Unit 1 Screenwriting: Originally thought it would be a daunting task and feared for it.  It ended up being the easiest and most well-organized section.

Unit 2 Filming:  Thought it was going to be quite fun. Scheduling was a nightmare.  Getting everyone in the same place at the same time didn’t always work out.  Editing was hard and time-consuming.

Unit 3 Marketing:  Marketing came during a very busy and stressful time in my semester but it turned out well.  I really liked the classes group strategy advertising the event rather than each individual film.

Unit 4 Making of:  The least stressful project.  Time consuming because of loading mass amounts of video data onto the computer and then having to sift through it and edit it, but I got to do the blooper reel and it was quite fun.

Thank you Jenica and Rhet 233, this was fun and we’ll keep in touch.  Best advanced comp. I could have taken

It may not look like it but all of the stuff hidden in this pile is lavish decor to fancify my room that has yet to be put up because of lack of time.

When artistically inclined I carefully clear away some stuff and pluck away at my keyboard.  It’s probably the least cluttered flat surface because it is fragile, otherwise it would be utilized for storage much more.

As you can see all of my books are right in this pile waiting for me to select them for the daily activities.  They aren’t all visible but they are there.

There are two things I take pride in my messy nature.  The first thing is that my mess stays in my sleeping area.  I don’t mind if the living room gets cluttered with blankets, junk mail, and other things that can be sat on or squashed but my clutter stays out of there.  I have some roommates who seem to think the opposite so I end up living in clutter everywhere but this will be straightened out someday.

The second and main thing that I take pride of in my messy living habits is that I am messily organized.  While to the naked eye everything seems like it has no order and disarray is beyond measure, I know where everything is.  Everything has its place.  Before putting something into my room I first think, “Where would I look for this?”  After some careful deliberation I know exactly where that artifact must go.  The next time I need it I have no idea where it is but then all I have to think about is, “where would I put that?” And instantly I know where it is.  The worst thing is when I’m at home and my parents come in and move things because they feel it is too cluttered.  I have no idea where anything is and the room becomes an even bigger mess just to find one little thing that would have otherwise not disturbed anything.  When this happens I feel defeated and overwhelmed by the giant mess that I have created so I just leave it and now it’s not just cluttered but just plain messy.  The mess gradually gets shifted around until it is an organized mess again and the cycle continues.

The same things happen in my writing style.  My thoughts are often cluttered and I just write them down.  The critical thing is that I know that they are cluttered and I know where everything is so if I choose to come back to edit something thoroughly I know where to find different pieces to tie them together.  The worst thing that can happen is when people edit my work when I am not present, especially on the computer.  I read the new piece and it no longer conveys what I am looking for yet I have no idea where my individual thoughts are anymore and to me the piece is almost un-savable.  I prefer verbal suggestions in a one-on-one environment where I can see where the editor is coming from but my thoughts are still in tact.  Written suggestions work in a pinch but often times I cannot read their handwriting.

I also have a huge problem with writing conclusions.  Maybe it relates to the fact that I hate letting things end.  I find it very depressing.  I’m also not that great at saying goodbyes or just departing a location in a socially acceptable manner.

The film was created by Steven Spielberg so you know already that it was going to be awesome so how did he actually make it awesome? That’s what this feature explains.  It goes in the format of pre-production, production, and post-production of the film and how the concept became a reality with the awesome poise and dark yet soothing voice of James Earl Jones.

Pre-production

Before anything can begin there has to be an inspiration and a plan.  Director Spielberg begins with his inspirations from childhood and how awe-inspiring dinosaurs were and how their size and magnificence creates such curiosity.  Stumbling upon the book of Jurassic Park, written by Michael Crichton, Spielberg believed this would be the perfect format to reintroduce living dinosaurs to the modern world.

After finding the correct source, a text had to go to screen.  This is when Spielberg began to storyboard scenes directly out of the book.  A script was not even finished but he used the book to make scenes and the scenes to write a script.  With his main movie inspiration of King Kong, Spielberg knew that special effects would become an integral part in making the movie so he began to collect a team. Naturally, with his love for King Kong, he went to the makers of the ride at Universal Studios and gathered information on how they made everything so real and then began talk of creating full sized dinosaurs for the film.

Knowing that all of the dinosaurs could not be full sized, Spielberg then turned to several modes of simulated dinosaurs, the main two being, Go-motion and Computer Generation.  Go-motion is much like the Stop-motion technique but with motion blurs to create more reality.  This technique was later thrown out because of its limitations and CGI’s better quality.  Go-motion was still used in the pre-production phases though to storyboard out many of the scenes in three dimensions, giving depth and a temporal cadence that the storyboards lacked.

While our film making adventures did not have the same kind of tools or special effects involved in the planning we did go through many of the same processes. We began talking about our script and changes that needed to be made through how we wanted characters to be portrayed and the limitations that we had to work with which was no budget.  We had to storyboard finding angles of shots.  Collaborating as a team we had to find out how we wanted the timing to unfold, mannerisms of characters, and shots to be done so we could cast, costume, light, and film the characters accordingly. The preproduction phase was the plan, and it turned out to be the most time consuming part for us which also goes for Jurassic Park which took over a year to get through.

Production

When shooting the film Spielberg chose many of the establishing shots and outdoor scenes to be on the island of Kauai in Hawaii.  The dynamic landscape provided the perfect spectacle in itself to blend in creatures that are larger than life.  Due to time constraints with weather and controlling such a varying environment, all of the outdoor shots were done in a relatively short period of time and the rest of production was moved to sound stages where everything could be controlled a little more easily.  Perhaps the best part of the filmmaking was the inspiration of the locations.  Several outdoor shots used in the movie were created simply because Spielberg felt that the environment called for that shot.

Along with fun, there were some minor setbacks in the film when working with so much technology.  Some of the conditions the robotic dinosaurs had to endure, such as pouring rain, did not fare to well for them.  They would shake uncontrollably, almost as if they were shivering, until they were dried off again.  Even making perfect little water ripples in a cup simulating the T-Rex’s heavy footsteps posed a problem which was later solved by a simple guitar string the night before shooting.

Spielberg also takes time during this segment to talk a little about the casting process.  He wanted the movie to be all about the dinosaurs so he did not pick any Superstars of Hollywood.  Rather, he wanted to pick people just as qualified or perhaps more so that would bring out the appropriate mood for their acting.  The relationship between them and the audience would be so natural that they felt seamlessly tied to them without even really realizing it.  He said that even though the film was about the dinosaurs you now felt like you were routing for the humans as well.

We had the same constraints on our film.  We had time difficulties getting all of our actors and everyone else together.  Weather was horrible the week before shooting, then sunny one day and cloudy the next.  With all of our film supposed to be taking place on the same day we couldn’t have such changing conditions and frustration ensued.  So it turned out that we had to do all of our shooting in one day in as little time as possible so that we could have the least variation in weather.

One very positive thing was the freedom that location filming did.  Just like with Jurassic Park, there were many shots that we discovered and even locations to use that would have never have even come up in pre-production planning.

Our casting was also along the same lines.  We did not cast famous actors, mainly because we could not pay anyone, but the people we did cast we chose because they portrayed the characters they represented very well.  You could almost see them being that way in real life, adding to their relatability.

Post-production

Post-production became the hard part for Jurassic Park.  They had all of the planning and all of the footage, now they had to edit it into a movie.  With the added computer graphics this made everything more difficult.  They had to tie in computer generated footage in with the real images. With rooms full of computers all tied together they accomplished this complex task and made some of the most real looking special effects for their time.

I found it particularly interesting how they were able to track the actors head movements so the dinosaurs would be placed in the appropriate spot.  They also used highlighted golf balls on the ground to create a grid for the computer to go off of in high movement scenarios.  This is almost the precursor to motion-capture.

Sound then had to be blended into the images to make the dinosaurs real and give them that added realism.  The sound crew went around to various real life locations and up to real animals and by blending them together created what in our minds a dinosaur would sound like.  This must have been an interesting task because there is no reference to even go off of.  Nobody knows what a dinosaur sounded like, but we most certainly don’t wan them sounding like cats.

After three years, the film was released and impressed audiences so much that two more movies were made.

Our post-production posed to be problematic but not really in the same ways.  We did have our computer difficulties, but mainly it came down to the constraints we had in filming.  Not enough footage, microphone issues, cutting it all together into one seamless piece, all very difficult.  Even background music had to be thought about.  Silence when nobody was talking, unless deliberate completely ruined the mood.

Making Of

The making of our film follows almost the same format as the “Making of Jurassic Park.”  We are using footage from the film itself with plenty of interviews from the makers.  We aren’t really focusing on interviewing the actors and neither does the making of Jurassic Park.”  The only thing that we don’t follow is the fact that video crews were on set filming the making of while the movie was being shot.  This footage would have been great in our segments but I guess we’ll have to live without it.  One thing I did notice about the “making of Jurassic Park” as compared to other making of features and featurettes I watched was that this making of tended to focus on the making of CGI in film and seemed to skip out on other effects.  The way it portrayed CGI was in an entirely positive light and not once was the difficulty of CGI mentioned.  Yes it was an extraordinary outcome and very realistic, but as everyone that has used a computer knows, they are not the easiest to work with and glitches come up all the time.  I imagine in 1992 that that would come up regularly.  I wish there was more of the struggle, which I hope we can put in our segments.

I think that nicknames are a great thing to add into film or writing in general.  They add to character developement and make the audience wonder why it is they are called that.  If it fits in with the story it may even be explained and it adds quick background experiences that otherwise would be hard to portray without it being in random context.

Now I really want to go there.  And I want seafood.

A thanksgiving tradition that me and my friends all have on thanksgiving is to play a no holds barred game of football at the neighboring park.  It is always held on friday after thanksgiving and we bring leftovers and have a good time in the fall air, rain or shine.  It’s great to see people you haven’t seen in a long time and then possibly give them a concussion.  I think everyone should have a turkey tackle.

It would be great to hear back from anyone about some of their thanksgiving traditions for possible future inspiration.