Leading from
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| The Auriga |
a) Rick Fichter and Darius Khondji first connect
When Rick Fichter and Darius Khondji first met, and started talking, the way Darius displayed how greater his understanding of photography was what lead Rick to be concerned about being brought in.
After they started discussing the writing style of the film script and Rick thought it was quite daring.
b) Problems with photography in space
In a typical way, they would do their outer space photography, where there would be the sun over here and then they would bash the model with that light, there was a sort of rudeness in photography that they began to discuss.
However what Darius was talking about with Jean-Pierre Jeunet was a kind of lighting that one would see in deep space, where there wasn't the sun to rely on, so wherever the light came from becomes very important.
c) The word "God Light" was spoken
It was a form of omnidirectional lighting, and so Darius with Rick started talking in terms of "God light", and this would have no particular source, it would be a directionless non-existent light.
Even at night, in their own every day world, they would have a source, and a directionality of light, whereas in deep space which Darius saw as an absence of light, it would just be enveloped by this very low key lighting and this omnidirectional light.
So they talk about that in detail and how they wanted it to look, as if it were very brooding, very dark, very mysterious.
They knew what they were talking about although at the same time it was hard to describe.
Rick found himself working on another project some years earlier where the film makers were discussing the same concept (The Right Stuff?), but when they started going off in that direction back then, they became frightened and back off.
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| The Betty soars through deep space toward the brooding Auriga space station. The mosquito-like scout craft was fashioned as 5' model and photographed by Fichter using light bounced from Black Wrap-covered boards |
Rick found that from the standpoint of physics, those complicated, shiny surfaces made it almost impossible to create the very diffused lighting that they wanted.
To solve the problem they built these very large fluorescent banks which we felt would be a very soft, omnidirectional lighting source.
But while they came in very handy with much of the miniature work, these banks weren't the answer.
e) Looking back to Rick's jewelry lighting days
Then Rick tried a trick that he learned years earlier in his commercial work.
When lighting jewelry, they would build a black fabric tent out from the lens and then bathe the jewelry with this omnidirectional lighting, which made it look very full-bodied.
But when they experimented with that approach on the Alien models, the directionality made the surfaces kick and gave them this very high-key look, which was exactly the opposite of what they were looking for.
He did a test early on to show Darius and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet that the shiny model surfaces were not conducive to their lighting approach. Meanwhile, everyone was saying 'We need to get shots in the can.'
Darius was very supportive and kept pushing them to give Rick some time to figure out how they were going to light this.
To solve the problem, they built very large fluorescent banks which they felt would be very soft omnidirectional lighting source. But while they came in very handy with much of the miniature work, those banks were not the answer.
f) An accidental solution
And so a solution to the problem would come purely by accident.
A grip carrying a piece of black foamcore walked in front of a certain very powerful light and Rick saw the light they were talking about.
Negative sources were nothing new and had been used to take light away and cancel out certain types of light, but this was different.
g) Negative light
So with this deep space light that was "negative light" while everything out there was black.
Here they had a very powerful light bouncing off a black surface, which had the quality of being there without as it were "being" there. Another dilemma was finding a bounce material that could create the proper effect yet withstand the intense heat.
They tried throwing black silks in front of their lights, but found that the effect only worked when white light was bounced into a reflective black surface.
After considering several bounce materials one of which involved anodized pieces of aluminium, Fichter finally hit upon a novel and cost effective solution involved making 20' x 12' x 6' surfaces covered with Black Wrap, and then pounded their lights into that. And with that very large fixtures had to be used.
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| The Betty coming into landing |
h) Heat
However they were using 20 K lighting and what that did reflecting off the black wrap was to create an oven effect. The problem was that when shooting miniatures with motion control cameras, they were stuck down quite a bit so the camera exposure is really small at perhaps, and on top of it, the DP didn't want any specular reflections on the models.
These models had beautiful paint jobs were being subjected to high heat and were literally melting and bubbling on stage. They were, they were starting to warp and crack and the plastic resin was starting to come apart, so part of way through the photography, they had to bring in air conditioning units, they decided to run rubber hoses from the units, push them up inside the models to keep the models cool so that they could photograph them,
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| The Betty docked in the Auriga being filmed |
Source Quotes
- Khondji encouraged Fichter to take a lighting approach that the effects cinematographer had long wanted to try.(https://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/alienFX/pg2.htm)
- Rick Fichter: But Darius, when I met him we started talking. He just had a lot more breadth of understanding of photography. I was a bit concerned about being brought in, but in our conversation we discussed the writing style and it was a bit daring. 'Cause in a typical way we do our outer space photography, you always have the sun over here and you just bash the model with that light - there's a kind of rudeness in the photography that we got into. But what Darius and Jean-Pierre were talking about was this kind of lighting that you would see in deep space, where you didn't have this sun to rely on, so wherever your light came from becomes very important. We discussed this omnidirectional type of lighting, and we started talking in terms of god light, that there was no particular source. Even at night, in our own, everyday world, we have a source, and a directionality of light - whereas in deep space, it would just be enveloped by this low, low, kind of light - low key lighting and this omnidirectional light. So we talked about that in great detail. And how they wanted it to look, like it was very brooding, very dark, very mysterious.(Alienresurrection.com)
- Rick Fichter: So, talking with him, in the aesthetics of the lighting was the main thing, I would go over the set every once in a while, I would show him tests and the kind of directions I was going in. And he would offer suggestions and tell me what direction he liked us to go. There's an affinity there with him. I just took to Darius very quickly, I respected him, I liked his whole style, it was a chemical type of thing. So the kind of lighting was exactly the type of thing that became challenging, and something that I was really drawn to. So, did we have a lot of time together.? No. He was very busy and I was very busy. But our times together were just, it as like "click", and it was a very nice feeling. To not even have to speak, and know that the other person was thinking. It was a very nice feeling.(Alienresurrection.com)
- Rick Fichter: Darius described deep space as this absence of light, and yet, there's
also this absolute 'God-like' light a directionless and non-existent
light. Years ago, I was working on another picture and the filmmakers
had described that, but when
we started to go in that direction, they got very frightened and backed
off. But Darius kept talking about this God-light look. We both
knew what we were talking about, although it was difficult to describe.
(https://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/alienFX/pg2.htm) ('Alien Effects Techniques adds realism p44) - Despite a theoretical understanding, Fichter didn't know how to achieve this ethereal illumination, especially considering the unique characteristics of Alien Resurrection's miniature spacecraft. Both the Betty (a small, light-colored, mosquito-like ship)and the Auriga (a dark, brooding, cigar-shaped space station) had highly detailed surfaces which kicked light right back to its source. (https://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/alienFX/pg2.htm)
- Rick Fichter: From the standpoint of physics, those complicated, shiny surfaces made it almost impossible to create the very diffused lighting we wanted. [To solve the problem], we built these very large fluorescent banks which we felt would be a very soft, omnidirectional lighting source. But while they came in very handy with much of the miniature work, these banks weren't the answer. (https://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/alienFX/pg2.htm)
- Rick Fichter: I then tried a trick I learned years ago in my commercial work. When lighting jewelry, we would build a black fabric tent out from the lens and then bathe the jewelry with this omnidirectional lighting, which made it look very full-bodied. But when we experimented with that approach on our Alien models, the directionality made the surfaces kick and gave them this very high-key look, which was exactly the opposite of what we were looking for. (https://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/alienFX/pg2.htm)
- Rick Fichter: I did a test early on to show Darius and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet that the model surfaces were not conducive to our lighting approach. Meanwhile, everyone was saying, 'We need to get shots in the can.' But Darius was very supportive and kept pushing them to give me some time to figure out how we were going to light this. (https://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/alienFX/pg2.htm)
- Fichter's solution to the lighting problem occurred purely by accident. (https://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/alienFX/pg2.htm)
- Rick Fichter: A grip carrying a piece of black foamcore walked in front of this very powerful light and I saw the light we were talking about. Negative sources are nothing new and have been used to take light away and cancel out certain types of light, but this was different.There is light in deep space, but it's negative light and everything out there is black. Here we had a very powerful light bouncing off a black surface, which had the quality of being there without 'being' there. We tried throwing black silks in front of our lights, but found that the effect only worked when white light was bounced into a reflective black surface."(https://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/alienF
- But Fichter's negative-lighting approach also produced a unique and paradoxical challenge: how to bounce sufficient illumination off a black surface that was also absorbing a large amount of light. The simple answer was to use very large fixtures. (https://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/alienFX/pg2.htm
- Rick Fichter: In miniature photography, we normally use small lights to work with the scale of the miniatures. But here we were using 20Ks and Maxi-Brutes in order to get enough bounce, and we had a lot of problems with the heat created by all of these huge lamps inside the black tent that covered the shooting stage. (https://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/alienFX/pg2.htm)
- A secondary dilemma was finding a bounce material that could create the proper effect yet withstand the intense heat. After considering several bounce materials, one of which involved anodized pieces of aluminum, Fichter finally hit upon a novel and cost-effective solution:" (https://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/alienFX/pg2.htm)
- Rick Fichter: We eventually made 20' x 12' x 6' surfaces covered with Black Wrap, then pounded our lights into that. (https://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/alienFX/pg2.htm)
- Ian Hunter: We got the privilege to work on the fourth one and it was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and er, Darius Khondji was the DP, and er, incredible DP and er love his photographic style. But the one thing that happened on that movie, and it's incredible that I can live to tell the story, erm, we built these models and we're shooting them, they want this very erm, zero light space depths look, whatever that was, so they spent a lot of time wedging the look of the models for the space scenes, erm what was the lighting supposed to look like. They didn't want any direct light on them because they didn't think for outer space you're going to get a direct light, it has to look like reflective light from all the starlight, so they have to find some way to get these lights for these... these model ships to expose but without any direct lighting on them. Eventually it came up to a point where they decided to come up with a look and the look was, to bounce light off the black wrap and in order to get enough exposure off of black wrap, we were taking 20 K lights, hitting the black wrap and then using that bounce to light the models. So, erm, we were essentially building these giant ovens of black wrap and 20Ks around the miniatures to get enough exposure. Well the problem is is that when you're shooting miniatures with motion control cameras, you're stuck down quite a bit so your camera exposure is really small, 22, f 22 whatever we were shooting at, and on top of it, the DP didn't want any specular reflections off of the models themselves, so the models started out with these incredibly beautiful paint jobs that er, erm, Nigel Phelps the production designer had come up with these really bright, vibrant, you know sort of erm, Heavy Metal-esque from the comic, you know, Moebius, Chris Foss, looking de... er... high designed colour schemes and the Betty was bright yellow with erm, these tiger stripes and very effective looking, you'd never seen anything like it because you really haven't seen anything like that on film. But the models were erm being. erm, subjected to high heat and were literally melting and bubbling on stage. They were, they were starting to warp and crack and the plastic resin was starting to come apart, so part way through the photography, we had to bring in air conditioning units, run rubber hoses from the air conditioning units, push them up inside the models to keep the models cool to photograph them, so er, very intense, insane shooting scheme (deleted scene from Berton Pierce’s 'Sense of Scale' – A Documentary Film of Industry Model Making)
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