Marzano Films: Prehistoric playgrounds
Posted on Jul 24, 2025 by Admin
John Marzano, aerial DOP and head of Marzano Films, recounts three surreal months making Jurassic World Rebirth
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Jurrasic World Rebirth’s director Gareth Edwards, DOP John Mathieson and second unit DOP John Gamble were all driven by the desire to immerse the audience in jungle and sea worlds that felt real. This meant journeying into mangrove swamps and travelling to remote island locations.
Aerial coordinator Jenni Saunders spent several weeks navigating the Thai and Maltese aviation authorities. Through her efforts, she was able to obtain import and operational permits for both countries. She saw the team off from Stansted Airport Corporate Jet Centre to Krabi, Thailand.
Following hours in the air, the crew finally touched down and was immediately hit with a wall of heat and humidity – a welcome change after the gloom of the English winter. After testing the kit, we loaded the aerial unit camera truck and headed to our first location.
Working in the jungle is always tough – heat, humidity and so many creatures that want to take a bite out of you, plus the limited space for long tracking shots, all create significant challenges. Navigating through vines and over steep ravines while carrying kit was exhausting, but the locations were spectacular – and exactly where the DJI Inspire 3 shows its excellence. Its compact size and minimal noise footprint enabled Marzano Films’ chief drone pilot Leo Whitfield to fly in some tight spots, bringing the cast performances close to the lens yet still maintaining a great field of view.
In stark contrast, the limestone cliffs that rise straight out of the Andaman Sea provided a stunning backdrop for several scenes, with the hero cast battling hitherto unseen prehistoric creatures with bigger teeth and even more desire to devour. The drone team operated from a fast cruiser with large front and rear decks, with hand-launching and catching becoming the norm – proving the most effective method while operating from a pitching, rolling boat.
Without a tree canopy to filter the sun’s harsh rays, the open sea work demanded constant reapplication of sunblock and careful shading of the equipment. While Spinosaurus and Raptors seemed able to function without issue, we humans required copious amounts of rehydration.
The crew was on location from the beginning of June, and by mid-July, the monsoon season was around the corner. On several occasions, we found ourselves in the middle of a tropical downpour, under any kind of shelter we could find, waiting for the storm to pass through. Once, we found ourselves racing at 40 knots across the Andaman in a vain attempt to keep ahead of the rapidly advancing wall of rain.
In mid-July, we rounded up our work in Thailand and boarded the private charter to Malta. With the exception of a brief stint at Malta Film Studios, the majority of the aerial cinematography was on the water, operating the drone from the rear deck of a tugboat. Finding the right spot to shoot into the sunlight – without seeing the mainland in the background – often meant travelling several miles out to sea.
Again, the Inspire 3 proved its versatility. By sending the drone half a kilometre away from the tugboat, we could run with the picture vessel. This gave aerial 1st AC Ben Bannister quite a challenge, but never once did his focusing ability desert him. With the Inspire 3’s 15-minute flight time, we could complete three runs before needing to land for a battery swap and media reload.
The drone was a fantastic tool, but nothing compares to a helicopter. At the end of our month in Malta, we brought an AS350 single-engined copter in from Italy. With the Sony VENICE 2 and a Premista 28-100mm, the air-to-boat shots looked spectacular – loaded with pace and drama, and flown by the film pilot Sergio Franceschini. Gareth flew in the helicopter to direct cast action on the boat.
On films like the Jurassic World franchise (including the 1993 Jurassic Park), almost every shot has a VFX element. Working closely with VFX supervisor Dave Vickery and on-set supervisor Chris Lynch, we supplied extensive data for post-production – including camera sheets, flight telemetry, playback material and the pilot’s FPV feed. This media was crucial to the VFX team for compositing complex shots.
Jurassic World Rebirth is currently playing in cinemas
This article appears in the July/August 2025 issue of Definition
