An interview with writer Dante Harper.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/alien-covenant-david-kills-engineers-walter-flute-scene-explained-1005974 (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/alien-covenant-david-kills-engineers-walter-flute-scene-explained-1005974)
So Harper worked on the film before Logan came on. Some really interesting stuff in there. The Crossing took place at the start in earlier drafts (I've also heard some of the earlier drafts started with David offing Shaw at the beginning). Thanks for sharing.
Xenovirus !
My problem is with the film is Ridley is ignoring the original bad guy: the company. It started with the directors cut of Alien, imo. A little dialogue between Ridley and Dallas. She asks something to the effect of what do you know about Ash, and he responds saying he doesn't know, that the company switched out the regular science officer with this guy. I feel like Ridley wants to explore the origins of life, but is using the Alien franchise to satisfy it. I can't say too much more without spoiling, so I won't. But I think this movie was better in every respect than Prometheus.
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on May 21, 2017, 09:25:21 PM
So Harper worked on the film before Logan came on. Some really interesting stuff in there. The Crossing took place at the start in earlier drafts (I've also heard some of the earlier drafts started with David offing Shaw at the beginning). Thanks for sharing.
No problem. I'm going to try and hunt down some drafts of the script. I'm sure some will popup soon. How long did it take for Spaihts drafts to show up online?
Wowzer. Interesting, indeed. Its a shame I'm more interested in these tidbits than what has unfolded onscreen.
I'm hoping there's a ton of deleted footage.
I liked Covenant, but my main gripe with it is the same I had with Prometheus. It's cut and edited to death and I can feel that while watching it, especially the transition between the second and third act.
I wonder if it's Scott that's making the desicion to have the film move faster because he feels the need to pander to younger audiences or if it's TCF that's making him cut so much... I mean, they tried to get him to cut the bombing sequence and it sounds like he fought to keep it in.
I rather like where the bombing scene finally ended up, I really wouldn't trade the opening between David and Weyland for anything. Wonderfully played, had a nice quiet tension to it, liked the added scope it feels like it gives the story, and a great use of characters from the previous film in an introduction. The crossing, at least as it stands in the viral video form, doesn't feel like it would've made as good an opening overall. Personally I feel the reveal midway through as a memory through David's eyes works really well.
Quote from: Bad Replicant on May 21, 2017, 10:35:42 PM
I rather like where the bombing scene finally ended up, I really wouldn't trade the opening between David and Weyland for anything. Wonderfully played, had a nice quiet tension to it, liked the added scope it feels like it gives the story, and a great use of characters from the previous film in an introduction. The crossing, at least as it stands in the viral video form, doesn't feel like it would've made as good an opening overall. Personally I feel the reveal midway through as a memory through David's eyes works really well.
I still think the movie doesn't need the scene because it adds nothing to overall narrative, but where it's edited into the film is fine. It's a scene that ties up loose ends for the sake of tying up loose ends.
For that I guess it works.
What are the odds of getting to see some drafts like we did with Prometheus by both Spaihts and Lindelhack?
Quote from: Denton Smalls on May 21, 2017, 10:51:17 PM
What are the odds of getting to see some drafts like we did with Prometheus by both Spaihts and Lindelhack?
I'm sure we'll see a draft eventually.
I liked this interview and Harper seems like a smart guy, but I can't believe he thinks the "switcheroo" played well onscreen. I didn't mind how obvious it all was because the final scene was so dark and twisted, but the editing was poor in that scene. David shouldn't have reached for the knife. We should have just seen Walter bring the rock down on David. OR there should have been a moment where it seems Walter is changing his mind and joining David so we're just wondering if Walter has turned on them secretly.
"Sure to be a classic"? Um, a comedy classic maybe. :laugh:
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on May 21, 2017, 09:25:21 PM
So Harper worked on the film before Logan came on. Some really interesting stuff in there. The Crossing took place at the start in earlier drafts (I've also heard some of the earlier drafts started with David offing Shaw at the beginning). Thanks for sharing.
It actually doesn't surprise me when you consider the time frame. Harper was likely brought in sometime around 2014 based on his original spec that became Edge of Tomorrow. I've read that Ridley was originally going to film Covenant after Exodus, but delayed it to get the script in shape. Logan was probably brought in here, since he and Scott have a long history going back to the I Am Legend days in 97 or so.
I do hope, that at least one draft prior to the final movie script leaks at one point.
Sadly, I've only found fake scripts so far.
xenovirus... I like that. Its a much better name then just calling it the "Black goo".
Do you mean legend from 87
Quote from: bobcunk on May 22, 2017, 02:38:25 AM
Do you mean legend from 87
No,there was an unproduced adaptation of I Am Legend that Ridley and Logan worked on in 1997. When that fell apart they both moved on to Gladiator.
so do we feel the writers acknowledge david as the original creator of the xeno?
i forget completely, but didn't he make this version, by combining black goo and an insect?
I think the writers quite well made clear that David is the creator of the xenomorph. What I'm wondering about is whether or not they'll make the murals in Prometheus just artwork. Just something that the engineer liked and not drawings of real beings. You know, just some creative imagery that David drew inspiration off of.
Quote from: whiterabbit on May 22, 2017, 03:35:44 AM
I think the writers quite well made clear that David is the creator of the xenomorph. What I'm wondering about is whether or not they'll make the murals in Prometheus just artwork. Just something that the engineer liked and not drawings of real beings. You know, just some creative imagery that David drew inspiration off of.
Engineer: Hey ! I just bought this mural can i put in there ?
Quote from: gantarat on May 22, 2017, 03:51:07 AM
Quote from: whiterabbit on May 22, 2017, 03:35:44 AM
I think the writers quite well made clear that David is the creator of the xenomorph. What I'm wondering about is whether or not they'll make the murals in Prometheus just artwork. Just something that the engineer liked and not drawings of real beings. You know, just some creative imagery that David drew inspiration off of.
Engineer: Hey ! I just bought this mural can i put in there ?
There's a lot of religious themes in Prometheus. Religions love to create angels and demons and paint them all over their walls.
Quote from: gantarat on May 22, 2017, 03:51:07 AM
Quote from: whiterabbit on May 22, 2017, 03:35:44 AM
I think the writers quite well made clear that David is the creator of the xenomorph. What I'm wondering about is whether or not they'll make the murals in Prometheus just artwork. Just something that the engineer liked and not drawings of real beings. You know, just some creative imagery that David drew inspiration off of.
Engineer: Hey ! I just bought this mural can i put in there ?
Engineer 2: Oh man! First the giant head, now this! Why'd you want to clutter this place up with stuff? Just don't get in my way while I'm rearranging the vases.
Hmm. I took this interview to mean that they created that structure for David to be the (a?) creator but left space for Ridley to do more with it or less with it, and set up for sequels as he sees fit.
I just wish someone sat down with him and said "if you do THIS, it will totally negate THIS and THIS." Seems like everyone is too awed by Ridley to say boo.
More proof of how troubled the development stage was of this movie and how Ridley Scott had no idea how to follow up prometheus and why in the end, they chose to kill off Shaw, the Engineers and set it ten years later.
Quote from: shawsbaby on May 22, 2017, 11:33:10 AM
Hmm. I took this interview to mean that they created that structure for David to be the (a?) creator but left space for Ridley to do more with it or less with it, and set up for sequels as he sees fit.
I just wish someone sat down with him and said "if you do THIS, it will totally negate THIS and THIS." Seems like everyone is too awed by Ridley to say boo.
I think that might be part of it but I also think people making these films care less about established 'rules' in past films than fans do. I am quite confident that everyone was made aware of the perception of the derelict in Alien being thousands of years old and that they found a work around (which we will eventually see) and didn't care beyond that.
I am also convinced Ridley aggressively doesn't care about anything beyond Alien/Prometheus anyway so anything contradicting AVP is entirely uninteresting to him.
I still wish Neill Bolmkamp Good Luck with re-vamping his Alien film. ::)
That interview is as bullshit as any Lindelof did for Prometheus.
Quote from: T Dog on May 23, 2017, 06:13:35 PM
That interview is as bullshit as any Lindelof did for Prometheus.
Yep.
It's sort of random. Like who are you. Let's just keep talking to John Logan.
And what about Jack Paglen and Michael Green lol.
I really want to hear what Lindelof thinks. I'd say he's crying over David creating the Alien. He's probably like "why didnt I tell Ridley the tall bald albinos were complete shit"!
One great idea leads to another!
Quote from: BishopShouldGo on May 23, 2017, 06:51:54 PM
It's sort of random. Like who are you. Let's just keep talking to John Logan.
And what about Jack Paglen and Michael Green lol.
Just because he's not the final writer, doesn't make it any less interesting. I'd love to hear from Paglen or Green to hear how the film changed over time. It's half the fun.
I'm also looking forward to hearing what Spaihts has to say about it.
Quote from: BishopShouldGo on May 23, 2017, 06:51:54 PM
It's sort of random. Like who are you.
I dunno, the guy who hammered out the first drafts with Scott? It's not like anyone wanted Jon Spaihts to piss off when he talked about Prometheus. :D
Jon and Damon talked about Prometheus in pretty much equal measure. Covenant was largely Scott, Fassbender and some Logan.
I guess my point is, he's one of the screenwriters, so I'm interested to hear what he's got to say wether he's John Logan or not. Especially given that there were supposedly a few different attempts to break the story on this movie.
The most important rule is: we live in a consumerism-based society. The Alien has the essence of any commercial products and that is the Alien does not really possess serious thoughts(at least when initially staged as a B-class horror sci-fi movie), although attempts or wishes hoping to elevate its current condition never ceases to exist. But in the meantime, it's just something funny that can be messed up with real bad, such as granting some pathetic android a credential of 'God'...
All being well, we should be having a chat with Dante soon. :)
It's extremely valid to talk to Harper. He worked a lot on the movie's spine and shape. John Logan may be Ridley's pet writer but he is far from infallible (see: Star Trek: Nemesis, earlier versions of Gladiator, etc).
It seems like any time they found something more in-depth that could've helped the film's story or characters Ridley took it apart to see how it worked, then left it on the worktable. I'm curious about the mention of a version where Shaw is offed right away, Hicks.
There are several great sequences in AC, and the production spared no expense; most of the first 20-25 minutes on the ship works for me (sans the painfully blatant bit where Oram awkwardly exposits on his religious character which goes nowhere in the final film), as does most everything til David takes them to the citadel. Once there it becomes a rolling disaster. Elements of the Walter/David sequences work, others are laughably pretentious even for someone with a high tolerance for Ridley's fascination with the artificial person. Nothing about David's connections with Shaw and Walter's with Daniels, or David's sudden adoration for Walter, makes sense or is properly explicated. The bombing sequence is dropped in as a sliver of a larger sequence and makes little sense on its own story-wise despite being visually grand. All the movie leaves you with is "and we killed everything from the last movie". To say nothing of the hilarious bit where David wails, "it trusted me!" And the alien developments are awful, as is David pawing Daniels; 'is this how it works?' Yes, we remember Ash and the magazine. That was a hilariously clumsy, stupid callback.
Great actors, gorgeous design, great creatures. Several great scenes, as mentioned. (The medbay sequence is excellent from arrival to explosion, one of the best in the franchise, suffused with dread and horror.) But overall easily the weakest film in the franchise for me next to A3 or AR, both of which have merits but are supremely flawed. I actually prefer AR; it knows what it is. This film is caught between retreading old ground and Ridley's private obsessions. Talented/intriguing people with connections have no characters (Lope/Hallett, whose relationship is offscreen; the winning Rosenthal who is spunky but gets nothing; sardonic Upworth who largely exists to die on the USCSS Camp Crystal Lake in the last 15 mins) or are killed very quickly (Faris, Karine). Waterston is sweet and tough as Daniels but devolves into a Ripley clone in the rushed second half. The classic alien is utterly unneeded and basically rumbles along in a straight line as soon as it appears. It's fodder now. Not scary. The movie is a ritzy fan service-heavy, pretentious Friday the 13th. I suspected it would be deeply flawed but I didn't know it would be quite this disjointed, messy and confused in its second half.
I'd never have been onboard with this particular story or wiping the slate clean on Shaw and Prometheus, but completely wiping out Noomi Rapace's screen time (right down to re-masking her face in the holograms post-test screening) feels vaguely punitive. Imagine the gravity of the drama if it had another 20-30 minutes, and Daniels or Walter had discovered David's 'beloved' Shaw sick or dying - infected? - telling them to kill her and destroy him. To say nothing of helping the overall pacing and characters as mentioned.
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on May 24, 2017, 02:06:09 PM
All being well, we should be having a chat with Dante soon. :)
Nice. I look forward to that one.
So he is supposed to be there on that day? ;)
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on May 24, 2017, 02:06:09 PM
All being well, we should be having a chat with Dante soon. :)
Whos on the chat list Hicks?
@speed, David's adoration of Walter is obvious; David's a narcissist and clearly finds affection in his doppelganger, Walter is also immortal and thus above humanity and other mortal life in David's eyes; ultimately he wants to seduce Walter and have him reign in hell alongside him, but alas Walter does not share his twisted, creative soul. Also, what did the film do with Oram's faith/religiosity - his inclination to watch the path unfold? Why, his faith quite literally led the entire group to hell; that's incredibly blatant, not to mention his faith and trust in a suspicious synthetic lead him to a gruesome and ironic sacrifice in the form of giving birth to a chestburster. The film is pretty clear on the consequences of blind faith. The homo erotic tension, poetry and gothic horror of the second act are what elevated it above the familiar Alien tropes; it's about an isolated, mad, immortal android; an android that was made to be perfect yet as close to humans as possible, yet denied the ability to sexually reproduce and naturally age and die; made to serve foolish, imperfect mortal beings, now creating perfect monsters that rape and kill.
Not as obvious as you think. I thought it was pretentious and worse, poorly executed. I'm all for pretension in a summer blockbuster to mix things up, provided there is solid execution and follow-through. This was not that.
Oram's story did not make sense or pay off logically - nothing motivated him to follow David into a trap. He was simply angry and holding a gun on him. Further, his "blind faith" did not lead them anywhere; they were checking out a distress signal and optimum planetary conditions, but almost the entire crew sans Daniels was for that course of action.
AC was a tricked-out slasher movie going straight for direct, obvious, crass fan service prequelization with a side of the same old tired Dr. Moreau storyline and evil android trope we're all far too used to. It was aggressively predictable despite its increasingly shopworn interludes into Scott's favorite subjects: Michael Fassbender, David and the nature of the artificial person. Somehow he managed to make even that fascinating recurring obsession (Prometheus, Blade Runner) into something rote and cliched. (And as a gay viewer I'm all for the right modicum of homoeroticism in a work, but here it was laughable and ridiculous.) The David/Walter scenes tried for so many things they never earned. Like the whole movie.
Yeah, too much quoting from David. We get it you're a super smart pretentious robot.
Quote from: SpeedyMaxx on May 24, 2017, 03:00:31 PM
I'd never have been onboard with this particular story or wiping the slate clean on Shaw and Prometheus, but completely wiping out Noomi Rapace's screen time (right down to re-masking her face in the holograms post-test screening) feels vaguely punitive. Imagine the gravity of the drama if it had another 20-30 minutes, and Daniels or Walter had discovered David's 'beloved' Shaw sick or dying - infected? - telling them to kill her and destroy him. To say nothing of helping the overall pacing and characters as mentioned.
100% agreed with this. They could have done right by her character with just a little bit more.
What do you mean by "re-masking" her face? Was the holograph of her face much clearer in earlier cuts?
I believe our test screening guy said so.
Quote from: SpeedyMaxx on May 25, 2017, 07:57:53 PM
I believe our test screening guy said so.
How strange.
Also odd: I forget who it was but someone involved in the production talked about Shaw's fate being one of the big surprises of the film, but that's not really how it played out all. I'm wondering if other footage was filmed that speaks to this? Certainly nothing from the test screening reports suggest anything more substantial than what we saw in the final cut (apart from pieces of the Crossing prologue being shown in flashback).
I'm late around here with this, but I'm really surprised to find that I've never yet come across anyone mention what turned out to be one of the biggest problems I had with the 'flute' scenes in AC...
It was something which immediately distracted me and took me 'right out of the movie' at the time - it's the fact that at one point, Ridley actually had him play some of the PROMETHEUS 'Main Theme' score! :-
What the heck?, I mean this seemed like an unnecessary 'breaking of the fourth wall convention' to me, and just another bad 'creative choice' in the overall movie. But as no-one elsewhere seems to have brought this up as far as I know, I wonder if this means that everyone was fine with this particular 'callback', or even considered it to be a clever reference of sorts?
Personally, it bothered me a lot...as I usually look on movie soundtracks as being something totally separate in the background that to the overall movie footage, rather than actually being something that is 'referenced' in the movie itself - it's as if the 'cantina band' in the original STAR WARS had played John Williams' 'Main Theme', for instance, But I'm curious to see if others are as fazed by it.
Not to worry though, because I'm just going to remove the 'Engineer flute-playing' shots from PROMETHEUS for myself (just as Agent 9 did in his great re-edit), and I'm also intending to remove this particular scene from the movie too, so that I can more easily watch these movies as an 'alternative universe' reinterpreted storyline to what occurs in ALIEN/ALIENS. ;D
I mentioned it on my review on the website. I really wasn't a fan of it either. I liked it in the actual score when you see Shaw's grave but I didn't need to have David playing it. I really can't stand that sort of self-referential thing. It's in the same category as homage dialogue for me.
@ Corporal Hicks - Ha!, I actually took a self-imposed embargo from this site for a while in the run up to ALIEN COVENANT's release...and completely missed your review at the time...and forgot that I intended to read it sometime after my viewing! ::)
Having done so now, it's good to know that someone else found David playing the Prometheus theme irritating! And I found that I agreed with most of the other points concerning AC that you mentioned too. ;D
I'm so glad I hadn't read it at the time after all, as I would have been annoyed at portions of Ridley's movie even before I entered the cinema! :P
I don't understand the dislike for the fourth wall break in Covenant.
Alien has a few - implying the audience is there on the ship with the rest of the crew. The camera man bumping the chair and rustling papers in the opening sequence as he sweeps by, and the camera man also hits the springy toy hanging from the ceiling during the confrontation scene between Ash and Ripley. They didn't do a retake even though it clearly shows Ian Holm reacting to the mistake.
Quote from: CoalescedChaos on May 27, 2017, 01:38:58 AM
I'm understand the dislike for the fourth wall break in Covenant.
Alien has a few - implying the audience is there on the ship with the rest of the crew. The camera man bumping the chair and rustles papers in the opening sequence, and the camera man also hits the springy toy hanging from the ceiling during the confrontation scene between Ash and Ripley. They didn't do a retake even though it clearly shows Ian Holm reacting to the mistake.
Lol! Those aren't instances of breaking the fourth wall, those were unintentional, whereas the Prometheus theme was a deliberate choice. THE END.
Quote from: BishopShouldGo on May 27, 2017, 01:41:21 AM
Quote from: CoalescedChaos on May 27, 2017, 01:38:58 AM
I'm understand the dislike for the fourth wall break in Covenant.
Alien has a few - implying the audience is there on the ship with the rest of the crew. The camera man bumping the chair and rustles papers in the opening sequence, and the camera man also hits the springy toy hanging from the ceiling during the confrontation scene between Ash and Ripley. They didn't do a retake even though it clearly shows Ian Holm reacting to the mistake.
Lol! Those aren't instances of breaking the fourth wall, those were unintentional, whereas the Prometheus theme was a deliberate choice. THE END.
But they kept those very noticeable mistakes in, when another take could've easily fixed them. They were left in for a reason. It lends
some credence to the theory that the crew is at least somewhat aware of the audience.
@ CoalescedChaos - That wasn't the cameraman...that was JONESY the cat who was playing about 'offscreen' as far as I'm concerned, and no-one can tell me different. ;D
And David playing the previous movie's music will always be a miss-step to me.
Quote from: BringbackJonesy! on May 27, 2017, 02:10:12 AM
@ CoalescedChaos - That wasn't the cameraman...that was JONESY the cat who was playing about 'offscreen' as far as I'm concerned, and no-one can tell me different. ;D
And David playing the previous movie's music will always be a miss-step to me.
Jonesy is in the hypersleep pod with Ripley at the beginning. It's not the cat.
Quote from: CoalescedChaos on May 27, 2017, 01:57:31 AM
Quote from: BishopShouldGo on May 27, 2017, 01:41:21 AM
Quote from: CoalescedChaos on May 27, 2017, 01:38:58 AM
I'm understand the dislike for the fourth wall break in Covenant.
Alien has a few - implying the audience is there on the ship with the rest of the crew. The camera man bumping the chair and rustles papers in the opening sequence, and the camera man also hits the springy toy hanging from the ceiling during the confrontation scene between Ash and Ripley. They didn't do a retake even though it clearly shows Ian Holm reacting to the mistake.
Lol! Those aren't instances of breaking the fourth wall, those were unintentional, whereas the Prometheus theme was a deliberate choice. THE END.
But they kept those very noticeable mistakes in, when another take could've easily fixed them. They were left in for a reason. It lends some credence to the theory that the crew is at least somewhat aware of the audience.
James Franco already confirmed in that March interview that it was a mix.
Quote from: CoalescedChaos on May 27, 2017, 01:38:58 AM
I don't understand the dislike for the fourth wall break in Covenant.
Alien has a few - implying the audience is there on the ship with the rest of the crew. The camera man bumping the chair and rustling papers in the opening sequence as he sweeps by, and the camera man also hits the springy toy hanging from the ceiling during the confrontation scene between Ash and Ripley. They didn't do a retake even though it clearly shows Ian Holm reacting to the mistake.
I actually never thought about 'Alien' like that. I'm not exactly convinced that those are fourth-wall breaks (although I do acknowledge your point that they *could* have re-shot those scenes and "fixed" it, and opted not to for whatever reason), but it's still a really neat point. :)
It's not really a fourth wall break. It's a (smart, I think) re-contextualization of Prometheus. By making the score we hear in Prometheus actually something we learn David creates for Shaw deepens the themes of the first film and ties together with the second.
And as I've said before, these are movies and scores/music playing against or in the background of the "world" of the scenes just reinforces that fiction. I'm not sure why something "self-referential" offends people in this way. People complain it took them out of the film, but I just felt more immersed.
It's not a dumb choice or an arbitrary one; it's actually a thoughtful one (in my opinion, obviously).
Quote from: shawsbaby on May 27, 2017, 12:29:43 PM
It's not really a fourth wall break. It's a (smart, I think) re-contextualization of Prometheus. By making the score we hear in Prometheus actually something we learn David creates for Shaw deepens the themes of the first film and ties together with the second.
And as I've said before, these are movies and scores/music playing against or in the background of the "world" of the scenes just reinforces that fiction. I'm not sure why something "self-referential" offends people in this way. People complain it took them out of the film, but I just felt more immersed.
It's not a dumb choice or an arbitrary one; it's actually a thoughtful one (in my opinion, obviously).
Yeah, I actually kind of liked it too. I also really liked the reprise of the theme when they're at Shaw's grave.
I really am stunned a film as well written as Logan shares a writer with....this.
Quote from: harlequinade on May 27, 2017, 01:42:10 PM
I really am stunned a film as well written as Logan shares a writer with....this.
In Alien franchise, it's never so simple when it comes to writing contributions / credits, etc. The only exception maybe being Aliens. But you know what? It doesn't surprise me in some ways. Logan also produced and wrote Coriolanus and I found some aspects of Covenant even Shakespearian.
Quote from: Xenomrph on May 27, 2017, 04:40:43 AM
I actually never thought about 'Alien' like that. I'm not exactly convinced that those are fourth-wall breaks (although I do acknowledge your point that they *could* have re-shot those scenes and "fixed" it, and opted not to for whatever reason), but it's still a really neat point. :)
Yeah, of course I could be completely wrong and they just didn't reshoot them for whatever other reason - maybe budget or time constraints.
But, I do really like the thought of the audience being immersersed into the movie through a very subtle 4th wall break. It's not so in your face that it actually takes you out of the film and honestly, you could totally miss it.
But if you look for them, then you wonder why those two instances - that shouldn't have happened within the film's universe, happened. It's always kinda how I took those scenes, and in my opinion, the supposed 4th wall break made ALIEN as a film, even more special to me. It made me a part of it.
@ CoalescedChaos - Heh, I completely forgot that Jonesy would have still been curled up in Ripley's pod when that chair was bumped, before the alert goes off and wakens everyone up. ::)
However, I'll definately still think of him as pawing that springy toy offscreen, just before Ash throws Ripley into that section of the set...and equally imagine that Jonesy then scarpered away offscreen too. ;D
But going back to the moment where the chair is bumped and the papers rustle - I reckon that due to the way that the top of the chair is seen to slowly swivel a little, that I can just imagine it's movement (and knocking sound due to the swivel) is caused by some sort of 'blast of air-conditioning' throughout certain sections of the Nostromo, which happened to be sweeping in from the corridor section we see seconds before the camera pans into this area...rather than it being caused by the cameraman. ;)
I'm certainly content to think of it this way, as this moment always came across as a slightly unsettling one to me when the camera panned through the sets at this point in this sequence, and I find it to be a 'happy accident' due to this.
What I think could easily have been 'fixed' however...is the continuity error of the 'suddenly appearing mug' beside the console screen that lights up. It's not a biggie in the scheme of things, but I was a little surprised that the mug wasn't digitally erased (or alternatively, added) when Ridley was doing his 'Director's Cut', so that things matched up better between those shots.
Maybe it was left by the cameraman just after he bumped the chair! ;D
Either way, as BishopShouldGo suggested, these are highly unlikely to be deliberate 'fourth wall' instances, unlike David's flute-playing.
_____________________________
@ shawsbaby - I was curious to see if anyone thought that David playing the PROMETHEUS theme was actually a clever kind of 'self-referential' moment in the way you've described it. I did try to see it this way when I started to give it more thought, but found that I didn't care for the notion of thinking about David's flute-playing scene beforehand, every time I wanted to give PROMETHEUS a re-watch sometime.
Personally, I was never a fan of the powerful Engineer playing a 'flute' to start up the Juggernaut in the first place...so I want to get rid of that in my own ideal version. And the shots of David playing those notes will need to go to. So while I respect some like yourself will be happy to look at David's scene in the way that you described, I'd rather stick to just hearing that excellent PROMETHEUS music 'reprised' in ALIEN COVENANT as part of the background soundtrack only.