Alien: The Story Behind MAKING the ‘Derelict Sequence’ | Making ALIEN
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
- When Dallas, Kane, and Lambert step out of the Nostromo’s airlock in Ridley Scott’s Alien, they are not only led into a foreboding alien world, they are entering the nightmarish mind of one of the greatest dark surrealist artists who’s ever lived-HR Giger. This whole sequence is like stepping into a series of Giger paintings and along with its importance in setting up the rest of the movie, the mystery that is created heightens the terror surrounding the monster. So let’s go through the Derelict sequence from beginning to end and look at how everything was created from concept to execution.
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Sources:
Huge Collection of Alien Resources: cinephiliabeyond.org/alien-40...
Tons of BTS Pics (Gavin Rothery): bit.ly/3HuHjzN
- Alien Explorations -
Space Suits: bit.ly/3Oi7JZk
Moebius Suits: bit.ly/47JCYDj
Moebius Derelict: bit.ly/3OdRvAc
Pyramid: bit.ly/3OfXNzm
Space Jockey: bit.ly/3vOD0wC
Derelict Scene: bit.ly/47TOADL
(Mediascene #35) Mediascene Issue #35
(Cinefantastique V09) Making Alien - Cinefantastique V09
(Cinefex 001) Cinefex Issue 001
(Giger’s Alien) Giger’s Alien by HR Giger
(Rinzler) The Making of Alien by J.W. Rinzler
(ASC Scott) American Cinematographer - The Filming of Alien - bit.ly/39jUhTu
(The Beast Within) bit.ly/3f6ri87
(Alien Commentary) Alien Blu-ray Commentary
(Nathan) Alien Vault: The Definitive Story Behind the Film by Ian Nathan
(Alien Anthology) bit.ly/3J5gnYz
(Giger’s Alien) bit.ly/3OhMI0V
Music:
Epidemic Sound - Розваги
I truly consider the original "Alien" one of the best films ever made and cinematic art.
...of the highest order.
True
100% agree.
Nice try Micheal Parks, I considered the original “Alien” one of the best films ever made and cinematic art before you considered the original “Alien” one of the best films ever made and cinematic art.
@@raFael-ge6ge well, that is what I said.....lol ...
I agree.
Funny how the Iceland locations in Prometheus feel like CG, but the Giger's Derelict landscape set/paintings feel so grounded and real.
One is trying to bring real life into fantasy, the other is bringing fantasy to real life.
Because there was CGI used a bit
It was so good its ridiculous now because there's too much to choose from..HR Giger was our Michelangelo. He was more than we knew what was beautiful.
Well, some cgi is used to extend or fix sets but mainly has to do with the cleaness of modern productions, mostly when they shoot Digitally, everything is so sharp now that looks fake unless the filmmaker goes for a gritty look, like "The Batman" film.
@ Straight out of camera there is plenty of noise, but the workflows for effects etc in post that are used are mostly applied after a de-noise stage, often with a sharpen added. Nothing stops people from using wider/softer DoF and leaving the sensor noise as-is, in particular when shooting raw. But yeah if you shoot everything razor sharp with 8k cameras and then de-noise, sharpen and smooth transients, then color even and bin to 4K and watch on a 4k TV... It'll look like CGI perfect no matter what it is. People look like wax dolls, plants like plastic etc. Like a subtler version of the 80-90s rom com soft filter craze but sharp edges to it. Something like that, it gives a CGI-like feel to real shots, fine if that's the desired look, but it goes too far in a lot of stuff. Things look like props on a stage, with a fresh coat of paint...
"Giger is a special case. When something is that good you have to recognize it and leave it alone." He understands something that is lost on many.
Talent is so rare in hollywood...
the derelict being closedly resembled a Dero if you noticed
as someone who understands giger's sleepless mania induced creativity on a personal level that statement felt so damn good to hear
much of my best work happens when i lie awake in bed for an hour or two and finally have to jump up and make it happen just to get it out of my head
Giger created something so timeless it‘s incredible
Same with Blade Runner.
Demonic, literally without a body, literally differently timed
It kind of taps in to some Primal Fears, which for better or worse do Not Change.
Long before i saw the movie i was seeing the posters and toys as a kid. I was absolutely fascinated by the whole thing, but i knew there was no way my parents would take me to see it.
the derelict was biomechanics, was it a life form? I believe that space jockey and that derelict is one organism
hard to put in context now as we've been saturated in decades of Gigeresque imagery, but I still recall when the movie first came out. I was gobsmacked. I went out and bought "Giger's Alien" the artist's book on the project. I showed it to my art teacher and he was blown away.
The derelict sequence is one of the creepiest, most convincing, best edited and best designed sequences in science fiction cinema. And to think the studio heads wanted Scott to ditch the Space Jockey scene based on cost! Scott stuck to his guns and we can all be thankful for that.
Let's also remember the incredible soundtrack that in no small part contributed to that! :) Absolutely unique sounds and composition were chosen to amplify this feeling of seeming decay and emptiness, with something of malice lurking within
I was born in the nineties so I was already well exposed to this sort of imagery by the time I watched Alien, but that didn't diminish the experience for me. But yeah, that was precisely what I was thinking while watching this video, how incredible it must have been for the audiences at the time. I think these kind sof videos are important to get a full appreciation for some movies that are trully innovative. The story of how they arrived at the final derelict design really puts it into perspective in my opinion. Nowadays you could reach out to hundreds of artists who've grown up with Giger's art and all other artists inspired by him, and they'd be able to come up with very similar designs conceptually, or even weirder things. But the story behind the design really puts into perspective how, at the time, Giger was such a different visionary, and how banal and kitsche the other artists' designs were, despite being completely appropriate for the human ships. Back then you didn't have the proliferation of images that the internet provides us now. So getting a visionary such as Giger onboard was really quite a catch.
@@BathroomTile Credit really goes to Salvador Dali for introducing Giger to Jodorowsky, then to Jodorowsky for introducing Giger to Dan O'Bannon....in fact the road to Alien is a story in itself!
@@Li_Tobler yep the soundtrack is superb especially the opening theme, so creepy and haunting.
Scott showed great instinct for all the art - not only - in this movie
Imagine designing something so alien and out of this world, that people had a hard time actually building it physically. Giger's mind was one of a kind.
I've always thought his art was the definition of otherworldly..
what must it be like to have an imagination that conjurs up the stuff of nightmares
I wonder how terrible his nightmares were
Am saving for later, a nice reward. :) When I saw ALIEN opening week, the Derelict scene was the moment when everyone in the theater just bought the whole movie.
All around me, I heard the adult viewers saying, "The Fu....?" "What is that?"
It was a stroke of genius of Scott's to first show it to us at a remove, like we were watching something happening live on TV.
Then Lambert says what the audience was thinking: "Let's get outta here," people were nervously muttering in the audience, and the kid me thought, "Yeah, lets..." But of course we had to go on...
I was 15 and a buddy of mine & I snuck into a drive-in in San Antonio, TX to see it in the 1st run. That movie was a turning point in my life (and not just because Sigourney Weaver ruint me.) It was one hell of a film.
So you expect us to believe you could hear "the adults" all saying "WTF is that etc etc" during the movie and all the loud wind noise. Why do people invent these lame stories?
@@CraigAPenningtonoh yes and let's guess you and your 'wife' also saw The Exorcist when you were 4, like all the other troll liars? All of you also say you "snuck in" because you think that sounds gangster, right?
@@papalaz4444244Be careful.... Your ignorance is showing.....
"We must go on... we have to go on..." famous last words
It's really fascinating how big of an impact Jodorowsky's failed Dune project had on Hollywood in the late 70's and 80's.
Even though the movie was never made, it created bonds between people, concepts and ideas that would permeate Sci-Fi movies for over a decade.
There is a high likelihood that we never would have seen this version of the Alien if O'Bannon and Geiger hadn't met while working on the Dune concept.
Giger looks like Carl Sagan's evil twin brother.
Interesting behind the scenes video. Back in the 90's, I worked for Derek van Lint, the cinematographer for "Alien". It's his lighting that makes the alien landscapes, the dark corridors, and the Alien itself work - revealing enough for the audience to be scared while hiding all the seams and rough spots. In normal light, the Alien looked exactly like what it was - an actor in a rubber suit. I don't think Derek and Ridley Scott got along.
"Alien" was Derek's ticket to Hollywood, but it didn't quite work out. He had considerable success in commercial production, with its ups and down, but he always came back. "Alien" has all the hallmarks of Derek's best work. He did like his smoke! An artifact from "Alien" that we had at the studio was the hot-head crane he had made for the movie. It was a complete pig to move which was always heavier after a long day of shooting.
I've always wondered why he only shot ALIEN and DRAGONSLAYER (unless I've missed something). Both look amazing, and show variety in approach, too. It seems with those two credits alone he could've gone on.
Scott liked his smoke, too, and diffusion--look at his ads and THE DUELLISTS. Plus I believe in the UK a director is allowed to operate, too, whereas that's against union rules in the US.
@@JohnInTheShelter Apparently, Derek was on the shortlist for "The Empire Strikes Back". And if the story was told about it is true, I understand why he didn't get it. (It was very Derek van Lint.) He did shoot and direct "The Spreading Ground" in 2000. He's credited as Derek Vanlint. Maybe I've got the spelling wrong. It's been a while since I had write it. I'm pretty sure on the company trucks it was "van Lint" or "Van Lint".
the last scene with the alien bumbling through space wasnt lit by him then ^^
@@felixmustar7386 There really isn't much you can do about the lighting in space if you've got a yellow star. It's going to be high contrast and bright, showing every flaw.
Wasn’t the lighting for the derelict interior floor borrowed from Pink Floyd’s equipment at the soundstage Nextdoor? I’ve heard this in another alien filming lore documentary. I was hoping to hear it compounded in this one but it just missed. I hope that’s a real fact, just too cool
Having HR Giger design all things that were “Alien” made it so convincing. The Alien architecture fascinated me at the time and still does. It was terrible and beautiful.
If you’ve not already checked it out, I’d suggest looking into the game scorn. The developers took Geiger’s biomechanical design and ran with it! They based the entire game on his concepts even incorporating puzzle elements using one’s own body as the key. Really fascinating but can be rather graphic. If playing is not your bag, Curious Archive has a fabulous video discussing these facets of the game.
Artists like Giger are something we desperately need more of in this world. Artists who truly trust their own vision and spirit to manifest something beautiful, meaningful and mysterious
Problem is that prudish zoomers and conservatives would never let someone as perpetually horny as Giger reach mainstream presence today.
I mean... I trust you're familiar with his work, right? It's like 75% penises.
You can say that again. Instead we get "Banksy" and are just expected to call it art.
welp usually people are asleep and don’t recognize the greatness until the artist’s gone
Giger was a very special case. More than just trusting his own vision it was more like he couldn't escape it, he had terrifying nightmares constantly and he said that painting them and letting those thoughts and images flow through his airbrush was his only way of dealing with them.
@@MechanicalRabbits dark visions
The space jockey scene is on my top 3 list of all time favorite sci-fi scenes. I was intrigued and curious for years about the idea of another, different alien species. When they explained it in Prometheus, I was very disappointed, it seemed contrived.
Prometheus was a heartbreaking abomination.
It doesn't explain anything, Prometheus doesn't get it. As fun of a fun it was, it was not in the alien universe to me
@@Dudderlyful - For me, everything after the first film has been another universe.
As much as I enjoyed many of them, not a single one ever tapped into the same vein.
What? you guys got no imagination, the Engineer’s from Prometheus, were the most interesting thing about the alien universe since the xenomorphs. Really a, alien genetically grown out of the chair is boring. That means the classic space jockey isn’t really a living being. But a artificial genetic being. If that was the case, the space jockey, couldn’t be the species to actual build the derelict space ship. FYI, the space jockey, looks a lot like quato from Star Wars esp 1, not very frightening.
@@johnnyflores5954 - Okay, so… no need to be insulting. We feel differently than you about this topic. With all due respect, chances are that my imagination is fully up to snuff.
I’m not looking to pass judgment on you for enjoying something about PROMETHEUS, so don’t go looking to undercut my intelligence because I was heartbroken by Ridley Scott’s return to the subject.
If you think we’re wrong, then just keep scrolling.
I love the space jockey. That room looks like a tomb but I got the impression that was how it looked when he was alive anyway. They just walked in there so that meant it was open to the vacuum of space when the ship was in flight. And whatever information he got from those weird instruments, it was invisible to us.
It doesn't mean it was open to the vacuum of space in flight at all. The ship was ancient. It was likely damaged and had long since lost any seal it had from the outside.
Some aspects of the derelict seemed in some small way electronic as in the scene where Kane is trying to look into the egg, you can see a flashing light on the wall behind him
Concerning the space jockey. Seeing the first Alien movie the space jockey skeleton always reminded me of an elephant. It wasn't explained in the first Alien. Thats why I like Prometheus, despite its flaws. It's about deitis, in this case the Hindu ones.
The found footage quality of the set up shots that introduce the Derelict are so unsettling. Entire modern films use the FF concept as a premise but Scott stumbled on it here. A true master.
I love this movie to death. And it's worth recognizing how bad and cheesy it could have turned out if all of these things hadn't happened to come together, all these different ideas and talents merging. There are obvious predecessors and influences that I also love like Mario Bava's 1965 Planet of the Vampires, John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon's 1974 Dark Star, and of course Lucas's Star Wars, but Alien avoids all that cheesiness, and in so doing it just feels legendary. There's probably an editor that deserves a lot of credit for that too. Loving this series!
ALIEN's editor was the late, great, Terry Rawlings. His work on the film is, as you pointed out, legendary. He also worked on BLADE RUNNER too, so that's two SF classics he worked on!
But Dark Star's "cheesiness" helps make it was it is, i.e. beachball for the alien space pet that led to the 'Alien' and Dan O'Bannon being on the ground floor of the making of this movie. It was O'Bannon that bought in the talent and H.R. Geiger to begin with.
Thank a dollar store beach ball for all of that.
@@vincentgoupil180 "Darkstar " is truly one of the funniest movies I have ever seen "....you said the ship needed a mascot "...referring to the beach ball alien ! Too funny!
@@michaelparks6120
Agree, "Dark Star" is a funny movie (first saw it overseas on a Marine base which made it all the more ironic at the time).
O'Bannon mentioned the beach ball inspired the Alien concept. Believe the Cinema Tyler seies acknowledges "Dark Star" was a precursor to "Alien" and "Bladerunner" with O'Bannon, Moebius and other creative individuals working off and on together. Now if Tyler would review "The Fifth Element" :)
Ha, kinda amusing, there's another "Dark Star" movie, "Dark Star: H.R. Giger's World" a 2014 documentary.
Gee, wonder if there are any beachballs in that one, scary ...
@@vincentgoupil180 a beachball with Creature from the Black Lagoon hands.
Practical Effects and Models > CGI
Amen!
As fascinating as the Giger designs are, it's easy to forget just how cool the space suits look.
Ridley Scott's designs of the props and set have a unique style to them as appearing both technologically advanced and ancient and archaic
Practical effects had such a wonderful effect on movies. As well as animation and creative multimedia tactics. Modern CGI just comes off like bland disconnected green screens.. Just look at Beetlejuice, Spawn, The Thing, The Fly, Pee wee Hermans big adventure, Dinosaurs, Hook, James & the giant peach, space jam, etc. There is just something so special about practical effects, animation, multimedia formats. I wish movies and shows could bring it all back. I never would have thought these things would have basically disappeared. When they were all over the place during my childhood through out the 90's
Even the blends of certain practical and cgi effects in the 90s and early 2000 like jurassic park, starship troopers and the matrix are miles better than what's out today.
To bring it all back we'd have to do ourselves.. or beseech producers to get back to doing it for the sake of everything quality
When I was 13 me and my friends snuck into the theater to watch this
I wish I could see it again for the first time.
What an experience!
An excellent video. Giger was a true Rembrandt of our time. I have many of his books and his work is often imitated, but will never be matched. RIP
true dat
His art is one of a kind, for sure.
My sentiments exactly 👍
@jimurrata6785 Almost, Hieronymus Bosch was Dutch, Hans Rudolf Giger was Swiss.
@@jimurrata6785 oops
I liked Aliens, but I loved Alien. As a kid I was totally blown away by how well the movie was visualized. It’s a masterpiece.
7:44 I think the fact that it takes you a second to understand what it might be, is the best thing about the design!
Hey i have seen you before you are a quite the weirdo
@@edwinve4112 what?
I'm fascinated by Giger and Giger's artwork. we take it for granted now but his style is truly something unique and out of this world. I can still see his influence in movies that came after alien like The Matrix and the new Dune movies. he changed sci fi.
Alien and The Thing are my 2 favorite sci-fi movies of all time.
As a screenwriter I can tell you the final Alien shooting script is the leanest most visual script you’ll ever read. Ridley had a great guide but you can see he made the vision his own of course with the help of hundreds of great artists and a great cast that delivered.
I wish we did this more often.
Then again, people used to be able to name a favorite artist. Recently I can't think of a single artist from the past couple decades that has really stood out to me.
That says more about you than about the state of art in the last couple decades. It's not like there's a lack of brilliant artists.
This. Twitter has found several incredible horror artists for me.
Ken Currie comes quite close
He's a Scottish artist who paints very bleak and grim paintings of people and animals
I've been an Alien fan for 30 years and always learn something new from your videos. Well done! Cheers
Saw it in the theater when it came out, blew the audience away!
@nhmooytis7058 I envy that experience. It's an experience we don't get often in modern cinema. The experience of presentation cinema is lost in streaming post 2020 world. Its truly magical to see work on the big screen uninterruptrd and focused. Let's the magic come in
@@HumanHamCube I was lucky enough being born in 1952 to see such classics as Lawrence of Arabia, Bonnie & Clyde, The Godfather (on opening day!), Blade Runner, Das Boot, in the theater.
The “space jockey” is by far my favorite part of the film.
The Nostromo interior and exterior was and still is the pinnacle of most possible realistic approach to ship design. Truly gorgeous.everyone. Acted like theyd been operatiing such machines as just a regular ol job most their lives, the sequence for self destruct was so fucking cool at the end. No ones done anything even close. This film really nailed the environment and the feel that just realistic feel inside their vessel. I wish this wouldve been a trend at least for a short while but uts ok cos the uniqueness of this film is the nostromo and its operation. Truly amazing work
H.R.Giger did all that Artwork with a tiny little Airbrush! Sooo much work!!!!😮
Thought I'd seen it all before. This video uses a lot of footage I'd never seen before. It was great to see.
The derelict whole sequence is one of the greatest triumphs of horror and thriller magic ever created. I mean, the "space jockey" is eerie as fuck! And the derelict spaceship also looks truly alien, and one of the most beautiful spaceships I've ever seen.
Great video, Tyler. If you don’t already have it, I strongly recommend getting the HR Giger diary that was released a while back. It’s hundreds of pages from his personal diary during the Alien production. It’s a fascinating first hand account of the design and production of the film.
that sounds very cool
@@poindextertunesit is. Last I checked it was kind of expensive, but well worth it. It’s also filled with hundreds of his sketches, and photos from the production. He actually sounded mildly annoyed by the whole process. Lol.
It doesnt make sense that it’s a gun. What’s it supposed to do shoot inside the ship? I always thought it was a navigation instrument or something.
Yeah, I saw it as more of a medical kinda thing with the skeleton being examined or something. It didn't make sense at the time, but did later on when the alien popped out.
I always pictured it as something like a periscope in a submarine
It’s a navigational instrument/ pilot chair in Prometheus. Maybe Gigers original intention was it being a telescope of sorts.
Everything in this movie is pure perfection of moviemaking including visuals, design, sound, casting, screenplay, editing etc. One of the best movies ever made. In fact for me it is The movie!
Yes, my favourite movie ever!😊
@@dnr2089 He he glad to hear it. Every time I feel nostalgic or get a bit tipsy 😏
I watch Alien, Aliens and Predator (1987)! Watched them more then 100 times each!
Here after watching the 45 anniversary on the big screen. This movie is such a classic and the music is hauntingZ
I love how thorough and informative your videos are! I've watched all of the behind-the-scenes content from my old Alien DVD, and your content remains fresh and thoughtful. Bravo!
Thanks so much!
Great stuff. I’ve long felt that the derelict miniature may be the single greatest piece of production design of any science fiction film.
It looks like it was built by beings who inhabit a completely different perceptual universe from us.
So many great artists working and building towards an amazing film. Once again, it shows that amazing practical effects stand the test of time while bad cgi does not.
Practical effects can be achieved only by allowing the true vision to be seen there will always be complications, but in those complications we get beauty. I like to call it imperfect beauty.
*How tragic that the director appears to have spent the rest of his career vandalizing this moment*
H.R.Giger died 2 years after prometheus... 🤔 jumping off a roof.
@@jamesday1295He fell down the stairs in his home
Tony Scott was the real artist in the family. Ridley reminds me of Kubrick..great cast and beautiful sets/cinematography, but his storytelling/plots are lackluster. They rarely give the audience what it wants to see.
Thanks for this very thorough treatise on Ridley Scott's 1979 gift to the world!
Scott, O'Bannon, Geiger et al, came together to produce a masterpiece that will never be duplicated!
IMHO, all those involved had some decades earlier lived through the horror of WWII, and that experience must have had a profound effect on their psyches. This enabled them to collectively envision and produce a film that encompassed all the horrors they had witnessed.
A true work of art that will never be duplicated.
The status Alien has attained in the decades since demonstrate that this movie is an outlier, produced by individuals who had just 30+ years earlier had experienced a fight for survival that only they could appreciate.
Definitely one of the genres top films ever!!
Thanks for posting!
Memories of seeing this in a theater are fading, but this triggered them yet again! Much praise!!
I love that there was such an emphasis on the alien world in the movie. It’s such an immense and atmospheric experience. The (relatively) short experience of the alien world felt like such a long and tense exploratory mission like the crew members would have felt about it because of just the sheer size and slowness of them trekking across the land. Truly masterful work, a beautiful and surreal experience that is rarely only caught in sketches but was somehow turned into a medium like cinema.
This video is immaculately made! I can't tell you how excited I got when I saw that not only are the subtitles accurate, they also have CITATIONS! Thank you for putting so much care into the accessibility of your videos, it may seem small but it means a lot :)
Another great episode! Love these! Always neat to see Giger's work; must have been unreal to have him personally working on the film set. I also found it fascinating that Ridley used an early camcorder, onto a tv, being filmed; that's basically the retro 80s "aesthetic" that everyone loves these days.
Go watch 'Planet of the Vampires' (1965) by Mario Bava. There's a sequence in there that is very similar to the "Space Jockey" scene in Alien which has also been sited as inspiration for the scene.
HR Giger is my favorite artist. His attention to detail was absolutely astonishing.
Being a pro artist myself, I know of all these artists. I grew up studying their artwork thoroughly.
As brilliant and legendary as they are, man I’m so glad they went down the path with Giger. Such a great decision!
He nailed it !
Always appreciate when People take the time to look up Pronunciation of Names. You wouldn't believe how many times one hears "GEIGER" instead of Giger. Even the Rudi you pronounced (mostly) right!
EDIT: I should also mention how well researched and put together the Video is!
Any relationships between the Giger and Geigy families ?
i.e. Hans Reudi Giger-Meier sounds similiar to Johann Rudolf Geigy-Merian (1830-1917).
@@vincentgoupil180 Probably not. Never heard of that one
@@ThePowerofYeti
Thanks for reply.
Was just wondering if Switzerland being a smaller area than the countries surrounding it, Giger or variations of that common surname can be compared to, say, Smith or Jones, in America. Or, attaching the maternal surname last is an accepted practice in Europe ?
Btw, appreciate the link to Vox's "Color Patterns ... " video as I am interested in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's colour theory.
@@vincentgoupil180
As with everything, there might be a Link somewhere in history. But I see no apparent connection in meaning other than it could refer to Violins in both cases. I feel that's a stretch though.
And don't get confused by the Hyphen. The second Name could be his Wife's or Mother's last Name. I'm not sure where the Meier comes from.
@@ThePowerofYeti
Gige, geige, 11/12th century for violin.
Mell Giger-Meier was his mother's maiden name according to online sources including the Giger Museum. Hans Richard Giger his father's name.
In the ironically titled movie "Dark Star: H.R. Giger's World" on his father's pharmacy store window was painted "H.R. Giger-Meier". *
I was just curious how the European naming convention works, if any, i.e. one of Giger's favorite authors was Gustave Meyrink a pen name for Gustave Meier then Meyer.
Yes, potato, potatoe, tomato, tomato, tomahto, tomayto ... I know :) At least Taylor's pronunciation of Giger was correct regardless of some posters who write before reading what other commentators have already wrote.
* Also in "Dark Star: H.R. Giger's World" ar 4:25 to 5:00 Giger explains how Ciba-Geigy send his a father a skull he tied to a string and walked around with (guess he didn't have his taxidermied cat yet) at six years old. Giger was born 1940 so that would have been around 1946. Except Ciba-Geigy AG was founded in 1971. So if Giger was confused regarding dates and names, possibly due to a stroke, so am I.
Reccomend the movie free on UA-cam now.
Brilliant, thanks for taking the time to put this together. Just when I think I have heard all the stories and seen all the good photos from the production there always seems to be more 👏👏👏
Bring back this Brilliant Integral Art back to films.
1965's Planet of the Vampires is likely a big influence on the Derelict & Space Jockey, with its own derelict ship on a similar planet & giant alien skeleton crew
Talent borrows
Genius steals
1:53 it would be neat if someone tried to create a 3D model out of Cobb's Derelict.
7:07 in *Giger's Alien,* the Derelict is a representation of 666, the sign of the Beast (Giger recalled how his grandmother would occasionally flash "the sign of the beast" at him when he was a kid, ie sticking your pinky and index finger out, while curling your middle and ring finger into your hand, with your thumb holding them down). The left leg is the hand sign on it's side (6), the ship itself from atop is another sign (6) and the right leg is the fingers spread out (6).
8:02 it was even better than that. In Cinefantastique, while Carrol and Giger were arguing, Scott broke out a little ball of clay and a little plastic airliner, and dunked the airliner into the ball of clay without saying a word. Carrol decided that Giger's design was probably for the best.
15:58 interesting that you mention herbivorous. If you look at the Space Jockey skull, it holds a lot of similarities to an elephant. I always thought it would be interesting if someone recreated a model of the Jockey skull (from *Alien,* not Prometheus) and had a facial reconstruction done just to see what you would come up with.
23:15 Giger came up with the idea. He created the extra flap to create a Christian cross (to appease the ones who might be offended). The original 2 lipped egg was used for the "Cocoon" scene, as Brett's corpse was put into it and set into the inside of one of the landing legs.
Awesome info! Thanks!
Oh dear, Giger's grandmother was a headbanger ? :)
Holding the middle and ring finger down with the thumb while extending the index and pinky fingers is the sign of the horns, amulet sign to ward off an evil eye ... or rock on.
Touching the index finger to the thumb while extending the middle, ring and pinky fingers can mean six-six-six. Any plan views of the derelict craft available ?
Then again, maybe Giger's grandmother was also Ronnie James Dio's, interesting.
(Just giving u a hard time *:)*
5:54 derelict craft end reminiscent of the tail end of the downed bomber in "Apocalypse Now" the river patrol boat going under it. 16:34 Or, a tau cross. Wouldn't doubt Giger's space jockey is suggestive of Michelangelo 's Pieta sculpture considering his friend Serguis Golowin introduced him to H.P. Lovecraft and other occult writers and imagers, i.e. Giger's fictional 'Necronomicon' of Abdul Alhazred and identifying with Lovecraft's 'Richard Upton Pickman'.
Agree, Space Jockey appears elephant like. 16:23 sketch, Giger's self-portrait, also 2:25 face in center of drawing. His description of the development of the jockey sounds autobiographical.
"666" is the number of Man, "616" number of the beast.
@TheRealNormanBates
There are models of Giger's Derelict online. Haven't looked for a Cobb model.
A top down plan view of the Derelict looks like the Egyptian/Hebrew letter *Tet* (Teth) meaning a cross (pictogram of a cross within a circle), fertility and the Gematria 9 and 6 (Tet being the ninth letter when turned upside down like a vessel) symbolic of the potential of man for good and bad.
H.R. Giger was into the Egyptian Mysteries so the Derelict is a fertility temple for birthing or cross hybridization. This goes along with Giger depicting the sky fertilty Goddess Nut in his tableau at the shaft (fallopian tube) base. The Derelict represents the female reproductive system.
Sounds like Giger's work.
The Tet is also seen as a staff, a tau head cross with a snake on top. In the movie this would be the hammer head Alien, a creature or servant of their creator. Weylan-Yutani ? Their company logo is the Egyptian sun disc with wings. *
* thro', to me anyway the loosely stretched logo in the tableau by Giger looks like the orginal beachball prop with large feet/hands (facehugger) from Dan O'Bannon's imagination in "Dark Star". He probably ripped that off from Opus of the "Bloom County" cartoon strip. Poor Opus, an example of the six becoming a nine, Alien. Good penguin gone rabid. Sad.
=:0 > 0:::=
Btw
For *fun* , aligning the movies Francis Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" taking place at Angkor Wat, Cambodia, and Werner Herzog's "Aquirre, the Wrath of God", Machu Picchu, Peru (inspiration for Apocalypse Now), they're antipodal meaning directly opposite each other on the globe.
Now drawing one leyline between these two places the Pyramids of Giza is on that line. Giza representing the Egyptian Mysteries Giger was interested in. The orginal Derelict was to be a pyramid.
Three movies aligned.
Now, if the Space Jockey was taken from the Henu Barque (bark/barge) of the Egyptian funerary God Sokar* which traveled the dead in the underworld then ...
there is a H.P. Lovecraft-ian sewerage line between these movies where Giger draws his inspiration ?
Just kidding
but, then, the surname Giger, an anglicized Giza ? nah :)
"Polystyrene, which is kind of like styrofoam" - Well, styrofoam is one of trademarked names for a type of polysturene. It would be like saying "Lemonade, which is kind of like Sprite"
well I mean Sprite Lymonade does exist 😅 but I get your point. maybe just a poor choice of analogy lol
@@poindextertunes Yeah, I meant it as an example, similar to "A truck, which is something like a Hilux". It sounds funny to me, who is not a native English speaker and we call all these materials simply "polystyrene", the word "styrofoam" is not used, unless we talk about a specific company brand name. On the other hand, we have the same problem here with Autoclaved aerated concrete which everyone thinks is called "Ytong", but that's just one brandname.
did you perhaps mean styrofoam is a trademarked type of *polystyrene* ?
@@pralinesouffle Yes, of course, thanks for the correction.
Can’t describe the joy I feel when you’re explaining how it actually was done, cause those are details that I always loved while watching the actual movie, thank you. Best birthday gift ever
There is something awesome about the molded models from the 70s/80s, something that pure CGI can not replicate
I had heard the Space Jockey was inspired from Planet of the Vampires. That one had huge alien skeletons in it as well.
thank you for doing such a great job of showing references. wish more people did that
This is the first of your videos I've watched and I just want to say thank you so so much for fully subtitling this AND going above and beyond and adding your references to them as well. As a HoH individual, I'm deeply, deeply grateful; and I look forward to your future works.
Brilliant video mate, well written, great quality, very much enjoyed watching that!
Wonderful comprehensive idea on this Tyler, I’m learning so much and seeing new footage of one of my favorite films! Incredible and great work that you and your team are doing, this deserve to be in the special features in a re-release
Thanks!
Alien is one of the best films ever made, and it's nice to see new artwork I have only read about. Good vid.
The strength of this film lies in its limitations...
I love your videos! The first Alien movie will always be my favorite of the franchise. I knew Giger designed the alien but didn't know he designed the ship and so much more.
This is a great video. Scotts brilliant insight was recognising immediately what Giger could bring visually. Without Giger Alien would probably only have been a very good scifi horror instead of also being a seminal piece of art.
Put me on the "I thought I'd seen everything about Alien..." list. Such an enjoyable video, with plenty I hadn't seen before. Great job, you never disappoint.
The effort involved in old moves... I really appreciate it. So much proper, human skill involved.
As many times as I've seen any of the behind the scenes of this movie, they never get old. Always as interesting as the first time. This film is a masterpiece that has stood the test of time and holds up on its own.
Still the best damn sci-fi movie of all time. Often copied, never bettered. Everyone who worked on this movie should've gotten an Oscar.
@SmartCookie2022 cool anyway Alien (1979) and The Thing (1982) both of them are my childhood and both of them are my favorite sci-fi horror movies ever created as well:).
Another brilliant, highly informative upload, Tyler. Your work never ceases to amaze me.
One of my favorite dynamics in the art of Alien is that Giger’s most foreign seeming images are very often distorted versions of human anatomy. Who’s the real alien here, the xenomorph or the interplanetary spaceship crew? The alien is our dark other, and it’s inside us. The horrific “birth” of the alien is a metaphor for actual human birth. Even a cute little baby is a radical otherness from outside our understanding
I saw this movie as a 11 year old by myself at the movie theater. Afterwards I was always looking under my bed for Aliens
How did you get in a movie theatre to see this at 11
@@yvonnesanders4308
I just walked in with a friend of mine acting older. But the theater was crowded and we had to sit in different seats. So I had to keep my screams to myself.
The original Alien movie remains the only film I can’t watch with the lights off. It’s not just horror, it’s unsettling horror.
@richardmattocks both Alien (1979) and The Thing (1982) they are both the only horror movies I can't watch without the lights on as well:).
14:10 No mention at all of Brava's 1965 "Planet of the Vampires" (Terrore nello Spazio)? An obvious source of inspiration for "Alien."
oi Mate, Tyler, another great episode today. Cheers! Enjoyed this a lot and great information about the production.
Before Alien (1979), no film had come close to this level of artistic visual quality, originality or such a believable sense of otherworldly surroundings. H.R. Giger brought something never-before seen to movies, and it was fortunately paired with (then😬) great director Ridley Scott. Spectacular.
This is fantastic 👌👌👌 Alien is what you get when you put two geniuses together, and they back each other all the way.
Without Geiger’s work our world would be lacking
In a time of reproductions, established formulas, lackluster stories, copies and tropes; Giger's originality and unique vision shines through more than ever.
Creativity is seen as a risk, visionaries stand little to no chance. The 70's through to the 90's especially was a unique period of original stories, visions and concepts.
It is the best film ever made IMO and Giger was a big part of that.
It's a bloody masterpiece, innit! If only the ones he made subsequently, bloody were! Bloody noice video as usual CT. Thanks a bloody lot!
You English?🇬🇧🤔
Alien is the gift that keeps on giving, as I had never seen some of that behind-the-scenes footage, and I've seen a LOT of "making of" docs on the film.
I really liked the upward dripping condensation scene, as it just added a simple, but wild, aspect of the eggs and their chamber. Not mentioned here, but there's also what sounds like a violent hand buzzer that goes off when Kane sticks his hand near the top of the egg he winds-up investigating.
I've never thought about acid being the cause of the opening to the egg chamber. I'm not sure I buy it, though, as it looks too square and uniform. Also, it presupposes that the Space Jockey also had acidic blood, which diminishes the uniqueness of the xeno's biology.
Speaking of the egg chamber, there's this persistent notion that it's part of the derelict itself, like a cargo hold. This can't be the case, though, as it's far too large and even snakes around, conveying a truly gigantic area. Instead, it's (probably) an artificial cave underneath the ship that's been hollowed-out using the same biomechanical processes used in the derelict's construction, which is why the walls of the Space Jockey room and the chamber are the same (yes, I know the walls were reused to save on time and production costs).
It staggers me to this day that Cameron's production team was able to locate the model of the derelict for Aliens, but it was still cut for the theatrical release. Not only that, but it was in pretty poor shape, but Cameron used that to his advantage and worked its dilapidated state into the narrative (though I think you have to read the novelization to discover why). Reminds me of the jaw-dropping decision to eliminate the original kaiju ending of Little Shop of Horrors, which reportedly consumed a huge percentage of the overall budget.
I kind of wonder if the Derilict was actually parked on top of the cave for loading purposes.
@@CinemaTyler Considering the sheer size of the chamber and the enormous number of eggs, many of which still contained a facehugger, I think the silo idea remained a part of the narrative, but slyly changed to that of a humongous "cave". Creating dimensions like this makes sense, as the derelict is huge, the Nostromo in and of itself is pretty damn big, the refinery is over a mile long, and the alien towers over that of the crew.
The space jockey must've had some hand in the chamber's preparation since the walls were identical and you have those rib-like structures at the bottom that Kane slipped off of. Maybe it was harvesting the xenos for bioweapons, as many have suggested. There was no queen at that point, so all those eggs must've been created via alternate means.
These knowledge gaps can really make the mind race. I should read Foster's novelization again, as I recall it being a terrifying banger.
you're an absolute legend, mate! Every video is a banger! love love love them!
Giger
What a dark genius.
Brilliant film as well. I was 12 in late 1979 when I saw Alien and Phantasm in a drive in double feature. Good times.
Insane documentary. Thank you for sharing man!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@CinemaTyler I just realized Adam Savage is one of your patreons, that must be so amazing!
Excellent. 👍 So much work to make amazing models and sets, then even more work to make everything dark, moody, mysterious and almost impossible to see!😩
HR Giger is an absolute genius.
I played a game HEAVILY based on his art just because it was based on his art. It's called Scorn. Wasn't the most amazing game (maybe a lot of it went over my head) but I still had a great time because they nailed HR Gigers style
Yep, Scorn is an absolutely fantastic looking game, it's like an entire video game that's purely walking through Giger's paintings, it's absolutely stunning and incredible. As a video game, it's not amazing or anything, it's just kinda average. But the visuals are just so incredible, it's more of an Alien game than any actual official Alien game. It's probably worth watching someone else play it more than it is to play it yourself, but yeah.
I hope they make a VR version of it cos that would truly be incredible. That's something that VR can do that no other presentation of art can, even going to an art gallery in person. VR art, is something that I think is only going to get bigger as time goes on. Because you can walk through impossible spaces that'd be impossible to actually create in the real world, like Scorn's world, and like the Radiohead art "game" they released that's a big art piece that they only made into a video game because of the pandemic as it was originally meant to be a real art gallery show, but because it's a video game they create impossible spaces and impossible art displays that are literally impossible to create for real. If that was VR too, it'd be amazing, and I think eventually one day they'll probably make that into VR.
But yeah, it's a pretty much untapped form of art, so far, VR art. And some of the only existing VR art displays I've seen out there, don't use the functionality of the art form, because they're just virtual spaces that could absolutely exist in the real world and so are unremarkable.
I'm thinking of truly impossible spaces, like you could create an art show in 4 spatial dimensions. Physicists have actually created a few VR apps that display a space in 4 spatial dimensions. It's not particularly long or deep, it's just standing in one spot looking around. So imagine that but stretched out to an entire gallery show, in an entirely impossible space that isn't possible in our universe. Imagine an art show where the speed of light is much much much slower and so the faster you move through the virtual gallery, the more time dilation occurs.
If artists don't take advantage of VR in this way then it'll be a huge missed opportunity.
Everybody that saw him paint said he seemed to go into a trance and they aslo couldn't look away. So much would appear so quickly. He was a fascinating man and One of my favorite artists.
thanks for all your hard work.
Never made the connection between ALIEN and an episode of the animated “Star Trek” series (which was written by Samuel Peebles, who also penned the second Trek pilot), but fascinating insights like that are why I love this channel. 😊
I somehow missed the message he sent me and just happened to come across it by sheer coincidence while I was editing the video. It was a great tip and I managed to slip it in right near the end of the editing process. I like to imagine O’Bannon watching it and the gears turning in his head, heh.
Hee Hee...thanks for the mention. I'm glad you looked up the old Trek episode. I've been trying to tell people that Alien shared some elements with an old animated Trek for 40 years, and someone finally listened! 😊 @@CinemaTyler
The soundtrack was incredible, especially in the egg chamber and when the camera is panning through the Nostromo - so subtle but enhancing the atmosphere brilliantly. Too often these days music is used as a ridiculously over the top signpost to what the film maker thinks you should be feeling...
This is a great channel. So glad the algorithm brought it to me. I have a lot to watch this weekend.
Excellent video I am hooked.
Thank you, Tyler! 👾
Man, this is a wonderful video you’ve made. Thanks for all your efforts here!
Watching this and thought it would be great to have a connection to the movie. I wish😊 Jus remembered I worked with John Hurt , and Sigourney (who is really tall btw) queued up behind me in LAX. She was so polite. Lucky me. I never worked on anything as successful as this but I can relate to the process. It really is astonishing
I hated when they turned to Space Jockey into an Engineer space suit. The mystery of the space jockey was the best part and they ruined it.
I feel the same. Prometheus had its problems. But I hated how they took the mystery out of the Space Jockey. And turned them into Giant Humanoid Engineers in Space Suits. (They should have left it alone) I think in the new Aliens Films. They may forget the aspect of those movies. And re write the Jockey into the mystery it once was..
Ron Cobb is so interesting . I love that he just couldn't make something weird due to his engineering mind....even with all of the drugs he used to take!
Cobb used to be, among many other things, a political cartoonist, his work often appearing in the late, great L.A. Free Press. My parents had a number of his cartoons pinned up in our living room during the late Sixties.
@@michaelhall2709 rad! i've seen a few of these cartoons in Documentaries. They're so great.
@@michaelhall2709im going to look up LA Free Press. sounds interesting.
Treating Moebius as "some french artist" actually hurt me haha
Great video nonetheless
You did such an amzimg job on this video. I cant wait for the next part