Carlos Huante's Prometheus Notes

1. Dissection of a Space Jockey

2 . Facehugger - blob like molusc floats on a string of mucus (+ lympits)

3. Nothing from Alien 1 in this movie.

4. All structures are encrusted with abalone shell texture

5. Engineers - Spartans + giant furniture + xxxxxxxx

6. Scarabs - They Swarm in - Hit the face mask like this,  - when they are squished - they bleed acid

7. Ultramorph

polished abalone shell

Facehugger centipede - to show that this design worked but was an experiment and elements were used for this "Facehugger"

The Ultramorph - unlike the "Alien" from the first Alien which were covered / or had a exoskeleton, the Ultramorph should still be covered with skin as genetically

(Transcribers note: N.B. I first thought that the word "genetically" was "centrally" but it's makes sense if Carlos wrote "genetically""

it is still "New"... and its host are the engineers. it would be an evil variant of the (ANGELS) Engineers. Ultramorphs should still have a regal Quality about them as that quality has been inspired by their host.

So, to carry the "No Bones" motif.

- Sand  Dollars are very interesting. They are organic but look engineered.
I think this interior to the Alien Ship should look like Sand Dollars.

A sand dollar related to the sea biscuit and the sea urchin.

Okay, so instead of the Ultramorphs being clean and skin covered, after some discussion with Ridley and what needs to happen sequentially with the story of how we end up with this "Alien" in the first film. I'm thinking that what if the engineer technology is all that ribbing and boney architecture that's  all over the ship  and the "Alien" itself. So... the "Aliens" that come out or are born out of the humans should be clean and the skin covered because they are not saturated with ----------

the Genetic material of the source (Engineers) yet. So, they are more human looking, the "Ultramorphs" should be the first we see of the boney Exoskeleton on a creature.

The engineer tech should form as water (Milky Liquid) that pours unnaturally upward and over them (The Engineers) to form boney plating or ribs, and architectural surfaces. Like they control it at a molecular level.

- 2 Different chestbursters

- The Ultramorph chest burster should start to reminisce the chestburster from the first movie.

- The Xenomorph chestburster is the four limbed octopus looking "Burster"

- I was thinking that the Xenomorphs in this film should not have the ejecting mouth/tongue. These grandfather morphs should have completely unhinged mandibles. The pallette and the jaw should be something like a goblin shark mouth/ like an architeuthis beak.

storyboard sketches from notebook

I was also thinking that they could, in place of the ejecting tongue, produce and "Acid Ball" that they "spit" at the victims.

- after meeting-

- Today Ridley loved his open mouth and Acid Ball for the "Bishop".

- The Baby Head Shwa alien is in, transformation also. To show growth cycle.

(transcribers note Huante writes Shwa whatever that means, and he uses this word again in the labeling for this creature design image on his website)

-The four tailed chestburster is now a creature in the Love Scene Blood Bath-
( For a Better Tomorrow) ésque

-Maybe no Ultramorph.

The trogs I was thinking should look like a xxxx octopus. The face of it, or belly could be smooth with the beak of an architeuthis that Ridley likes.

The back should look like the back of a man, like it should have a spine with multiple shoulder blades. It would really be cool if it looked or felt like the back of a man.

beak of an architeuthus squid

goblin-shark mouth

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Engineer's Technology

Leading from 

The Engineers

There was the idea that the people who inhabited the planet that they visit in Prometheus have technology is beyond anything that we're able to or understand, but the design team had to make it visually interesting.

source quotes

1.  L'Ecran Fantastique: À propos, les space jockeys ont-ils un vrai nom
   
   Ben Procter: Nous avons fini par les appeler "les ingénieurs", parce qu'ils ont implanté des  formes de vies humanoides dans toute la galaxy (L'Ecran Fantastique Hors Série no 16. p31)
   
   Googletranslate: Ecran Fantastique: About the space jockeys do they have a real name?
   
   Ben Procter: We ended up calling them "engineers" because they have implemented humanoid lifeforms throughout the galaxy
2. Arthur Max:  “The people who inhabit this planet, called the Engineers, and their technology, is beyond anything we’re able to know or understand, but it has to be visually interesting. ” (Source: spotlightreport.net, 18th April 2012)

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As Revealed In The Film

Leading from 

The Engineers

In the film's story, when Elizabeth Shaw and Holloway conceived the mission to find the engineers, their expectations was that they were on their way to Paradise and would discover a benevolent species that might provide answers to some of humanity's greatest mysteries. In other words, they were hoping to meet god, but these being prove to be anything but compassionate.

Instead they are a dangerous race of superbeings and their destination was a dark, twisted and frightening world, a way station to these beings. The cold and implacable environment is more like hell than heaven.

1. Executive producer Michael Ellenberg: When Shaw and Holloway conceived the mission, their expectation was they would discover a benevolent species that might provide answers to some of our greatest mysteries, In other words they were hoping to meet gods.  But these beings prove to be anything but compassionate.  They are a dangerous race of superbeings. (screenslam April 21, 2012)  
2.  Jon Spaihts: The crew of the Prometheus thinks they’re headed to paradise to discover answers to the ultimate questions.  But what they find is a dark and twisted and frightening world – a way station for these beings. The cold and implacable environment is more like hell than heaven.  (screenslam April 21, 2012)

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The Sacrificial Engineer

Leading from 

The Engineers

A member of the race of the engineeers involved in a self-sacrificing rituala)

a) In the first sequence of the film, we discover what happens when engineers arrive on somewhere that may well be Earth and what they do. Originally there was to be a dome under which are arranged various objects which were designed by David Levy and redesigned by Steve Messing. Once designed by their design team in Los Angeles, the English decoration team took over to make them. The LA design teams work was completely out of their hands .

b) The young Engineer ritually sacrifices himself in the opening scene as he stands by a waterfall. This certain sacrifice is very different to others in that he has to drink a strange ancient mixture which causes his body to literally disintegrate into the water before him, and then this provides the first building blocks for new life to form on the unknown planet.

1.  L'Ecran fantastique:  En dehors des combinasions des ingénieurs, dont le design a été réalisé par Neville Page, avez-vous eu l'occasion de créer certains des objets dont se servent ces extraterrestres? (L'Ecran fantastique Hors Série no 16)
   GoogleTranslation: L'Ecran fantastique:Outside engineer's suits, whose design was done by Neville Page, have you had the opportunity to create some of the objects used by these aliens? 
   David Levy: Dans la première séquence du film, on découvre ce qui se passe quand les ingénieurs arrivent sur terre, et ce qu'ils font. Ils disposent d'une coupole sous laquelle sont rangés différents objects que j'ai dessinés en partie, puis qui ont été redessinés par Steve Messing. Une fois conçus par notre équipe de design à Los Angeles, l'équipe de décorations anglaise a pris le relais pour les fabriquer. Il est parfois  difficile de savoir ce qui reste de notre travail dans le film, car des changements peuvent arriver très rapidement.(L'Ecran Fantastique Hors Série no 16. )
   Googletranslation: 
David Levy: In the first sequence of the film, we discover what happens when engineers arrive on earth, and what they do. They have a dome under which are arranged various objects I drew in part, and which have been redesigned by Steve Messing. Once designed by our design team in Los Angeles, the English decorations team  took over to make them. It is sometimes difficult to know what is left of our work in the film, as changes can happen very quickly.  
2. IfOnlyUK: We have seen the virals, the teasers and the trailers. We have seen the alien life forms and the spacecraft from Scott’s Alien. What information can you give us on your character as the ‘Space Engineer’ 
   Daniel Twiss: In the original Alien, the crew encounter the ‘Space Jockey’, now known as an ‘Engineer’ (the name for the alien race) however, as this is a semi-prequel, the ‘Engineers’ have a much bigger part to play. My character is that of a fairly young ‘Engineer’ who ritualistically sacrifices himself in the opening scene. This sacrifice is very different to any others as I have to drink an ancient mix which causes my body to literally disintegrate into the water around me. This then provides the first building blocks for new life to form on the alien planet. There are two other ‘Engineers’ who are in the rest of the film and have fairly large parts, but you will have to wait for release to find out more. (Ifonlyuk interview first reported on May 22nd 2012) 
3. IfOnlyUK: What direction, if any, were you given on playing this essential role?
   Daniel Twiss : To be honest, fairly little before the day actually came. The crew had changed the scene quite a bit since the casting so I didn’t know really what was happening. They also forgot to send me my lines so I only received them the day before, but there were only a few words in alien to learn so it wasn’t too bad. On set, the crew were amazing and were quite flexible to see what looks good on the day, so it was a lot of fun working with them all. (Ifonlyukinterview first reported on May 22nd 2012)

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Meeting the Engineers via the Head Room

Leading from 

The Engineers

a) Having the head room room idea

When Arthur Max took some of the motif's from Giger's derelict corridor design  ribs and created columns that were almost plant like in nature and then gave the layout to the illustrators who developed that into drawings, Ridley looked at it and said, "Can we have a statue, a sculpture or something iconic in the middle that celebrates the Engineers?" Steve Messing also talked about being involved in the design work, he perceived the chamber as a ceremonial room. Julian Caldrow worked on the details for this environment and created the set drawings . Steve Messing also sculpted an alter area for this set that attempted to pay homage to HR Giger, in the form of a relief sculpture hanging from the wall and it has an impression of a loosely Giger-esque alien form with flowing structures around it. He also mentioned about how there were a lot of Easter eggs in the sculpture including several hidden Giger motifs that were not used in the original film. If fact the central point of the relief was very much inspired by Giger's work and as one saw more of the design, one saw how it distanced itself from the way Giger's designs worked

These Easter Eggs were just details that appeared to be based on early Giger's concept art for facehuggers that were not seen as ideal for the Alien's Facehugger designs. The central figure had a body vaguely inspired by H R Giger's "The Spell 1." Why they needed to be perceived as Easter Eggs or hidden objects is perhaps a question because they didn't reveal anything of great interest to the story or interesting to talk about.

b) Who exactly were these engineers though?  
The idea was that the Engineers race are interplanetary visitors who from time to time over the millenias have come to Earth to give us upgrades - mentally and physically, there was also the idea that they engineered humanoid life forms throughout the galaxy.

c) How would they celebrate themselves? 
They came up with the idea of a giant head and how it was part of the culture of the Engineers to build these things. So they appear to be associated loosely with the idea of Earths ancient head building culture. The centrepiece of a chamber that would come to be known at the Ampule Room, with the plant like columns that was set at Pinewood was a 32 foot tall monolithic head, which can be glimpsed in posters for the film. This was practically built by Arthur Max's team.

the ampule room

1. Arthur Max: I TOOK some of the motif's from the Giger Corridor - type of ribs and we created columns that were almost plant like in nature, and then gave that layout to the illustrators who developed that into drawings, then Ridley looked at it and said ,"Can we have a statue, a sculpture or something iconic in the middle that celebrates the Engineers?" The idea being that the Engineers, playing the role of God in the universe, have visited Earth many times over the millennia and given mankind genetic upgrades, both physical and intellectual. How would they celebrate themselves? So we came up with the idea of a giant head. (Prometheus, the art of the film, p111. ) 
2. Arthur Max:  The idea there is that it’s part of the culture of the Engineers. This race of interplanetary visitors who have given us upgrades – mentally and physically – over the millennium. (Source: spotlightreport.net, 18th April 2012)
3. Steve Messing: Another set that I worked on was known as the "Head Room." This was a ceremonial room that contained hundreds of ampules beneath a giant sculpture of an Engineer's head. Julian Caldrow did an amazing job of working out all of the details for this environment and created the set drawings. The final set was built at full scale and was incredible to walk on. I also sculpted an altar area for this set that paid homage to Giger -it is a relief sculpture hanging from the wall and has the impression of an alien form with flowing structures surrounding it. There are a lot of easter eggs in this sculpture — including several hidden Giger motifs that were not used in the original film. (http://io9.com/5917639/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-design-of-prometheus)

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Alex Kzohanov / Gutalin

leading from

Prometheus' Production Crew

Artist's website www.gutalin.org

Cieling Frescoes

Hammer shaped Primordial engineer ships

Likely inspiration for the Engineer's hibernation mask

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Cieling Frescoes

Leading from Alex Kzohanov / Gutalin

The artist known at Gutalin was responsible for the artwork for the Frescos, he was required to make the artwork look more "human" and then he insisted that it should look more "Alien". He did two versions of the artwork, "human" and "Alien" and they used the "human" version. We have seen near enough two panels that he has done, one showing the alien hands around an alien egg, and another a humanoid with another who has a deformed head that leaves many questions for those who care to ask them about what these pieces were in aid of.

1.  Interviewer- Какие требования были выставлены к характеру работ и насколько эти рамки давали Вам возможность выразить Вашу творческую сторону как художника?
   Alexei Kozhanov: Рамок не ставилось никаких. Артур Макс (художник-постановщик – прим. ред.) сразу сказал «делай так как ты всегда работаешь». В основном отосланные работы принимались сразу, видимо, мой стиль наилучшим образом подходил для поставленной задачи. Хотя были и исключения, в задании с потолочными фресками, когда от меня требовалось сделать изображение более «человеческим», мне же казалось, что оно должно быть абсолютно «чужим» и я настаивал на этом. В результате пришлось параллельно делать оба варианта, вложив неимоверно больше усилий во второй, но в фильм прошел «человеческий» вариант.
   Amalgam of Bing/Google Translation
   Interviewer- What are the requirements have been exposed to the nature of work and how these frameworks give you the opportunity to express your creative side as an artist?
   
   Alexei Kozhanov: Framework did not raise any. Arthur Max ( Production Designer. - Ed. ) once said, "You do as you always do" Basically the main work sent out was taken, apparently, my style is well suited to the task. Although there were exceptions in the job with ceiling frescoes, when I was required to make the image more "human", it seemed to me that it must be absolutely "alien" and I insisted on it. As a result, had to do do both simultaneously, putting more effort enormously in the second, but the film was a "human" version.(http://arttalk.ru/)
   

 

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