An Epic (Pre)historic Immersive Dinosaur Experience
Conductor Marc Taddei
Composer John Williams
The Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre welcomed excited dinosaur-clad children, parents and fans to Jurassic Park, one of most groundbreaking movies all time; where extinct dinosaurs are resurrected after 65 million years to again dominate the landscape. For many, it would be their first opportunity to appreciate the majestic Brachiosaurs and voracious Velociraptors on the big screen projected in fabulous HD. For the older audience members it was the unique opportunity to hear the award winning music of John Williams played by the full Queensland Symphony Orchestra for an incredible 4D-styled experience. The Jurassic period was not confined to the screen, as my eleven year old son and I were thrilled to be stalked by a Velociraptor in the foyer where there were opportunities to be photographed with the main characters, dinosaurs and even the Jeep. The stage was also set with moody green lighting surrounding the orchestra and screen in jungle ferns.
Jurassic Park, based on the book written by Michael Crichton, was released in 1983 and was the first in a series of four films spanning twenty five years, with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom released in 2018. It grossed over $914 million worldwide in its original theatrical run and the American Film Institute named Jurassic Park the 35th-most thrilling film of all time! It won numerous awards including the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture, or for Television and Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing, Best Mixing, and Best Visual Effects.
The cast is headed by the honourable Sir Richard Attenborough as John Hammond, a billionaire who creates a Jurassic Park with real dinosaurs bred from prehistoric DNA in the blood inside mosquitoes trapped in amber, on an island off the coast of Costa Rica. He invites a few select guests to endorse and trial his incredible theme park, including a paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern). The comedy is provided by a chaos mathematician, Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), whose naked smirking torso has become a viral meme and who provided brilliant one-liners such as “must go faster” as a Tyrannosaurus rex is about to bite his head off in the open Jeep. He also used the line when being chased by aliens in the 1996 film Independence Day, as director Roland Emmerich had enjoyed it so much! The pedantic smarmy lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero) also gets his comeuppance in a very undignified position, much to the cheers of the audience.
CGI is commonplace now, but in 1983 Jurassic Park resurrected the dinosaurs with groundbreaking computer-generated imagery by the Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and used terrifying life-sized animatronic dinosaurs built by Stan Winston and his team. Apparently, the giant T-rex model malfunctioned several times in the rain, moving and roaring whilst switched off, to the horror of the crew. Director Steven Spielberg also had the DTS sound system created to amplify the dinosaur roars using digital surround sound to further enhance the prodigious soundtrack.
The much accoladed composer John Williams scored the award-winning music for the film in only a month. He described wanting to create a soundtrack with "pieces that would convey a sense of 'awe' and fascination" to convey the "overwhelming happiness and excitement" of witnessing extinct dinosaurs from 65 million years ago. The audience were spellbound as the film progressed from the combination of the large HD screen, surround sound and the fantastic talents of the full Queensland Symphony Orchestra performing John Williams’ iconic score live with Conductor Marc Taddei at the helm. My son also found the subtitles which accompanied the dialogue a revelation, giving him and no doubt others, an insight into misheard dialogue and unfamiliar dinosaur names.
The audience had waited 65 million years to have such an epic (pre)historic immersive dinosaur experience. There are many more QSO special film events to come, with the Order of the Phoenix from the Harry Potter series next year and Return of the Jedi as part of their Star Wars extravaganza, so keep your eyes open to book early!
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
Sat 27 Apr 2019
Dr Gemma Regan