Photo courtesy of Classical-Music.com
August marks the final month of summer, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from enjoying and having summer fun! While the idea of going to the beach and enjoying a snow-cone sounds like fun, the summer heat sure isn’t one of them. Fortunately there’s no shortage of exploration and things to do in Chicago. The neat thing about big-city-living is finding a mishmash of entertainment, great on their own, but fuze them together and they complement each other like cookies and ice cream. In this case, a live entertainment performance while reliving an iconic classic. A nice evening to beat the heat with Jurassic Park in Concert.
Jurassic Park was released on June 9th, 1993. To help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the iconic film, the Chicago Philharmonic will perform John Williams’ famous score from the movie. Audiences will experience Jurassic Park with a full symphony orchestra performing along with the motion picture. The film has become a benchmark for blockbuster movies, for movies in general, becoming critically and widely adored. It’s a visual feast with a rich soundtrack and score.
Photo courtesy of The American Society of Cinematographers
Some interesting facts on how the making of Jurassic Park came about are truly fascinating and quite comical. When Michael Crichton began writing his novel Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg learned of the novel and was fascinated about the story – the story inspired Spielberg and fascinated him on how dinosaurs might someday be brought back to life in the modern era, going beyond a simple monster movie. He cited Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956) as inspiration for Jurassic Park. Before the book was published, Crichton demanded $1.5 million for the film rights and considerable percentage of the gross.
Universal Pictures acquired the rights of the film and penned Spielberg to direct. At the time, Spielberg wrapped up filming Hook and wanted to film Schindler’s List. Universal gave Spielberg the green light under the condition Spielberg makes Jurassic Park first.
Photo courtesy of The American Society of Cinematographers
Filming began on August 24, 1992, on the Hawaiian island of Kauai – Spielberg chose Kauai since the accessibility of the setting was already familiar to him and was unsure of the infrastructure of the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. On September 11, Hurricane Iniki passed over Kauai and cost them a day of filming but did film the storm scene with actual footage of the hurricane.
Photo courtesy of The American Society of Cinematographers
One of the most famous scenes of the movie that most audiences are familiar with, is the ripples in the glass of water by the thunderous stomps of the T. rex scene. Spielberg was inspired to make that scene by listening to Earth, Wind, and Fire in his car, and the vibrations of the bass caused the rearview mirror to shake. They achieved the ripples in the water by playing a guitar with a certain frequency to achieve the effect.
Relive the thrilling adventure of Jurassic Park with a full symphony orchestra performed by the Chicago Philharmonic, with Scott Terrell as the Conductor, on August 29 at the Ravinia Festival from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.. Fall in love all over again with this classic magical blockbuster that is 65 million years in the making.
To purchase tickets or for more information about the event, please visit chicagophilharmonic.org.
