2. Production
Jurassic World’s had been stuck in development hell as it was supposed to begin production in 2004
with a summer 2005 release but while the script went through revisions.
Previous director Joe Johnson and actors from the last films such as Sam Neill had turned down
doing another film. In 2002 William Monahan was announced as screenwriter, with Spielberg and
Kathleen Kennedy as producers of the supposed summer 2005 release.
The original story would involve the characters devising a solution to restrict the spread of dinosaurs
and prevent a ecological disaster. However from a suggestion from Spielberg, writers Rick Raffa and
Amanda Silver explored the idea of a functional dinosaur park which is a main premise of the current
film.
Jurassic World being shot in 3D was announced in 2013 and its expected release to be in the June of
the following year. Kathleen Kennedy stepped down from producing whose role was given to Frank
Marshall.
The final director for the film - Colin Trevorrow, was suggested in March 2013, with him ending up as
the director during March 14th. The idea of a fully functional dinosaur park was the main plot used
later on.
3. Those who were involved in the previous films, signed up for the new film, with
Richard Attenborough saying he would reprise his role as John Hammond and
paleontologist Jack Horner also returning to the franchise.
Actors such as Keira Knightley, Emmy Rossum and David Boreanaz were
originally considered but later written out of the script or were not wanted by the
films producers.
The production companies involved are Amblin Entertainment- which was founded
by Spielberg along with Legendary Productions, while Universal handled the
distributions
In 2005 the idea which would be loosely used in the final film of using inspiration
from the book ‘The Lost World’ which inspired the scene involving raptors and
motorbikes. The movie had been with Universal Studios as they intended to begin
production in 2004.
4. On September 10th 2013, Universal Pictures confirmed that the film would be
called 'Jurassic World with a release date of June 12th 2015. In January 2014
the main roles would go to Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard
The film was chosen to be presented in 2.00:1 aspect ratio for it to be shown in
IMAX screens. On February 7th Legendary Pictures agreed to co-finance the
film providing 20% of the film budget.
Cinematographer John Schwartzman used Panavision camera shooting on
Kodak 35mm and 65mm film. Film Stock was also used in ‘effort to match the
visual aesthetic’ of the previous films as well as gaining a greater dynamic
range of light for the jungle scenes.
5. Ex Machina was influenced by the director, Alex Garland's later ideas came
from years of discussions he had been having with a friend with an expertise in
neuroscience, who claimed machines could never become sentient. Trying to
find an answer on his own he started reading books on the topic. Other
inspirations came from films like Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The film was shot like ordinary live action. There were no special effects, green
screen, or tracking markers used during filming. All effects were done in post-
production. To create Ava's robotic features, they filmed the scenes both with
and without actress Alicia Vikander's presence, which allowed them to capture
the background behind her. Camera- and body-tracking systems transferred
Vikander's performance to the CGI robot's movements. In total, there were
about 800 VFX shots, of which 350 or so were robot shots.
6. Filming
Principal photography rolled from April to August 2014, primarily in Louisiana while
also using the original Jurassic Park filming locations in Hawaii.
Animatronics were handled by Legacy Effects while CGI was handled by Industrial
Light & Magic which was used thoroughly throughout the movie.
Filming took place in Honolulu Zoo in Hawaii, Hawaii Convention Center, Six Flag
theme park in New Orleans as well as Louis Armstrong International Airport, Slidell,
Louisiana and inside Big Easy Studios.
Filming was concluded on August 5th 2014.
7. Ex Machina was shot over four weeks in 2013 at Pinewood Studios and two
weeks at Juvet Landscape Hotel in Valldalen, Norway. It was filmed in digital
at 4K resolution.
15,000 mini-tungsten pea bulb lights were installed into the sets to avoid the
fluorescent light often used in science fiction films.
The opening office scene is filmed at the Bloomberg Head Office in Finsbury
Square, London.
8. Exhibition and Distribution
Jurassic World was officially released on June 12th 2015, while the first public premiere
was held on may 29th 2015.
The movie was shot in 3D much like successful, high grossing films, with it also being
shown across the world in 809 IMAX theatres.
The film was re-launched as IMAX 3D on August 28th 2015 by Universal with the
company spending a total of $34.9 million on TV advertisements.
The film later released in October 2015 on DVD, Blu-Ray, and 3D Blu-Ray.
Ex Machina was released in the United Kingdom on 21 January 2015 through Universal
Pictures. The film screened on 14 March 2015 at the South by Southwest festival prior to
a theatrical release in the United States on 10 April 2015 by A24 Films.
9. Games such as that of Lego Jurassic World as well as an application ‘Jurassic
World: The Game were released in 2015.
A theme park in Italy in collaboration with Universal opened a new area called
Dinoland which featured 54 reproductions of dinosaurs and six attractions.
The film was a commercial success as it is currently at $1.669 billion on a budget
of $150 million currently making it the third highest grossing film of all time. It was
nominated for 5 Teen Choice awards, one Hollywood Visual Effects award, as well
as three Peoples Choice awards, including favourite movie and actor.
10. On a budget of $15 million, Ex Machina grossed over $36 million worldwide
and received critical acclaim for its writing and acting. The National Board of
Review recognized it as one of the ten best independent films of the year, and
Vikander received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting
Actress in a Motion Picture.
11. Synergy & Convergence
In social media, Jurassic World had a total of 1,6,0.406 mentions with majority of which coming from
Europe and North American Countries and 73% being positive. Online interactive websites were
created in order to give of a real movie theme park experience to the viewers of the film so that it
can also market the film
All digital and physical formats were used in its distribution with it generating $82.6 million in its first
week and $3 million copies of blue-ray and DVD being sold also in its first week.
Ex Machina was released on DVD and Blu-ray with combined sales of $7,009,294.
Using the dating app Tinder, a profile was created for Ava with the image of Alicia
Vikander. At the South by Southwest Festival where the film was screened, "Ava" was
matched with other Tinder users, where in a text conversation occurred that lead users
to the Instagram handle promoting the film.
12. Audience & Institution
The film had a rating of 12A in the UK due to how it had mild violence, and use of
language.
The film and its team included various different features which would have appealed
and increased the popularity from the audience of it.
These included that of special effects and fast pace action sequences which would
cater well to the audience as well as the likeness and homages of the previous films
which helped welcome the old fans as well. The film used a range of effects
including animatronics, CGI and performance capture in order to create realistic
looking dinosaurs and other features including explosions.
The first Jurassic Park was an innovation in film while Jurassic World incorporates
modern technology along with returning animatronic dinosaurs so that the
production value make the film more visually impressive
13. Ex Machina received a 15 in the UK for strong language, bloody violence, sex
references. The film did not have a reliance of CGI also due to the budget however
this also gave more focus to the acting and characters in which the performances
were well received. On website Rotten Tomatoes, The site's critical consensus reads:
"Ex Machina leans heavier on ideas than effects, but it's still a visually polished piece
of work—and an uncommonly engaging sci-fi feature.
14. When compared, Jurassic World and Ex Machina are very different movies both
through production and themes. The blockbuster with an existing fan-base and
larger budget succeed in what it does as it is currently the third highest grossing
film of all time. The marketing was also a big help as it expanded the film's word
of mouth as it was marketed on a variety of media such as games, social media,
toys etc. Obviously you would expect a big name blockbuster to perform more
successfully commercially. While Ex Machina itself was more of an independent
film which was however distributed by Universal Pictures (including Jurassic
World). Marketing was also a lot more underwhelming as it didn't have extensive
use of selling products or making games. This decreased it's word of mouth as
less people would know about it during release however due to being a critically
acclaimed film after release, it would increase interest overtime as it is an
independent film. One thing that Ex Machina achieved better than Jurassic World
is through positive feedback as 92% on rotten tomatoes compared to 71%.