by Stone Marshall | Jun 29, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
J.A. Bayona played a bittersweet version of John Williams’ ‘Jurassic Park’ melody to get his actors to emote during the sad moment.
[This story contains spoilers for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom]
There’s a moment in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom that may go down as one of the franchise’s most enduring images.
Owen (Chris Pratt), Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Franklin (Justice Smith) have escaped Isla Nublar on the last boat off the island before it’s destroyed by a volcano. The last thing they glimpse is a distressed Brachiosaurus on the dock, obscured by smoke and helpless to do anything as it awaits its death. It’s particularly poignant piece of symmetry, as a Brachiosaurus was the first dinosaur unveiled to audiences in 1993’s Jurassic Park. And this death is clearly affecting audiences today (just search “Brachiosaurus” on Twitter).
“That scene represents the ending of a dream that started 25 years ago,” director J.A. Bayona tells Heat Vision. “You are telling the ending of that island and the ending of that dream.”
Bayona ramped up the nostalgia on set to get his actors into the right emotional space, which is important when you are acting opposite a dot on a green screen.
“I played a very sweet and a little sad version of the Jurassic Park melody. So that was very effective for the actors, especially for Bryce,” says Bayona. “Being there, telling that story, listening to music from John Williams, they were all very emotional.”
The sad Brachiosaurus death follows an action-packed escape from the island as the lead characters flee a dinosaur stampede and end up in the water, with Claire and Franklin trapped inside a ball ride vehicle. Bayona placed a cameraman inside the vehicle with the actors and shot the scene as a single take to “help us create that sense of anguish and emotion and claustrophobia,” he notes.
But he says that even in the controlled environment of a movie set, he worried for his actors.
“They were inside the crystal ball that was sinking, trying to escape, and they were running out of air and it felt very dangerous from the outside,” says Bayona. “As a director, you try all the time to get that level of realism and try to capture the right emotion in the most expressive way.”
Fallen Kingdom is full of surprising empathy for its dinosaurs, with Blue, the ultra-smart Velociraptor introduced in 2015’s Jurassic World, taking on a larger role.
“People really connected with the idea of a human and a raptor connecting with each other, like most people do with their pets,” says Colin Trevorrow, who directed the first Jurassic World and co-wrote Fallen Kingdom with Derek Connolly.
Adds Pratt: “The dinosaurs [are] real characters. It’s great when you get to see their personalities on full display.”
Trevorrow is returning to direct Jurassic Park 3 and has said Fallen Kingdom “is about responsibility,” while the third installment “is about redemption.” In other words, now that people like Owen and Claire have learned they need to take responsibility for their roles in making Earth a Jurassic World, how will they redeem themselves? It’s easy to imagine Jurassic World 3 taking a page out of Matt Reeves’ recent Planet of the Apes films, which saw Andy Serkis’ Caesar and other ape characters become as relatable as the human ones. But the team isn’t getting specific on the plot.
Bayona worked to make sure Fallen Kingdom would get to where Trevorrow needed, but there were not many mandates.
“From time to time, he came to me and asked me to include a line or make a reference to some scenes in the movie, thinking about the third episode. But we never had a conversation in depth about it,” says Bayona.
Fallen Kingdom also introduces an unexpected element into the Jurassic Park mythos – the notion of a cloned human in the form of Maisie (Isabella Sermon), a clone of Benjamin Lockwood’s (James Cromwell) deceased daughter. For the filmmakers, Maisie gives the audience another way to understand the responsibilities of bringing life into the world through science. In the end, it is Maisie who decides to allow the dinosaurs to live, pressing a button to allow their escape from the fire happening inside her estate.
“You are bringing Maisie closer to the concepts the movie is talking about. It’s very interesting, this idea of creating empathy,” says Bayona. “We are talking about accepting what we don’t understand. You think we are talking about dinosaurs and there’s a moment that you find yourself connected to it … It’s a major step further in what Michael Crichton did in the past. Hopefully he would be very proud of it. ”
Fallen Kingdom ends with a shot of Blue, looking over a northern California neighborhood.
“We leave the island behind and then we set up a universe that we’ve never seen before. You have this cliffhanger at the end,” says Bayona. “I think Colin has a lot of possibilities in front of him right now.”
—Byron Burton contributed reporting
by Stone Marshall | Jun 29, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Patrick Shanley breaks down ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ and gives insight on what adventures may be in store for the next film.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/video/jurassic-world-franchise-predictions-spoilers-watch-1122008
by Stone Marshall | Jun 28, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
The new Coral Crafters campaign will install six user-crafted BioRock structures to promote coral growth off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico.
With Minecraft’s recent Update Aquatic populating the game’s oceans with kelp, sealife and colorful coral reefs, developer Mojang has now turned its attention to the real-life seas threatened by climate change, pollution and endangered natural reefs.
With the Minecraft Coral Crafters campaign, Mojang, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, is turning in-game designs from content creators into real-world underwater sculptures made from BioRock, an innovative technology that promotes coral growth up to five times faster than normal. The effort is led by Professor Wolf Hilbertz and Dr. Tom Goreau of the Global Coral Reef Alliance.
“Coral Crafters is a celebration of the Update Aquatic,” Emily Orrson, product marketing manager at Minecraft tells Heat Vision. “As we put coral into our oceans in-game it seemed natural to put them into the oceans in real life. Already, our players are innovating and creating in Minecraft to build a better world — and we are following their lead with Coral Crafters”
The initiative will see six BioRock structures installed off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico, where coral reefs have suffered from coral bleaching and been battered by hurricanes. Three designs feature familiar characters from the franchise, while the remaining three were designed by the Minecraft community.
Starting on World Oceans Day on June 8, Minecraft challenged players to build coral reefs in-game and within two days, 10 million coral blocks were placed underwater in-game, triggering a donation from Minecraft to support The Nature Conservancy’s efforts to restore and protect coral in the Caribbean. In addition, net proceeds from the game’s Coral Crafters skin pack go to support The Nature Conservancy’s reef restoration efforts.
“This contribution will allow us to outplant 15,000 coral individuals on reefs that we are working to restore in the Caribbean,” says Stephanie Wear, senior scientist and strategy advisor for The Nature Conservancy. “We expect these outplantings to happen in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Dominican Republic and possibly Mexico.”
Snorkelers in Cozumel will be able to view the newly installed features as they traverse the picturesque waters off the coast of the island.
“This is the best part about this project — attracting attention to this important ocean habitat — an opportunity to have fun and learn all at once,” says Wear.
“We believe the creativity and innovation in the Minecraft community is building a better world for everyone,” Orrson says. “Coral Crafters is a way for us to support that creativity and innovation and bring it to real life.”
Not only does the initiative work to help real-world aquatic ecosystems, but it also inspires children to advocate for natural conservation in our world’s oceans. “It is a great opportunity to connect people — especially young people — to marine life in the ocean that they may never have the opportunity to experience,” says Wear. “It can inspire curiosity about these critically important ocean habits and the hope is they will want to learn more and get involved to help in even bigger ways.”
by Stone Marshall | Jun 28, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Minecraft’s World Ocean Day efforts to help restore coral reefs have seen enthusiastic success. Along with a $100,000 donation to The Nature Conservatory, Mojang partnered with creators and community to help rebuild coral reefs in Mexico in its iconic, blocky style.
The efforts began with the Minecraft Update Aquatic, which brings a variety of sea life to Minecraft’s previously rather barren oceans. As a part of that update, Mojang challenged players to place ten million coral blocks underwater — a goal that was accomplished in only a few days. To celebrate, the studio made its donation to The Nature Conservatory, a non-profit working to save and rebuild coral reefs around the world. In addition, net proceeds from the new Coral Crafters Skin Pack also go to the organization.
“With the Update Aquatic, we’re filling Minecraft’s oceans to the brim with kelp forest, shipwrecks, deep sea trenches, fish, turtles, dolphins and colourful coral reefs,” reads an official blog post of the announcement. “In the real world, however, it’s the opposite: climate change, destructive fishing methods and pollution of the water are killing off our planet’s amazing marine life. Coral reefs, one of the Earth’s most precious natural wonders, are under threat.
“Coral reefs are home to some two million species – roughly a quarter of all marine life. We’re only just unlocking the secrets of these amazing organisms, and yet the World Wildlife Fund estimates that nearly a third of coral reefs worldwide are already damaged beyond repair. If trends continue, we will soon lose 60% of the world’s coral in the next few decades.”
In addition, Mojang partnered with three popular Minecraft YouTubers — Rabahrex, Logdotzip, and Stacyplays — to design real-life structures that would help rebuild faltering reefs. The three worked with the community to design “biorock” structures in Minecraft that were then recreated in the real world and transported to the reef in Cozumel, Mexico, where they will be used by The Nature Conservatory to regrow coral and restore the reef.
Both Logdotzip and Stacyplays took design ideas from online communities. Rabahrex worked with students at the American Institute in Monterrey, Mexico and held a class competition to design the biorock installation. The winning design was an axolotl, which was placed with the other two designs and installations of Minecraft icons Alex and Steve off the coast of Cozumel.
by Stone Marshall | Jun 27, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
A lot of players have been, ahem, diving into the latest add-on for Minecraft with the new Update Aquatic, exploring the deeper waters and taking advantage of cool items. But did you know this update is also helping out oceans in the real world? Now that’s deep.
Mojang posted a new update explaining how Update Aquatic is lending a hand with oceans, in an effort to fight back against “climate change, destructive fishing methods and pollution of the water” which are “killing off our planet’s amazing marine life.”
Earlier in the month, the developer threw down a challenge for players to place ten million coral blocks underwater and promised to donate $100,000 to the Nature Conservancy if it was met. The team noted that “just a few days later,” players smashed “that coral-placing target.” As a result, Mojang kept its word and made the donation.
The video above breaks down how the developer is lending a hand and even though you missed the challenge, you can still lend a hand. The team has explained that you can purchase the Aquatic Skin pack for Minecraft here with proceeds going to the Nature Conservancy.
Mojang intends to support the project over the next few years with more awareness and potential donations to assist further with what’s happening with the world’s oceans so be sure to keep an eye on this page for more information.
The U[date Aquatic arrived earlier this season, bringing a number of new additions to the game sucha s trap doors, pressure plates and buttons, along with coral block and a variety of underwater life as well as cool items like turtle shells, tridents and phantom membranes. It’s been a big hit across the board, keeping Minecraft’s millions of players coming back for more. You could say there’s an…ocean’s worth of fans? (Okay, that’s one pun too far.)
You can check out the Update Aquatic now across all versions of Minecraft. The game is available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC, as well as mobile and older platforms.
Don’t forget that you can engage in online play across Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch platforms!
