Alien: Avoiding the Michelin Man look

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Alien: Looking for the Alien's Nucleus

Michelin Man

Originally Ridley Scott wanted a very feminine creature, and long limbed in the style of the model Verushka, something exactly the opposite of that sort of quintissential Creature from the Black Lagoon which is a big stocky stunt guy, they would put a latex suit over him and suddenly he's out there looking like a Michelin Man.  So they started out with a stunt man who was quite thin, but in a rubber suit, to Ridley he looked like the Michelin Man.  

source quotes

1. Ridley Scott: We started with a stunt man who was quite thin, but in the rubber suit he looked like the Michelin Man. (http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2008/09/revisiting-alien-ridley-scott/ )
2. Ivor Powell: When we started out looking for the Alien, we were looking for something that had a sort of erm , the size , the build, that was incredibly slight, incredibly thin, erm, and exactly the opposite of that sort of quintissential Creature from the Black Lagoon which is a big stocky stunt guy, then you put a latex suit over him and suddenly he's out there like a bloody Michelin man, and they all look.. you know it looks ludicrous, so we had to start off, 'cause CGI didn't exist then, we had to start off with some...   (Alien Makers II)

Alien: Enter Veruschka

Leading from 

Looking for the Alien's Nucleus

Verushka

a) Searching for female forms
They started looking at women, and actually Giger claimed to have come up with the suggestion of using Vera Gräfin von Lehndorff-Steinort also known as the model Veruschka, someone who had changed ­fashion for good. She was the first super model of the 1960w. Her height was known to be 6 foot three and with its improbably long limbs, was revolutionary at the time, ­following an era of women with much fuller figures. The idea of associating danger and sexual desire, to have a creature that was at once desirable and lethal excited Ridley who was thinking about two women battling one another. It was the eroticism in Giger's work that had struck Ridley immediately, where everything is merged in his organic looking paintings. 

b) Enter Veruschka
Verushka herself came in, and so Ivor saw her there she was wearing a little pair of knickers and they always asked her to crouch down. Ridley thought about the form of a praying mantis, and how the knees would be impossibly high like a grasshopper. With great interest, Ivor found himself photographing her in various states of undress using the polaroid camera for the Alien. However

c) Giving up

The idea of two women battling one another as great as it would have been, Ridley realised there were practical problems, they couldn't find a woman tall enough for exactly what they wanted and by general agreement they had to give up the idea. The alien would be transformed into a man with a feminine shape, in essence a hermaphrodite.

Veruschka (source http://www.formidablemag.com/veruschka/)

Source quotes

1. Ridley Scott: Originally I wanted a very feminine creature, long limbed in the style of Verushka . The idea of associating danger and sexual desire, to have a creature that was at once desirable and lethal and that was exciting.  It was the eroticism in Giger's work that had struck me immediately. Everything is merged, it's a very "organic" painting. All the while there were practical problems and, by general agreement, we had to give up the original idea. The alien was transformed into a man with a feminine shape - a hermaphrodite. (Film Illustrated. v9. n99, Nov 1979, "Duelling with Death, The Alien World of Ridley Scott") 
2. Ivor Powell: The person that put the suit on had to be A, impossibly tall, we wanted them to be incredibly long limbed, especially from the waist to the knee, and erm, so we started looking at women, and I...and  it fell on my job to sort of er, you know, to try and bring in women on, I remember one of the tallest models, and quite a well known model of the time was this woman called Verushka, and she came in, and well literally, there she was, you know, in a little pair of knickers, erm and we always asked her like to crouch down, Ridley had this idea that it would be like a sort of praying mantis, and the way when you sort of crouch down, the knees sort of are impossible high, so, like a grass hopper, and so we went through all these pre-ambulations of trying to cast women so lucky Ivor, unfortunate Ivor had to photograph and take polaroids of all these women in various states of undress, you know, for the Alien," (Alien Makers II documentary) 
3. Ridley Scott: When I started Alien I wanted to not only have a strong heroine, but I also wanted to make the creature female as well: two women battling one another would have had a great sexual connotation. (David Lewin, Daily Mail,1/10/79) 
4. Ridley Scott: I wanted the alien in human form very sensual and take on a female shape. I had to abandon the idea because we couldn't find a female tall enough. (David Lewin, Daily Mail,1/10/79)

Alien: Circus performers tried out

Leading from 

Alien: Looking for the Alien's Nucleus
and
Alien production timeline February 1978

a) Inviting circus performers
Ridley had some acrobats from the circus come in, he wanted to see the body contortionists tie themselves every possible knot and so by combining bodies in twos and threes on the floor and on the table before them, they created these monstrosities by sitting on top of each other, getting tangled up with each other and the such. Ian Holm saw the contortionists prowling around the set and bending their bodies into impossible shapes, while it seemed that Ridley and his effects team were in thought about the whether a monster costume could be built around one of them

b) Three contortionists: a tall man and two children
So the examples given are the three body contortionists who tied themselves together, and further descriptions reveals large man wearing a costume who would hold two children. But the three body contortionists combined to form shapes that you wouldn't understand and would walk around to get the monstrosity of the alien movement but the man underneath was always staggering all over the place.

c) Two contortionists: a normal man and a dwarf
The other example is the two contortionists tied together and revealing more, a normal sized man holding a midget above him in way that you couldn't work out what you were looking at and tied together they would walked around but Ridley decided it wouldn't work they couldn't get the head on. 

d) Roger Dicken's cynical view
Roger Dicken recalled one day that he drove in and found that they had acrobats rolling around on the table, in bags They were toying with the idea of shooting the chest burst sequence full-sized, in an attempt to get some weird, revolting, writhing thing. Whilst this was going on, he noticed that there were still countless meetings about the look of the big beast, literally to decide what size of man should be in the suit,  and so it went on and on and on.  

e) Giger's cynical view
Giger thought that it looked phony and not frightening at all, but he understood how Ridley thought he could take a combination of humans, build a costume around the whole thing and make any kind of monster, a multitude of monstrosities and using movement, they tried it several times but in reality, the possibilities seemed to be very limited and in the end Ridley concluded that it would be too awkward. They came to a decision that the scariest thing would be something close to a human.


 Source Quotes

1. HRGiger: Yeah how, why look further.  But then he thought, after all we still had time – perhaps we would find something else, and he went on to try out all kinds of things, for example he got some acrobats from a circus to come. In twos and threes, on the floor, on the table in front of us, they created these strange monstrosities by sitting on top of each other, getting all tangled up with each other and that kind of thing, and Scott thought he could kind of dress up the whole thing or make any kind of thing monster, a multitude of monstrosities and using movement or whatever, but in reality the possibilities turned out to be quite limited. (source?)
2. Dan O'Bannon: The first thing Ridley did is he had contortionists come in. He wanted to see contortionists tie themselves in every possible knot and walk around and see if they could build a costume around a contortionist. He had two contortionists tie themselves together and walk around, And he had three contortionists tie themselves together and walk around. He finally concluded it was too awkward. (source?)
3. Ridley Scott: We went through all sorts of weird things where first I got some contortionists to make a shape that you couldn't understand where by combining three bodies, then the one underneath was always staggering all over the place, so then we developed to two, so then we developed to a midget contortionist with a normal guy underneath, so that you didn't quite know what you were looking at, and then I figured that wouldn't work because we couldn't get the head on. (Alien Saga Documentary )
4. HRGiger: Because you never use your first design, we went onto experiment with other things. We used performers from a circus, joining two guys together to get the monstrosity of the alien movement, but it looked really phony, not frightening. (FX O7 1999)
5. HRGiger: When I had the first meeting with Ridley Scott , we found that the alien creature was the most difficult part of the film. We decided to talk first to think out how it should look. We tried several experiments. One attempt was a big man in a costume holding two kids. He wore the suit but he was afraid it wouldn't work. (source? p20)
6. HR Giger: First, we tried to invent something. So Ridley asked for some people from the circus, and they tried to do the walk in a specific way, or he wants to put two or three people together, bend them together, and to put something over... lt was always a little ridiculous, the whole thing, and it wasn't scary. And so we decided the scariest thing is to be very close to a human being. ln those days, l couldn't even get latex thin enough that wouldn't break quickly. (Alien Quadrilogy Documentary)
7. Ian Holm. Once I saw a couple of contortionists prowling around a set and bending their bodies into impossible shapes while Scott and his special effects team estimated whether a monster costume could be built round one of them (Ian Holm: Acting my life, p219)
8. Roger Dicken : So began an epic period of nonsense, where they tried out anything and everything. I remember one day I drove in and found that they had acrobats rolling around on the table ... in bags. They were toying with the idea of shooting the chest burst sequence full-sized, in an attempt to get some weird, revolting, writhing ... thing. And whilst this was going on, there were countless meetings about the look of the big beast, literally to decide what size of man should be in the suit. And so it went on and on and on. (http://cellulord.blogspot.com/2009/10/a30-alien-30-pt-5.html)
9. HR Giger: (23 February 1978). We carried out some tests in Scott’s office with a group of people, including some children. Scott thought that a big man with some children strapped to him and the whole group ‘wrapped up’ in rubber might produce a monster with a number of movable extremities. We tried the idea out several times, but had to accept that it gave rise to too many problems.  (Giger's Alien, p60)

September 2015

Leading from

updates 2015

 

Wednesday 29th September 2015
1) Updated Reaching "Alien: Paradise Lost" (Prometheus 2) along w ith Questions about God and Paradise Lost with information  from  http://www.scified.com/site/prometheusmovies/shaw-and-david-will-make-it-to-the-engineer-home-world-in-prometheus-2-alien-paradise-lost
2) Added Scritpwriter John Fasano criticizes Prometheus
3) Added namepage for John Fasano 
4) Added John Fasano's Predalien sketch

5) Added a page on the  Chariots of the Gods the movie project , since it's approximately in the same genre as Prometheus, and John Fasano was scriptwriter for it. 


Tuesday 28th September 2015
1) Endlessly reediting Vincent Ward's Alien 3. 
Getting into a point of confusion about whether Ferguson had been employed to write the script when Fasano claimed he was.


Monday 27th September 2015
1) Breaking up into separate pages and endlessly reediting Vincent Ward's Alien 3



Sunday 26th September 2015
1) Just watched the first 2 episodes from last weekend's Doctor Who and noticed something that seemed to slightly familiar in the background and so have added Moebius' Alien derelict inspires Dalek building in Doctor Who


Friday 25th September 2015
1) Updated : Alien: Brett's death in the Claw Room - Temple Environment with information about Sigourney's point of view of the scene from Questar magazine.
2) Updated Questions about God and Paradise Lost 
3) Added Neill Blomkamp's Alien movie. This will be about reports of it going into production and we seem to be waiting for Prometheus to be over and done with so that Ridley can produce it, and meanwhile it looks as if Prometheus 2 is now the fifth Alien film because of the title.
4) Added information from a new Empireonline article to Reaching Alien: Paradise Lost (Prometheus 2)
5) Added Ridley says "Better than..." 


Thursday 24th September 2015
1) Updated Reaching Prometheus 2  again but with confusing new information about the movie's new title Alien: Paradise Lost, making the page now Reaching Alien: Paradise Lost . The news came courtesy of the website Heyuguys.com.

Wednesday 23rd September 2015
1) Updated Reaching Prometheus 2 with interview snippets from Filmflutter (http://www.filmfutter.com/news/prometheus-3/)

Friday 18th September 2015
1) Added Did the depictions of alien abductors from the Betty and Barney Hill UFO abduction incident inspire the front of the head of Necronom IV? and this might be the end of my elongated investigation in to Necronom IV's origins. It probably might be nice to work out when and where Giger was having his different realisations indeed, but there only just enough to make general assumptions from by the looks of it.
 
Thursday 17th September 2015
1) Created a separate section for the Prometheus Hammerpede's Origins in Dr Who And The Tomb of the Cyberman's Cybermats separating it from "Doctor Who and The Tomb of the Cybermen" echoes in Prometheus
2) Added a name page for Ridley Scott 
3) Added a page of photos from the TV film The UFO Incident from 1975, about the Betty And Barney Hill abduction case
4) Created a separate page for Dan o'Bannon's admiration for HP Lovecraft, it was formerly part of Dan O'Bannon's Mysteries
 
Wednesday 16th September 2015
1) Updated Reaching Prometheus 2 with new information from Ridley's interview for Collider
2) Updated "Doctor Who and The Tomb of the Cybermen" echoes in Prometheus with information from "Doctor Who Scripts: The Tomb Of The Cybermen" which suggests even more that the plot elements were borrowed from Doctor Who which in a way is okay, but the problem is that we have full explanations behind the ideas for that certain Doctor Who story, which although were quite interesting for the time, probably just stand as very good 1960s scifi TV.

Sunday 13th September 2015
Updated Reaching Prometheus 2 with new information from Ridley's interview for Deadline

Friday 11th September 2015
1) Added Ernst Fuchs' Triumph of the Sphinx inspires details for Necronom IV
2) Added a name page for Ernst Fuchs

Monday 7th September 2015
1) Isolated the original published reference to the term Pred-Alien by Paul W.S. Anderson
2) Updated Paul W. S. Anderson sells AvP with material from, Total Film SFX November 2004, Dreamwatch, #118 and Empire, November 2004 and changed the name of the article to Paul W. S. Anderson boards AvP, perhaps the name will changed again soon.
3) Edited AVP: Silhouette of the Alien Queen which is about the satellite in the movie which resembled the alien queen.
4) Made slight updates to AVP: Bishop returns again  with material from SFX November 2004

Thursday 3rd September 2015

1) Added Did Ralph McQuarrie's Knobby White Spider concept help inspire Cameron's Alien Queen?

Wednesday 2nd September 2015
1) Added Giger's still birth machine (1976)'s relationship to Ernst Fuchs Observatorium 1965.
2) Added Giger's still birth Machine III (1977) and its relationship to Fuchs'  "Samson finds the carcass of the lion"

Tuesday 1st September 2015
1) Added page about Giger's Pump Excursion painting series which shows of the concept of whether the man is about the blow his brains out or is he an American Indian playing a flute.

Photograph of Micronauts for a Dutch department store De Bijenkorf's catalogue (1979)

 

a) Photograph of Micronauts for a Dutch department store De Bijenkorf's catalogue (1979)

(as posted at MicroFans - Micronauts & Microman (ミクロマンとマイクロノーツ） Group by Eddie Berst)

 

 

 

 

 

 

b)  References Devil's Kitchen (AKA: Stalingrad), (1944) by Max Von Moos ?

 

 

 

 

c) Referenced in Alien Monster III (work 409) (1978) by HR Giger ?

Alien: Early Ridleygram of Derelict Entrance

 

leading from

Ridleygrams

a) In this Ridleygram of the derelict entrance, in the distance, out through the entrance, on the right side of the pod in the distance we see the side of an observation dome.

On the left, inside of the ship, we see a passage going off into the distance.

b) References Gesthemane (1944) by Mark Rothko?

b.i) Of course I really don't have an ultimate word about what's going on in the Gesthamene painting but to me it loosely resembles a washing line, and perhaps there's the head of a bird of prey with a red hood on the right, but that's the way I would describe it at least. But really I don't have a set of phrases to describe the parts of this painting in any specific way 

b.ii) The images side by side with the Rothko reversed

 

b.iii) The main dark shadowy shape on becomes the pod in the distance, while the curve cable piercing it from the right in the snippet of an image perhaps becomes the dome on the side. 

The dark drooping shapes at the bottom become the explorers

b.iv) The dark shape that becomes the distant pod

b.v) Detail showing the he dark drooping shapes at the bottom become the explorers

b.vi) The twisted part at the end of the shape stretching over the larger dark shape becomes a planet

b.vii) The other side of the painting and the corresponding features in the derelict ship.

b.ix) Where there would be the eye of the bird like head, it becomes the distant part of the sloping corridor. The straight line separating the blue and red area on this head like form become the top of the near entrance frame leading into the tunnel.

 b.x) Central lower part of the painting which might as well be the pole of the rotary washing line with billowing linen above.

It's as if the pole becomes the astronaut standing inside the ridge of the open entrance.

The black spike below becomes the shadow inside to the left of the lower ridge of the entrance

Alien: Early Ridleygram and early Moebius drawing of the derelict ship exterior closeup

Leading from

Jean Giraud / Moebius
and
Ridleygrams

a) Early Ridleygram:  Early Ridleygram of the derelict exterior closeup.  

Is the circular hole an observation bubble?

b)  References Crucifixion (1933) by Francis Bacon?

Crucifixion (1933) Francis Bacon

b.i) The two images side by side

b.ii)  The upward angle from Bacon's painting next to the upward curve revealing pipes etc

  

b.iii) Arms and head of crucified figure next to the equivalent in the Ridleygram

  


b.iv) The feet perhaps become the explorers approaching the ship

b.v) The diagonal lines from Bacon's painting next to vertical lines on the side of the side

c) Tying in with Moebius' derelict ship exterior closeup

Moebius' derelict with observation dome
(source; I scanned this from Fantastic Films magazine)

c.i) In the drawing of Moebius' derelict ship exterior closeup, just as with Ridley's drawing,  there is an observation bubble where we would find the giant pilot's seat facing towards,  there's an upward curving gap at the bottom of the ship that reveals the inner workings beneath, and we see a human astronaut approaching the vessel


Which came first, Moebius' drawing or Ridley's storyboard?

Perhaps they were done at the same time when Moebius came over to England to do his concept art for Alien?

c.ii) Perhaps just as Ridley seemed to, Moebius referenced Crucifixion (1933) by Francis Bacon

c.iii) Perhaps like the bottom of the painting by Bacon, there is an upward angle where the ship's machinery can be seen and the Christ's legs become where the astronaut stands.

Alien: Chris Foss' Leviathan sketch No.5

leading from

Chris Foss' early Nostromo concepts

(source: Charles Lippincott on Facebook)

from Hardware: The Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss

Alien: Two robots chatting

leading from
The Tomita Planets 
and 
Ridleygrams
and 
Nostromo

and

Roger Christian

 

 

Earlier version of the Storyboard. The helmet in the foreground 
on the right has the words "Danger Dandruff"

a) Questioned about the use of helmets
Ridley didn't want to do the whole of the first act with people wearing helmet and it got to the point where he was to be asked about the need for these objects 

So he was asked "Well, why the helmets then?"

Ridley's answer was "Well if you’re in rough conditions, ok? " 

Earlier version of the Storyboard

b) Emergency Helmets
In the beginning of Alien, Ridley wanted to have a computer wake up the other computer and then fundamentally wake the crew up, and this developed into Ridley caming up with the sinister idea of having computer screens reflected in the faces of what were essentially emergency helmets or for when certain conditions arised, perhaps just as one might put the helmets on just when flying a helicopter.

Later version of the storyboard

c) Two Computers Chatting
First of all in the storyboard the helmets were mounted on clips on the seats and later they were positioned on the backs of the two seats. Once Ridley saw the Nostromo's bridge set coming together
 

Ridley had the idea late in the day of the two robot like voices chatting away with one another as if they were asking "Shall we wake them up?" because Terry Rawling the editor had been playing around with Tomita's rendition  of "Mars Bringer of War" in the editing room while they were cutting the movie, which featured such computer like voices chatting.

Later version of the storyboard

d) 16 millimetre projectors projecting onto helmets

With the opening of the movie, when the ship is waking up, we see those graphics in the helmet visor. No one knew how to do it. It could be done with rotoscoping animation. Roger Christian was working with projection already, and he said "I was doing it, we were projecting some letters, so why don't I give it a try."

 

Ridleys team developed some little 16 millimetre projectors that simply projected the displays onto the visors of the flight helmets as if it were the small screens of the monitors reflecting relaying alpha numerics and conversation between the two computers, one computer goes "bink bong" and they start to talk. 

 

They were actually bike helmets that they had converted, sprayed and coloured.

 

Ridley got a camera set up in front of them, Roger Christian handheld the projector and moved around until the computer readouts were actually reading in the helmet. 

 

They were going "yeah, now!" and Ridley shot it, resulting in what's in the movie 

 

Ridley decided to call the two computers Tom and Jerry. 

 

None of it had been scripted but lot of it had been worked out by Jimmy Shields who was his sound designer at the time.

 

 

visual projection on the helmet visor

Nostromo Spaceship Original Emergency Helmet
(http://www.sciencefictionarchives.com)

Source Quotes

1. Ridley Scott: A lot of what you see on the screen is there (the storyboard)  After we made alterations, when I started to do the film I then drew a day-by-day shooting storyboard which was printed and issued. While I was doing this, I didn't really know what the Nostromo corridors were going to look like. This is where I got the idea of having the helmets on the back of the seats appear to be "talking" to each other. After the lights come on, the two computers start talking to each other, I was trying to get the storyboard to be more science-fiction-y. (Fantastic Film#11, p27)
2. Ridley Scott: 'Cause I always remember using the music of (The Tomita Planets) with War of the Worlds (Mars Bringer of War) on the very beginning when Terry Rawlings and I were cutting the film. And Terry was a great…Terry is a great editor. And has a great sense of music. In fact I learnt a lot about music from Terry. And he was screwing around with (Tomita's planet) and that’s where I got the idea of the talking heads, from two helmets, instead of having a computer saying, you know, `shall we wake them up?’, ok, I’ve got the helmet, the flight helmets on clips on the back of the seat so when you’re coming in if you want it under different conditions you’ll put that helmet on like in these helicopters I’ve just been using which are so spacey they’re unbelievable, and everything’s inside the earphone so you can hear everything, everyone. And I tried the helmets on, and I didn’t want to do the whole act with everyone with a bloody helmet on so I said `well’ they said `why the helmets then?’ and I said `well if you’re in rough conditions’ ok?" But it’s a great beginning to have 2 helmets and suddenly one goes bink, bong. And they start to talk. I thought, that came from (Tomita's Planets) when I listened to his music and you have kind of talking computers which I thought kind of interesting. (report from interview with Ridley Scott for Alien Evolution)
3. Ridley Scott: The sinister idea of having the screens reflected in the faces of what were essentially emergency helmets which are always in position on the back of two seats seemed to be a great way of , er, opening the film. Er, I came up with that idea when I actually saw the set coming together, and so the addition of the helmets talking to each other was late in the day, but I think it worked pretty well. (Alien 20th anniversary dvd commentary)
4. Ridley Scott: (03:51 /00:04:09) The ideas of the helmets came again late in the day, I wanted them waking up. Before in the script, they used to have a computer wakes up the other computer, and fundamentally (00:04:00), erm, wakes the crew up.  What I developed this into,  is I put two helmets on the back of the seats, developed some little 16 millimetre projectors that simply projected onto the helmets as if it were the, the small TV screens or the small monitors relaying alpha numerics and conversation between the two computers, so these two computers are chatting. That was just worked out with us in the mixing theatre and the editing room. None of that thing is scripted, in fact Jimmy Shields worked a lot of that that out 'cause he was my sound designer at that particular moment.  (Alien commentary from Alien quadrilogy / Alien Anthology)
5. Roger Christian: With the opening of the movie, when the ship is waking up, you see those graphics in the helmet visor. No one knew how to do it. It could be done with rotoscoping animation. I was working with projection already, and I said "I was doing it, we were projecting some letters, so why don't I give it a try." I got a 16mm projector and we made up the helmets. They were actually bike helmets that we'd converted, sprayed and coloured. Ridley got a camera set up in front of them, and I handheld the projector and moved around until the computer readouts were actually reading in the helmet. We were going "yeah, now!" and he shot it, and that's what's in the movie (Starburst #486, 2024 p9)