Prometheus: The Deacon

leading from

Prometheus: Creature designs 

and

Prometheus: The Ultramorph

 

 

 

Deacon puppet

 

 

a) Previously known as the Ultramorph?

In the script, this was earlier intended to be something known as the Ultramorph as an alien creature that gestated inside an Engineer, this final incarnation of the Prometheus mutations was always intended to be a missing link of sorts between this film and the films of the Alien series. 

 

See: The Ultramorph

 

 

 

 

b) What it represented in the film

 

This thing would represent the beginning of HR Giger's alien, although the final version of it as seen in the film did not directly resemble the great beast of Alien. 

 

Ridley Scott had been using illustrator with the help of illustrator Carlos Huante to develop a pale ghost like goblin creature that was a sort of a primitive version of the alien beast.

 

They went through a long design process with Ridley, who was really wanted something as good as Giger's design, and they were trying to see what they could come up with.

 

This would be the main creature throughout the film 

c) What was this thing?

 
Roughly it could be labeled as a Neomorph which was a type of creature that Carlos had been designing.

This one, because of the pointed back of its head, he dubbed it the Bishop because of the similarity to the Bishop's mitre, and then he renamed it the Deacon to not get it confused with the android character Bishop

However the exact creature that Carlos Huante would be put aside until the next film that would be Alien Covenant. 

Meanwhile someone else would take up developing the Deacon further in a different direction

 

 

 

d) Sculpting the Deacon

 

Ivan Manzella has been established as one of the key sculptors along with Julian Murray. 

 

Together they created the deacon sculpture over a weekend late in the production schedule and they went to a fill-sized sculpt. 

 

Ridley came in several times to give them feedback and direction, and they ended up with a creature about the size of a six-year old child

 

 

 

e) Building the Deacon

 

Scanlan's team built two versions of the deacon, a soft puppet that fit inside an embryonic sac, and an articulated  rod puppet, both produced in silicone. 

 

Supervising mold modeler Daniel Meaker compressed the soft puppet into a three-foot-diameter latex bal­loon, and then added a mixture of metallic and organic based pigments and silicone birth matter. 

 

The balloon fit inside a hollow animatronic dummy of the dead Engi­neer, which Vanessa Bastyan and Catherine Fleming fabricated with an articulated ribcage and internal organs. 

 

Puppeteers operated the Engineer dummy from beneath the set, causing the body to convulse and emit the newborn.

 

f) Filming the scene

 

The Deacon's pointed head burst through the ribcage and split it open. 

 

Then with an enormous heave, it rolls out onto the floor like a calf being born. 

 

They they brought in the rod puppet,  which had a lot of visible controls, but Ridley loved it. 

 

He ignored the technicalities and just went with it.

 

 

 

g) Puppeteering the Deacon

 

Richard Stammers staged clean plates of the deacon camera setups, but the birth played mainly as a practical effect with digital enhancement. 

 

The first shot after the birth is practical, but with digital rod removal. 

 

With the puppet serving as blocking for performance, they matched the CO animation to the puppet. 

 

Weta replicated the deacon and augmented tendons in the creature's neck, which tense as the creature stands on fragile legs and then emits a roar.

 

This reveals a telltale second inner jaw based on the long protrusible jaw of the deep sea Goblin Shark.

 

The Deacon's secondary jaw ends the film with the nightmarish hint of possible horrors to come.

 

 

 

Goblin shark with extended mouth

 

h) The Deacon's jaw

 

Ridley actually wanted the secondary mouth animation to reference the action of a goblin shark, which can dislocate it’s jaw and launch it forward to catch its prey. 

 

They needed to redesign the whole mouth and lower jaw to give the structure to build in the mechanics of this action. 

 

For this they went back to reference Giger’s original work and added in his details, which their sculpting team led by Florian Fernandez designed.

 

 

 

i) The Deacon's skin

 

The deacon’s skin is slightly pearlescent. 

 

They wrote a custom shader for the way the pearlescense reacts with the light. 

 

There is also a layer of blood, mucus and liquid all over the skin, which gave them a layered shading model to get the complexity of the material qualities of the skin. 

 

The lighting was a continuation of the strobing lighting and was carefully matched to the clean plates by leads Florian Schroeder and Adam King

The Deacon maquette

 

 

 

j) When the Ultramorph became the Deacon

 

In a version of the script by Jon Spaihts called Alien: Engineers, the Ultamorph pursues Elizabeth  Shaw and she impales the alien creature's skull with a diamond bladed saw and kills it.  

 

This creature would be renamed in the scripts as the Deacon and quite possibly would be said to be a creature filling out a different role from that of the earlier intended Ultramorph. 

 

It is said in the picture gallery in the Prometheus Blu-Ray set that the Deacon creature was originally intended to have more screen time, pursuing Elizabeth Shaw and David to the second Juggernaut ship, narrowly missing them as they leave the planet at least not showing how easy it was to kill.

k) Carlos Huante's response

 

When Huante went to see the film.

 

He thought that it roughly resembled a his idea for a Neomorph, but they had changed it to a blue Muppet.

It was supposed to be the Deacon coming out of the engineer at the end of the film, but the character got pushed around and turned into something else.

After that he felt ill in his stomach for two days.

 

 

  

l) Deacon Blues

 
With the final Deacon creature for some reason is coloured blue.

 

We might think about the band Deacon Blue with the name inspired by the song title Deacon Blues by Steely Dan, and that song also contained the name Crimson Tide.

 

(See: Abstract connections with blue deacon)

1. Originally known as the Ultramorph, this final incarnation of the PROMETHEUS mutations was always intended to be a missing link of sorts between this film and the other entries in the Alien series. Effectively the unholy offspring of all the infected victims who came before it. Ridley Scott dubbed this creature the Deacon, based on the pointed shape of its head, similar to a Bishop's head-dress. This creature was originally intended to have more screen time, pursuing Shaw and David to the second Juggernaut ship, narrowly missing them as they leave the planet. (Prometheus Blu-Ray gallery notes)
2. The original Alien's trademark secondary jaw can be found in more undeveloped form with the Deacon. Based on the long protrusible jaw of the deep sea Goblin Shark, the Deacon's secondary jaw ends the film with the nightmarish hint of possible horrors to come. (Prometheus Blu-Ray gallery notes)
3. Interviewer: What was your approach with the Proto-Alien that emerges from the Engineer?
   Martin Hill: Similar to the baby trilobite, the deacon was a real puppet built for the performance on set, so we started by replicating its build digitally. We quickly discovered that we needed to augment the model considerably for articulation of the muscles and joints to make it feel more like a natural, physical creature. Ridley wanted the secondary mouth animation to reference the action of a goblin shark, which can dislocate it’s jaw and launch it forward to catch its prey. We needed to redesign the whole mouth and lower jaw to give the structure to build in the mechanics of this action. For this we went back to reference Giger’s original work and added in his details, which our sculpting team led by Florian Fernandez designed.
   Interviewer: Can you tell us more about the challenge of its particular skin?
   Martin Hill: The deacon’s skin is slightly pearlescent. We wrote a custom shader for the way the pearlescense reacts with the light. There is also a layer of blood, mucus and liquid all over the skin, which gave us a layered shading model to get the complexity of the material qualities of the skin. The lighting was a continuation of the strobing lighting and was artfully matched to the clean plates by leads Florian Schroeder and Adam King. (http://www.artofvfx.com)
   
4. Neither combatant survives. When the battle con­cludes, both lie inert until the Engineer’s body erupts as another lifeform hatches, created from a cocktail of human, Engineer and trilobite DNA. “We called it the ‘deacon’ because the head was shaped somewhat like the hat of a deacon,” said Neal Scanlan. “It represented the beginning of Giger’s alien, although It did not directly resemble that creature. We went through a long design process with Ridley, who was really throwing the Giger card out there, trying to see what we could come up with.” Ivan Manzella and Julian Murray created the deacon sculpture over a weekend late in the production schedule. “We went straight to a full-sized sculpt. Ridley came in several times to give us feedback and direction, and we ended up with a creature about the size of a six-year-old child.” Scanlan’s team built two versions of the deacon, a soft puppet that fit inside an embryonic sac, and an articulated rod puppet, both produced in silicone. Supervising mold modeler Daniel Meaker compressed the soft puppet into a three-foot-diameter latex bal­loon, and then added a mixture of metallic and organic based pigments and silicone birth matter. The balloon fit inside a hollow animatronic dummy of the dead Engi­neer, which Vanessa Bastyan and Catherine Fleming fabricated with an articulated ribcage and internal organs. Puppeteers operated the Engineer dummy from beneasth the set, causing the body to convulse and emit the newborn. “The deacon’s pointed head burst through the ribcage and split it open.” related Scanlan. “Then, with an enormous heave, it rolled out onto the floor like a calf being born. We then brought in the rod pup­pet, which had a lot of visible controls, but Ridley loved it. He ignored the technicalities and just went with it.” Stammers staged clean plates of deacon camera setups, but the birth played mainly as a practical effect with digital enhancement. “The first shot after the birth is practical, with rod removal,” noted Richard Stammers. “We then went to full CO; but the puppet served as blocking for performance, and we matched the CO ani­mation to the puppet.” Weta replicated the deacon and augmented tendons in the creature’s neck, which tense as the creature stands on fragile legs and then emits a roar, revealing a telltale second innerjaw. (Cinefex 130) 
5. Carlo Huante: The Ultramorph was going to be the giant.. I never read a script where it was actually written in though.. nor the Deacon for that matter..the Deacon was supposed to come out of a man only.. (1st July, 2017, https://www.instagram.com/carlos_huante/p/BUbBHY2De1j/?hl=en-gb)
6. Carlos Huante: I’d have liked it if they made my design of the Deacon..not that thing at the end of Prometheus which made me ill in my stomach for two days.. (https://yutani.studio/carlos-huante-alien-day-2020-interview/)
7. Carlos Huante: Now what they did with that at the end of the film, they changed it to that blue Muppet, the thing that, the thing, that wasn't, that wasn't my design for the creature. This was supposed to be the Deacon here, right here, ah, same thing that came out of the engineer at the end but it got ss..., it did, the character got pushed around and turned into something else, so, erm, you can't really say look at these designs and look at the film and place them in there because they were all mushed around and put in areas where they actually weren't t originally designed to be so. (Creature Talk episode 1)