Steven Spielberg’s Living Hell: Two Films, One Year

Jurassic Park grast nearly a billion dollars worldwide a number one film of all time really was the most exciting film I've ever seen I think shinder list is the best film I've ever made I'm watching a maestro a master Storyteller at the he of his craft you know he made Jurassic Park and Schindler's List in the same year in the same year how do you do that how do you separate them all it was horrendous troubling and terrifying at times I didn't want to be doing Jurassic Park any longer there were days for me that

were so unbearable explicit I didn't want to do the movie anymore November 30th 1992 after 98 days of shooting Jurassic Park wraps on stage 12 at waro Studios but we'll come back here you know I'm thinking about doing a story about a genetically engineered dinosaur it's like the perfect place to it's 1990 and author Michael kon's Jurassic Park is flying off shelves latest Thriller by author Michael Kon a friend of Spielberg's the rights to Jurassic Park were never going to anyone else and I said please let me be the first person to read the novel

he said if you direct it it's yours Steven snaptail one of my first longest words was Triceratops the second I read his book I realized that we weren't dealing with monsters when dinosaurs rued the Earth wouldn't it be great to run into a dinosaur and meet up with one without being eaten by It 2 years later Jurassic Park was well underway in fact the movie enjoys a smooth production wrapping under schedule and budget it was all so new for us the actors certainly did their jobs and they believed who they were and that's all an

audience needs is to believe that the characters are believing in themselves so when shooting wrapped in late 92 many were able to put Jurassic behind them but for Steven Spielberg there was a long way to go if we were going to have din stars in this movie they would have to look for me as real as though I were watching a National Geographic Special on television didn't look as real as a camera can photograph an elephant today and I didn't want to do it it's the big question how do we turn these words on the

page to real breathing dinosaurs how we were to get the dinosaurs to run was always going to be the oldfashioned way through stopmotion animation and then one day I got a call from Dennis M at I and Dennis said that he thought that he could pull off a full-size dinosaur that would be authentic to the eye with stop motion Steven had the best in the world trying something new like this was a Maj risk but Steven had a long post production ahead of him he had to try then we decided okay let's go ahead and

do a real shot Beverly Hills 1980 an author named Thomas canel leaves his book signing and he goes in search of a new briefcase he finds a store on South Beverly Drive where One Survivor living here in Los Angeles a leather goods Merchant named PC Ferber was selling briefcases p a Shindler Survivor insisted on telling anybody who would listen about the man who had saved his life he walks into PC faerberg store and he asked Thomas what he did for a living I'm a writer answered Thomas PC responded with one thing I have the best

story of the century Keli was sold accompanying feberg to krackow in Poland can begin stringing together the true tale of Oscar Schindler the Nazi businessman who saved over a th Jewish lives in World War II it took cani 2 years to complete the novel until it'll make a hell of a story is it true the book landed on Steven Spielberg's lap literally Sid shinberg the head of universal had a messenger come over to my house with this review of Schindler's List and I read it and I found it very compelling raised as an orthodox Jew

the story resonated with Steven and when I read the book in 1982 by Thomas Keli it was something that occurred to me that I could pass along to my children through what I do best which is telling stories on film and yet I wasn't really ready in my own life CU I was making movies about extraterrestrials and movies about you know Indiana Jones and sharks and and perhaps hadn't come to terms with his own Heritage at that stage growing up in an Orthodox Jewish house uh where my parents were uh indirectly affected by the Holocaust

I was the the the object of a lot of discrimination because I was the only Jew in Scottdale Arizona I was the only Jew in the neighborhood the only Jew in the elementary school and I had problems you know I was I was different in that way and so Steven wasn't quite ready he had some growing up to do but Sid shinberg saw Steven's Temptation and in no time Universal owned the rights to Schindler's Arc 1983 Steven Spielberg meets paulc faerberg the Survivor responsible for sharing the Shindler Story please when are you starting hold questioned

Steven had an answer 10 years from now it was true he was not prepared for the film yet and in favor of box office entertainers he kept pushing it back over the next decade he tried handing the film off several times Roman palansky survivor of the Holocaust rejects Spielberg's offer reluctant to relive The Experience Steven successfully swaps Schindler's List with scorsese's Cape Fear Schindler's List was on the table and and they you sort of looked at it and developed it and all of a sudden Steven realized that man he wanted it so he brought it

back before quickly regretting his decision I was offered to probably try to do sh list him and then after during the process I realized you know that this is really his passion this is something he's got to go through Steven couldn't stool any longer with the idea of the Aging faerberg not living to see the film Spielberg's guilty conscience fires shinda list into pre-production I went to crackout and spent time there and and more than anything else that transported me into such an urgency to get the story out after a decade of growth Spielberg was

finally ready to tell Oscar Schindler's story but Universal president Sid shinberg had other plans his one condition for Steven was simple he had to make Jurassic Park first initially we were going to do all of the dinosaurs more conventionally and we're going to use Phil tippet who was considered at the time the best in stop motion they had the greatest animator in the world working on Jurassic Park a man named schul tippet it's all for you stepen cuz we love dinosaurs when Jurassic Park was Green the method for bringing the prehistoric to life were the

traditional effects Spielberg grew up on the same way that Willis O'Brien made made King Kong I look at King Kong and I say well that is the state-ofthe-art the stop motion has its flaws we had done many many tests we had gotten it to where it looked good enough not great but good enough 1933 was the stateof the-art in between 1933 and today there have not been any real advancements well then Denis comes in and to meeting and said you know I really think we should do this in the computer we think we can do

this in the computer so again my name here is Dennis Miran multi Oscar winning special effects artist Dennis Muran and I I've been working at since 76 before Star Wars everyone said the computer special effects Guru and Industry icon Dennis Miran had other plans he wasn't certain but he felt these dinosaurs could be the first Hollywood animals made entirely with CGI yet naturally Spielberg wasn't sure so he said prove it we didn't want the the Jurassic R dinosaurs would be Disney dinosaurs which is more you know kind of a cartoon mindset really want to make

it look convincing you have to animate every new one behold the elephant every breath every muscle every swallow these were uncharted waters and for Steven it brought up mixed feelings your father was a computer scientist a computer engineer with a pocket protector his father was a truly brilliant computer engineer my dad was very practical he wanted me in school so if I didn't become a filmmaker I would become a teacher Steven had always resisted entering his father's field and these conversations of CGI reminded him of his hesitation towards computers a motif echoed in the movie

The had computers but Steven chose not to worry about the technicalities after all his field was in storytelling when discussing the movie with Spielberg author Michael kryon couldn't shake his doubts towards the special effects Spielberg simply responded with effects are only as good as the audience's feeling for the characters in a way this thought was liberating it wasn't ilm the hardware all the effects the onus was on him to really sell Jurassic Park after 10 years of waiting and Jurassic Parks photography finally behind him Schindler's List began shooting and crack out on March 1st 1993

refusing any of the blood Money salary Steven Spielberg arrived in Poland with a different approach to film making he said yeah I've just directed Jurassic Park everything's storyboarded to the nth degree this is the opposite I wanted the experience to be a personal experience he said to me I'm shooting this I've made no story board but he was allowing himself to be inventive on the day to him Schindler's List had to be made like no other film he'd made before starting by draining the color the entire second world war is black and white because I

was brought up watching black and white documentary inspired by shower he also took a documentarian approach with the camera I wanted the camera to sort of be invisible and to do that I took what I call news camera [Music] approach making the film meant recreating some of History's darkest moments all peaceful means were utilized in order to save the Peace of the world Germany has reduced them to nothing Germany has invaded Poland for a catastrophe that will cause Untold suffering Jim's list is more explicit and more graphic my stomach time right over than anything you

may have seen before I felt noses horrendous troubling and terrifying at times and as emotionally demanding as this shoot was Spielberg had it worse than most because all the while Jurassic Park wasn't exactly finished now I'm in krackow making Schindler's List and 5 days a week I'm doing a huge teleconference it was a whip blast transition so they could be in real time delivering the digital dinosaurs so we can then critique the lighting and the physical movement a very very dark important historical journey and a popcorn audience digital dinosaur movie to have to come home

every single night and watch dinosaurs was a living hell for me four days for me that were so unbearable I didn't want to be doing Jurassic Park any longer I was done with Jurassic Park it was really dis encouraging to go back and forth from one to the next I wanted to quit 1:00 and send everybody back to the hotel I didn't want do the movie anymore put on your yum Here Comes Hanukah he was shooting Shin's list he left a message saying making the movie was very depressing everyone working on the film determined to

battle through found ways to cope somebody brought that song that had a tape of it and that they watched that and it would help them what a fine looking [Applause] Jewel after all everyone knew this was important work and it was quiet on the set and everybody just did their work I'm watching a maestro recreate document footage Flawless everybody felt that we were memorializing something all the pain that I suffered and my crew and cast went through is nothing it is a weekend of Miami Beach compared to one day in the life of any Survivor

on any given day of the Holocaust after 72 challenging days on set Schindler's List was over despite being one of the most painful periods of his life Spielberg could look back with pride but it was time for the world to decide when you make movies do you want to know what other people think of them I care desperately what other people think of them and because I care so much I sometimes hold my ears and close my eyes I'll hide for months sometimes do you think the academy will finally give Steven Spielberg what he's deserved

for too many years in Oscar for this one well um I sincerely hope that Spielberg gets the recognition that he deserves dinosaurs are coming back to life today in the new movie Jurassic Park today is opening day for Jurassic Park Steven Spielberg's dinosaur epic is the movie to see this summer it was fantastic it was so scary Jurassic Park is going to be a box office hit $50 million $900 million now get ready for Jurassic Park merchandise Jurassic will be the biggest picture of all time tonight we begin with a movie a movie you have

not seen but a movie that some of you may have survived the movie is Schindler's List is fun Schindler's List there are no dinosaurs only ghosts 6 million of [Music] them I'm really happy I'm able to say and admit that I've made a picture that's better than anything else I think I've ever [Music] made would you like to win an Oscar as a director does it bother you that you've never won an Oscar his best director no I honestly I'm not bothered that I haven't won an Oscar because you know frankly there's still time perhaps

someday to win One Arts and Sciences presents Oscar the 66 annual Academy Awards it's 1994 Jurassic Park and Schindler's List have had their box office runs but now it's award season Spielberg's films are nominated for a combined 15 Oscars but there were no guarantees he just had the most difficult year of his career but how would the critics feel welcome to AA 6 to6 and the Oscar goes to Alan Starsky for Schindler's List and for set decoration EA BR thank you Steven spiber and the Oscar goes to Dennis Miran Stan Winston Bill tippet and Michael

lanter for Jurassic Park thanks thanks osar goes to Gary r and Richard hims Jurassic Park also like to thank Steven Spielberg the Oscar goes to Gary Summers Gary rystrom Sean Murphy and Ron Judkins for Jurassic Park and of course to stepen Spielberg who made it all possible and the Oscar goes to John Williams for shindo Sten Spielberg thank you the Oscar winner and my new best friend is yanus Kaminski for tendler's list all my friends and supporters thank you and the Oscar goes to Michael Khan process was painful but the result was glorious I want

to thank you Steven for the most fulfilling time of my life there were no two ways about it Steven's films were sweeping up but he had his eye on one award in particular one that he'd never won before the Oscar goes to this is a big surprise Steven Spielberg for I have friends who have won this before this is the first time I've ever had one of these in my hand so this never could have gotten started without a Survivor named pic feberg I want to thank my wife who's here with me tonight for rescuing

me 92 days in a row when things got just too unbearable and my mom who's here who is my lucky charm whom I love very very much and to the 6 million who who can't be watching this among the 1 billion watching this telecast tonight thank you it was a touching moment for Steven a moment he dreamed of for decades there was one more award to be announced and it could close off the night perfectly and the Oscar for the best picture of 1993 goes to Schindler's List Steven Spielberg Geral Mullen and Branco lwig producers

oh wow this is this this this is the best drink of water after the longest rought in my life [Music] the accomplishment of a lifetime the Schindler's List was the experience of my motion picture life um the sad thing is for me I don't know what I'm going to do next you know between shidler list and Jurassic Park I'm going to need years of therapy um enough said thank you very much [Music] [Applause] [Music]