Jurassic World: Dominion Director Explains How The Set’s Shut Down Worked In The Movie’s Advantage

Jurassic World

The global pandemic has hit every industry hard, but the movie business basically ceased to exist for several months. Movie theaters closed down delaying the release of films that were complete, while all the movies that were in production had to stop work. The whole situation has been a mess which has been a big problem for so many films, but for some movies there has been a silver lining. Jurassic World: Dominion director Colin Trevorrow says the shutdown has had an unexpected benefit as it has allowed the film to get an early jump on digital effects.

Colin Trevorrow says that the new Jurassic World shot for about four weeks before having to close down, and, as luck would have it, a lot of the filming that was done was set to include dinosaurs, so while filming had to shut down, post-production work could still more forward. According to the director...

For many of us, Dominion was already the biggest creative challenge of our lives, before the lockdown. The shooting schedule really worked to our advantage – the first four weeks we put to film were mostly sequences with dinosaurs in them. So that allowed us to get a head start on VFX and workshop some of the newer elements without the pressure of a looming deadline.

It's much more common for post-production digital effects to not get underway until principal photography is done, but with filming on hold, there was little else to do. The computer work needed to create the dinosaurs can be done with smaller groups of people and thus isn't going to run any risks. Based on what Colin Trevorrow tells Empire, that this movie is a huge "creative challenge," it sounds like getting a jump on this work is a real benefit, as it will give people more time to make sure these effects turn out just right. And because Jurassic World: Dominion isn't set to come out for at least 11 months, there's plenty of time to work on everything.

And there are other benefits to this situation. If, during this VFX work, it's discovered that Jurassic World: Dominion needs additional shots to make certain scenes work, these can potentially be grabbed now that filming is starting up again, rather than waiting for reshoots which are inevitable. This can potentially help the budget of what is sure to be an expensive movie, even more so due to the delay, from getting too out of control.

At this point, one wonders if Jurassic World: Dominion will end up with even more time to work on its digital effects. While the movie itself may still be able to be finished in 11 months, other movies are still being pushed back, and thus Jurassic World could still be delayed if only to make room for another release.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.