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Designing Prometheus

Author: Chris Picard | Oct-16-2012 12:47 AM

A new detailed article highlighting the various aspects which went into designing Ridley Scott's Prometheus has been featured on IGN. The full article features information on the The Creatures, The Costumes, The Language and The Look. IGN got to sit down and speak to various members of the crew behind Prometheus' production. Read on for excerpts:

THE CREATURES

"I think the UK and animatronic/make-up 'scene' if you could call it that, doesn’t have a tradition of sci-fi horror,” says Neal Scanlan, who looked after creature design in the film. “So when we heard that this movie was happening, the biggest feeling we all had was – would Ridley have the confidence in us? Or would the US team fly out and we’d be peering through the gates, so to speak?"

...

Scanlan's effects team put their hearts and souls into the task, grateful for the greenlight and inspired by Scott’s open-minded guidance. Scanlan notes a certain sterility that’s crept into modern-day practical effects, a notion Scott, by his very working nature, quashed. "Sometimes you’d construct something as per the storyboard exactly, and you would walk onto the set and there would be no room to breathe in the middle, but with Ridley that wasn't an option, there had to be ‘something in the middle.'

"So we had to make our creatures quite complicated and quite sophisticated. At the same time we made things that weren't; bits of rubber, stuff covered in blood, and we would put that in what we called the ‘Ridley set-box.’ And when Ridley demanded something you would pull something out and he would shoot it. And there are little moments in the film like that, that weren't planned for, reject bits that were just there in the set-box."

There were a lot of physical demands on Scanlan’s creatures, and his team were frequently elbows deep in crap - literally - in order to achieve the desired effects. One sequence sticks in Scanlan’s mind in particular; the ‘birth’ of the Deacon via the Engineer's guts.

For the full article, head on over to IGN!

Tags: Prometheus, Movie, Articles, Design, News

Comments (6)

Feebs ›

Posted: Oct-16-2012 3:31 AM

Awesome read!!! Ty!!!

Custodian ›

Posted: Oct-17-2012 1:50 AM

"Even early versions of the Engineer were much larger than what we eventually saw on the screen. “At one stage he was 14-foot high, but we realized he would never fit in the frame!”"

I also read the article while listening to TIME by Hans Zimmerman.

fader ›

Posted: Oct-17-2012 6:48 PM

I think the team of people working on the creatures and special effects did an awesome job with little cgi incorporated. From what I got from the special feature disc was that most of the worked done was like old school, which I thought was far, far better than any cgi. RS doing it old school was even cheaper than cgi effects...Don't get me wrong, there was allot of green screen plugged into the movie, but the creatures, the abortion scene, Fifield & Milburn scenes was all old school. The sets were so real, the ship " Prometheus " was large enough to house all the actors to stay and live in while shooting the scenes/movie..... I really hope RS keeps it that way for all of the upcoming sequels. Maybe a few big gun directors can take a lesson or two from RS directing and vision skills, and if so, they too can have a fan base like Prometheus and Ridley Scott have created....... that's my 2 cents on the matter and I'm a big fan.......

jack london ›

Posted: Oct-18-2012 2:51 AM

The thriller “Prometheus” marks a return for its director Ridley Scott to science fiction after 30 years away from the genre. It also continues a 15-year creative collaboration between Mr. Scott and the production designer Arthur Max, who has worked on Mr. Scott’s films since “G. I. Jane” (1997).

“Prometheus” follows a group of explorers who head to the moon of a distant planet to search for signs of life.

Following is a look at the production designs that Mr. Max and Mr. Scott used to create the film’s atmosphere, along with commentary from Mr. Max on the process.

zhwsi ›

Posted: Oct-20-2012 1:51 AM

ted ›

Posted: Oct-25-2012 2:51 PM

Why is Neal Scanlan pictured with Conor O'Sulivan's work? Neal produced the creature effects not the Engineers. I imagine Conor would not be happy about this image.