Meet Andy Nicholson, the Production Designer for the upcoming Jurassic World sequel. Andy was the Art Director on films such as Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Golden Compass, and Captain America: The First Avenger.
His role as a Production Designer has included films such as Gravity, Divergent, and Assassin’s Creed. Andy was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity.
Production Designers are a key creative leader of the art team, working with the films Director and Producers to craft the look of the film. According to his website, Andy is ‘actively seeking to assimilate digital technology with traditional work-flows and techniques’. His bio goes on to say he is ‘Always on the lookout for staff with new skills’ and ‘[he is] an advocate of immersive design and closely follows the opportunities and developments within the industry’.
Andy Nicholson may be a newcomer to the Jurassic team, but certainly not to the industry. Production Design on previous Jurassic films was handled by Rick Carter (Jurassic Park, The Lost World) and Ed Verreaux (Jurassic Park 3, Jurassic World). This will be the first time Andy and Juan Antonio Bayona have worked together; Bayona has previously worked with Eugenio Caballero (The Impossible, A Monster Calls) and Josep Rosell (The Orphanage).
Personally, I love the movie ‘Gravity’ – it blends practical and CG effects in stunning ways, and I cannot wait to see what Andy brings to the table with Jurassic. Be sure to check out Nicholson’s website for more samples of his work from his portfolio spanning numerous films.
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Source: IMDB (plus independently verified via external sources)
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I have no eye for such technicalities. So, what’s left for me is trust the confidence of the ones who make these decisions and the opinion of those who understand, such as yours, Chris. For one thing, I know I watched Gravity and liked the look of it. I was convinced those people were in space. And it makes me glad to read that this professional is worried about blending special effects with traditional techniques. Hopefully, our dinos will look natural and “there”. However, I still miss animatronics. It may sound crazy but, most of the times, dinos like Rexy seemed much more organic and real when I could see their robotic movements in Jurassic Park and The Lost World. It’s a pity they will never use them anymore.
I definitely agree – something felt a little off with the Tyrannosaurus in Jurassic World. Her slow, meaningful and heavy movements were part of her character, and something I have come to associate with the animal in the films.
There was an added sense of fluidity in Jurassic World that didn’t quite mesh with what I expected, and coupled with the design changes it fell a bit flat for me. Going forward, I would love to see animatronics and CG blended together on innovative and appropriate ways – at the very least, we need some practical Tyrannosaur and Velociraptor heads.
I always thought there was something about the purely CGI dinos in the sequels but I could never put my finger on what was “wrong”. As I said, I missed seeing the robotic movements of the T-rex we saw in the first two films, but I somehow sensed that was a poor explanation. Now that you mentioned about the practical Tyrannosaur head a light switched in my mind, Chris. I guess that’s it. At least a head, an eye, just like the one we saw taking a peek into the Explorer where Lex and Tim were. The T-rex in JW was just so “entirely there in the screen”, so fluid in its movements, we never had a chance to see it really interact with the people: they did not inhabit the same space. It’s so clear to see that! Even in the horrendous JPIII (my opinion), I felt glad to be able to tell the moments when the spino was really there attacking the plane from those when there was simply nothing there in front of the actors. That’s what I miss: knowing that the animal is there, even if it’s just a head, an eye, a jaw. So, yes, they should at least make a T-rex head again.
For sure! When used right, animatronics are a fantastic effect – just like CG. I’m a firm believe that if you can do something practically in camera, then you should do it, and the effect will be better for it.
However, I do want to note.. the way the rex and spino animatronics were filmed in JP3 screamed ‘robots’ to me. I tend to prefer the CG of those two animals in that movie, with a few exceptions.
I think it also comes down to cinematography, and using it to your advantage to create the most believable showcase when using practical or CG VFX.
Just to round up my comments: my criticism doesn’t mean I don’t like JW. I venture to say it’s my favorite sequel of the three. TLW is a close second, followed by JPIII at a very long distance (and that’s just because I have to acknowledge and rate it, in my mind).