Shot from Jurassic Park 3… Stage 12 jungle set. Director Joe Johnston wanted to have the ability to look any direction at any time without waiting for time consuming re-lights. I spoke to Larry Parker at Mole Richardson and discovered they were about to come out with large MoleBeams with newly engineered Bausch & Lomb mirrors. Larry made me something in the range of 70 of these units to serve as sunlight for our stages. On stage 12, we had 44 units rigged on a motorized overhead rail system so that we could move our lights over the set and change our sun patterns in just a couple of minutes, thus freeing time for Joe to work with his amazing cast from that film. The gaffer was John Sprague, and he worked very hard throughout that project as much of the rigs were on a large scale. Key Grip, Bob Babin created fantastic and amazing rigs for our lights, cameras and sun control on a scale never attempted. A-Camera operator was longtime collaborator, Don Devine and focus puller Mike Martino. I’m thankful to have had such a gifted crew.
Jurassic Park 3, Stage 12 jungle set. Sam Neil reprised his role as Dr. Alan Grant, and it wouldn’t be a Jurassic film without him. There’s one of our hardworking MoleBeams behind him. One tip that Allen Daviau, ASC gave me as a result of his experiences on the film Congo… “You need atmosphere to create depth but don’t use smoke. Use high pressure water mist so you can place your atmosphere in layers and avoid too much build up.” No truer words were ever spoken. The mist system was brilliant.
Jungle Visual Reference Image. Director, Joe Johnston gave me this illustration by Paleo Artist Doug Henderson as the best example to create our visual layers on stage. We were able to construct a methodology where we had deepening degrees if light and shadow created into depth within the frame. Ed Verreaux, the incredible Production Designer also contributed by very cleverly designing a jungle consisting of plants with lessening degrees of foliage scale as we shot towards the outer edges of the set in order to mimic depth within our stage confines. Stage 12 at Universal is gargantuan… But seemed to become quite small as our sequences grew.
Shelly Johnson, ASC 