Alien Covenant: Production meeting , August 2015

leading from

Alien: Covenant

a) Meeting at Shepperton

In a meeting held by director Ridley Scott at Shepperton Studios in August 2015, visual effects supervisor Charley Henley sat down with a team including producer Mark Huffam, production designer Chris Seagers, costume designer Janty Yates and special effects supervisor Neil Corbould to discuss Alien: Covenant, the next chapter in the sci-fi horror franchise famous for its nightmare menagerie of bloodthirsty extraterrestrials.

b)The unsettling question

Having explored the saga's backstory in Prometheus, Scott's goal was to continue a prequel series that would eventually dovetail with the movie that spawned it all - the director's seminal 1979 film Alien. Specifically, Alien: Covenant would reintroduce a classic movie monster - the hideously elegant xenomorph originally designed by Swiss artist H.R. Giger. At the heart of the emerging storyline was the unsettling question: "Who made the alien, and why?"

c) Huge room plastered with concepts

Charles Henley noticed for himself how the meeting was in a huge room plastered with concepts, and indeed  Ridley had a wealth of material that he'd been developing over the months before Henley joined.

Chris Seagers had been working on designs. There were some costumes, which Henley thought had a kind of Moebius look. There were sketches of ships by concept artists like Steve Messing and Steve Burg. There were creature designs, including some historical work done for Prometheus that hadn't come to fruition. Ridley told the meeting attendees that he was keen to have a film that was more gritty than Prometheus; he already had that aesthetic clearly in his mind.

d) Ideas that Ridley he wanted to being in

Ridley also had some pretty clear ideas of the things he wanted to bring into the classic xenomorph design.

They laid out all the drawings from Giger, photos from the original Alien, and other material that he liked. 

They knew from the outset that they were going to do fully CG versions of all the creatures, but Ridley also wanted to have something there on set that he could frame on and direct, and that could interact with the actors. 

They started with the idea of reference puppets; later, this evolved into high-quality creature suits.

e) No final design

As preproduction continued, art director Ravi Bansal explored alien designs with a concept team at MPC. 

Then, creature design supervisor Conor O'Sullivan of Creatures Inc. and creature effects supervisor Adam Johansen of Odd Studio took over the ongoing design process, assembling a 50-strong team of artists, sculptors and designers. 

At first Conor O’Sullivan was told that everything was designed and there were going to be no men in suits, telling him that he was just going to do makeup effects, and asked if that was enough for him. 

In November, Conor finally saw 100-odd designs for the creature going back 10 years, and Ridley still hadn't committed. 

1. In a meeting held by director Ridley Scott at Shepperton Studios in August 2015, visual effects supervisor Charley Henley sat down with a team including producer Mark Huffam, production designer Chris Seagers, costume designer Janty Yates and special effects supervisor Neil Corbould to discuss Alien: Covenant, the next chapter in the sci-fi horror franchise famous for its nightmare menagerie of bloodthirsty extraterrestrials.

   Having explored the saga's backstory in Prometheus, Scott's goal was to continue a prequel series that would eventually dovetail with the movie that spawned it all - the director's seminal 1979 film Alien. Specifically, Alien: Covenant would reintroduce a classic movie monster - the hideously elegant xenomorph originally designed by Swiss artist H.R. Giger. At the heart of the emerging storyline was the unsettling question: "Who made the alien, and why?""The meeting was in a huge room plastered with concepts," Charley Henley recalled.
   "Ridley had a wealth of material that he'd been developing over the months before I joined. 
   Chris Seagers had been working on designs. There were some costumes, which had a kind of Moebius look. There were sketches of ships by concept artists like Steve Messing and Steve Burg. There were creature designs, including some historical work done for Prometheus that hadn't come to fruition. Ridley told us he was keen to have a film that was more gritty than Prometheus; he already had that aesthetic clearly in his mind.
   "Ridley also had some pretty clear ideas of the things he wanted to bring into the classic xenomorph design. We laid out all the drawings from Giger, photos from the original Alien, and other material that he liked. We knew from the outset that we were going to do fully CG versions of all the creatures, but Ridley also wanted to have something there on set that he could frame on and direct, and that could interact with the actors. We started with the idea of reference puppets; later, this evolved into high-quality creature suits."

As preproduction continued, art director Ravi Bansal explored alien designs with a concept team at MPC. Then, creature design supervisor Conor O'Sullivan of Creatures Inc. and creature effects supervisor Adam Johansen of Odd Studio took over the ongoing design process, assembling a 50-strong team of artists, sculptors and designers. (Cinefex 153)