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"BUG HUNT"
Creating the visual effects for ALIENS
By Paul Taglianetti
"Were on an
express elevator to hell- going down!"
_Hudson(Bill Paxton)
from Aliens
Fifty-seven years have past for chief warrant officer Ripley
first encountered the deadly species of acid spitting HR Giger designed killing
machines from hell. But for her the memory has not faded. Nor had the memory
faded for the filmmakers involved who were inspired to continue her story and
the story of those same biomechanical monstrosities from hell…
In the early 80's, James Cameron had garnered a reputation
as one of the top screenwriters of action thrillers. His TERMINATOR script was
a hot property and he was near completion on his draft for the FIRST BLOOD
sequel RAMBO. It was while Cameron was writing his Rambo draft that Gordon
Carroll, the executive producer and co-owner of Brandywine productions, which
produced the first ALIEN, summoned him. Cameron met with Carroll and
co-producers Walter Hill and David Giler about reprising the adventures of
Ellen Ripley and the evil Xenomophs who destroyed the Nostromo and it's crew.
Before Cameron could finish a completed script he received the Green light to
direct his screenplay for the
Terminator. This modestly budgeted sci-fi action piece became the surprise
hit of 1984 and its success opened the door for Cameron to write AND helm the
long awaited ALIEN sequel.
Cameron once again sat down and expanded the treatment to a
full screenplay, fleshing out the characters and their motivations. In the
continuation, Ripley's shuttle is found floating through space fifty-seven
years after the events in the first film. She is haunted by the events that
have taken place although no one from the company believes her. She is stripped
of her status as flight officer and is relegated to working in loading docks.
Eventually she is approached to return to the planet where her crew first
encountered the acid spewing creatures. Reluctantly she agrees and so begins
the story anew….
The Designers.
To Cameron, the story and the character motivations were
first and foremost on his mind. But with a film of this kind, its success also
lies in the design and execution of the visuals. Cameron once again teamed with
up with his Terminator-co scripter/Producer Gale Ann Hurd (Who was instrumental
in getting Terminator financed and off the ground.) and together they began to
assemble their technical crew.
First and foremost was the assembly of the Design and
effects teams. One of the first designers brought on the project was Ron Cobb,
a former newspaper cartoonist who went on to become one of Hollywood's top
conceptual designers. His credits include STAR WARS, ALIEN and was production
designer CONAN. The other was Syd Mead who's background is in industrial design
and who's impressive credits include TRON, STAR TREK, 2010, and of course BLADE
RUNNER.
Cobb was eventually assigned to design the colony complex
and assorted vehicles. Mead tackled designing the Sulaco, the large military
transport that carries the marines through space.
For his visual effects team, Cameron and Hurd needed a crew
he was familiar with, one he felt comfortable with and that he felt certain
could tackle the enormous workload. Cameron once again decided to team up with
his former Corman colleagues Robert and Dennis Skotak who he had worked closely
with on Battle Beyond the Stars and Galaxy of Terror.
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| the ALIENS visual effects crew on location led by Robert and Dennis Skotak |
"At the time I was working for a company called LA
Effects,"recalls Robert Skotak, "Jim Cameron called and asked if we
would be interested in doing ALIENS. I said 'yes' but we were working for this
other company at the time and I told him if you wanted us, you'd have to use LA
Effects too. Well, Jim really wanted us. He didn’t know anything about LA
Effects but Jim likes to work with people he's familiar with so we were
hired."
Cameron contacted the Skotaks to work on the project in May
of 1984 and then began having meetings with on the film effects just before
Christmas. "He came down to the
studio and saw we were still using the old tricks (in-camera composites,
opticals, etc) and he knew we needed every trick in book to make this film
happen."
James Cameron's sketch of alien queen
"Fox had read Jim's treatment and figured it was about
a 30 million dollar movie," recalls Skotak. "They were not about to
give him 30 million dollars as he had not really established himself as a
successful director at that point. They settled for a budget of around 15
million, which is not a lot of money, even back then. It was really a low
budget feature, no doubt about it."
For Robert and Dennis Skotak teaming up with Cameron again
brought back old memories. "We picked up where we left off on BATTLE
BEYOND THE STARS, using the same techniques which we knew would be possible,
look good and yet be affordable. We had continuous meetings from December 1984
up until March 1985 and it was in March when we got the final script. We knew
the live action was going to England and Jim was pleased we were willing to
work there."
Aliens/Creature creation
Once again, keeping with their ethic of hiring colleagues
from past successes, Cameron and Hurd contacted Stan Winston to create the
menagerie of creatures for the film. Several new challenges confronted the
Winston crew on this film. First and foremost was the only new entity for the
gargantuan Alien Queen, which Cameron himself designed. This would be a
monumental task for Winston as he had never created an articulate creature this
size for a film but the opportunity was too great for him to pass up. Also
among the many challenges were the face huggers-who in this inception could leap
and run. And of course the alien warriors them selves. Winston immediately
began testing various techniques for the full-scale alien queen. Initially
creating a scale version of Cameron's design made of garbage bags and operated
by two separate puppeteers (The footage of this test can be found on the deluxe
Aliens laser disc). As for the alien drones, there would ultimately be six full
suits created but thanks to intercutting and editing the filmmakers were able
to convince the audience there was an entire hive of the beasts.
Additional enhancements were added to the face-hugger
creatures as this time out they had to move. Cameron had suggested to Winston a
"push toy" mechanic, which he had utilized in a more rudimentary form
for Piranha II. The basic idea would be that the creature would be pulled of
screen by an operator. The wheel mechanism would rotate the leg articulation
mechanism simulating a forward locomotion. The mechanics of the special face
hugger and the chest burster would be
ultimately handled by Steven Norrington who would later become a film director
himself (Death Machine and Blade
most notably).
One of the more noticeable changes to the Alien drones
themselves was the removal of the smooth cover-dome on the head of the Alien
revealing the ridged cranium underneath. This differentiated it from the
creature in the first film without making it look too different therefore
confusing viewers and fans of the first incarnation.
Jorden Tractor sequence
Originally omitted from the film but appearing on the now
legendary laser disc and the new DVD transfer is the Jorden tractor sequence.
It illustrates at the beginning how the colony was infiltrated by the alien
infestation and establishes the audience's emotional connection with Newt.
"One of the sequences that didn’t make any sense to
shoot in England was the Jorden Tractor/derelict ship sequence." Recalls
Skotak. "That derelict ship was the property of Bob Burns at the time and
it was in the states, so we thought we'd shoot the process plates and still
photos of the derelict here that could be later used for the matte composites.
That was done in May or June of 1985 right before we left for England. We had
Jay Roth (who later went on to found Electric Image), Denny Skotak, Bob Burns
and Allen Markowitz on the crew and Judy Evans was our cameraperson and gaffer.
When the photography and stills arrived in England, Skotak worked on creating a
Matte version of the exterior of the derelict with matte painter Peter Melrose.
This painting was combined in-camera with a beam splitter in front of a desktop
version of the planet surface and the miniature Jordan tractor.
"Jay Roth also worked as a model builder for me. He
worked with me again on T-2 creating the nuclear explosion sequence. We had
shot the process plates months before they were needed but we saved a lot of
money and expense shooting them here. Also Jay built the NARCISSIS shuttle here
as well."
Narcissus Shuttle/Opening Sequence
Skotak recalls the re-building of the lost shuttlecraft, which
carries Ripley and Jones through space. "The original Narcissus was lost
or stolen so we were forced to re-build it. We used still images. Actually
there weren't a lot of photos that actually existed. I had a few images of it
from my own collection that I gave to Jay so he had reference. Those photos I
took when the original model was on display at the museum of science and
industry. And also we had some frame clips from the original film, which were
squeezed.
Later Skotak designed a desk top section of the salvage ship
which draws the shuttle craft into its under carriage. Skotak designed the ship
and handed over the building assignment to Fasil Karim who worked on the
England model crew. Cameron originally wanted the salvage ship to be so large
that only a portion of it would be seen. Although famed production designer
Peter Lamont was designing the full size sets, Skotak was often reign free
reign to design some of the miniature pieces as with the salvage ship.
Arriving in England
"When we got to England, recalls Skotak, "we were
still working on sketches and models. I remember we jumped on plane with very
little sleep because we filmed the derelict ship right down to the last minute.
We just hit the ground running as soon as we got there. We had meetings right
away with the model and art departments."
But the environment was new for the Skotak brothers who had
never worked in England. They were allowed to bring over their colleague Pat
McClung (future VFX supervisor of Dante's peak and Armageddon) as their crew
chief. The rest of the crew would be comprised of British artists who would
work out of Pinewood studios.
Robert and Dennis Skotak, VFX supervisors on ALIENS
"There were people recommended to us by John Richardson
(Aliens special effects supervisor) who was a fixture there at Pinewood. He had
done all the Bond pictures right up till now. He knew a lot of these people and
felt comfortable around them. Some of them were veterans of Gerry Anderson
Thunderbirds show so they had extensive miniature experience.
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| The full size power loader on set |
The Colony complex
"So we began building the miniatures. We had the huge
colony complex to build. It was approximately 90 feet long as I remember.
Ron Cobb created the main design of this initially and the
full-scale complex was supervised by Peter Lamont and his set decorators
Crispian Sallis and Mark Harris. Mark Harris also let a lot of salvaged pieces
from various sources, which would be utilized with the miniature unit. Skotak
himself also added several designs of his own to the colony structure. He also
designed and built several of the colony's ground vehicles.
The Drop Ship/APC
The marine drop ship (which no doubt derives it's name from Heinlein's
Starship Troopers) went through several design iterations before it reached
it's final form. Both Ron Cobb and Syd
Mead took a crack at the design but ultimately it was Cameron himself who came
up with the final design solution. According to Robert Skotak, Cameron wasn’t
satisfied with previous design attempts yet he was not able to illustrate what
he wanted himself.
drop ship miniature on set
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| one of the colony complex' miniature vehicles |
Eventually Cameron came into the art department one weekend
and actually built a foam core and plastic miniature version, which closely
approximated what he was looking for. Cameron had based his designs loosely on
the Apache AH-64 assault chopper. One of the film's art department chiefs ,
Brendan Alimo, built the original six-foot version, which the others would
ultimately be based on. Peter Astin, a free-lance model builder, was contracted
to build the fiberglass shells of the other versions, which were brought to the
model shop for detailing. There were approx. 10 versions, according to Skotak,
most of which were stunt versions. Only one was built specifically with
mechanized landing gear and missile phalanx pods.
The crash version had to respond to a very specific action
according to Skotak. "The craft would have to bounce, have it's skid
sheared off, and bank at a certain angle." Eventually the crash footage
was used as a process plate for an in-camera composite with 1ST unit.
In the scene the drop ship has been infiltrated by an alien warrior in flight
and the pilot is killed. As the ship spins out of control it crashes directly
in the path of the surviving marines waiting to be picked up.
For this the drop ship was rigged on double wires running
parallel through the ship to support its weight. There was a third wire rigged
to the hull to help pull it forward. For this set-up the Skotaks set up three
cameras all running at 120 fps. They would eventually shoot the stunt several
times until they got it perfect (as the images of the smashed drop ship in this
article will atest.) The drop ship exploding into the AP station would
eventually be picked up later in the shooting schedule, as it was not needed
for process work. John Richardson was brought in to supervise the miniature pyrotechnics
in addition to his many other duties on the film.
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| miniature dropship in the atmosphere processor miniature station |
"One of the biggest problems with the drop ship was
that the landing gear was so frail, it made it difficult to support. We had to
shoot at high speed. And one problem we had was hiding the wires, which we did
using the fog and rain elements. (Denny
and I) were really the directors of lighting and photography (of the
miniatures) working in conjunction with the union cameraman. We were not
allowed to operate the cameras so we had to work closely with the British crew.
Our cameraman was Harry Oakes who had done a lot of the Thunderbirds and other
Gerry Anderson shows and really knew what he was doing!. He was really good at
painting the wires and lighting to hide the wires. Motion control wasn't really
an option because Jim didn’t want a 'mechanical look' for the motion of the
ship. So we had giant boom arms on giant movers and these things had to be
swung around so fast. The ship would just fly across the room and it had to
just suddenly slow down and land.
Process projection
work.
"We just cranked away at (the model work). We had so
many process shots we had to do to save on expenses and creating expensive
opticals. We were going to do a lot process photography, both rear and front
projection and we needed the miniatures done right away. "We found
ourselves working very close with the main unit because there was so much
process work with the actors. They needed almost all of the miniature work up
front because a lot of it would be used for process with 1st unit. The shoot
was taking place from mid September through the end of January. I remember Oct,
November and December was day after day of process photography so we had to
build these miniatures very fast. All of this very elaborate stuff was needed
very quickly and there was a lot of it. Many of it going at once. And we were
just barely getting the concept drawings in time.
"I was storyboarding the movie as we were going along
with Roger Dear. I would work on boards my self or with Roger and them run them
down to Jim for approval. The pace was very intense!"
The Power Loader
The Power Loader fight proved to be one of the film's most
challenging sequences. Skotak notes that it was often debated what medium would
be used to create the loader and the queen.
"Jim wanted to originally do the power loader as stop
motion but he had to make concessions to the budget so that idea was abandoned
and I agreed with the decision. I didn’t think it would look right. Ultimately
we decided to create a rod puppet for the loader, which worked great. There is
one shot in there Im not very happy with, it looks a little lurchy. We actually
had the idea of a third scale miniature, which would have been operated by a
midget that we would have shot on a miniature stage. But Jim dropped that idea.
We juste realized that our budget didn’t allow us to do everything we wanted to
and also there were things we didn’t need. I t was too pricey to do it that
way."
The full size power loader was basically a costume with an
operator inside. And a crane, which was supporting the weight, assisted them.
" It was a fairly lightweight suit that Sigourney was sitting in front of
with the stunt man/operator making all of the movements.
Ultimately Skotak hired famed stop motion effects artist
Doug Beswick and Phil Notaro to construct the rod puppet of the alien queen and
the smaller power loader that would be manipulated on set for wider shots on a
miniature of the Sulaco's cargo hold.
"We were sending them photographs and measurements and
having endless conversations over the phone about the constructions of the rod
puppets." Notes Skotak "So we knew we would have that to pick up
those shots we couldn’t get with live action.
It was good that Jim came down to choreograph these shots.
Especially because we gave up a lot of our people and equipment for inserts and
pick –up shots. We had a guy named Nigel on our team who was operating the
queen's ovipositor because he had this long reach. We get this thing set-up and
it was one of the most difficult set-ups I have ever been involved with. People
puppeting eggs, there was steam being shot up through the set, there were fire
bars all around the set-up, there wads frion being sprayed in front of the
lense, the alien queen was being puppeted. The Pan-head was very low to the
ground, which also made it a difficult shot. We get all set to shoot this thing
with all these effects being choreographed. Then we'd get this call from the
other side of the stage where Jim was shooting inserts of Sigourney's hand in
the power loader and he needed Nigel because his hand closely matched
Sigourney's. He, of course, had priority. So we would shut down, Nigel would
pull his hand from the ovipositor, get cleaned up and get in the Ripley outfit
so Jim could shoot his hands with the loader toggle switch.
Atmosphere processor and Queen's lair
"There was a point where Jim was on our stage a lot.
There came a point where he was shooting the shots of the face-hugger
skittering along the floor. " states Skotak, "He brought in sections
of the floor outside the Med. lab to shoot these inserts and it got very
cramped for us as we were running out of space. We had miniatures literally
everywhere!"
Once Ripley rescues newt, she finds her self deep within the
alien hive and face to face with the Alien Queen. While she escapes she fires
her grenade s into the Queens ovipositor where it depenses the ubiquitous eggs.
"We brought in a sharp shooter for the scene where
Ripley fire's into the egg-sack. Which was filled with methoselolouce. We had
to clear out the set for safety reasons and shut down everything. That was done
with real gunfire with layers and layers of wood to catch the ammo. There were
sets ups for the entire movie. We had two scales of cargo locks. We had the egg
chamber and a set called "The Maw" which was the industrial interior
of the atmosphere processor. It was one of the largest of the miniature sets.
It ran the entire length of 'M' stage and was over 20 feet high. There was
scaffolding and exploding there everywhere. Wherever there was room we were
shooting footage of the drop ship shooting through the clouds using fog and
wind machines. It was absolute pandemonium. I've never seen anything like it.
People crawling over each other to get around. I talked some people during the
shoot and they said they had never seen an effects or miniature shoot that was
that intense."
The hard work for the Visual effect team would ultimately
pay off. In 1987, Aliens was nominated for four Academy awards, including best
Actress (Sigourney Weaver). It eventually won two Oscars-Best Visual
effects(Robert Skotak, Stan Winston, John Richardson) and Best sound effects
Editing
Special Thanks to
Robert and Dennis Skotak for their participation in the creation of this
article. Also thanks to Brian Anthony and Bob Burns
Pictures supplied by
Robert and Dennis Skotak and from the collection of the author.
