I remember some horrible dream about smothering
The design of the Nostromo’s interior is meant to make you feel uneasy. The walls are closing in,
you are suffocating, and you have no idea what is lurking around each corner.
Dan O’Bannon: “All of the corridors they were building in the spaceship were straight–they
were laid down in a grid. I said, ‘There are no blind corners. You need some blind corners in your
spaceship.’ They built the thing and Ridley ended up putting the hypersleep vault at the end of it.”
In this video, I will tell you the behind-the-scenes techniques Ridley Scott
and the design team used to make the spaceship sets give you anxiety–from concept to execution.
This episode is sponsored by MUBI. Try it free for 30-days by clicking the link in the description.
Ron Cobb: “I was interested in tapping the idea of what things could look like
if they were drawn from a more realistic consideration of what a spaceship should be,
without going ‘NASA,’ create the sense of confined space,
space is at a premium inside, that the idea that with all the pressure doors, that it
was pressurized. All those things I thought would contribute to the tension of the film.”
It disappeared into one of the cooling ducts.
No question it’s using the air duct to move around.
Scott said that he is somewhat claustrophobic himself and he tried
to channel his real fears into the movie, saying that he thought the only thing more
frightening than facing the alien would be having to face it while having been
trapped in cramped quarters for over a year’s time (Cinefantastique V09 12).
Heading up Alien’s impressive team of designers and art directors was production designer Michael
Seymour, who had met Ridley Scott while working together on commercials (Cinefantastique V09 30).
Seymour gave a lot of credit to his team, emphasizing that everyone down to the
draftsmen and plasterers contributed in their own way to the design (Cinefantastique V09 31).
Because of the massive size of the Nostromo, it was difficult for the filmmakers to determine
exactly how the sets should be laid out in order to maintain logic. The solution was
to develop the layout in three sections, based on what would be the three decks of the ship:
the A deck for the crew's living quarters, the bridge, and the infirmary; the B deck for more
technical equipment but still comfortable for the crew, and the C deck with exposed pipes and
electronics that would be used for holding gear and vehicles (Fantastic Films Oct ‘79 - 19).
Here are some sketches Scott did of how he wanted the ship to be laid out.
This is A Deck
This is B Deck
And this is C Deck
Initially, Scott wanted the three levels of the ship set to be literally on top of each other,
but this was too difficult, so the three levels were built on separate soundstages with the A
Deck filling most of their main giant stage at Shepperton Studios, which even needed a
wall removed to spill over onto an adjacent soundstage (Mediascene #35 13, Rinzler 176).
Scott wanted the sets to be fully enclosed so he could pan the camera in any direction (Nathan 38).
To keep track of the layout, they actually built a 3D model,
so they could always have a reference of where the actors would need to go in order
to arrive on another level (Fantastic Films Oct ‘79 - 19). Unfortunately,
the model was later destroyed without having been photographed (Fantastic Films Oct ‘79 - 19).
Seymour had each of the Nostromo’s levels completely self-contained and
enclosed with fully functional corridors, practical lighting, and most importantly,
ceilings (The Beast Within). You’ll notice that, in a lot of the shots,
you can see both the floor and the ceiling, which adds to that cramped feeling.
Because of the way the set was constructed, once you entered “through a small wall panel in one of
the airlocks” and began to walk around you would lose sight of the studio and forget you were on
a soundstage, making it feel like shooting on location (The Beast Within). People often found
it difficult to find their way out (Rinzler 176). This method both helped the crew keep
track of the layout and the actors feel immersed in the environment (Cinefantastique V09 31). Man,
how cool would it be to get a chance to walk around that set?
Co-Producer Ron Schusett said, "The sets totally threw the actors off balance…This
kind of closed environment, after a while, began to have a weird effect on the actors.
They began to almost believe that they were trapped on this strange ship. It rattled them.
Tom Skerritt told me one day: 'I have a hard time keeping myself from walking around this
spaceship with my mouth hanging open all the time. I'm supposed to have been on
this ship for 10 years and I shouldn't be amazed by it. I have to come here at
nights to sit around and get used to it. It's really that unnerving" (Rinzler 179).
This isn’t to say that they didn’t still rely on some illusion. For example,
they placed a mirror at an angle at the end of a corridor to make
it look like the passage turned and continued (The Beast Within).
To add to the claustrophobic feeling, Scott kept having the ceilings lowered,
the highest one winding up around six feet, six inches (Rinzler 179). Producer Gordon Carroll
argued that the six-two Yaphet Kotto would [quote/unquote] “knock his brains out,” but
Scott thought it would be great if Kotto had to be constantly ducking (Rinzler 179). Apparently,
even the five-foot-five Ian Holm managed to knock his head against
some low beams (Rinzler 179). The constant lowering of ceilings drove Seymour and the
construction head crazy, but the only way to see how it looked was to do it and ultimately,
it looked great in the widescreen format they were shooting in (Rinzler 179).
It really felt like you were trapped, and the illusion was only broken when
sometimes a wall had to be lifted out to get the camera in (Alien Commentary) But it seems
this was rare because Cinematographer Derek Vanlint said that it was often very difficult
to cram all the crew, gear, and actors into such small spaces (ASC Vanlint).
Some of the spaces, such as the bridge, started out relatively open and became gradually tighter
and more enclosed as the production evolved (Space Truckin’). For the bridge, the space got smaller
as more consoles and shapes were added to suggest the inside of a bomber plane (Space Truckin’).
The bridge itself set required over 50 blueprints (Rinzler 142)
The tight spaces added certain safety issues as well (The Beast Within). Veronica Cartwright
recalled that on the first day of shooting, they were supposed to be crash landing and
the smoke quickly filled up the small set, making it hard to breathe (The Beast Within).
The Call sheet for that day required [quote] “scorching
and electrical fire damage to consoles” (Rinzler 182).
Scott already had smokey haze as part of his trademark while working on commercials and
his first feature, the Duelists (Rinzler 136). For Alien, Scott wanted there to be a smokey
haze after the landing so they used something called a “bee-puffer’ that would expel incense
smoke (Rinzler 182). Scott said, "Smoke to me is a color filter…A fine layer that dimensionalizes
your depth. I wanted to mute the color a little. A gauze or a filter has a tendency to flatten,
but incense increases the depth and adds a three-dimensional quality, and you can get very
sophisticated with it. It picks up the background and tends to silhouette things" (Rinzler 182).
The cast and crew would joke around often about Scott and his smoke gun because he was adding it
to nearly every scene–some of the producers thought he was going crazy (Rinzler 182).
Sigourney Weaver said, "The amount of incense used was not to be believed…It was also used
to diffuse light on the bridge set, where the ceiling was very low. It was like the
incense burned at a Catholic funeral I once attended. People wore masks" (Rinzler 182).
Veronica Cartwright: “You were so grimy when you left at the end of the day. Between being
sprayed with glycerin and smoke and the beeswax.”
You got a better idea?
Yes, I say we abandon this ship…
This haze adds to the overall feeling of stuffiness and makes
you feel like you wouldn’t be getting enough air.
This was sometimes an understatement for the actors. In the engine level sets, these jets of
steam were created using canisters that would blow co2 through the tubes (Alien Commentary). While
it was one of the most useful effects, the problem was that, when left running for any
length of time it would suck the oxygen out of the room, so you couldn’t shoot with it on for very
long–though Scott said the production had been assured it was totally safe (Alien Commentary).
On top of that, Scott did a lot of handheld camerawork inside the ship,
so he would have to run in small, dark spaces and couldn’t watch his feet (Alien Commentary). In
order to get shots like this, where we see Ripley running from the front,
that meant that Scott had to run backwards ahead of her using his
focus puller (Adrian Biddle) as a kind of human shield (Alien Commentary).
This frantic way of shooting caused a couple of mistakes that actually stayed in the movie,
but they are hard to notice unless pointed out.
Here, Sigourney Weaver bumps the camera and stops to see
if they should stop the take before continuing on.
And here, we get a glimpse of what is actually an electrician
swinging a black matte back and forth to make the lights strobe.
Creating a fully enclosed set for the movie helped to make it look realistic and helped
the actors stay in character, but it caused some problems with lighting. At first, they tried to
pre-rig the set by combining overhead lighting with the practical lights on the floor, but it
didn't work because, when actors improvised, they wound up in dark areas (ASC Vanlint).
They also had to be creative with lighting to avoid getting any fill lights in the shot,
which Vanlint attributes to the unique look of the movie (ASC Vanlint). They got
around this by lighting through grills, hiding lights, and using practicals that looked like
part of the set (ASC Vanlint). In keeping with the approach to the rest of the set,
this meant lighting with some usual sources, such as 747 aircraft lights,
panic lights, and some neon and fluorescent lights (ASC Vanlint).
In the communications room where Mother is located, they had the aid of the hundreds of
tiny bulbs that lined the walls (ASC Vanlint). Vanlint didn’t need to add much light there,
just one light coming in from the ceiling that was gelled to match the color temperature of
the bulbs, and a 16mm projector shining on the faces of the actors to simulate a
reflection off the monitor (ASC Vanlint). Which was probably inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Because a fair amount of the shots were done handheld by Scott himself, Vanlint thought of
himself as a second camera getting tighter shots (ASC Vanlint). In some shots, Scott
even attached a strobe light to the dolly so he could adjust the speed as needed (ASC Vanlint).
Let’s finish with perhaps the most claustrophobic set in the movie–the vents.
Am I clear Lambert? I want to get the hell out of here.
Oh God, it’s moving right toward you!
But before we get into that, a quick message from this episode’s sponsor–Mubi.
MUBI is a curated streaming service dedicated to elevating great cinema from all around the globe.
From iconic directors to emerging auteurs, there is always something new to discover.
With MUBI, each and every film is hand-selected. It’s like your
own personal film festival -- streaming anytime, anywhere.
Right now on Mubi, you can watch this incredible movie by the great Lynn Ramsey called “We Need To
Talk About Kevin,” which follows a mother played by Tilda Swinton whose psychopathic child, played
by Ezra Miller, is slowly inching toward an act of extreme violence. This movie is a masterclass
in visual language and really shows why Lynn Ramsay is one of the greatest living directors.
You can try MUBI free for 30 days at MUBI dot com slash Cinema Tyler,
that’s M-U-B-I dot com slash Cinema Tyler for a whole month of great cinema for free.
Now back to the show!
For the scene where Dallas goes into the vents to look for the Alien,
they weren’t fully prepared to shoot it when the time came (Alien Commentary).
Scott had wanted something bigger and more substantial, but there were budget issues
that caused a compromise on this particular set (Alien Commentary). They ended up making
a 30-foot stretch of the vent with a T section in the middle so that they could
re-use it and make it look like it kept going, but this created a very tight space to shoot
in (Alien Commentary). What’s funny is that you can actually see the dolly track on the floor,
but it integrates pretty well into the design of the vent.
Actor Tom Skerrit had to shuffle his way through the vent holding a light
in one hand and a flamethrower in the other and the flame would burn up all the oxygen
in the space, which is why you can hear him breathing heavily in the scene
Okay, moving on.
–that isn’t acting, he really can’t breathe (Alien Commentary).
You’ll notice that when they cut back and forth between Dallas in the vent and the rest of the
crew watching the tracker, the framing is even tighter on the crew than the shots of Dallas
even though he is the one in the vent. This heightens the tension because we, the audience,
don’t get a break from the confinement of the vents even when we are not in them.
This shot is already tight and pushes in even further.
And when the dread has been pushed to its limit…
As anxiety-inducing the sets are, we don’t really get much relief in the more friendly areas of the
ship–like the living quarters. This is because whenever we are not surrounded by gritty oily
machinery, we are surrounded by these nauseating mass-produced corporate plastic living spaces.
This was intentional and is meant to poke fun at mega-corporations like the fictional one
at the core of the movie. This is the subject of the next episode, which you can find right
here when it’s ready. Or check out this video on the insane story behind designing the exterior
of the Nostromo. Like how the producers never actually chose a design for the ship.