Friday 5/3/21 - Ridley Scott and Alien

To start my research I wanted to look at a director who has inspired me a lot throughout my previous work, especially for his film Blade Runner. Previously Wes Anderson was one of the most prolific inspirations for my work, so I wanted to take this as an opportunity to look at a different artist who is equally as inspiring to me. I was first introduced to Ridley Scott's work through the Alien franchise, the first two films in particular became instant favourites. What caught my attention was the strong atmosphere present throughout the films, how both horror and sci-fi aspects were combined together. The dark and gloomy shots of the spaceship's interior covered in fog or the few shots of the mysterious planet. Unlike most science fiction films at the time, Alien looks at the future in a very dark and dystopian sense. Instead of utilising amazing special effects and creating futuristic wonders they gave the film a very grounded feel. I loved how they opted for darker sets instead of the classic clean white environments, using them less frequently. Ridley Scott and the crew behind Alien worked well to create an atmosphere. The same can be said for his other films such as Prometheus and the Blade Runner duology.

However, I felt that focusing on the Alien franchise was a better choice as I've not often looked towards it for ideas and influence because it's a horror. I was interested by the idea of suspence and tension. To get a greater insight into the film I watched a short video essay explaining the horror behind the film and how they created it.

A trick to creating the suspence in Alien was by showing the audience that something would happen, giving a theoretical ticking clock in the back of the heads of the audience. The filmmakers left a lot of teases, showing the audience through the idea of the unexplained distress call or the huge devastated spaceship. Not only did they leave hints about the Alien and what it could do, but about other aspects of the film such as the character Ash, an android posing as a crew member. This is unknown to the audience but they are given a lot of subtle hints. It allowed the viewer to build suspence in their minds instead of just jumping straight into the action or using sudden scares with no previous build-up. They combined this with a slow pace to help build up the impact, alongside purposefully chosen ambient soundtracks to enhance the tension.

Though this wasn't the only trick to suspense, the creators behind Alien chose to limit how much the audience sees of the creature. When on screen it is nearly always bathed in shadows or seen from a closeup angle. I don't believe you actually ever see the full creature. Despite having an amazing and very detailed design made, they chose to hide it. Not being able to see the horror only makes it scarier as it leaves the audience building it up in their heads, wondering what is hidden in the shadows. The scenes it is present in are always the most tense but still short. The alien only actually is seen on screen for about 4 minutes overall. As mentioned in the video, most of the film is focused on the characters and their reactions to the events unfolding. Even in scenes with the Alien present the camera often focuses on the characters. It makes the scenes more powerful.

Not only this, they also chose to only hint at it in the promotion leading up to the film's release. The trailer (linked here) for the film showed multiple shots from the film with footage of characters in fear, running for their lives with a tense score behind it. The trailer then ended with the film's title, Alien. Yet they didn't once show what they were running from or explained the context for the footage shown, it gave only enough information to gather an idea of what the film was about, enough to excite and intrigue audiences. Once again the audience was shown that something bad would happen but were never told how or what it would be, it brings a greater feeling of suspence and tension. All of this build up meant that when events did start to happen, such as the first contact with the facehugger or the chestburster scene, they earn the impact. It makes it more memorable and is what made Alien such a successful film.

The ideas of suspence, tension and atmosphere are aspects I want to explore further in the FMP. I feel that I haven't had much opportunity utilizing these in my filmwork. I in particularly really liked the idea of specifically choosing what to show and what to withold from the audience. This is because sometimes telling the audience nothing can lose the build up towards an action but showing them everything will equally lose build up. There's a sweet spot inbetween which really helps in creating a tense and mysterious atmosphere. I hope that I can really make use of this in my film work.

Full Fat Videos (2019). Alien: The Horror You Don't See. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5MH6TGF_nU (Accessed: 5th March 2021)