Sculpting the Alien costume

leading from

Creating The Alien

Information is being collated still 

a) Giger saw Roger Dicken's attempts at the beginning of June and decided that he had to make the thing himself to make it succeed. Through the night he makes sketches for construction and then shortly afterwards Eddie Butler begins work on modelling the Alien stage III creature and work on this thing goes on through the rest of the month. Eddie worked a long time on the hand.

b) Dan recalled that the plaster shop took a full body cast of the actor, and mounted it standing up on its toes on a wooden base, and Giger put it in his studio and began to build up in it with plasticine and bones. He arranges technical pieces as well as the ribs and spines of widely different animals on the thin sheet of plasticine with an air conditioning duct, screws and human skulls into the shape of the alien. Giger himself work one one half of the costume so that one of his assistants Butler could do the other side copying his design as if it were mirror image . 

c) Another man involved was Andrew who made masks for Star Wars and was supposed to be very experienced with all sorts of materials and would sort out how to make the costume transparent using transparent PVC. Although the idea to make the alien life form transparent was apparent back at the time when Roger Dicken was working on the big creature, the concept was agreed upon as a direction to go at the end of June when Giger was working on the beast. Ridley wanted the suit to be as thin as a contraceptive and as strong as nylon,  so that he could have a man in the suit and it would be flexible enough to be able for the wearer to be able to roll up and have all kinds of things stitched into it, showing such things as the creature's sinews.  

The latex would not give this effect, the material distorted easily and it would lose the transparency easily, and besides that, the fact that Bolaji Badejo was black did not lend itself to this transparency effect.

d) The head was the first thing that was finished and a polyester cast  of the head was finished by the last day of June. The next step was for Giger to create a drawing plan to send to Carlo Rambaldi who would be creating a mechanised version of the Alien's head that was sent with a mould of the Alien's head very soon afterwards to Rambaldi at his studio in America. Peter Voysey would also help to sculpt the Alien stage III.

e) On June 28th, Dan O'Bannon had the great idea of adding an opposing thumb on each hand of the Alien and Eddie worked away on the hand adding the extra thumb

f) By July, at Giger's insistence, two women are brought in, Shirley and Patter are taken on to help with the the modelling of the monster. 

1. Fantastic Films:So the monster was actually designed for one person rather than with visual images of a particular type of human mind.
   Dan O'Bannon: No, more along these pictures out of this book. more of this Nubian black racial type. The thing we liked so much was the grace of these black people. Giger then came in and Giger has a feel for grace, but a different kind of grace. Giger loved grotesquery. So Giger started building up around this graceful figure, his pipes and tubes and running, rotting sores and joints and pustules and strange shapes and building it up and came up with something most bizarre. The plaster shop took a cast of the actor, full body cast and mounted it standing up on its toes on a wooden base and Giger put it into his studio and he began to build up on it with clay and bones, an air conditioning duct, screws and human skulls- the face of the thing is a real human skull. He took one of the human skulls and jammed it right on the front, rivited it in place, and then started modifying it. It was such a beautiful human skull, you know, it has been a real person, not like one of those plastic model kits - and he takes out his hack saw and he saws the jawbone off and extends the jawbone, like six inches, puts an extension in it, and creates the distorted jawbone! Then he starts attaching other fixtures to it and building a new extension on the back of it. He's doing this to a real human skull! (Fantastic Films # 10 (US), p14)
2. Dan O'Bannon: When he's finally got all done they took a cast of it, it was a craftsman who actually cast the rubber costume of Giger's sculpture. When they were finished casting in rubber he used his airbrush and painted the costume the same way he paints his paintings.
   Fantastic Films: Sounds hairy.
   O'Bannon:It's terrific , I've really got my fingers crossed. I truly believe that that monster in Alien is absolutely unique looking. I think that it is two strides beyond any monster costume in any movie ever before. And some of them are goodies, like  the Creature from the Black Lagoon, or This Island Earth, the bug with the exposed brain, some of those were terrific. I really think this is a step beyond. I don't think anybody's seen anything like this. (Fantastic Films # 10 (US), p14)
3. HR Giger Eddie worked on one hand of Alien III. He added another joint to the finger and made a pretty accurate copy of my design. Dan O'Bannon had the great idea of adding another thumb to the Alien.(28th July, HR Giger's Alien Diary)
4. HR Giger(3rd July 1978, Shepperton Studios) (:According to Carroll's timetable, already a week behind, the first polyester mould of the Alien's head and tongue, with a full-sized sectional plan of the head, is packed in a well padded case and sent to Carlo Rambaldi in Los Angeles. Rambaldi is a celebrated specialist in mechanization of artificial creatures in films. I suppose King Kong, for which he got an Oscar, is his most celebrated work. To make sure that at least that one example of the head will be mechanized in time, another model of it is entrusted to an engineer who has his workshop on the grounds of the Studios. (Giger's Alien, p60)
5. H R Giger(3rd July 1978, Shepperton Studios):After some discussion, a bit troublesome and nerve wracking at first, about how we should work and what materials we should use. Butler finally decides to work my way. These arguments have cost us valuable time. Since I have several other things going. I have to keep rushing from one studio to another. The production division keeps reminding us about which job is most urgent, so I can't get on with anything in peace. I begin modelling the body of the Alien on the mould of the actor. I arrange various technical pieces, as well as the ribs and spines of widely different animals, on a thin sheet of plasticine. I undertake to get one half of the monster ready so that Butler can do the other side. Our two man team is reinforced with the engagement of Andrew, who made the masks for Star Wars and is very experienced with working with all sorts of materials. He is sorting out the problem of how to make the costume transparent. (Giger's Alien, p60-62)
6. H R Giger (28th July 1978,, Shepperton Studios). At my insistence, two more women, Shirley and Patty, are taken on to help with the work of modelling the monster. Butler is busy making the cranium, which will give the Alien its final form. Andrew is to make it up later in transparent PVC by a special process. (Giger's Alien, p62)
7. H R Giger (3rd August, Shepperton Studios):At last we've got to the point where all the moulds needed for the Alien's costume are lying in the plasterers workshop. Since several casts will have to be made from each mould, the moulds have been made of a hard wearing silicon-rubber with a plastic sheath. Andrew keeps producing more and more experimental transparent costumes. However the ideal solution has still not been found, because the material is not resistant enough, and  tears. Andrew has built a special oven for this work in which the moulds rotate at a constant speed so that the liquid rubber is spread evenly. Unfortunately  he still hasn't produced anything we can use, and time is running short. (Giger's Alien, p62)
8. H R Giger (12th August, Shepperton Studios): Andrew has still not come up with satisfactory results. The moulds have been badly damaged by his experiments and by the great heat, and have to be repatched up by the plasterers in meticulous detail, or even made all over again.. The only conclusion that Andrew has reached is that what we want can only be done with metal moulds. We simply haven't got the time to make such things, and the Alien hysteria in the production department is reaching a climax. They have to start shooting very soon and we still haven't got a single costume that can be used. Time is too short for any more experiments and we decide to make the whole thing of latex. We finally have to give up our dream of a transparent Alien III. In the car park studio, Shirley, Patty and Butler are endlessly painting layers and layers of latex on the new models. Complete rubber moulds have got to be prepared in plaster as a result of the new method we've decided on, since plaster is more absorbent and can absorb water from the latex milk.(Giger's Alien, p66)
9. H R Giger (12th August, Shepperton Studios): Once again I'm deeply disappointed. They always told me we should have the best experts in the world with us in such a big production, and instead of that we've got a lot of do-it-yourself amateurs without the necessary experience.(Giger's Alien, p66) 
10. Ridley Scott: In those days I couldn't even get latex thin enough that wouldn't break , you know, quickly and would also take sculptural elements and sinew, because you've got to lay sinews into the rubber suit, so suddenly the rubber suit isn't  like, should have been as thin as a contraceptive and as strong as nylon , right, because then I can crush this person into the suit and have all kinds of things built and stitched into it. I need something extraordinarily thin because whatever we did, there was a certain man who was pretty thin, we put him in, it didn't look right. Funnily enough that week, one of the casting directors had been standing in a pub and stared at this guy who looked like, probably close to seven feet, right, and er, very slender, very thin, kind of elegant, erm,  and his name was Bolaji, so the guy had gone over to him in the pub and said, you know, the old line, "how would you like to be in the movies?" and the guy had a kind of North London accent and er, he was a graphic designer, and so he turned up, great, very bemused, curious and he was then attached to the film for the next ten months, and so he did all the stuff where he had to like, coming out of the wall in the shuttle (Alien Behind the scenes:  1:31:18)
11. DixiemePlanete Votre créature Alien devait à l'origine être translucide, ce qui ne fut pas le cas en définitive. En créant la Mutante, avez-vous voulu aller au bout de votre idée?
    HRGiger: Effectivement. L'AIien du premier film est devenu par la force des choses un personnage plus sombre en apparence. En fait, le costume devait à l'origine être moulé en caoutchouc semi-transparent mais les techniciens anglais n'ont pas été capables de reproduire ce que j'avais imaginé. En tant qu'artiste, j'en ai beaucoup souffert. Mais j'ai appris à relativiser, que pour travailler dans l'industrie cinématographique il faut faire des concessions, que je ne tolère pas lorsque je peins ou je sculpte pour moi. Pour le personnage de la Mutante, les gars des effets spéciaux ont utilisé des pièces moulées en plastique transparent formé à chaud sur des gabarits. Cela permettait de voir à travers les membres de la créature, dévoilant ainsi les muscles, les veines, etc. C'est ce que je voulais pour le premier Alien. Mais le latex utilisé ne donnait pas cet effet; il se déformait, perdait de sa transparence qui n'était déjà pas importante, d'autant que Badejo était noir ! On ne voyait plus rien ! La transparence joue également un rôle important dans les œufs d'Alien, et c'est ce que voulait Ridley Scott. Il les a placés à l'envers de manière à créer cet effet particulier. (DixiemePlanete #31)
    Translation: Dixieme Planete : Your Alien creature was originally to be translucent , which was not the case in the end. Creating the Mutant , have you wanted to follow your idea ?
    HR Giger: Actually. The AIien of the first film became by force of things a darker character in appearance. In fact, the costume was originally moulded in semi-transparent rubber but English technicians have not been able to reproduce what I had imagined. As an artist, I suffered a lot. But I've learned to put into perspective, that work in the film industry to make concessions, that I do not tolerate when I paint or I sculpt for me. For the character of Species, special effects guys have used parts molded in transparent plastic formed hot on templates. This allowed to see through the parts of the creature , revealing the muscles, veins , etc. . This is what I wanted for the first Alien . But the latex used did not give this effect , it is distorted , losing its transparency was already not important , especially as Badejo was black ! We saw nothing ! Transparency also plays an important role in the Alien eggs, and this is what Ridley Scott wanted . It was placed upside down in order to create this particular effect.

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Giger's objectives with the alien

leading from

Creating the Alien 

HR Giger (source NME, September 15th, 1979)

Information still being collated

a) For Giger,  Sculpting was something much more difficult than painting because it has to look good from every angle rather than being seen from one view on a piece of paper and it would be even more difficult if the object had to movie. His own style of painting was a combination of art and technical stuff, his Biomechanics, a kind of surrealist mixture of biology and technology and he wanted his alien to have these qualities.

b) When Giger had his first meeting with Ridley Scott, they found that the alien creature was the most difficult part of the film. They decided to talk first to think out how it should look. They tried several experiments. They got some acrobats from the circus, in twos and threes on the floor and on the table before them, they created these monstrosities by sitting on top of each other, getting tangled up with each other and the such, a large man held two children. Ridley thought he could dress up the whole thing and make any kind of monster, a multitude of monstrosities and using movement, but in reality, the possibilities seemed to be very limited.

c) But together Giger and Scott had an interest in creating a creature that was elegant and beautiful. It also depended on the way that the creature was represented, the way it acted and the dramatic element Giger had to give him something that could be used in many different ways.

d) Giger wanted something with moveable parts as if it were a complicated toy rather than have something that was plainly rigid. One had to be able to somehow shift it,  twist it, and have lots of possibilities, as many possibilities as possible. So the idea of the tongue with teeth idea that resulted in making double dentures with double rows of teeth that could be moved in such a way. So there was as much action and movement possible in the creature's form. And the need for simplicity always led back to the human form. The greatest horror for every film director and producer dealing with this subject matter was to have a monster than turns out to be ridiculous to the extent that people right from the beginning were thinking "oh! a person in a rubber suit, you know".So it was very difficult to work something out, but Scott had enormous talent for representing relatively simple things in a relatively intense way.  

HR Giger at work on an alien in 1978 in Shepperton Studios near London.
(Photo: Edition Patrick Frey) (Source: http://blog.dasmagazin.ch)

Source quotes:

1. HRGiger: When I had the first meeting with Ridley Scott , we found that the alien creature was the most difficult part of the film. We decided to talk first to think out how it should look. We tried several experiments. One attempt was a big man in a costume holding two kids. He wore the suit but he was afraid it wouldn't work. (source? p20)
2. Yeah how, why look further.  But then he thought, after all we still had time – perhaps we would find something else, and he went on to try out all kinds of things, for example he got some acrobats from a circus to come. In twos and threes, on the floor, on the table in front of us, they created these strange monstrosities by sitting on top of each other, getting all tangled up with each other and that kind of thing, and Scott thought he could kind of dress up the whole thing or make any kind of thing monster, a multitude of monstrosities and using movement or whatever, but in reality the possibilities turned out to be quite limited, and he, not unlike myself, actually had in mind to create a creature which could in fact also be beautiful;  that is to say, elegant or, or aesthetic.  I mean, for example, it isn’t, every monster doesn’t always have to kind of … I don’t know … it can, it can also be a a beautiful, a monster can sometimes be beautiful.  It depends on the way in which it is represented, that is to say how it acts.  Well and the dramatic element, that is added later, I just have to give him something that can be used in as many ways as possible, that is to say Scott always wanted every object which was designed for him. he wanted to be able to, to play any kind of game with it, he wanted there to be movable parts, anything, the thing he hated most was having something that turned out to be rigid.  One had to be able to somehow shift it, or  twist it, or simply , lots of possibilities, as many possibilities as possible.  That was the reason he worked out, for instance, with the teeth inside, the tongue, too, I mean that one could make double dentures with double rows of teeth, and that one could move it in such and such a way;  in other words, he wanted  as much action as possible.  And at the same time he also realised that it would probably be best to use a something simple, and then one is always led back to the human being.  And the human being, I know that’s something else again, but everyone’s greatest horror, the greatest horror of any director and horror film producer is, that the monster turns out to be ridiculous.  And that it’s obvious from the very beginning "oh! a person in a rubber suit, you know"'.  That’s something embarrassing or ridiculous, or pretty obvious and it is very difficult to make something where you don’t somehow suspect that there’s a person inside;  of course nowadays it is much much easier than before, when everything somehow had to have a person as a motor or a drive thingy.  Nowadays you can have a really crazy thing via computer, something that can move, but that possibility didn’t exist then, and so it was very difficult to work something out, and Scott had enormous talent for representing relatively simple things in a relatively intense way.  By using lighting, using surfaces, for example when he, he used a lot of these glistening surfaces, kind of slime and and steam and water that runs down in great drops and so on, and all his backdrops for the action are always full of steam, well almost opaque; and magical somehow;  and yet simple;  that is (Report from interview for Alien Evolution)
3. HRGiger: Then we came back to the designs without eyes from Necronom V and Necronom IV, which have some type of protruding pipes behind it, so it was a combination of those two paintings. Then Ridley Scott wanted a tail because it odds movement. I had drawn the Alien with two rows of teeth and Scott asked me if I could actually build it. Up to this time the only creature we had was somebody in a rubber suit. We made a cast in plasticine with a live model and added pipes and tubes from cars. We made a mold and I worked on the chest first, and then on the upper torso.  (FX, 7, 1999 (spanish magazine))
4. HRGiger : Sculpting something is much more difficult than painting because it has to look good from every angle. It's even more difficult if the object has to move. My style of painting is a combination of art and technical stuff. I call it biomechanics - kind of a surrealist mixture of biology and technology - and I wanted the alien to have those same qualities. So i started out with kind of statue of Bolaji, and directly over that I modeled the shape of the alien in plasticine, with bones and tubes and lots of mechanical things. The head I built up from a real human skull using plasticine and flexible piping and stuff. (Cinefex 1, p47)

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No, no eyes!

leading from

Creating the Alien

Giger's Alien head at the Giger museum

The creature from Giger's painting Necronom IV had slanted bulbous eyes perhaps inspired by motorcyclist goggles and it became too much like a Hells Angel so they were removed and with this creatures bulbous head from the front it looked a bit like depictions of reports of extra-terrestrials from Zeta II Reticuli known as The Greys. Giger became fascinated with the idea of the creature being eyeless. They wanted him to include lamps behind the eyes but he decided "No, no eyes". They said to him to "Please try it" but it didn't work.

quote source

1. H.R.Giger: The big problem was with the [full-grown] monster. In the first design, head had big black eyes, but somebody said he looked too much like a Hell's Angel, all in black with the black goggles. Then I thought it would be even more frightening if there were no eyes. So when the camera comes close, you see only the holes of the skull. Now that's really frightening. Because even without eyes he always knows exactly where his victims are, and he attacks directly. (Cinescape vo.3 no.9, p22)
2. H.R.Giger: All these beasts are blind. I think it is very frightening to have beasts with no eyes. At first they wanted it to have eyes with lamps behind them. Other people always wanted that  but I decided No, no eyes. They said please try it but it didn't work. I think the final version looks quite believable. (Film Monsters # 158, p31)
3. H.R.Giger: And all these beasts are blind. I think it's very frightening to have blind beasts. At first they wanted eyes with lamps behind them. But I said no, no eyes. They said please, but it didn't work. (Warren Present Alien Collectors Edition, p35)

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Carlo Rambaldi's Alien Head

leading from

Creating the alien

Rambaldi's sketch of the Alien head from the cover of Carlo Rambaldi e gli effetti special

a) Rambaldi gets a call

Carlo Rambaldi got a call from the Alien production office in London. They asked for his belp because it was impossible for them to get what they wanted over in England, Rambaldi agreed to study the problem, and was sent copies of Giger's design paintings for the alien, indicating the action of it's protruding tooth encrusted tongue. Rambaldi was asked to devise the mechanism to make it all work. After studying Giger's designs, Rambaldi offered to come up with a solution in four weeks time and accepted the job. 

Rambaldi posing with plaster model of Alien Head. Source: Cinefantastique, vol9 no1, p21

b) Hired as a stopgap

The man had only been hired as a stopgap because David Watling who was the other person working on the head who was actually supposed to be doing the special effects for Alien, had failed miserably. He was supposed to mechanize and the head and everything else and he was incapable of doing the work, and then in the end he was only supposed to work on the tail and he would not even do that. Carlo Rambaldi accepted the job from Gordon Carroll only as a substitute and he was asked to have a go at it while David Watling was also asked to have a go at it and neither knew about the fact that the other one was working on the same thing. 

(Rambaldi Alien Head and Giger : source Cinefantastique, vol9 no1, p21)

c) Rambaldi begins work

Giger had made a polyester caste of the alien head and had it sent to Carlo Rambaldi as he began work at his Hollywood company, located in Tarzana in the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, with little collaboration from the production in England. In addition to Giger's concept paintings, Rambaldi was provided with a "rough" sculpture on which to base his work. He began by sketching a schematic of the alien head and the mechanical parts required. Working from Giger's concepts, Rambaldi devised facial characteristics facial movements for the alien that would suit its unique anatomy. Using these sketches and mechanisms involved, Rambaldi made his own modifications on Giger's design, dictated by the mechanisms required, and sculpted a final version of the alien's head out of clay. He forwarded a videotape of the finished clay models, showing all angles, along with copies of his design to the Alien production office in England for final approval.

(Rambaldi's plan of the Alien head and interior plan from Carlo Rambaldi e gli effetti special)

d) The Go-ahead 

Given the go-ahead, Rambaldi proceeded with construction by making polyurethane, which provides a natural flexibility for the flesh-like moving parts of the alien's face. Rambaldi had developed his own custom made polyurethane formula over the years, one that provides a texture that closely approximates living tissue in both stretch and appearance. Coloring, added during the mixing process, provides the alien flesh with its characteristic huge of metallic grey. The polyurethane casting of the heads was formed over a strong skeletal understructure of molded fiberglass. Moveable fibreglass parts, covered in polyurethane, such as the Alien's face, jaws and protruding tongue, were attached to the fibreglass heads by means of interlocking joints. The Alien's skull-like face is attach to the head at one pivot point  which permits controlled independent movement in either a horizontal or vertical direction. This allows the Alien's face to glance from side to side, or up an down, without making a corresponding movement of the entire head. The protruding action of the tongue is governed by a geared track for smooth movement, and operates independently from the action of the jaw muscles. The tongue could move slowly, and stop at any point, or could be shot away from and returned to the head in a quick movement governed by a powerful spring mechanism. Rows of metallic teeth are attached to the upper and lower jaw, and behind these, movable sets of additional teeth are place on the end of the tongue, which opens like another little mouth and acts like a grappler.  Rambaldi chose to fashion the Alien's teeth out of polished steel for maximum reflectivity, adding just the right touch to make the creature's appearance as a cold, vicious, nearly indestructible killer more convincing. Controls for the upper and lower lips of the Alien were installed to permit the creature to bare its hideous teeth merely by curling its lips. Prophylactics, three on each side, were used to simulate the tendons which attach the jaw to the skull. Being translucent, they permitted visibility of the moving tongue inside the mouth from side angles. The final tought was a 1/2" thick, shiny plastic dome which covers the top of the head, from the nose up, for its entire length. Capable of being both translucent or opaque depending upon the lighting and comer angles employed, the dome gave the Alien an ever changing appearance.

(Rambaldi Alien Head and Giger : source Cinefantastique, vol9 no1, p21)

e) Impressive presentation

When it turned out that David Watling was failing, Carlo Rambaldi arrived in Shepperton on August 21st, a week late. He brought with him Dean, his Hollywood agent which surprised HR Giger because DEan was a real American Indian. Rambaldi came with his very impressive presentation of three Alien heads, he wore gloves when he opened his boxes which came from America and unpacked it with the help of his two assistants who had travelled from Rome. The way it was done looked solemn and they were were all very impressed. Rambaldi had done a marvelous job. David Watling who was there at that time was impressed as well. Giger noted that it looked as if a fossil had fallen victim to a brilliant amateur carpenter.  Carlo had built a substructure on the lines of their model cranium housing a highly complex mechanism, the faces muscles etc can be moved and Giger was very inspired to see how this could all be operated  by wires that were bicycle cables he had never seen before how this sort of thing worked the way they worked.

(Rambaldi ketch of Alien head, Source: Cinefantastique,  vol9 no1, p22)

f) Rambaldi and Giger

Carlo Rambaldi was Italian, and Giger had studied Italian for two years and so he was able to communicate with Carlo in Italian and also he liked Italians and straight away they established a good relationship, and Giger was also very impressed by him because he was the living Oscar winner that he had ever met in his life. He told himself that this was the man who got an Oscar for King Kong. And when Carlo told them this on his arrival, there was a rapt silence and he enjoyed that. Giger knew that Carlo was extremely important.

(Rambaldi ketch of Alien head , Cinefantastique, vol9 no1, p22)

g) Each movemt of Rambaldi's articulated Alien head is controlled seperately by hand via the action of a flexible cable. A lever control causes the cable to constrict or release, causing a corresponding action on a muscle, tendon, or moving part of the model. The principle involved is the same as that which operates the cable release on the camera. Each cable runs up into the head through the neck opening, and if 45 feet in length, to permit both concealment within the suit as well as considerable freedom of movement for action scenes. During the filming of ALIEN, it took a crew of six operators to control all of the head movements for the most complex scenes. In contrast, only a maximum of seven operators were required to manipulate the Rambaldi alien see in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, and that involved torso and body movements in addition to those of the head, giving some indication of the much greater complexty of head movement capabilities designed by Rambaldi for ALIEN. Special techniques employed during the shooting which added a note of realism including running fluid through the mouth as the creature opened it jaws, providing cascade of saliva; KY Jelly added a glistening, membranous appearance to the action of the protruding tongue; and oil was rubbed onto the head to give it a sweaty, reflective sheen

(Rambaldi's plan for an Alien head, Cinefantastique,  vol9 no1, p22)

h) Alien looking like King Kong

Two of the heads were identical and fully articulated, one a primary and the other a backup. 

And the third was a lightweight version without mechanisms except for lips. And so for long shots requiring no articulation at all, studio craftsmen had struck an additional three heads from Giger's mould.  In the end, they had six alien heads, one mechanized, one distance controlled and fully mechanised, one half mechanised, two unmechanised and one made from plastic foam described as a soft rubber variant which the stunt-man wears for falling a great height. and any other such elaborate stunt sequences. Once Giger had painted the creature head up and placed upon it the transparent dome, it seemed that it was then that Giger noticed that it appeared that Rambaldi's alien head had taken on a more ape like countenance, a fact which distressed him, but which Giger later reconciled to artistic licence, however he realised that he couldn't have an Alien looking like King Kong and so Rambaldi had to remodel the head to bring it in line with the other alien heads

(Rambaldi's plan for an Alien head  Cinefantastique, vol9 no1, p22)

i) Using the old methods

Giger had hear how the other special effects people were making fun of Rambaldi because he did use moderns means of working such as modern electronics or anything like that, He still made everything in a down-to-earth way using mechanical things to power monsters, and the incredible thing was that it worked brilliantly. Everything else such as modern electronics usually when it gets sticky or there's slime or something stuck to it, it doesn't work any more. Rambaldi saved the Alien. Without Rambaldi, the Alien head would probably have remained lifeless.  

(Rambaldi's plan for an Alien head, Cinefantastique,  vol9 no1, p27)

j) Completing the Alien work

However it went that Rambaldi's alterations were minor and more strictly a constriction of having to arrange complex actuating mechanisms within an extremely confined area. Still remarkably akin to its original inspiration, the completed alien was by an account, an unfettered embodiment of Necronom IV, an unmistakable giant with teeth. All of these heads are supposed to represent one single Alien III life form, and so to have one that looked like King Kong would not do. With guidance from Ridley Scott and H R Giger, Rambaldi staying much longer than the three days originally planned, had to make minor alterations and completed unfinished details. Highly polished chrome teeth were implanted into the jaw and tongue, and since Ridley Scott want them visible even when the mouth was closed, Rambaldi fashioned lips from transparent rubber, and used stretched rubber condoms between upper and lower jaws to serve as exposed tendons.  After two frenzied weeks, due to prior commitments, Rambaldi could not be on hand for the actual shooting and departed London , but brought in his collaborator from Rome, Carlo DeMarchis, to train the crew and supervise the operation of the controls during filming. 

(Rambaldi's plan for an Alien head , Cinefantastique, vol9 no1, p27)

k) Adapting

Although they managed to have a functional Alien head, they originally wanted a remote controlled to limit the need for cables but David Watling was unable to give, so with the Rambaldi head, Brian Johnson noted that the cables coming out of the head were a bit of a problem. They had to dress them so that they couldn't be seen and at the same time allow maximum amount of flexibility. Also, they found out that you could see the mechanism which operated the head, so that's when the goo appeared, the goo covered up the mechanism. They rubbed the whole head with K-Y jelly and also had it oozing out of the mouth. They must have used gallons of that stuff, because it drips and you're constantly replacing it. While the lubricant jelly did an admirable job of camouflaging flaws and making the alien look even more nauseating. As a result, Giger had to repaint his creature after each day's shooting.

(Rambaldi's plan for an Alien, head , Cinefantastique, vol9 no1, p27)

Quote Sources

1. Interviewer: What was your relationship with e.g. Carlo Rambaldi,? How did you work with other technicians.
   H R Giger : Carlo Rambaldi was Italian, and I had studied Italian at School for two years and so I was able to communicate with him in Italian, and I like Italians. and we straightaway established a good relationship, and I was very impressed by him because he as the first person, who had an Oscar, whom I met, in life I mean, the first living Oscar winner I'd met, and I said to myself, ha, that's the man , he got an Oscar for King Kong, and that's what he told us and there was a rapt silence and so on and he enjoyed that and Carlo Rambaldi was extremely important. He had only been hired as a stopgap, because the person whom they got from England, the man who was actually supposed to do the special effects for Alien, he failed miserably, he was supposed to mechanise the head and everything, but he wasn't capable of doing it and then in the end he was only supposed to mechanise the tail, and he couldn't do that either, And that was awful for him, and thank God, Gordon Carroll gave Carlo Rambaldi the job, that is, only as a substitute, asked him to please have a go at it, that is, and it came out the fact that he have given two people the same job and asked them to work on the same thing. Neither knew about the other one. But then, when the other one failed with the thingy and Rambaldi came with his very, erm it was a very impressive thing, an impressive presentation, he wore gloves when he opened his boxes which came from America, this Alien, I think two, an Alien head , had to cast it in polyester, and then it was sent to him in Tarzana, and there he mechanized it, the way that Gordon Carroll wanted it, and then it arrived, he unpacked it on the table with the help of his two assistants, wearing gloves, and it looked solemn, and we were all very impressed, how you could with these simple wires, that is with the cables from a bicycle cable, and all of it could be... you could pull the thingies and I had never seen that before, I was extremely impressed with Carlo Rambaldi. And then I heard the that the other special effects people , they kind of made fun of Rambaldi, because he didn't use modern means of working, like modern electronics or something like that. He still made everything in a kind of down-to-earth way using mechanical things, powered his monsters or his monster but it worked. That was, that worked brilliantly. Everything else usually when it gets sticky or there's slime or something stuck to it, it doesn't work any more, whereas Rambaldi saved the Alien. Without Rambaldi, the Alien head would probably have remained lifeless. (report from raw Giger interview for Alien Evolution)

   

   (Rambaldi's plan for an Alien head, Cinefantastique,  vol9 no1, p27)
2. Rambaldi's work for Alien, like that for CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, was in the role of troubleshooter, as one who was brought onto the production to save an impossible situation. "I got a call from the ALIEN production office in London." said Rambaldi. " They asked for my belp because it was impossible for them to get what they wanted over there.". Rambaldi agreed to study the problem, and was sent copies of Giger's design paintings for the alien, indicating the action of it's protruding tooth encrusted tongue. Rambaldis was asked to devise the mechanism to make it all work. After studying Giger's designs, Rambaldi offered to come up with a solution in four weeks time and accepted the job
   Rambaldi began work at his Hollywood company with little collaboration from the production in England. In addition to Giger's concept paintings, Rambaldi was provided with a "rough" sculpture on which to base his work. He began by sketching a schematic of the alien head and the mechanical parts required. Working from Giger's concepts, Rambaldi devised facial characteristics facial movements for the alien that would suit its unique anatomy. Using these sketches and mechanisms involved, Rambado made his own modifications on Giger's design, dictated by the mechanisms required, and sculpted a final version of the alien's head out of clay. He forwarded a videotape of the finished clay models, showing all angles, along with copies of his design to the Alien production office n England for final approval
   Given the go-ahead, Rambaldi proceeded with construction by making polyurethane, which provides a natural flexibility for the flesh-like moving parts of the alien's face. Rambaldi had developed his own custom made polyurethane formula over the years , one that provides a texture that closely approximates living tissue in both stretch and appearance. Coloring, added during the mixing process, provides the alien flesh with its characteristic huge of metallic grey. The polyurethane casting of the heads was formed over a strong skeletal understructure of molded fiberglass. Moveable fibreglass parts, covered in polyurethane, such as the Alien's face, jaws and protruding tongue, were attached to the fibreglass heads by means of interlocking joints. The Alien's skull-like face is attach to the head at one pivot point  which permits controlled independent movement in either a horizontal or vertical direction. This allows the Alien's face to glance from side to side, or up an down, without making a corresponding movement of the entire head. The protruding action of the tongue is governed by a geared track for smooth movement, and operates independently from the action of the jaw muscles. The tongue could move slowly, and stop at any point, or could be shot away from and returned to the head in a quick movement governed by a powerful spring mechanism. Rows of metallic teeth are attached to the upper and lower jaw, and behind these, movable sets of additional teeth are place on the end of the tongue, which opens like another little mouth and acts like a grappler. Rambaldi chose to fashion the Alien's teeth out of polished steel for maximum reflectivity, adding just the right touch to make the creature's appearance as a cold, vicious, nearly indestructible killer more convincing. Controls for the upper and lower lips of the Alien were installed to permit the creature to bare its hideous teeth merely by curling its lips. Prophylactics, three on each side, were used to simulate the tendons which attach the jaw to the skull. Being translucent, they permitted visibility of the moving tongue inside the mouth from side angles. The final tought was a 1/2" thick, shiny plastic dome which covers the top of the head, from the nose up, for its entire length. Capable of being both translucent or opaque depending upon the lighting and comer angles employed, the dome gave the Alien an ever changing appearance.
   Rambaldi constructed three heads for use in the film; two mechanical heads used primarily for close-up work, and a lightweight, non-mechanical head for longshots. Of the two mechanical heads, only one was fully mechanized to perform all of the head movement functions he designed, and was the one that was used most of the time during filming. The second mechanical head was lighter in weight and easier to work with, but was rigged only to cause the creature's lips to curl. Rambaldi delivered the completed heads to England and spent two weeks there conferring with director Ridley Scott, working on the painting and final detailing of the models, and instructing the production team on their operation and movement capabilities. Due to prior commitments, Rambaldi could not be on hand for the actual shooting , but brought in his collaborator from Rome, Carlo DeMarchis, to train the crew and supervise the operation of the controls during filming.
   
   Each movement of Rambaldi's articulated Alien head is controlled separately by hand via the action of a flexible cable. A lever control causes the cable to constrict or release, causing a corresponding action on a muscle, tendon, or moving part of the model. The principle involved is the same as that which operates the cable release on the camera. Each cable runs up into the head through the neck opening, and if 45 feet in length , to permit both concealment within the suit as well as considerable freedom of movement for action scenes. During the filming of ALIEN, it took a crew of six operators to control all of the head movements for the most complex scenes. In contrast, only a maximum of seven operators were required to manipulate the Rambaldi alien see in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, and that involved torso and body movements in addition to those of the head, giving some indication of the much greater complexty of head movement capabilities designed by Rambaldi for ALIEN. Special techniques employed during the shooting which added a note of realism including running fluid through the mouth as the creature opened it jaws, providing   cascade of saliva; KY Jelly added a glistening, membranous appearance to the action of the protruding tongue; and oil was rubbed onto the head to give it a sweaty, reflective sheen  (Cinefantastique, vol 9, no 1, p23)
3. H R Giger: Then, of course, there was another man involved with the mechanics: Carlo Rambaldi, the maker of King Kong. He had a lot of experience, but I was responsible for the shape and look of everything. He handled the inside and I handled the outside. (Famous Monsters #158, p30) 
4. H R Giger (21st August 1978, Shepperton Studios): Rambaldi, the 'magic artist' who brings cinema artists to life, has arrived with his crew, a week late. He's brought with him his Hollywood agent, Dean, a real Indian. His staff have traveled from Rome. Rambaldi, a charming extraordinary man, can virtually only speak Italian, although he's been several years in America. The great cases are carefully unpacked and we monster-makers wait on tiptoe to see what has happened to our polyester. We are not disappointed. Rambaldi has done a marvelous job. This is confirmed by the English engineer who is working on the spare head. It looks like a fossil that has fallen victim to a brilliant amateur carpenter. Carlo has built a substructure on the lines of our model cranium, housing a highly complex mechanism. The face muscles etc: can be moved individually by hand, using ten cables. Scott has the idea of covering the face muscles with preservatives. (Giger's Alien, p68) 
5. Cinefex: When all the detailing was complete, H. R. Giger airbrush painted it in characteristic blacks and browns. Finally, a smooth vacuum-formed plastic shell was fitted over the top of the head, enshrouding translucence the nasal cavity and eyeless sockets which still suggested a human lineage. It no longer looked precisely like the sculpted prototype. Giger felt that it had taken on a more ape like countenance, a fact which at first distressed him, but which he later reconciled to artistic licence. In actuality however,  the Rambaldi alterations were minor and more strictly a function of having to arrange the complex actuating mechanisms within a extremely confined area. Still remarkably akin to its original inspiration, the completed alien was, by any account, an unfettered embodiment of Necronom IV - an unmistakable giant phallus, with teeth.
   
   

   Carlo Rambaldi with head mechanism Alien stage III (from Giger's Alien, p60)

   In late August, with only the finishing touches yet to do, Rambaldi  flew to London with three Alien  heads. Two were identical and fully articulated - one a primary; the other a backup. The third was a light weight version, without mechanics except for the lips. For long shots requiring no articulation at all, studio craftsmen had struck an additional three heads from Giger's mold - including a soft rubber variant to be used during some of the elaborate stunt sequences
   With guidance from Ridley Scott and H. R. Giger, Rambaldi made minor alterations and completed the unfinished details. Highly polished chrome teeth were implanted into the jaw and tongue; and since Scott wanted them visible even when the mouth was closed, Rambaldi fashioned the lips from transparent rubber. Rambaldi also stretched rubber condoms between upper and lower jaws to serve as exposed tendons. (Alien The Special Effects, p28, Titan Books,  and Cinefex 1)
   
   
6. H. R. Giger (30th August 1978, Shepperton Studios) : Rambaldi has now been here a week. Originally he was only going to stay here for three days. He has to remodel his Alien's head which looks a bit like an ape. We've got six Alien's heads - one mechanized, one distance controlled and fully mechanised (but not working properly yet , one half mechanised, two unmechanised and one made of plastic foam, which the stunt-man wears for falling from a great height. All these heads have to represent Alien III, so we can't have a version looking like King Kong. (Giger's Alien, p69-70)  
7. Rambaldi departed London after two frenzied weeks, leaving in his stead an old associate from Rome, Carlo DeMarchis. DeMarchis stayed for the duration, supervising use of the Rambaldi heads during photography, orchestrating required moves, and training the technicians needed to manipulate the mechanical contrivances.(Alien: Special effects, p31 and Cinefex 1)
8. In another studio, Carlo DeMarchis is working on the facial musculature of the monster because the creature is able to perform real movements, these have to recorrespond optically to the facial muscles, for this work, we're using contraceptives (HR Giger's The Making of Alien)
9. Carlo Rambaldi with his crew, probably Carlo Rambaldi's most famous mechanisation is King Kong in the new movie version. He was awarded an Oscar for the mechanisation of that ape, and he also instilled life into our Alien. The facial movements are controlled by hand through wires attached to a level console (HR Giger's The Making of Alien)
   

   

   Rambaldi's Alien head attached through wires to the lever console

10. "The cables coming out of the head were a bit of a problem, " Brian Johnson added. " We had to dress those so that you couldn't see them and at the same time allow maximum amount of flexibility. Also, we found out that you could see the mechanism which operated the head. So that's when the goo appeared - the goo covered up the mechanism. We rubbed the whole head with K-Y jelly and also had it oozing out of the mouth. We must have used gallons of that stuff, because it drips and you're constantly replacing it. "  While the lubricant jelly did an admirable job of camouflaging flaws and making the alien look even more nauseating. As a result, Giger had to repaint his creature after each day's shooting. .(Alien: Special effects, p31 and Cinefex 1)
    
    
     

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Giger Interviews

leading from

H R Giger

1. Oscar Winner H R Giger in Blick June 2012

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The Derelict

Leading from 

 Alien

 

The abandoned ship containing the remains of a dead alien pilot

 at his control seat soon became known as The Derelict  

1. Chris Foss' Derelict 
2. Cobb's Derelict
3. Ridley's Criteria 
4. Moebius' work 
5. From Giger's Necronomicon 
6. Giger's Derelict exterior
7. Changes To The Derelict
8. The Derelict's Interior
9. Silo and The Derelict Squeezed Into One
10. The Derelict during construction
11. The Derelict Model On Set
12. The Derelict Model after the movie
13. The Derelict Entrance Set 
14. Placement of the Life Cycle Tableau
15. The Laser Placenta 

See also: The Space Jockey's Story

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