it.
April 15, 2015
I've always been a fan of this franchise because it's Jurassic Park. I mean, come on, what's not to like about these movies? yea they are making more but isn't that what people want to see more of? More dinosaurs running around trying to protect themselves after what man did to them?.
I just finished reading the first "Making of" book and wanted to learn what it took to make the sequel. I should point out that when I first saw this movie I was very disappointed. It was so awful that I had to stay and wait for the credits to come up to make sure that it wasn't directed by my favorite director and when it showed his name, I was in shock. The style of this movie and structure was nothing like what he had made before, especially with the first one. It was as if this movie was made in a hurry. Then again I never read the second JP book. I know I need to but still to this day, it hasn't been read. Yes, Ill get to it.
So I read this one after learning about how everything on the first one was made. I wanted to understand the scope of what was supposed to be an easy film to make after all the hard work was done on the first one, i.e., creating life-like dinosaurs. Well it turns out this movie was ten times harder to make than the first one. Why? Because now they were able to provide more character and style to each of the dinosaurs. Like Dennis Murren said in the book, the first movie was learning how to build your instruments to learn how to play them, the second movie was knowing how to play it and play it well. Spielberg wanted to show that he knew what the dinosaurs were capable of and he wanted to put that up on screen. If you study this book like you would a textbook you will begin to really understand how Spielberg puts together any of his films.
The making of this movie was two years before a camera was set down ready to shoot. He thinks about the story, the characters, and how to shoot it all. He already had storyboards up before there was even a second book out. When the book finally did come out, he was able to go back and revise the storyboards and make the plot line work. He went back to his original screen writer and told him to start on a script.
While all that was going on he went to his friend Stan Winston and told him what dinosaurs he wanted in this new film. Stan was told that there would be more dinosaurs in this film that needed to move and operate on their own without any wires showing, so he knew he had to take it to the next level with many of his new creations. The only difference this time was that instead of having almost three years to prepare, he had less than 1 year to make it all happen, not only that, but he had ten times more work to do than the first movie.
It was interesting to see that many of the dinosaurs built was completely robotic and fully function on their own. The two T-Rex's were so huge and dangerous to be around that safety meetings had to be conducted everyday before shooting because they could literally crush anything they came into contact with because they were all metal and at full swing could easily pull 2Gs without breaking a sweat.
The style in which Spielberg shot this movie taught me why I didn't like this movie to begin with. It wasn't about convincing people that dinosaurs could be brought back and it didn't have that nice glow to it that the first one had where everything looked nice and attractive. This one was gritty and all about survival and trying to get off without all the beautifully crafted visitor center and compounds and hotels around to make it look welcoming. It was nature versus man and nature was set to win. If you look carefully at the film you will notice that the only structure built that resembled the look of a park was the abandoned lab, which had that nitty gritty look to it. You didn't have roads or large gates, it was just baron land with people and dinosaurs. That was what he was getting at.
This showed all the steps it took to shoot the scenes and in what order they took place. I went back to watch it after reading this and, as a film maker myself, the movie becomes a storyboard of events and why certain shots were made in each frame and how that matters to the sequences of events in film making. I know now that the first scene in the movie was the very last thing to be shot and that the attention to detail for the raptor scene in the grass required a year's planning because they grew real grass to make that screen work. I know how films are made and I knew that going into this book, which is why I try to watch each movie a couple of times before reading the "Making of" books because once I do, it loses its magic and becomes a storyboard of how the film was constructed.
I really enjoyed this book and even thought I could now see all the strings and special effects in this movie, I now appreciate the style in which he made the second movie. There was no third "Making of" book in the franchise but out of these two, my favorite is still the first one and even though I know now how the first one was made, I am glad that I am still able to escape into that beautiful world he created, and seeing how I first saw it when I was a kid, makes it all the more special to me.
I just finished reading the first "Making of" book and wanted to learn what it took to make the sequel. I should point out that when I first saw this movie I was very disappointed. It was so awful that I had to stay and wait for the credits to come up to make sure that it wasn't directed by my favorite director and when it showed his name, I was in shock. The style of this movie and structure was nothing like what he had made before, especially with the first one. It was as if this movie was made in a hurry. Then again I never read the second JP book. I know I need to but still to this day, it hasn't been read. Yes, Ill get to it.
So I read this one after learning about how everything on the first one was made. I wanted to understand the scope of what was supposed to be an easy film to make after all the hard work was done on the first one, i.e., creating life-like dinosaurs. Well it turns out this movie was ten times harder to make than the first one. Why? Because now they were able to provide more character and style to each of the dinosaurs. Like Dennis Murren said in the book, the first movie was learning how to build your instruments to learn how to play them, the second movie was knowing how to play it and play it well. Spielberg wanted to show that he knew what the dinosaurs were capable of and he wanted to put that up on screen. If you study this book like you would a textbook you will begin to really understand how Spielberg puts together any of his films.
The making of this movie was two years before a camera was set down ready to shoot. He thinks about the story, the characters, and how to shoot it all. He already had storyboards up before there was even a second book out. When the book finally did come out, he was able to go back and revise the storyboards and make the plot line work. He went back to his original screen writer and told him to start on a script.
While all that was going on he went to his friend Stan Winston and told him what dinosaurs he wanted in this new film. Stan was told that there would be more dinosaurs in this film that needed to move and operate on their own without any wires showing, so he knew he had to take it to the next level with many of his new creations. The only difference this time was that instead of having almost three years to prepare, he had less than 1 year to make it all happen, not only that, but he had ten times more work to do than the first movie.
It was interesting to see that many of the dinosaurs built was completely robotic and fully function on their own. The two T-Rex's were so huge and dangerous to be around that safety meetings had to be conducted everyday before shooting because they could literally crush anything they came into contact with because they were all metal and at full swing could easily pull 2Gs without breaking a sweat.
The style in which Spielberg shot this movie taught me why I didn't like this movie to begin with. It wasn't about convincing people that dinosaurs could be brought back and it didn't have that nice glow to it that the first one had where everything looked nice and attractive. This one was gritty and all about survival and trying to get off without all the beautifully crafted visitor center and compounds and hotels around to make it look welcoming. It was nature versus man and nature was set to win. If you look carefully at the film you will notice that the only structure built that resembled the look of a park was the abandoned lab, which had that nitty gritty look to it. You didn't have roads or large gates, it was just baron land with people and dinosaurs. That was what he was getting at.
This showed all the steps it took to shoot the scenes and in what order they took place. I went back to watch it after reading this and, as a film maker myself, the movie becomes a storyboard of events and why certain shots were made in each frame and how that matters to the sequences of events in film making. I know now that the first scene in the movie was the very last thing to be shot and that the attention to detail for the raptor scene in the grass required a year's planning because they grew real grass to make that screen work. I know how films are made and I knew that going into this book, which is why I try to watch each movie a couple of times before reading the "Making of" books because once I do, it loses its magic and becomes a storyboard of how the film was constructed.
I really enjoyed this book and even thought I could now see all the strings and special effects in this movie, I now appreciate the style in which he made the second movie. There was no third "Making of" book in the franchise but out of these two, my favorite is still the first one and even though I know now how the first one was made, I am glad that I am still able to escape into that beautiful world he created, and seeing how I first saw it when I was a kid, makes it all the more special to me.
June 30, 2015
I got this Making Of tie-in book when I was a mere seven years old. Did I read it? No. Did I pour over the production stills of set designs and CG models for hours, copying pictures and penning my very own dino-fueled disaster-flick? Why, yes. Yes I did.
Skip forward seventeen years and I finally got round to reading the text that accompanies the pictures. In those seventeen years, what I've come to realise is that I really do love Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It's a damn good movie, with great acting, tense and well-shot action scenes (far better than today's shaky-cam super-hero nonsense), incredible animatronic creatures and well-utilised CGI. But most importantly: it's a worthy sequel to Jurassic Park, that had the nerve to take a different approach to sequel films.
So, reading this Making Of was a pure joy as it covers the entire production of the film. It begins with the initial dinosaur research, concept art sketches and storyboard sketches, then moves on to location scouting, the construction of the dinosaur models & rigs, wardrobing and set design. There's then extensive chapters on filming in the majestic Humboldt County redwood forests, the T-Rex/Trailer conflict which was filmed on the Universal indoor stage, and a diary-chapter that takes us through the breathtaking Velociraptor chase in the worker village. It concludes with post-production tidbits like the CG process.
Any fan of the JP series needs to get their hands on this detailed account of production. The Lost World was judged too harshly by critics in 1997. Too many unfairly compared it to the first film that they neglected the accomplishments of Spielberg and his team. Forget that one gymnastics scene (you know the one), pick up this book and begin to (re)appreciate a great Hollywood action film.
Skip forward seventeen years and I finally got round to reading the text that accompanies the pictures. In those seventeen years, what I've come to realise is that I really do love Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It's a damn good movie, with great acting, tense and well-shot action scenes (far better than today's shaky-cam super-hero nonsense), incredible animatronic creatures and well-utilised CGI. But most importantly: it's a worthy sequel to Jurassic Park, that had the nerve to take a different approach to sequel films.
So, reading this Making Of was a pure joy as it covers the entire production of the film. It begins with the initial dinosaur research, concept art sketches and storyboard sketches, then moves on to location scouting, the construction of the dinosaur models & rigs, wardrobing and set design. There's then extensive chapters on filming in the majestic Humboldt County redwood forests, the T-Rex/Trailer conflict which was filmed on the Universal indoor stage, and a diary-chapter that takes us through the breathtaking Velociraptor chase in the worker village. It concludes with post-production tidbits like the CG process.
Any fan of the JP series needs to get their hands on this detailed account of production. The Lost World was judged too harshly by critics in 1997. Too many unfairly compared it to the first film that they neglected the accomplishments of Spielberg and his team. Forget that one gymnastics scene (you know the one), pick up this book and begin to (re)appreciate a great Hollywood action film.
April 16, 2008
I also loved this one! nice follow-up on Jurassic Park!
June 24, 2017
Very enjoyable for fans of the stories from "behind the scenes," the book contains lots of little tidbits. It didn't go too much into technical details. There were some comparisons with the original Jurassic Park that were interesting.
July 29, 2020
A nice read for fans of the series - it was hard to track a copy of the book down. It has a lot of inside information on the production and a lot of pictures on how the movie was made and why it was made in such a way. I love insights like this
October 23, 2015
I love the Jurassic Park films and watch them constantly. Years ago, when the first film came out, I bought the 'making of' book but never managed to get the book for the second film, so getting it this year was great!
It talks to all the people who worked on the special effects and working dinosaurs and has everything the dinosaur fan would want, including what was cut from the film in favour of the TRex in San Diego. Enjoyable read with lots of photos!
It talks to all the people who worked on the special effects and working dinosaurs and has everything the dinosaur fan would want, including what was cut from the film in favour of the TRex in San Diego. Enjoyable read with lots of photos!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews