#tippet studio | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lycanlovingvampyre · 1 year

Text

MAG 136 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: putting up a new fence.

MELANIE: “Well. I’ve kinda got to… uh. (inhale) I’ve got somewhere to be. Do you mind if – if she hangs around with…?” JON: "Uh, I suppose – Not at all. She’s very welcome." I think it's super cute that Daisy doesn't want to be alone. Yeah, the reason for this is quite tragic and sad... I think this was the episode that made me go "Oh shit, I really like Daisy now!" to 100 %! I love everything about this episode!

JON: "If you don’t mind me asking – where are you off to?" [UNFORTUNATELY FOR BOTH OF THEM, THE ARCHIVIST’S SIGNATURE STATIC RUMBLES LOW IN THE BACKGROUND AS HE SPEAKS.] MELANIE: "Therapy. (surprised inhale) Wait…" I read a post about this once, that the Eye won't chose random information for Jon to suddenly drop into his mind. It's always something bad or intrusive (like suddenly knowing how Gertrude stopped the Sunken Sky. Or how one of Basira's school teachers died). Wouldn't be surprised, if this also got a grip on questions which could reveal a "dark secret". Like here, it wasn't a coincidence that compulsion slipped out with the question. It's the Eye choosing to act on it's own because there's juicy personal information to acquire. There's nothing Jon could have done to stop that, aside from just not asking this question. But that's why he's the Archivist, he always asked this kind of questions.

MELANIE: "It’s fine. I would probably have told you eventually anyway." Uhhh, am I the only one who thinks this line sounds a bit weird...? Especially the "It's fine". This doesn't sound like Lydia at all... Could this actually be Alex??? (Wouldn't be the first time we suspect him impersonating Lydia/Melanie - MAG 103).

"One of my earliest memories is cowering behind my mother, watching Labyrinth of the Minotaur on our tiny television, seeing the clay of the creature move and come alive in stop-motion. It terrified me. It thrilled me. It’s a moment that’s never completely left me. I’ve always had two passions: engineering and special effects. So naturally, the course of my life gradually led me towards working on animatronics. I don’t – care about the other stuff, not really. A squib’s a squib no matter how much you dress it up, and… (inhales) makeup never really wowed me." 1.) Not really-counter of S4: 4! 2.) I totally know that feeling. For me it was Jurassic Park. I guess this is also why I've always loved Stan Winston's work the most out of all practical FX studios and artists I follow. I have no idea about engineering, but I'm good at sculpting and crafting. Naturally, SFX make-up always fascinated me as well and they often work closely together (part make-up / part costume / part animatronics). It's just so damn expensive to make myself, the prices for silicone and resin skyrocketed the last couple of years. I want to make an animatronic mask soooo badly... Luckily my spouse is an engineer and I have a few of tutorials from the Stan Winston School membership, so one day! *fingers crossed*

"His earlier stuff I certainly enjoyed, but… for all my fondness for that – animated Minotaur, his stop-motion work never really grabbed me like his animatronics." You know why stop-motion looks so jerky? Lack of motion blur. That's when go-motion came into play. They'd move the model slightly during exposure of that frame, recreating motion blur by doing this. The dragon Vermithrax in Dragonslayer was the best example for this, but it already went quite high-tech to achieve this. (ILM, Phil Tippet btw.)

"The way Neil tells it, he split from his partner Gabe in 1972, and sculpting for stop-motion had never really had the same charm after that." Gabe... Short for Gabriel. Sculpting, like with Clay^^ Lagorio was like "Yeah, the Spiral is too random for me, I need precision!!"

"I think we bonded on that shoot, sheltering from the rain for hours at a time, watching a soggy animatronic jaguar gradually start to rust." Everybody knows the story of the T-Rex in the rain, right? If not, so they build the T-Rex without the information that it's supposed to be raining in that scene. Well... the foam latex skin acted like a sponge and it got too heavy! This caused the T-Rex to shiver, so they had to dry her in-between shots (there are pictures of people whipping towels at the dino XD). This is also the reason why the roof of the car broke and came down onto the children. This was not planned! But the T-Rex got too heavy so the calculations weren't correct anymore and so it hit that glass roof with way too much force, oof.

OMG wait! Is that my favorite ambiance track there?? OMG it is! I totally missed that it was used here! Episode got even better now!

JON: "Mm, they were… Well, let’s just say it’s not a complete shock there was something unnatural to them." Mr. “watches documentaries for fun” saw a few of Neil Lagorio's movies! Not surprised since he read a lot as a kid, why wouldn't Jon be into fiction?

DAISY: (sigh) "She’s Web. Spider’s sneaky like that. Like that lighter you’re always using; where’d you get that?" JON: "Mm. Good point. We should keep our eyes open. Anyways –" Hahaha, there's even static during "Good point". I can't wait to tell my story about the lighter, it's hilarious.

DAISY: (sigh) "Yeah, well – (sigh) What do you think? You think I’m weak, just – (sigh) – ‘cause I’m not already chasing the next kill? You think I’m less me?" JON: "I – (sigh) I don’t feel like I’m exactly in the best place to judge the… intersection between free will and humanity. (stuttering inhale) I’m still trying to figure that out myself." Those two <3 I'm happy Jon has someone this season who gets him. Who he can talk to. I love their friendship so much...

JON: "My – (large sigh) My memories of the coma are not clear, but I know I made a choice; I made a choice to become… something else. Because I was afraid to die. But ever since then, I – I don’t know if I made the right decision; I’m stronger now, tougher, I can – (he cuts himself off) If I do die, now, or get sealed away somewhere forever? I don’t know if that’s a bad thing. And I don’t want to lose anyone else, so if I can maybe – stop that happening, and the only danger is to me, I – I’ll do it in a heartbeat; worst case scenario, the universe loses another monster." DAISY: "That’s messed up." JON: (small laugh) (inhale) "Yeah. I suppose it is." Jon. Stop it. Get some help.

JON: "It, uh – hm – Is it, uh – Weird question, but – I – (sigh) I haven’t seen you in my dreams? The last couple of weeks?" DAISY: "Oh, ah – No, I – I work here now. Figured it seemed to protect the others, so –" That sounded like that relative "I haven't seen you in so long, you never visit me!" XD But further confirmation, that the dreams stop when you're working for the institute.

DAISY: “Boo-hoo, I’m so alone and a monster.” Yeah, those two <3

DAISY: (darkly) "If she doesn’t, I’ll rip her throat out." I love the sound of that line!

Putting that therapy scene into a Web episode was such a mean red herring!

@a-mag-a-day

#a-mag-a-day #mag 136 #tma #tma spoilers

25 notes · View notes

steelthroat · 2 months

Note

~ask game~

🍎 If there was to be an adaptation of one of your books, which studio or director would you like to be in charge of it?

Hello therre!

Ooooooh.... good question. But as always, there's more than one answer :D

t really depends on the story, 100% of all of my stories are HAVE to be animated. I don't care how much I'd get to sweat. None of my stories are made to be live action. Maybe there are a couple of exceptions, but grrrrr no live actions for the rest of them.

So onto the real answer:

Mh the sci-fi ones studio trigger, easy...

Fantasy ones, mh. Not sure.

Horror: Laika? A24?

As for the directors... I trust Knight and Phil Tippet :) or whoever is able to make something good or even better if they decide to change stray from the canon material lol.

#steel answers #thanks for the ask!

2 notes · View notes

jaijaicontextualstudies2001 · 3 months

Text

4: Artists of Choice - Phil Tippett

Born on 27th September 1951 in California, USA, Phil Tippett has accomplished a successful career in Hollywood in the span of over 40 years (Goodfellow 2021). His varied career in animation and VFX has gathered a collection of awards and nominations: two Academy Awards, six Academy Awards nominations, one BAFTA award, four BAFTA nominations, and two Emmys (IMDb).

Tippett's fascination with stop motion animation started in his childhood with movies such as Willis H. O'Brien's animation in King Kong (Cooper and Schoedsack 1933) and Harryhausen's animation in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (Juran 1958) (Aguilar 2022; IMDb). Both O'Brien and Harryhausen having notoriety of being the pioneers of stop motion animation. Growing up he would draw and sculpt objects that he would then animate - this talent lead him to graduate at the University of California with a Fine Art degree (IMDb).

Fig 1. Still from Jurassic Park (1993) Directed by Spielberg. Amblin Entertainment, Legendary Pictures, Universal Studios.

He has made a name for himself in Hollywood after his break in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (Aguilar 2022; Lucas 1980) despite working with George Lucas in the 1977's Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (Goodfellow 2021). He is considered as a "visual effects alchemist" (Aguilar 2022) being responsible for some of the biggest movies to come out of the 1980s and 1990s such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Spielberg 1984), RoboCop (Verhoeven 1987), and Jurassic Park (Spielberg 1993) to name a few (Aguilar 2022; Goodfellow 2021; IMDb). Even in the 2000s and 2010s Tippett worked in iconic cinematography in the VFX department such as the Twilight Saga from 2008-2012 (Condon 2011, 2012; Hardwicke 2008; Slade 2010; Weitz 2009).

Out of all of the works of Tippett, I will be focusing on his latest animation Mad God (2021) that was released on the Shudder platform in 2022 (Aguilar 2022). This movie seems the most relevant to what I intend to do for my project as it is all model stop motion, and not stop motion/VFX interlaced with actors.

Fig 2. Stills from Mad God (2021) Directed by Phil Tippett. Tippett Studios.

Mad God is a feature stop motion animation (Cook N/A) that took 30 years in the making (Bleasdale 2021, Cook N/A). It started in 1987, a personal project for Tippett (Bleasdale 2021; Cook N/A) which animated an alternative surreal realm of monsters and mad scientists that could roam free from Tippett's mind to the screen (Cook N/A). In an interview with John Bleasdale (2021), Tippett stated how he shot the first minutes in a 35mm film, however the film was "too big in scope, and I lost my crew" (Bleasdale 2021); creating what seemed to be an indefinite hiatus on the project. This was further delayed due to stop motion and 'go motion' (Tippett's own style of animation) was being replaced by CGI in the 1990s (Bleasdale 2021). It wasn't until years later when a few animators working at Tippett Studios came across the puppets and film, and decided to dedicate their weekends into finishing the project (Cook N/A). The small group grew to 60 crew members, and a successful Kickstarter campaign helped the finishing and the premier of the film at Locarno Festival in 2021 (Bleasdale 2021; Goodfellow 2021).

During the 20 year hiatus, Tippet stated how he did his research by reading Carl Jung, the Bible, and Dante (Bleasdale 2021) into creating the themes in Mad God. It is known that it is a 'mature' film (Cook N/A) which is supported by Bleasdale's first hand experience when watching the premier at the Locarno Festival: “Mum and dad and a couple of little kids, so I said to them: ‘I wouldn’t take my kids to this.’ They got up to leave a few minutes later. The mum said I was right. And I said, ‘It gets worse.’” (Bleasdale 2021).

Aguilar, C. (2022) Phil Tippett's World in (Stop) Motion. New York Times, New York, USA.

Bleasdale, J. (2021) 'I wouldn't take my kids to see this': Star Wars' Phil Tippett on his Hellish Animation Mad God. The Guardian, London, UK. ‘I wouldn’t take my kids to this’: Star Wars’ Phil Tippett on his hellish animation Mad God | Film | The Guardian

Cook, L. (N/A) Phil Tippett's MadGod - About. Tippett Studios, USA. Phil Tippett's MadGod - ABOUT (madgodmovie.com)

Goodfellow, M. (2021) Locarno to honour ‘Star Wars’, 'RoboCop’, ‘Jurassic Park’ VFX maestro Phil Tippett. Screen International, London.

IMDb (N/A) Phil Tippett Phil Tippett - Biography - IMDb

Films Mentioned:

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Directed by Spielberg. Lucas Films Ltd, Paramount Pictures.

Jurassic Park (1993) Directed by Spielberg. Amblin Entertainment, Legendary Pictures, Universal Studios.

King Kong (1933) Directed by Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack. RKO Radio Pictures.

Mad God (2022) Directed by Phil Tippett. Tippett Studios.

Robocop (1987) Directed by Paul Verhoeven. Orion Pictures.

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) Directed by George Lucas. Lucas Studios Ltd.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Directed by George Lucas. Lucas Studios Ltd.

The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) Directed by Nathan H. Juran. Columbia Pictures.

Twilight (2008) Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Aura Films, Goldcrest Films Finance, Maverick Films, Temple Hill Films.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn P.1 (2011) Directed by Bill Condon. Summit Entertainment, Sunswept Entertainment, Temple Hill Films.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn P.2 (2012) Directed by Bill Condon. Summit Entertainment, Sunswept Entertainment, Temple Hill Films.

Twilight: Eclipse (2010) Directed by David Slade. Summit Entertainment.

Twilight: New Moon (2009) Directed by Chris Weitz. Maverick Films, Sunswept Entertainment, Temple Hill Films.

0 notes

ptbf2002 · 10 months

Text

Here's My Top 10 Favorite Universal Movies

#10 Trolls World Tour (2020)

#9 The Croods: A New Age

#8 Abominable (2019 film)

#7 Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

#6 Casper (1995 film)

#5 The Secret Life of Pets

#4 Minions (2015 film)

#3 Despicable Me 2

#2 Despicable Me (2010 film)

And #1 The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

Honorable Mentions: An American Tail, An American Tail, Fievel Goes West, An American Tail, The Tressure Of Manhattan Island, The Land Before Time, Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park 2, Jurassic Park 3, Jurassic Park 4, Jurassic World, Jurassic World 2, The Fallen Kingdom, Jurassic World 3 Dominion, E.T, And Jaws

Credit Goes To JackSkellington416

Original Template: https://www.deviantart.com/jackskellington416/art/Top-10-Favorite-Universal-Movies-Meme-663160445

Trolls World Tour Belongs To Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky, Elizabeth Tippet, DreamWorks Animation LLC, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, Comcast Corporation, And NBCUniversal Media, LLC

The Croods: A New Age Belongs To Dan Hageman. Kevin Hageman, Paul Fisher, Bob Logan, DreamWorks Animation LLC, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, Comcast Corporation, And NBCUniversal Media, LLC

Abominable (2019 film) Belongs To Jill Culton, Zhong Ming You Ying Film, Shanghai Pearl Studio Film and Television Technology Co., Ltd, China Media Capital, DreamWorks Animation LLC, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, Comcast Corporation, And NBCUniversal Media, LLC

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Belongs To Paul Fisher, Tommy Swerdlow, Tom Wheeler, DreamWorks Animation LLC, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, Comcast Corporation, And NBCUniversal Media, LLC

Casper (1995 film) Belongs To Sherri Stoner, Deanna Oliver, Alfred Harvey, Joe Oriolo, Seymour Reit, Vincent E. Valentine II, The Harvey Entertainment Company, Classic Media, LLC, DreamWorks Classics, Amblin Entertainment, Inc. Amblin Partners, LLC, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, Comcast Corporation, And NBCUniversal Media, LLC

The Secret Life of Pets Belongs To Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, Brian Lynch, Illumination, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, Comcast Corporation, And NBCUniversal Media, LLC

Minions (2015) Belongs To Brian Lynch, Illumination, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, Comcast Corporation, And NBCUniversal Media, LLC

Despicable Me 2 Belongs To Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, Illumination, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, Comcast Corporation, And NBCUniversal Media, LLC

Despicable Me Belongs To Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, Illumination, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, Comcast Corporation, And NBCUniversal Media, LLC

The Super Mario Bros. Movie Belongs To Matthew Fogel, Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Nintendo Co., Ltd. Illumination, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, Comcast Corporation, And NBCUniversal Media, LLC

0 notes

islanublar · 2 years

Text

Behind the Scenes (1997)

For 65 million years their secrets lay hidden in the earth. Giant, awesome creatures whose majestic presence we could once only visualize in our mind's eye. Then in 1993, imagination , science and technology came together in a spectacular motion picture that became a world wide phenomenon. Click here for the inside story on the making of Jurassic Park.

With Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg recalled from extinction the greatest creatures our planet has ever known. "My interest is in making a good movie that honors the existence of dinosaurs," Spielberg said during filming of the 1993 biogenetics adventure, which would become the highest grossing motion picture of all time and win three Academy Awards® for its ground-breaking visual and sound effects.

To resurrect these ancient and powerful species who ruled the world for 165 million years, the director and his team of special effects wizards embarked on a three-year journey of discovery, creating new technologies, transforming old ones and ushering filmmaking into the 21st Century.

In May of 1990, Universal Pictures obtained the galleys of best-selling author Michael Crichton's upcoming book Jurassic Park, and within a matter of hours, the studio was intently negotiating to purchase the book on behalf of Steven Spielberg.

"It was one of those projects that was so obviously a Spielberg film," recalls producer Kathleen Kennedy, who has closely collaborated with the filmmaker for 18 years. "If you look at the body of Stevens work, he is very often interested in the theme of extraordinary things happening to ordinary people."

As Crichton began adapting his book about a theme park for genetically engineered dinosaurs into a feature-length screenplay, Kennedy and Spielberg began to recruit the behind the scenes team that would lay the creative foundation for Jurassic Park. First on board was production designer Rick Carter, who started work with a group of illustrators and storyboard artists to translate Crichtons words into cinematic images.

The next challenge was to find an all-star effects team that would bring the dinosaurs to life. Stan Winston was contacted to create the live action dinosaurs, with Phil Tippet serving as dinosaur supervisor, Michael Lantieri handling special dinosaur effects and Industrial Light & Magics Dennis Muren in charge of full motion dinosaurs. Their achievements, individually and collectively, had included box-office successes from Star Wars to Teminator 2: Judgment Day, and they would eventually receive an Oscar for best visual effects for Jurassic Park.

Meanwhile, work continued on the screenplay, beginning with Michael Crichtons first draft. Later, screenwriter David Koepp was brought in on the project and shared screen credit with Crichton.

Casting was a relatively short process, capped by the signing of Richard Attenborough (whose acclaimed work as a film director had distracted him from acting since 1979) for the pivotal role as Jurassic Park developer John Hammond. Rounding out the talented ensemble cast were Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, a renowned paleontologist who is asked to inspect the park; Laura Dern as his colleague, Dr. Ellie Sattler; Jeff Goldblum as a brilliant but eccentric mathematician whose chaos theory explains the dangers inherent in the project; and Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello as Hammond's young grandchildren.

In order to tackle the scope and breadth of the project ahead, Winston designated a group of teams that included both artists and engineers. To give you an idea of each team's complex responsibilities, meet "Team rex," which consisted of 12 operators performing widely varying functions. Constructed from a frame of fiberglass and 3000 pounds of clay, the 20 foot tall T-rex was covered with a durable yet delicate latex skin and then painted by a team of artists who blended a rich palette of colors to bring his body to life. The T-rex was then mounted on a "dino-simulator," an imaginative mechanism inspired by hydraulic technology and based on a traditional six-axis flight simulator used by the military. On this motion-based foundation, both the platform and the T-rex could be actuated through a computer control board.

When "Jurassic Park" began principal photography on the island of Kauai on August 24, 1992, it had been exactly two years and one month since the start of pre-production. The lush green resort-land near Lihue was an ideal setting for the Jurassic Park exteriors, but after three weeks of filming under the tropical sun, a real-life drama overshadowed the movie.

Hurricane Iniki was fast approaching Kauai, and the crew was asked by the hotel to pack their suitcases and fill their bathtubs with water in case of future power and water shortages. Next, they were instructed to pack a day bag and meet in the ballroom of the hotel on the basement level.

By 9:00 a.m. the storm was headed straight for the island. Kathy Kennedy recalls, "We started pulling all our supplies into the ballroom, and the camera crew was quickly packing their things in the trucks. But if you're going to be stranded with anyone, be stranded with a movie crew," says Kennedy. "We had generators for lights, and plenty of food and water. We were self-sustaining because we moved around on location all the time."

Camped out in rows of chaise lounges on the ballroom floor, the cast and crew heard the winds pick up at about 4:00 p.m. and rumble by at almost 120 mph. "It sounded like a freight train roaring past the building," recalls the producer.

When water seeped into one end of the ballroom, the crew huddled on the other side of the room. But at 7:30 p.m., Kennedy and Gary Hymes, the stunt coordinator, stepped outside into silence. "It was the eeriest thing I had ever seen," recalls Kennedy. "Here we were that morning on a beautiful tree-lined street adjacent to a golf course, and now virtually every single tree had been flattened."

Although the company had scheduled one more day of filming, the sheer force of Iniki literally struck all the sets. There was no power or working phones on the island, so at dawn the next morning, Kennedy jogged two miles to the airport to explore their options.

"The destruction in the airport was unbelievable," she recalls. "All the windows were blown out in the terminals, and the buildings were full of palms, trees, sand and water. Every single helicopter had been tipped on its side."

Thanks to her relentless efforts among airport and military personnel in Lihue, Kennedy was able to hitch a ride to Honolulu on a Salvation Army plane and began organizing from a pay phone. Over the next 24 hours, she not only coordinated the safe return of the company, but also arranged for more than 20,000 pounds of relief supplies to be transported from Honolulu and Los Angeles into Kauai.

Upon its return to Los Angeles, "Jurassic Park" resumed production at Universal Studios. Stage 24 had become the industrial-size kitchen for Jurassic Park's Visitors Center and it was being visited by two predatory Velociraptors. While Winston's team manipulated every moving part of the full size Raptor from head to tail, actors Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello cowered in the corner, deep into their characters of two young children who are trapped in their worst nightmare.

From there, the company packed up and moved to Red Rock Canyon State Park, at the west end of the Mojave Desert. Chosen for its similarities to a Montana dinosaur dig site, Red Rock played host to actors Laura Dern and Sam Neill, both of whom were coached by one of the country's premier paleontologists, Jack Horner. As a professor at the University of Montana and curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Horner was a valued member of the crew and the official paleontology consultant.

Returning to Stage 27, the Company began a complicated sequence following a confrontation with the mighty T-rex, who had effortlessly picked up a Ford Explorer and hung it on the branches of a gigantic gnarled tree. Rigged by Michael Lantieri's team and suspended on steel cables, the car slowly slips from branch to branch until it falls to the ground with a reverberating crash. By the end of the shoot, the tropical jungle on Stage 27 had been re-dressed for three additional scenes: an early morning visit from a Brachiosaurus, a surprise attack on Muldoon (Bob Peck) and Dennis Nedry's (Wayne Knight) encounter with a Spitter.

Stage 28 housed the heart of Jurassic Park; a computer control room and dinosaur hatchery. Headed up by Michael Backes, computer effects designer, the Control Room was headquarters for almost a million dollars in high-end equipment, on loan from such industry leaders as Silicon Graphics, SuperMac, Apple and Thinking Machines.

When Nedry's sabotage results in Control Room chaos, the audience will simply watch the display screens in order to understand the problems that face the park visitors who are on the royal tour.

By size and scope, the most memorable "Jurassic Park" set was perhaps the Visitor's Center constructed on Stage 12, but it was closely rivaled by the T-rex Paddock, located on one of the largest sound stages at Warner Brothers Studios. Lantieri and his crew built the riggings that mobilized the 3000 lb. dinosaur, who along with his fellow actors, worked long, hard hours in the wind, rain and mud.

The film's climactic finale was filmed on Stage 12, in Jurassic Park's enormous Rotunda, which, according to the script, is still under construction. As John Hammond escorts his visitors into the main lobby, the first thing they see are two gigantic dinosaur skeletons displayed in the middle of the Rotunda.

Constructed by Toronto-based Research Casting International, the museum-quality pieces are full-size re-creations of a T-rex, which is approximately 40 feet long, and an Alamosaurus, which measures 45 feet long.

As the cast and crew lifted their glasses in a champagne toast on the final night of filming, a weary but enthusiastic Spielberg announced that "Jurassic Park," an ambitious project which had been two years in the planning and four months before the cameras, had finished on budget and 12 days ahead of schedule.

Steven Spielberg is one of the world's most respected, successful and celebrated filmmakers. He has been associated as director or producer on five of the Top 20 grossing films of all time. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is still the highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada and is surpassed only by Jurassic Park and The Lion King worldwide. He earned his first Directors Guild Award for The Color Purple and the DGA also nominated him for Empire of the Sun, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial , in addition to Schindler's List , for which he also won. For the last four, he was also nominated for Academy Awards.

Spielberg made his feature directing debut on The Sugarland Express. Teamed with George Lucas, who was executive producer, Spielberg directed Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. His additional directing credits include Hook and Always . He also co-wrote and co-produced Poltergeist.

With Amblin Entertainment, the production company he formed in 1984, he served as executive producer on more than a dozen films including Gremlins, Back to the Future and its two sequels, An American Tail, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Land Before Time. His Amblin Entertainment most recently produced the films Twister and The Trigger Effect.

He is the recipient of The Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute and the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In October 1994, Spielberg announced the formation of a new multimedia studio, Dreamworks SKG, with his partners in the venture, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen.

Eight-time Academy Award winner Dennis Muren is the senior visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic. Murens eight Oscars, the most of any living member of the Academy, are in recognition of his work on Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Judgment Day, The Abyss, Innerspace, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, Return of the Jedi, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and The Empire Strikes Back. He was also nominated for Academy Awards for Willow, Young Sherlock Holmes and Dragonslayer.

Among Murens credits are The Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition, Twister, Mission Impossible, Casper, Ghostbusters II and Empire of the Sun. Muren, who traces his interest in visual effects to the age of ten when he started making his own films on an 8mm camera, began his career as a visual effects cameraman and worked on such productions as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica.

Stan Winston has won four Academy Awards, three BAFTAs (British Film and Television Academy) and two Emmys for his achievements. He has been nominated for a total of eight Oscars, five BAFTAs and six Emmys.

Winston was nominated for his first Academy Award with Heartbeeps. He then teamed with James Cameron to create The Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Winston reteamed with Cameron on Aliens , heading up the films enormous effects unit. He was nominated for an Academy Award and won. In 1987, he earned his third Academy Award nomination for his work on Predator. He won two Academy Awards--one for visual effects and the other for Best Make-up--for his pioneering work on Terminator 2: Judgment Day , for which he produced hundreds of animatronic effects and prosthetic make-up, which defined the design and technology for special make-up effects.

Winston lead his team of artists to his fourth Academy Award, creating the full size dinosaurs in Jurassic Park . Among his other distinguished credits are Neil Jordans Interview with a Vampire, Congo and Batman Returns. Winstons most recently created the creature effects for The Relic and Ghost and the Darkness . He also directed the widely acclaimed short film Ghosts , starring Michael Jackson.

Stan Winston began his career as a make-up artist at Walt Disney Productions. His first television movie, Gargoyles , resulted in his first Emmy Award and a year later, he won his second Emmy for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman , in which he aged actress Cicely Tyson to 110. Between 1973 and 1979 Winston was nominated for six Emmys and then moved into feature films, providing the special make-up for The Wiz.

In 1993, he partnered with James Cameron and former ILM principal, Scott Ross, in the creation of Digital Domain, a computer effects company headquartered in Venice, California.

Michael Lantieri is one of the motion picture industry's leading special effects artists. An Academy Award-winner for his work on Jurassic Park , he has frequently collaborated with Steven Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment on such projects as Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, Back to the Future II and III, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Hook, The Flintstones and Casper.

Among Lantieri's other credits are: Flashdance, Fright Night, The Woman in Red, Thief of Hearts, The Last Starfighter, My Science Project, Poltergeist II, Star Trek IV, Twins, The Witches of Eastwick, Bram Stokers Dracula and Death Becomes Her the latter of the two which he did simultaneously. Lantieri's most recent projects prior to The Lost World: Jurassic Park were Mars Attack and Congo. Lantieri is now in preproduction on Steven Spielberg's next project, Amistad.

When Phil Tippett was seven years old, his parents took him to see the film "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad," and he nostalgically asserts that the film changed his life.

An innovator who took stop-motion photography to new heights, Tippett's animation for the 1980 film "Dragonslayer" is regarded as one of the best, if not the best example of the art form.

A filmmaker by the age of 13, Tippett was animating TV commercials just four years later, but he put the work aside to earn a B.A. in Fine Arts from UC Irvine.

During the next few years he would develop relationships with such peers as Jon Berg and Dennis Muren, and all would become major figures in special visual effects. Muren, in fact, recommended Phil to the "Star Wars" production team to animate the miniature chess game.

Tippett began work on "The Empire Strikes Back," followed by "Return of the Jedi," the latter earning him an Academy Award.

In 1983, he left to work on his first independent film, "Prehistoric Bear," a 10 minute film which was shot entirely in his garage and took two years to complete. "Prehistoric Bear" recreates life in the late Cretaceous Epoch, 65 to 75 million years ago.

Since opening his own studio in Berkeley, California, Tippett has created 20 minutes of stop-motion animation for a CBS documentary called "Dinosaur!" which won an Emmy for special effects in 1984. His relationship with Lucasfilm continues, and he has provided sequences for the "Ewok" movies, "Howard the Duck," "Golden Child" and "Willow."

His additional projects have included "House II," "RoboCop," "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" and "Robocop II" and "III."

For "Jurassic Park," Tippett was a key to the development of the individual dinosaur movements: How did various parts of the body move? How fast? How slow? How coordinated? What would be the most accurate interpretation of each species' physical action and body language?

Describing the genesis of Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg says: "Michael Crichton and I were actually working on another project together, a screenplay,' and I asked him, 'What are you doing in the world of books?' He said, 'Oh, I'm writing this thing about dinosaurs and DNA. My eyes got wide, suddenly I wanted to hear more and I coaxed it out of him until he told me basically the whole story. That's how the whole thing began."

From the beginning, the overriding concern for Spielberg and the rest of the Jurassic Park production company was to bring the dinosaurs to life with absolute credibility. The filmmakers wanted to show us the animals as the immense and beautiful living beings that were once lords of the earth. Through an extraordinary combination of paleontology, artistry and breakthrough technology, they did just that.

As Spielberg conceived his ambitious plan for the movie, and its dinosaurs, it became clear that bringing his vision to life would require an unparalleled level of special effects.

Historically, the action of large creatures had best been achieved with old fashioned stop-motion photography, but the filmmakers had hopes of pushing the special effects envelope and developing technologies that had not been used before. They assembled Hollywood's top special effects talent &emdash; Stan Winston, Phil Tippett, Dennis Muren and Michael Lantieri &emdash; for a unique collaboration, challenging them to go where no movie had ever gone before.

Stan Winston designed the live action dinosaurs &emdash; full-size robotic animals that had to be both quick and mobile. A miracle worker in makeup as well as creature effects whose creations for such films as The Terminator, Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day dazzled audiences around the world, Winston broke the project into three phases: research, design and construction.

Winston and his team spent a full year in the research phase. Consulting with paleontologists, museums and hundreds of texts, Winston's artists prepared detailed sketches and renderings that would later lead to fifth-scale sculptures, and finally, to such enormous creations as a 20-foot Tyrannosaurus-rex.

Meanwhile, a fifth-scale version of the T-rex, resembling an elaborate erector set, had been built so that the identical motion of the scaled down armature could be generated manually by four puppeteers. Once a small T-rex (called a Waldo) had rehearsed the moves and actions required in a specific scene, a computer recorded the movement and programmed the big T-rex to repeat the action exactly. While the Waldo's puppeteers operated the animal's head, torso, tail and arms, additional puppeteers crouched nearby to simultaneously operate the T-rex's eyes, mouth, jaw and claws.

The Stan Winston Studio, which employed more than 60 artists, engineers and puppeteers in the making of Jurassic Park, also created life-sized, articulated versions of a 20 foot Tyrannosaurus rex, a 6 foot tall Velociraptor, the long-necked Brachiosaurus, a sick Triceratops, a Gallimimus, the unusual Dilophosaurus (a.k.a. "the Spitter") and a baby Raptor hatchling

The unprecedented feats of artistry and technology performed by Winston and his team were an important first step in bringing Spielberg's vision of living, breathing dinosaurs to the screen. "If they didn't look real if you didn't believe their skin, their flesh, their eyes, their teeth, everything about them no matter how good their performances were, they wouldn't be real," explains Winston.

With the challenge of creating "live" dinosaurs solved, Spielberg turned his attention to the necessity of miniature photography for the wide angle or full length shots. He took his thoughts to Phil Tippett, an Academy Award® winning animator and effects wizard who devised the Go-Motion System (a much refined version of stop-motion) while working on the film Dragonslayer. Tippett, who formerly worked for ILM, is based in Berkeley, California and eagerly began recruiting a team that would supply more than 50 Go-Motion shots.

In addition to choreographing the movements of the dinosaurs on film, Tippett was also relied on to provide a series of three-dimensional storyboards, or "animatics," as a means of helping the filmmakers to prepare and rehearse the highly complex scenes with T-rex and the Velociraptors.

The computer graphics work in Jurassic Park is the culmination of experimentation and progress that began at Industrial Light and Magic 14 years ago, when George Lucas set up the computer graphics department. It is now their most potent creative tool. Yet, the work in Jurassic Park is more than that: it is a quantum leap forward, forever changing the way films will be made in the future.

Spielberg consulted with ILM early in the process, having collaborated with this effects house on several of his previous films. ILM's effects supervisor Dennis Muren, a seven-time Academy Award® winner, was anxious to participate in Jurassic Park, but since Spielberg hoped to use full scale dinosaurs and Go-Motion, he was unclear about ILM's role in the project.

The initial approach for Jurassic's dinosaurs relied on traditional technology, combining movable miniatures created by Phil Tippett, with a few full-size robotic creatures designed by Stan Winston. Michael Lantieri would supervise the interaction of these elements with actors on the set. And Dennis Muren would lead the team at Industrial Light and Magic in bringing together the elements on film in post-production.

But visual effects experimentation and technology was moving faster than anyone could have imagined; and by 1991, Dennis Muren and ILM were working on Terminator 2: Judgment Day with director James Cameron, pushing the boundaries of computer-generated images, referred to as CGI.

By the time ILM finished Terminator 2, they were able to concentrate on building a herd of Gallimimus dinosaurs and a walking T-rex among the shots they would be called upon to deliver.

Impressed with ILM's test results, Amblin Entertainment soon gave ILM the green light to take on several additional test shots, including a stampede and several wide-angle scenes that illustrate a herd of dinosaurs against a sweeping vista. When Muren next returned to Amblin, he astounded the filmmakers with a computer-generated sequence of the T-rex walking in daylight. It appeared that with the advent of computer-generated images, Go-Motion might soon be extinct.

Although Tippett's work was ultimately reassigned to ILM, he became a valuable member of the Design Team and set up training sessions with ILM's graphic designers to teach them as much as possible about character movement throughout the production.

One of the most critical tasks the ILM team faced was making sure these dinosaurs moved naturally. They wanted them to come across as real animals, not movie monster stereotypes. They were real characters with heart and souls and a distinctive attitude. To accomplish this, the ILM team, under the guidance of Dinosaur Supervisor Phil Tippett, studied animal behavior, including the movements and body language of elephants, alligators, ostriches and lions. ILM's graphic designers received special training, including movement lessons, so their movements would capture these behavioral nuances.

( To ensure the portrayal of scientifically accurate behavior, the filmmakers also enlisted the help of paleontologist Jack Horner, one of the worlds leading dinosaur experts. Horner's research has been instrumental in changing our view of dinosaurs. He contends that birds, not reptiles, represent their closest living link. For Jurassic Park's design team, maintaining realism would mean breaking the reptilian stereotypes associated with dinosaurs.)

Over the next 18 months, a team of over 100 ILM creative and technical artists brought computer graphics to new heights, ultimately contributing over six minutes of computer graphic 3D dinosaur images to Jurassic Park, including 52 wide, medium and unexpectedly realistic shots of the principal dinosaurs.

Muren and ILM's work showed that computer graphics could offer a new level of performance, mobility and realism. It became necessary for the ILM team to continually create new software to achieve these effects. This kind of attention to detail was enormously time consuming, but the end result was thoroughly believable.

Michael Lantieri, who headed the fourth effects unit, had a long association with Amblin projects; he had worked with Robert Zemeckis on Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Back to the Future Part II and III and had collaborated with Spielberg on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Hook. His team would be responsible for a myriad of mechanical challenges including the construction of exterior cranes and large scale hydraulics that would move the enormous dinosaurs around. Lantieri's group was also responsible for a number of imaginative camera riggings that were customized to move fluidly with Stan Winston's creations.

As shooting began on Kauai, the filmmakers were anxious to see how their dinosaurs would perform. First on the schedule was Stan Winston's full-sized Triceratops.

"It was important that we either got bloodied on our first day of shooting, or we succeeded," Spielberg recalls. "Thank goodness for Stan Winston and his team. The Triceratops worked wonderfully; it looked so pathetic lying there."

The next sequence would star the enormous Brocchiasaur, which would be missing until post-production. Before Jurassic's computer animation breakthroughs, this type of effects shooting went slowly, requiring cumbersome specialized cameras.

Now, though, the filmmakers had the freedom to come up with new ideas on the fly&emdash;and the results were astounding. According to Dennis Muren, "The shot of Sam and Laura walking up from a very low angle, and looking up the neck of the Bracchasaurs where you see its head way up in the treetop, looking almost straight up in the air at him, was one of the shots that really added to the sequence. Previously we never would have gotten it."

By mid-September 1992, shooting in Hawaii was completed and the production moved to California. After two days work in the Mojave Desert, the crew moved indoors to film the rest of the movie on soundstages. Sets included the genetics lab, the inside of the Visitors Center, and largest of all, a complete recreation of the main road and T-rex paddock from Kauai.

Shooting the T-rex attack on a soundstage gave the filmmakers more control for this logistically-complex sequence, which would require both live action and computer-generated dinosaurs, who interact heavily with the actors on the set. No matter what creature we had whether it was a CG-creature, a real creature, whatever we had to figure out how to make it behave in real life, notes Lantieri.

"So, I went about taking anything in the story that was going to be touched by a creature, figuring out how to control it, how to make it crush itself, bend a bench without being there; everything had to basically be controlled from off-screen, on cue."

Stan Winston says filming the T-rex main road sequence was "one of the most amazing shoots of my entire career. Well ahead of time, in pre-production, we talked about how difficult this particular sequence was going to be. But it was wonderful to see this 9,000 pound wonder, 40 feet long, getting in there and acting."

The success of the T-rex sequence inspired Spielberg to change his plans for the climax of the film only weeks before the end of shooting. He recalls, "When I saw the main road attack, I said, 'I think the star of this movie is the T-rex. The audience will hate me if the T-rex doesn't come back and make one more heroic appearance.' So I just concocted the idea there would be a big Raptor/T-rex fight."

The beginning of 1993 saw Jurassic Park enter its most crucial stage. It was time to add over 50 CGI shots.

To ensure a consistent look between the CGI and mechanical dinosaurs, Stan Winston's miniatures, known as maquettes, were sent to the ILM computer artists. This provided a irrefutable frame of reference so that the digital dinosaurs were identical to the ones created by hand.

The enormous Brocchiasaur was the first CGI dinosaur brought to life on the screen. "My job was to look at the CGI shots they were turning out and critique them and make changes," says Spielberg. "I was a real critic about getting the animals to blend in seemlessly to the actual scenes."

Next up was the Gallimimus herd, which required the animation of more than 25 individual dinosaurs.

Computer technology also made it possible to add important details to effects shots. The splashing water made by the Tyrannosaurus' footsteps is one such detail. The water was filmed as a separate element, and the computer was then able to place the splashing precisely around the dinosaur's foot.

Jurassic's animators were creating dinosaurs that looked absolutely real; the only element that was needed to bring them fully back to life was sound.

As raw material for the dinosaur sounds, sound designer Gary Rydstrom and his team collected audio recordings of various living animals- from swans and hawks to rattlesnakes and monkeys -and began to piece them together in interesting ways.

"We'd go out in the field and wed record what ends up to be a lot of garbage," Rydstrom explains. "And then we'd come across something we liked, sample it, put it into the computer and manipulate it."

The fierce scream of the Raptors, for instance, was actually a mix of two rather harmless marine animals, a dolphin and a walrus.

The final challenge of the post-production team was completing Spielberg's new ending, which would push the capabilities of computer animation to its limits.

#source: lost-world.com #circa: 1997 #text post;

1 note · View note

juliansummerhayes · 6 years

Audio

(On Being Studios)

Another beautiful podcast.

_/|\_

#SoundCloud #music #On Being Studios #Krista Tipet #Tippet #Tippett #Marilyn Nelson

2 notes · View notes

design-art-architecture · 7 years

Photo

Tippet Rise cattle enjoying the shade of the Inverted Portal by Ensamble Studio. Photo @erikpetersenphoto

#just good design #Tippet Rise #Ensamble Studio #erikpetersenphoto

65 notes · View notes

allsystemsblue · 2 years

Text

Working on something a tad bit different… on another note, ugh, I miss that show so much. 😩

#puppets with pointed teeth #paper puppet #paper puppets #shadow puppets #puppets #puppet #mixed media art #mad god 2022 #mad god #phil tippett #tippet studio #shudder #the assassin #wip #just wait till you see what I have in the works!

6 notes · View notes

thebigkelu · 2 years

Photo

Studio portrait of an unidentified man and woman, possibly members of the Crow Indian tribe. - Tippet's Studio - 1900s

#native american #couple #crow #1900s

15 notes · View notes

dustedmagazine · 3 years

Text

Mujician — 10 10 10 (Cuneiform)

10 10 10 by Mujician

More than a decade after the fact, it is heartbreaking to ponder the dissolution of one of the finest improvising quartets this side of 1970. The phrase doesn’t even begin to describe Mujician’s elasticity, mind-bending precision and instantaneous communication that could change the music’s course even before the proverbial hat dropped. Keith Tippett, Paul Dunmall, Paul Rogers and Tony Levin were four in one, or was it the other way around? Now, Cuneiform, a label that has done more than right by the band, has released the final Mujician studio recording, captured during a brief 2010 tour. Leven would pass away only months later, effectively ending the ensemble. Tippett’s life ended in 2020.

Contemplating any moments isolated in writing this review, and it’s like reviewing a sunset or a rainbow, do nothing to speak to the totalities that constitute these two long pieces. Every Mujician concert and recording, as there was very little separating them, were as different as their disparate vocabularies were unified. Whether involving a plethora of instrumental timbres, as happened often in the early days and on Journey, the first Cuneiform recording, or with the more stripped-down version represented here, each player creates a universe into and out of which the others travel with the freedom of citizenship. Dig into the opening moments of “Remember,” just to sample the kinds of diverse relationships inherent in this freedom-via-chamber-music approach. Keith Tippet’s magical touch offers up a descending quarter-arc immediately answered by Tony Levin’s melodically gorgeous cymbals which, after a few phrases in contrapuntal chorale from Tippet, join him to end the line and to begin the next as Dunmall’s tenor and Rogers’ bass bring a fugal aspect to the quadrilogue. As if organically, like the deepest conversations or the multivalent ebb and flow of a perfect spring afternoon’s soundscape, everything emerges from that briefest of exchanges. Take your choice; engage with the groove that Levin and Rogers imply and encircle, momentarily stating it only for it to fragment and evaporate, or revel in each phrase Dunmall and Tippett leave hanging for the other to complete. The synchronicity is extraordinary down to the microdetail, as at 2:28, where Tippett and Levin complete a thought only for everything to stop, like those moments in a crowd where that no-language rush and thrum of human speech spontaneously subsides. The bass harmonics and breathy tenor leading into the fifth minute could not be further afield from the choppy lines and arrows occurring a minute later, and yet all has led to and encompassed each transition, negating even the idea of transition. If the pointillistic exchanges at 17:35 seem a long way off from the calm depth of the swining groove at 12:18, they merge in context, hanging together in a way few groups can even conceive, let alone master as did this ensemble of more than two decades. What other ensemble, save maybe the Mingus group of 1964 or the Futterman/Fielder/Jordan trio, could make a transition somewhere between a waltz and a mazurka swing?! Through the mountain-peak registral interplay of Dunmall’s soprano and Roger’s dizzying arco augmented by Tippett’s mildly prepared piano, all of which paves the way for a rip-roaring solo from Rogers, it is if all has been building up to the moment where Dunmall’s droning pipes bring the unity present all along into focus. The piece ends with Levin, Rogers and Tippett’s percussives in a kind of modal concurrence, inhabiting a place beyond geography, their collectivity having undergone, yet again, the transformation that happened whenever Mujician performed.

Obviously, that unity of approach is far from the entire picture, or rather, it’s a component, an aspect of what the finest groups achieve. That symbiosis wouldn’t exist without the firmly established individualities that guide each moment. There is Tippett’s fleet fingerwork, often in the service of quartal harmonies which, in duet with Levin, grace the titular piece’s opening. Similarly, Dunmall’s pantonal lines imply as much as they state, like those five minutes into the same track. Paul Rogers can walk with the best of them, but the unique sound of his seven-string acoustic bass acts like a chorus at key moments, as he interweaves polyphony into the melodies Tippett and Dunmall lay down at 8:22 and beyond. Then, there is Tony Levin. No better summation of his art is needed than the album’s opening minutes. He was melodist and rhythmatist in tandem, as befits his diverse pedigree. Here, he teases out a groove on tom and snare only to let it slide, to resume it with high-hat changing the rhythm and then to launch into something encompassing and transcending not only swing but notions of fast and slow, rivaling the concise solos of old in which all needed to be said in thirty seconds. His power and delicacy balance in a way that supported and propelled his fellow musicians. He, Tippett and Mujician are sorely missed. We must celebrate the group’s legacy on disc, of which this excellently recorded session is the capstone.

Marc Medwin

#mujician #10 10 10 #cuneiform #marc medwin #albumreview #dusted magazine #experimental jazz #free jazz #art rock

7 notes · View notes

vinyl-connection · 2 years

Text

1971 COUNTDOWN: #10 — #8

10 KING CRIMSON — Islands Perhaps the most misunderstood album in the King Crimson catalogue, Islands signalled a change in direction for Robert Fripp’s merry band. With Keith Tippet on piano and compositions that took elements of the band’s live improvisational style into the studio, the pieces on Islands stretch and search, incorporating woodwinds and orchestrations dancing with the Crimson…

View On WordPress

#1971 Albums #King Crimson #Mahavishnu Orchestra #music reviews #Record Collecting #Traffic #vinyl records

6 notes · View notes

wrongweaponsdrawn · 2 years

Text

(Context: this goes along with the idea that the characters work at Jackbox games, so it’s like an animated actor sort of deal)

The Narrator: (on the phone) Hey, Tip, the studio wants us to be interviewed by the Party Club people this Thursday…you think you can make it?

Lord Tippet: (voice only, stunned) What? Who said that?

The Narrator: Mick told us that. Thought he would’ve let you know. (Transitioning to a teasing tone)

What’s wrong with that, sweetie? I promise I won’t murder you live if that’s what you want. And I’ll get you those truffles you like after the session…

Lord Tippet: (flustered) Well…uh…I guess if they promised both of us would be there, I could make do. Though I should tell Bennington my plans. See you later, Raven!

The Narrator: (smirking) Don’t be late. (ends call)

(Phone rings again)

The Narrator: Now who could that be?

(To be continued on @shittymurderparty, also based on the fact that December 2nds party club will have the VAs of both characters)

https://shittymurderparty.tumblr.com/post/669136537978585088/context-this-goes-along-with-the-idea-that-the

#accomplices weapons drawn #detectives weapons drawn #lord tippet #lord tippet weapons drawn #the narrator weapon's drawn #the narrator weapons drawn #wrongweaponsdrawn #weapons drawn #lord tippet weapon's drawn #weapons drawn jackbox

2 notes · View notes

majingojira · 3 years

Text

Brief Review of Every Dinosaur/Prehistoric Documentary/Educational Short I’ve ever seen (1923-1996).

And thanks to a certain project, I’ve seen a LOT!

Evolution (1923) - This is the oldest of the bunch, a silent film. Mostly it uses modern animals to represent ancient forms, with a few statues and brief animated bits to fill things out. The only real highlight? Seeing where some of the “film real” segment from Gigantis the Fire Monster comes from!

Monsters from the Past (1923) - A short documentary with original stop motion (this was pre-The Lost World, so that’s to be expected). Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, and Brontosaurus are the key creatures. Included as an extra on the second DVD release of The Lost World.

Prehistoric Animals (1938) - Reuses footage from The Lost World (1925) for its prehistoric segments. This will not be the last time it happens.

Prehistoric Times: The World Before Man (1952) - This thing is so quintessentially 1950s, it’s highly riff-able. It uses a mix of paintings, sculptures and some live animals to represent prehistoric life.

A World Is Born (1955) - Ya know what Fantasia needed? Overbearing Narration! That’s it. That’s what this documentary is. I saw this thing rebroadcast in the 90s on the Disney Channel, believe it or not.

The Animal World (1956) - Ray Harryhausen. Willis O’Brian. Their stop motion segment is the ONLY notable part of this documentary. This is also the only part that has seen some release in modern times, as a bonus feature on the DVD of The Black Scorpion.

Prehistoric Animals of the Tar Pits (1956) - Black and white, but also quintessentially 50s and riff-able. Aside from the bones, it shows some wooden models to represent the animals.

Journey into Time (1960) - Fantasia this is not, but it TRIES to be. Lord it tries. Or, rather, there’s a Fantasia-adjacent thing elsewhere which does the same thing. Has some unique choices for animals to represent, including showing Permian forms like Scutusaurus and Inostrancevia.

Dem Dry Bones: Archaeology, Paleontology, Identification, and Preservation (1966) - This was a lucky find, it was on Youtube for half a second. And not worth digging out, really. Stuffy, dry, and mildly condescending. It was still interesting looking at the dinosaur hall of the Smithsonian back in the 1950s.

Dinosaurs - The Terrible Lizard (1970) - The stop motion here is pretty neat, if slow and plodding, it’s refreshing after all this crap. The puppets for many of these would later be re-used for The Land of the Lost. Including Grumpy, Alice, and Spot.

NOVA: The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs (1977) - Robert Bakker’s first appearance in a documentary. HE HAS SUCH LONG HAIR! Not bad, a little dry, with National Geographic titles. It reminds me of 1990s documentaries, just so show how long it’s taken for various ideas to filter down. Currently, it’s available on Archive.org.

Dinosaurs: A First Film (1978) - The art style for this half-animated 70s abomination makes identifying various prehistoric animals almost impossible. Almost painful to sit through. Stops with the Dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs: The Age of the Terrible Lizards (1978) - Similar to the above, but available from Rifftrax, so much more watchable. Also, it’s actually animated!

Dinosaur (1980) - Wil Vinton Claymation with Dinosaurs. A few edits of this exist, the latter works a bit better, but the original is interesting to track down. Most of the edits are audio only, so you aren’t missing anything. The dinosaur sin this are top notch for color and design. They even have Corythosaurus and Tyrannosaurus not dragging their tails!

Cosmos (1980) - the animated segment covering Evolution is still wonderful if only for the narration from Carl Sagan.

The Age of Mammals (1981) - A follow up of sorts to Dinosaurs: The Age of Reptiles. Decent stop motion if a little slow. Decent variety for the time.

64,000,000 Years Ago (1981) - A solid stop motion short film. Still worth checking out for stop motion fans. Available on Youtube legally!

Dinosaurs: Fun, Facts, and Fantasy (1981) - Nostalgic for some, but aimed at a rather young audience. Some interesting stop motion bits in here too... if awkward in that way British stop motion can be outside Aardman Studios.

Reading Rainbow “Digging up Dinosaurs” (1983) - Definitely nostalgic for me. Besides, it’s Reading Rainbow! And opens with a clip from One Million Years B.C.! What’s not to love?

Prehistoric Beast (1984) - One of the best stop motion shorts on this list. Included because it INSPIRED a documentary from it. Phil Tippett firing on all cylinders. Well worth watching. And he uploaded it on Youtube himself!

Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs (1985), More Dinosaurs (1985), Son of Dinosaur (1988), Prehistoric World (1993) - Gary Owens and Eric Boardman have a series of documentaries on dinosaurs and prehistoric life. The presenters are what really make these work. Colorful, fun, and yes, silly, these still hold a nostalgic gleam for people like me. The last one has Dougal Dixon talk about his After Man speculations. Fun times.

Dinosaur! (1985) - Hosted by Christopher Reeve, this is one of the best documentaries of its time. Reeves loved dinosaurs and was happy to work on this project with Phil Tippet behind the animation. Covers a lot in its hour long format, and well worth watching. Do you know how good this special was? When Reeve died in 2004, the Discovery Channel (or similar station) re-aired this thing as a tribute. It holds up that well!

Tell Me Why: Pre-Historic Animals, Reptiles and Amphibians (1986) - This is something I had when I was a little kid. Dry, straight forward, a “Video Babysitter” at it’s best. It consists of a narrator while looking at pictures of the Invicta Dinosaur Toys that were also on the poster.

Dinosaurs! A Fun-Filled Trip Back in Time (1987) - Wil Vinton’s Dinosaurs! tied with a short setup/framing device with the kid from the Wonder Years involving a low-animation music video (this was the MTV age) and a guide through art from various dinosaur books from the 1950s through the 1980s. Rather meh, but Wil Vinton is why we are here. This was the only way to get Wil Vinton’s short back in the day, and is the version of the short shown in Museums like The Academy of Natural Sciences.

Digging Dinosaurs (PBS-WHYY) (1988) - Something I managed to record of TV back in the day, though not much of it, about the uncovering and preparation of Avaceratops. Bone Dry.

Maia: A Dinosaur Grows Up (1988) - A VHS version of the picture book, with narration and the whole spiel. Actually not to bad for what it is, but it is what it is. The art for that book is rather wonderful.

Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives (1988) - David. Attenburrough. Need I say more? Not one of his best, but still wonderful. Hard to track down.

Dinosaurs (1989) - From the Smithsonian Institute, one of the video followups sold in various museums (I have one from the Royal Tyrell, but haven’t been able to track it down). Not great, but I’ve seen worse.

Infinite Voyage: The Great Dinosaur Hunt (1989) - A rather dry documentary, but one I find extremely relaxing and calming. Very nostalgic for me. But still dry.

Vestie Video Sitter: Dinosaurs (1989) - This is for babies. It hurt to watch.

In November, 1990, Jurassic Park (novel) was released, and thus began the great shift.

In Search of the Dragon: The Great Dinosaur Hunt of the Century (1991) - a.k.a. The Dinosaur Project, The Great Dinosaur Hunt, The Hunt for China’s Dinosaurs. Edited into a 1 hour NOVA special from a nearly two hour documentary, all about the joint Canadian/Chinese Gobi Desert Expedition in the 1980s that gave us Mamenchisaurus among many other species. With another stop in the Arctic for good measure. Some good stop motion and pencil animation for Troodon round this one out.

A&E’s Dinosuar! (1991) - There’s so many things named “Dinosaur” that I have to specify. Hosted by Walter Cronkite, this is rather dry, but still entertaining documentary series has some nightmare-fuel puppet-work. The ‘sad’ music gets caught in my head sometimes when I think about it. It is 4 episodes long. “The Tale of a Tooth”, “The Tale of a Bone”, “The Tale of an Egg”, and “The Tale of a Feather”

T. Rex: Exposed (1991) - a Nova Documentary on T. Rex. Not too bad overall, focusing on the Wrankle Rex unearthing. Parts of it are available on Youtube, but not all of it.

The Case of the Flying Dinosaur (1991) - the third in the “NOVA” 91 trilogy, this covers the bird-dinosaur connection as it was still contentious at the time.

PBS’ The Dinosaurs! (1992) - A gold standard for documentaries on dinosaurs. The hand drawn animation with colored pencil style still hold up today. The narrator has a bit of an accent and pronounces “Dinosaur” oddly, but that is the only complaint I can really give. It has 4 episodes: “The Monsters Emerge”, “Flesh on the Bones”, “The Nature of the Beast”, “Death of the Dinosaurs.”

Muttaburrasaurus: Life in Gondwana (1993) - A half-hour short about dinosuars and mesozoic life in Australia. Solid stop motion animation. Australian Accents makes it fun to listen too.

NOVA: The Real Jurassic Park (1993) - Jeff Goldblum narrates this bit of scientists going on about “But what if we really did it?” Quite fun, lotta fun details the movies and even the books didn’t get into. My favorite bit had Robert Bakker talking to a game keeper at the Rockefeller Refuge in a Louisiana Cypress Swamp about what could happen if they kept a few dinosaur there (Edmontosaurus, Triceratops, and T. Rex). Namely, he talks about housing ‘about a thousand” Edmontosaurs on the 86K acre facility, with 2 or 3 mated pairs of Rexes. It’s fun getting numbers like that.

Bill Nye the Science Guy “Dinosaurs” (1993) - BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! Not a bad kids entry for documentaries. Available from Netflix.

Paleoworld (1994-1997) - Running originally for 4 years, and being revamps once along the way, this rather dry, “Zoom in on paleoart” style of documentary was a good holdover for bigger things, and covered some pretty niche topics. Much of the later version has been uploaded to youtube.

Dinosaur Digs: A Fossil Finders Tour (1994), Dinosaurs: Next Exit (1994) - These films hurt me. They hurt me so much. I’ve seen some painful things, but these are hour long tour advertisements for road trips with annoyingly earworms. Available on youtube, but I ain’t linking anything!

Eyewitness: Dinosaur (1994) - Not a bad documentary, but I still hold a grudge on it for replacing Wil Vinton’s work at my local museum! Still, it is narrated by Martin Sheen. The clip selection is wide and varied, but we’re still getting The Lost World (1925) footage.

Planet of Life (1995) - This documentary series is rather dry, but boasts some interesting coverage of topics. Though some of it’s conclusions regarding dinosaurs are... not great. Still, the episode “Ancient Oceans” is a favorite of mine.

Once Upon Australia (1995) - The bests stop motion documentary on Australia’s prehistory. Has some humor to is, and Australian fauna that it does cover is solid. Though finding out how one of the animals is spelled, ( Ngapakaldia) drove me nuts for literally decades.

Dinosaurs: Myths and Reality (1995) - Like a little more polished episode of Paleoworld, with a lighter-voiced narration, this covers common myths about dinosaurs. Overall, a Meh. But it has a LOT of movie clips. Which makes sense given it was funded by the Disney Channel!

The Ultimate Guide: T. Rex (1995) - The Ultimate Guide series of docs were overall rather solid, as was the Tyrannosaurus one. Stop Motion animation along with puppets and some minor CG help round out the normal talking heads and skeleton mounts. Along with a solid narrator, it has a real mood to it.

The Magic School Bus “The Busasaurus” (1995) - The original Magic School Bus was a solid series, and their episode on Dinosaurs bucks trends even the reboot didn’t cover. The core thrust here wasn’t just dinosaur information, but the idea that Dinosaurs were not Monsters, but animals. And they conveyed it in a unique way.

I may do more of these mini-reviews, but there are a LOT of documentaries post The Lost World: Jurassic Park that don’t have as much easy access. Like, I’ve seen them, but digging out links/citing places to watch them is a lot harder.

#Dinosaurs #Documentaries #Documentary #Review #Dinosaur #Prehistoric

20 notes · View notes