OK, about a week ago I saw Jurassic Park for the first time. At first I thought that despite hearing that it used CGI and animatronics I thought they were using stop motion because of how jerky some of the dinosaur was, but looking it up, sure enough, just CGI and animatronics.
But there’s one scene that I’m curious about, when Dr. Grant, Tim, and Lex (the kids) were crawling in the ducts to get away from the raptors, and Lex almost falls out, and the others are trying to pull her out, when she’s dangling, it has a stop motion, or strobe light effect in the room below, and on her as well.
Does anybody have any idea how they did that scene? Thanks.
Don’t know if it helps at all (prolly not), but that was actually a stunt double who fell through the grate. They then digitally pasted the actual actress’s face over the stunt-double’s.
I actually just re-watched Jurassic Park a few weeks ago and I don’t recall any “jerkiness”–in fact, I still think the movie has some of the implementation of CG in an action film. That aside, the film was originally going to use stop-motion technology; there’s an interesting feature on the DVD that actually shows some test footage involving the kitchen raptor scene.
That is interesting, but I’m still curious as to why it looked like she was struggling in a strobe-light room.
Yeah, I read where he was going to go with stop-motion, but then CGI provided movement more realistic than stop-motion could have provided so he went with that instead.
I haven’t seen it in a while, but doesn’t Lex knock a light out of the ceiling when she falls through the grate? That would account for the strobe light effect.
From what I remember, they are climbing through the ceiling, she kicks a florescent light down and it’s hanging by a cord and spinning as she’s jumping up to the ceiling. I think that accounts for the lighting effect.
It’s funny you bring this up, I just re-watched “Jurassic Park” again last weekend and was amazed at how well the effects have held up, in fact I think they’re even more realistic than most movies released today. It’s hard to believe that movie is 16 years old.
But yeah, it’s weird, isn’t it how a lot of modern CG stands out now much more so than in Jurassic Park. I think part of it is they knew CG’s limitations back then, whereas now it’s treated as if it doesn’t have any, which is hardly the case.
This thread just got me to rewatch that first scene with the brachiosaurus again for the first time in years. It’s one of my favorite movie scenes of all time, just a spectacular blend of acting, special effects, and one of the best main themes ever written. As someone who was inspired as a teenager to go into science by movies like “Jurassic Park,” it now holds some extra resonance as well - the wonder that Grant and Sattler display upon seeing their life’s work literally come to life in front of them is something with which I can very much empathize.
The rest of the movie has its ups and downs, quality-wise, but that first reveal of the dinosaurs is one of the great moments in cinema, as far as I’m concerned. And the visual effects still look incredible.
But they didn’t know its limitations. They were pushing so many boundaries they were in danger of overextending themselves, which is the standard operating practice for ILM. What they did do, which is now considered a cheat, is kept a lot of it set at night and in the rain to help hide some of the rough spots.
I think when he says “now” considered a cheat, he means that it’s now considered a cheat to set a scene in the dark or rain to avoid problems with CG. Not that, in hindsight, we now consider it a cheat in Jurassic Park.
