Welcome, To Jurassic World!

It is a well known fact that every kid grows up loving dinosaurs! And so when the doors to Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Jurassic Park opened up shiver went down my spine as I saw these amazing creatures brought to life. Since then we have seen Jurassic Park: Lost World (1997) and Jurassic Park 3(2001) hit the cinemas, but since then it almost seemed that Jurassic Park had sadly gone extinct. Until Jurassic World was announced!

Due to hit cinemas on the 12th June, Jurassic World is set twenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park, the famous Isla Nublar now features a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, as originally envisioned by John Hammond. After 10 years of operation and a drop in visitor rates, in order to fulfill a corporate mandate, a new attraction is created to re-spark visitor’s interest, which backfires horribly.
Now this horrible new hybrid dinosaur, reportedly nicknamed the D-Rex, can briefly be seen in its full beauty in the above trailer. The thought of  the brutish strength of a Tyrannosaurus-Rex crossed with the unsettling wit of a Raptor is enough to make me shake in my boots. This screenshot of the D-rex peering through the green forest canopy reminds us of the classic “clever girl” scene from the first Jurassic Park, a great shout back to its origins from new to the franchise director Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed).

The advertisement for this film has been simply amazing with a fully operational and interactive website having been created as if Jurassic World was a real life attraction for people to visit. The site is well worth a visit for all dinosaur and film fanatics alike. http://uk.jurassicworldintl.com

Hot off the amazing Marvel hit Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Chris Pratt plays expert in the field Owen Grady alongside a cast that features Bryce Dallas Howard (Spiderman 3), Vincent D’Onofrio (Daredevil) and Ty Simpkins (Iron Man 3) we have a mostly new cast from the original trilogy (Yes, we see you there BD Wong!). Chris Pratt appears to really fit the role well bringing his usual witty sense of humour to the role, and Its got to be said Chris Pratt does look real cool riding this bike alongside a pack of trained hunting raptors!

Advice From The Pros – Part 2

“Of all the Chris Foss paintings that inspired Guardians of the Galaxy, this may be the one that inspired us most. Yellow is an underused color in films, especially science-fiction and fantasy films. In Guardians, I used it as a signifier of change, rebirth, and redemption – the yellow prison uniforms, Drax drowning in the yellow spinal fluid, the yellow Groot spores, and the yellow interlocking Nova Corps net… I believe color is a part of what made Guardians successful. When so many huge, spectacle films have the beige color palette of Saw, the brain becomes thirsty for color. We were that technicolor pitcher of water at the edge of the summer desert.
This doesn’t mean all movies should be colorful, just that color in general is important, and too much of one thing is boring. If, over the next few years, films become oversaturated with bright colors, brains will be relieved by a film entirely hazel and gray.
Anyway, this painting, along with other Chris Foss works, was a part of my original presentation to Marvel when I pitched myself as director and I explained the visual direction I was going to take with the film. They were immediately on board, and we ended up hiring Chris Foss to help design some of the spaceships in the film. He was, of everyone, my biggest visual inspiration on Guardians.
He has a page here on FB – Chris Foss Artist Page. I’m not sure if it’s Official or not, but it’s worth checking out nevertheless.”

– James Gunn

Digital Footprint – Part 2

For the second part of my assigned task we were now asked to consider the digital footprint of another professional media practitioner and how they represent themselves. So to do this I decided to pick a favourite director of mine in James Gunn from such films as ‘Super’ and most recently ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’.

On what sites do they present themselves on the internet?

So James Gunn has a Facebook page which he operates himself and posts fairly often to it as you may have seen I posted a quote of advise to fellow filmmakers from James Gunn on my blog a month back. He also operates a Twitter page on which some of his posts are the same as on Facebook however he appears to use this more regularly than Facebook, whether this is because her recognises the rising popularity of Twitter for following celebrities or whether this is just because of ease I am unsure. He has his own website ( http://jamesgunn.com ) which I only just discovered since starting writing this blog and can I say it is eye catching and intriguing. The opening header of his website says “the official website of filmmaker james gunn for shit outside the norm”. This particularly struck me as a website is a means of advertisement to potential employees, and although James Gunn is now a big name surely this was still a resource for potential employers. However it is in keeping with his relaxed and casual display of self throughout all media outlets.

What kind of images do they use and do they brand themselves?

So with James Gunn having recently released hit sensation Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy it is clear that James Gunn has since been branding himself as a Marvel fanatic by posting images not only about his hit film but also others related to the MCU such as this image of Daredevil in his early black costume sporting the line “For those among you complaining about Daredevil’s initial costume in the series may I remind you of this…”

Considering Gunn is signed on to direct Guardians of the Galaxy 2 it is within reason that he would show support to Marvel so as to keep employers happy, however nothing about James Gunn’s appearance on the internet appears out of synch with him being interested in things such as comics and so it could simply be a very real appearance of himself.

Do they give interviews?

Yes, Yes he does and I have seen some interviews with Mr.Gunn that have been a delight to watch. Here is one where he discusses writing and it really captures the laid back approach of James Gunn to his media professional career. It is a really interesting watch not just because it shows us what he is really like but also because it is an eye opener to just what the industry is like these days and what it takes to be successful as a writer.

Advice From The Pros

From the mouth of one of the big directors at this time, James Gunn, comes this brilliant snippet of advice to all aspiring directors out there. I’d like to send out thanks not only to James Gunn himself for taking the time to write to his fans about this but also my friend Ben, who took the time to link me to this:

Remember that it takes ten years or so to become a doctor. Entertainment is a far more competitive field than medicine – and, if you’re really focused on mastering your craft, it can be just as complex. So expect it to take at least ten years of hard work at the expense of a regular life to simply be competent and perhaps begin to make a living at it. And, even then, sadly, only an extremely small percentage of people are able to do so.
If you find that too daunting, consider working in another field. If you don’t find it daunting at all, consider therapy. Considering your sense of reality, you’ve got bigger problems than your career goals.
However, if you find that daunting, but still have the need or desire to continue, well, that’s at least one place to start. I wish you not only luck, but strength, perseverance, heart, and talent.
And, before you start, there are of course lots of exceptions to the ten year rule (or, as Malcom Gladwell talks about in his book Outliers, the 10,000-hours-of-work rule). But that also takes a great amount of luck, something we don’t have much control over other than putting ourselves out there as much as possible.

Monster Madness

As many of you may have read, I had the chance to venture into the world of the weird and wonderful this Sunday at ‘The Prosthetics Event’ held at the Aston Conference Centre and descend into the world of movie make up, animatronics, body casts, dentures and more! I went alongside two of my good friends who worked on ‘Conflicted Mind’ with me and will be working with me on future projects, Kirsty McNamara and Natasha Cleverley, who are both talented make up artists.

Now I bet your wondering to yourself, why would someone who wants to be a Director/Producer want to go to an event about the art of make up and prosthetics? Well, in my mind originally it had been to simply get a better understanding of this particular department of the film industry; its limitations, its advantages over cgi and simply to see if I could gleam some inspiration. It then rapidly evolved into a little side project after I booked out a camera and with the help of a tutor and my friends assistance, I gathered a shoulder mount and audio recorder. It was an ideal time to practice my camera work and later my adobe premiere editing skills (stay tuned for a video!). But then, as I travelled my way through the masses in the conference centre I quickly discovered that it had so much more to offer than I had expected.

They were all joined at the event by Spencer Wilding, well known for his acting work in films and TV shows such as The Wolfman, Batman Begins, Game of Thrones and most recently Guardians of the Galaxy, the latter being a heavy influence on the events proceedings. He talked particularly in depth about his experiences on the set of The Wolfman and how his first test make up session took between 9 to 10 hours. He discussed how the amazing work created by people of the trade really helped him to zone into the character he was playing, so much so that he literally felt that he was the Wolfman, and told of how he prowled the set sensing the fear of the crew. I tried to find a video of Spencer behind set on one of the films in which he was in make up but all I found was this scene of him in the film Green Street 3.

We also were treated to a lecture from Chris Clarke who works as a Animatronics specialist and has contributed to films such as Alien vs Predator, Resident Evil, Harry Potter and War Horse. He spoke to us about the sheer detail that has to go into the design and concept of these sometimes gigantic animatronics, in particular he showed us a number of examples from the film war horse and detail that had to go into the design of the horses nuzzle to give it the realism the film required. He was then joined by an actor who was put into a large orangutang suit with an animatronic face and lips that he could control from remote. The orangutang then proceeded to terrorise the audience and staff alike. This was perhaps the field I knew the least about and was quite interesting to learn about, below is a video shown to us of the workings of the horse.

We were also treated to a live demo by host to the event Neill Gorton of a ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ themed prosthetics application accompanied with a talk about the use of dentures and another about the use of contacts for film use. This was actually a really interesting talk as the three present spent a lot of time talking about their experiences of working on film sets and the very real dangers of the use of make up in films. I was particularly captured at some of the names of projects they had worked on and were currently working on, such names as; Star Wars VII, Dr Who and Saving Private Ryan really revved my engine and it was so painful to hear them say that they really couldn’t disclose any details about their current or future projects. The end result of Neill Gorton’s make up design took a little over an hour and despite him stating that the design was by no means an examples of his full talent, looked absolutely sublime. The day was rounded off with a really nice interview with David White who is a really brilliant established make up artist famous for working on so many projects such as Captain America: The First Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Maleficent, Guardians of the Galaxy, Blade II and Walking with Cavemen. The interview was a really nice round up to the day that opened up into a Q&A session. The interview really highlighted the inner working of the make up department of the film industry and its relationship with other departments within the business. Overall I could write on and on about all the amazing things I have seen, but surely you’d rather wait and see the video, to behold the bizarreness with your own eyes. Watch this space!