By Iain Blair
It’s hard to believe, but it’s been nearly 30 years since Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park wowed audiences and rewrote the book on VFX, bringing such dinosaurs as the terrifying and rampaging female killer T.rex to life.
Now they’re back in Jurassic World Dominion, the epic conclusion to the Jurassic era and the final film in the second trilogy. Directed by Colin Trevorrow, who helmed the previous movie, it takes place four years after Isla Nublar was destroyed. Dinosaurs now live — and hunt — alongside humans all over the world.
Director Colin Trevorrow on the set of Jurassic World Dominion
The film reunites stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum from the original movie, who join Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard as they try to survive the new reality.
Behind the camera, Trevorrow was joined by EP Spielberg; DP John Schwartzman, ASC, who shot Jurassic World; editor Mark Sanger; and visual effects supervisor David Vickery. ILM once again created all the visual effects.
I talked with Trevorrow about working with Spielberg, the challenges involved in making and posting the film, and the cutting-edge VFX.
What were the main technical challenges of pulling all this together?
There were so many. We decided to shoot on film, both 35mm and 65mm, but we also did some night scenes digitally to help the VFX, so the whole workflow was quite complex. And we shot in multiple locations — everywhere from England to the Pacific Northwest, West Texas, Utah, San Francisco, Malta and the Dolomite Mountains in Italy — and we often shot in different places simultaneously. For instance, we’d be shooting in Malta and also dealing with post stuff in England.
There were lots of different factors involved in just planning the logistics of a massive dinosaur movie that has so many real locations, but also sets, and both VFX and animatronics, action and intimate scenes. We tried to simplify the workflow so no one was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of what they were dealing with, but it was very challenging and ambitious.
Is it true you used the old Panavision camera Spielberg used in the original Jurassic Park?
We did, just for a bit. I was in his office and saw it and asked if I could borrow it; we shot some of the Malta market-chase sequence with it. We actually ended up using nine cameras filming simultaneously because it was a complicated sequence to shoot. We used stunt men for it, so all the actors’ faces had to be added digitally in post. For that we used a special camera rig — with about 70 cameras and 40 lights — to capture the actors’ emotions with high-rez facial scanning that was then downloaded and manipulated for all the CG action stuff.
How much input and advice did Steven Spielberg give you? It’s been his baby for nearly three decades, and he’s shepherded every sequel in the franchise.
He’s always pretty hands-off in production. For him it’s all about the writing process and making sure you have a story that feels really solid.
He’ll really weigh in on taking care of all the characters – his characters and Michael Crichton’s characters — especially in this case, as we were bringing back Sam, Laura and Jeff into the film. We had a lot of discussions about all that. And then we had to make this during the pandemic, obviously with all his support, but with a certain distance that he affords a lot of his filmmakers, because he’s one himself.
How much previz did you do?
I did less on this than the last one, and because of doing the last one, I understood exactly what I needed to do for this. And we weren’t in a situation where we were required to do previz so we could present sequences to the studio and sell ideas to them. So my focus was first on boarding everything with artists, which we did in London, and then we made a rule to only previz moments we needed to understand — for the mass and weight and size of the dinosaurs and the context of the real environment that we’d lidar’d. So we prevized all the dinosaur sequences in the last act, at the outpost, because we had to build it to a certain height and know exactly how it worked with the animatronic dinosaur that we already had the specs for. That was necessary. But for other sequences, I felt I could do it off a board.
How tough was the shoot, considering COVID hit right at the start?
You’d think it’d be so hard and grueling, but strangely it wasn’t. We began shooting in Canada and then moved to Britain. Then the pandemic shut us down for four months, and the cast all had to fly back to the States. While that was going on, we created this COVID-protocol plan, which let us become the first major studio production to begin filming again. We shared that with other productions, and it really did spark productions getting back to work. It was really a great blueprint for the industry.
Can you talk about integrating the post and VFX?
We had a postviz element that was really rudimentary at some times and very complex other times. But since we didn’t have a lot of digital environments – we were on practical sets and locations most of the time, where we had everything we needed except for the dinosaurs – the dailies didn’t just look like people standing in front of greenscreens. It looked like a movie, and you understand the story we’re telling, even on first assembly.
Where did you do the post?
It was all remote to start with. We were all at home on Evercast, and I’m a huge fan of the system. It saved us on this film. But even if we hadn’t had to post like that, I’d be happy working that way. If you’re traveling or unavailable, it’s perfect for letting you check in with your editor and VFX team, and I worked like that pretty much all the way through the director’s cut.
After that, it loosened up enough that I could go in and meet people for the first time, and then we did two sound mixes with the sound team at Skywalker while I was remote in London. I was actually mixing live on a soundstage in Soho, which is pretty incredible.
The film was edited by Mark Sanger. How did that work, and what were the big editing challenges?
We hadn’t worked together before, and because of COVID, he only came to the set for one day. But he was close by when we were at Pinewood, and I’d cut with him at the weekends on Evercast.
The big challenge was that this film has two parallel stories, which run side by side as they grow closer together and then collide and move forward as a single story. So tonally we had to make sure you felt you were watching the same point in the movie no matter which story you were in, and that was very tricky. Then cutting sequences like Malta, or anything with dinosaurs, was very challenging. Also, finding the right spot to introduce a character and when to give the audience a piece of information was all very complicated.
So the first act was by far the trickiest to cut. The rest of the film stayed pretty much the same from an early stage, though we obviously moved stuff around. Then we had all the VFX to deal with. Despite all the other release date changes, our VFX schedule didn’t change because of the costs involved. So I still had to turn over sequences to ILM while I was still shooting; typically you wouldn’t do that until you’re almost done. That was a challenge that bled over into the whole process. A director gets 12 weeks to do his cut, but during that time, our post turnover schedule was at a far different stage than it would normally be. So instead of having five days a week with Mark to find the film, I only got three days, as the other two were taken up with these massive turnovers and notes sessions with ILM. So that was another huge challenge.
There are a huge number of VFX shots. Tell us about collaborating with VFX supervisor David Vickery.
We’ve worked together for many years. The whole process starts long before we shoot, continues on-set and then goes all the way through post. He knows what I want, and our efficiency on this was very high. He was with me on-set pretty much the whole time, and I always had an ILM team there.
ILM oversaw all the VFX, but we also had a few other companies do stuff, including DNeg, Outback Post, Lidar Lounge, Proof and Clear Angle. ILM is so good at delegating things to whichever vendor excels at whatever is needed.
I think the most difficult VFX sequence to do was the Malta chase sequence with all the dinosaurs and array plates, as we had to give it the same depth and feel and texture as all the practical shots that surrounded it, and sometimes we were on a 70mm lens we were punching in on. That was really challenging.
Chris Pratt and director Colin Trevorrow on the set of Jurassic World Dominion
Tell us about the DI process?
We did it at Company 3, and Stefan Sonnenfeld was our colorist like last time. As we shot on film, Stefan and John Schwartzman’s instincts were in most cases to trust the film and the light, and so we did far less manipulation than in the last two films.
We gave it a bit more texture and contrast but didn’t lean in to all the crispness of modern digital filmmaking. I like all the flaws and imperfections, which normally you’d paint out, and I love the way it looks. It reminds me of the films I loved as a kid, and I’m very proud of what we achieved.
Industry insider Iain Blair has been interviewing the biggest directors in Hollywood and around the world for years. He is a regular contributor to Variety and has written for such outlets as Reuters, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.
