a) Confusion about how the Nostromo interior should be
At the start of the film, they didn't quite know precisely what the
inside of the Nostromo should be, but finally they had to work it out in
order to plan the running of the choreography of the crew through the
ship.
b) The extent of their confusion
It got to a point where trying to hold the variout bit all
this information in their heads was driving the production designer, the
art director and Ridley mad.
c) Three dimensional deck model
While still in Ridley's commercial office in London, during the early
stages of Alien's production before they decamped to Shepperton, they
built a three dimensional three deck model of the Nostromo, from
cardboard and balsa wood and it was very much what someone would see if
they were to look at a cross section of the ship showing tthe three decks
d) How to get from point X to point Y
They wanted to be able to know if it was feasible to get someone from point X to point Y using the sets they had available.
What they found was that it would have been too expensive to do what the script said, so they used a model to work out out alternative routes to those mentioned in the script, instead using what they were limited to with their sets.
e) It was just a very crude model
It was very crude, to the point that it was smashed up afterwards, perhaps without even being photographed
- Fantastic Film: Was there ever a conceptualization of precisely what the inside of the Nostromo should be?.Ridley Scott: Not at the start, but we finally had to do it in order to plan the running choreography of the crew through the ship. It just got to the point where trying to hold the various geographical to-ings and fro-ings of the crew in our heads was driving the production designer, the art director and me mad.
Finally it became necessary to actually build a three-dimensional, three-deck model. We had to be able to know if it was feasible to get someone from point X to point Y using the sets we had available. What we found was that it would have been too expensive to do what the script said, so we used a model to work out alternative routes. It was made of cardboard and balsa wood, and was very much what you would see were you to look at a cross-section of the ship.
Fantastic Film: Does it still exist?
Ridley Scott: No it was smashed up. ?
Fantastic Film: Was it photographed?
Ridley Scott: I don’t think so. It was very crude. I mean, we built it at a very early stage in the production, when we were still in my commercial office in London. We even had Giger coming in there. We were there for a few months until we decamped from there to Shepperton. (Fantastic Films 11 October 1979 vol2 no5) - Michael Seymour: We worked out carefully the placement of each compartment, where it would be below or above in realtion [sic] to the next deck. (Cinefantastique (Vol. 9, No. 1. 1979))
- Screen International: Production designer Michael Seymour and his team originally toyed with the notion of building a huge three-story set. (Screen International , Saturday 1st September 1979, p20)
- Screen International: It was decided, though, that this was impractical for filming, and the three levels were built on separate stages.(Screen International , Saturday 1st September 1979, p20)
- Michael Seymour: We started by building model sets, then an actual section of a starship corridor from part of the operational bridge. The after further discussions we began building the sets in earnest (Mediascene #35, p13)
- Ridley Scott: I
thought of the Nostromo as different things on different decks. On the
crew quarters level it's like where the staff of the Hilton hotel
would live. The walls are covered in modularized padding designs. There
are ten thousand of every item for the various ships of the fleet, but
on a plastic Hilton-ish level.
There was a strange, marvelous sort of reality in the early scenes of 2001 where he's going up to the moon base. And sitting asleep in the seats with just the food tray there, I took all that in and thought it was incredible. It's not that far ahead of a 747. I admired the reality of it, because all of it was just a hull with some interior decorations.
We tackled 'A" deck (the crew quarters, bridge, infirmary), much the same way, the "B" deck was more electronic and technical, with a certain amount of styling and design for the crew. "C" deck was really the hold of the freighter. You know, all the open untreated pipes and electronics and whatever else you have down there. It had garages where they parked the various bits of equipment that they might need for different purposes. The flying machines, tractors and so on. It was all very logically thought out.
FF: Was there ever a plan to use any of the machinery we see around the "C" deck garage?
Ridley Scott: Well, Walter Hill and David Giler had looked upon the crew of the Nostromo as truck drivers. The vehicles were part of their gear. When I came up with the refinery idea, the machines stayed on.
FF: Was there scenes layed out for the use of these toys?
Ridley Scott: I didn't want the crew to just sit around on board . I hoped we might find a reason to get them outside and away from the ship. Perhaps for repairs on the Nostromo or onto the refinery itself. But it worked out as too impractical an idea.
FF:Was there ever a conceptualization of precisely of what the inside of the Nostromo should be?
Ridley Scott: Not at the start, but we finally had to do it in order to plan the running choreography of the crew through the ship. It just got to the point where trying to hold the various geographical to-ings and fro-ings of the crew in our heads was driving the production designer, the art director and me mad.
Finally it became necessary to actually build a three-dimensional, three-deck model. We had to be able to know if it was feasible to get someone from point x to point y using the sets we had available. What we found was it would have been too expensive to do what the script said, so we used a model to figure out alternative routes. It was made of cardboard and balsa wood and wad very much what you would see were you to look at a cross-section of the ship.
FF: Does it still exist?
Ridley Scott: No it was smashed up
FF: Was it photographed?
Ridley Scott: I don't think so. It was very crude. I mean, we built it at a very early stage in the production, when we were still in my commercial office in London. (Fantastic Film US#12/ GB #2, p19)
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