Behind The Scenes

JURASSIC PARK TRICERATOPS - Puppeteering an Animatronic Dinosaur

Creating Jurassic Park's Triceratops. Behind-the-scenes footage showing the animatronic techniques and rehearsal process behind JP's sick dino.

April 16, 2013

JURASSIC PARK TRICERATOPS - Puppeteering an Animatronic Dinosaur

Featuring Jurassic Park Triceratops Team Members Al Souza and Shannon Shea

The Making of the Sick Triceratops in Jurassic Park

To bring to life Jurassic Park’s sick Triceratops, Stan Winston Studio designed and built a full-size puppet that performed alongside the actors on location in Hawaii. SWS Triceratops mechanical designer, Al Sousa, recalled the mech design process: “We built a small-scale version of the character before the full-scale so we could show Stan how everything was going to work. The breathing mechanism was basically a post underneath that pushed a lever up and down [to move] the skin up and down… the tail mechanism had movement from side to side and also up and down.  There were no hydraulics in this character. It was all just mechanical.”

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The Full-sized Triceratops Goes to Hawaii
Unpacking a Dinosaur
Coordinating Realistic Movements for the Triceratops
Adding Spit, Pus, and Microvesicles for the Sick Triceratops Sequence
Acting Is Reacting
Playing With the Greatest Dinosaur Toys Ever Made

(SWS Triceratops mechanic, Al Sousa, puppeteers the small-scale prototype.)

The Full-sized Triceratops Goes to Hawaii

Since the Triceratops was the first dinosaur on the shooting schedule and the only one to be shot on location in Hawaii, “We had to have it ready a month before they wanted to shoot it, to give it time [to be shipped via boat]," recalled Sousa.

(SWS dinosaur team members Paul Mejias, Al Sousa, and Rob Ramsdell load the Triceratops for her journey to Hawaii.)

Unpacking a Dinosaur

When the SWS Triceratops team finally made it to Hawaii, they immediately began setting up the dinosaur puppet for its big debut. “They dug [a big hole] in the ground with a platform over the top so that all the puppeteers could be underneath… The only one that was outside was the guy doing the eyes with the remote control,” explained Sousa. “Everyone else was underground working the breathing mechanism, working the mouth and the tongue. Working the forearms and the legs. Those were all cable-controlled.”

(SWS Triceratops team member Paul Mejias checks the RC eye movement on the giant puppet.)

Coordinating Realistic Movements for the Triceratops

“We set up a camera and had a monitor underneath in our little pit down there. Stan was kind of conducting us like an orchestra… He was really, really about smooth movements in your performance. He didn’t want any of what he called 'herky-jerky' movements,” said Sousa.

Shannon Shea elaborated on Winston's direction, “What Stan really wanted to do was to coordinate the movements to make this Triceratops look sick… He wanted to coordinate the mouth movement and the tongue movement with the rising and falling of the chest. Really slow and deliberate. The dinosaur has been drugged, you know?”

(The sick Triceratops rests in the shade before her Jurassic Park debut.)

Adding Spit, Pus, and Microvesicles for the Sick Triceratops Sequence

Shannon Shea recalled his fun if unglamorous task on the day of shooting, “While most of the guys were in the pit moving the dinosaur around, I was outside. The radio controls [for the eyes] were handed off to me because I was responsible for doing all of the cosmetics on the dinosaur for the shoot. I had to do all of the pus and the spit and the rheumy eyes and all that stuff. In fact, when Laura Dern pops the microvesicle on the tongue, that was a little gag that I figured out. I was actually running in with a syringe and refilling the cavity.”

(Stan Winston, Steven Spielberg, and Shannon Shea discuss the scene before the (human) actors arrive on set.)

Acting Is Reacting

“I remember when the actors first showed up,” recalled Sousa. “Laura Dern saw [the Triceratops] and saw it moving. I just remember the look on her face like, ‘Wow, this thing really looks like it’s alive.’ That was really something. I think that helped her performance. Like she was helping this…living thing. ”

(Surrounded by set dressing and final artistic touches complete, the Triceratops gets into character for her unforgettable scene with the cast of Jurassic Park.)

Playing With the Greatest Dinosaur Toys Ever Made

 Al Sousa counts his time on Jurassic Park as a career highlight. “At the time, I think we all knew that this was going to be something really big and spectacular… I don’t think I realized HOW big,” said Sousa, adding, “I felt like I was really privileged to be a part of it.”  

And for Shannon Shea, working on Jurassic Park was a boyhood dream come true. “The really wonderful thing about working on Jurassic Park and being involved with a film like this is that I was and still am a lifelong dinosaur fanatic,” said Shea. “I’ve been a fan of dinosaurs since I was three years old and saw the original King Kong. While we tested puppeteering all these dinosaurs, the sculptor of the T-rex, Mike Trcic, turned to me - he also was a lifelong dinosaur fan - and he said, ‘We get to play with the greatest dinosaur toys ever made.’ Seriously, no truer words were ever spoken.”

((Left to right): Joey Orosco, Paul Mejias, Shannon Shea, Steven Spielberg, Sam Neill, Stan Winston, Dave Grasso, Al Sousa, Joe Reader.)

To Watch the Never-Before-Seen Jurassic Park Triceratops video, simply CLICK on the player at the top of the page.

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