Caretakers of Terror, An Interview With ADI’s Alec Gillis & Tom Woodruff Jr. - AvP Galaxy Podcast #126

Started by Corporal Hicks, Apr 26, 2021, 02:19:10 PM

Author
Caretakers of Terror, An Interview With ADI’s Alec Gillis & Tom Woodruff Jr. - AvP Galaxy Podcast #126 (Read 18,063 times)

BlueMarsalis79

Quote from: Valaquen on May 01, 2021, 12:02:02 PM
In 2001 he said about the Resurrection Aliens: "I always wanted my Alien to be a very beautiful thing, not just something disgusting, not just a monster, but something aesthetic. Throughout the creature's evolution what they've done is change it from something aesthetic to something that looks like shit – I mean literally, it looks like a turd."

Top tier H.R Giger

SM

Quote from: Valaquen on May 01, 2021, 12:02:02 PM
Quote from: SM on Apr 28, 2021, 01:59:29 AM
QuoteGiger was also very unhappy with the look of the Resurrection aliens for both the amount of goo applied to the suits and the softer, more organic look of the creatures. His terms were most unflattering, and he emphasized his preference for aesthetic monsters. Sorry, I don't have the source for that.

How about this?

In his first letter, Giger writes,"The creatures in Alien:Resurrection are even closer to my original Alien designs than the ones which appear in Aliens and Alien3. The film also resurrects my original designs for the other stages of the creature's life-cycle, the Eggs, the Facehugger and the Chestburster. Alien:Resurrection is an excellent film. What would it look like without my Alien life-forms? In all likelihood, all the sequels to Alien would not even exist! The designs and my credit have been stolen from me, since I alone have designed the Alien. So why does not Fox give me the credit I rightfully earned?".

Source

Let's keep in mind Giger at the time was fighting for a credit in the film; his words are rather deliberate here. If he said they didn't reflect his work, he could have tanked his own argument.

In 2001 he said about the Resurrection Aliens: "I always wanted my Alien to be a very beautiful thing, not just something disgusting, not just a monster, but something aesthetic. Throughout the creature's evolution what they've done is change it from something aesthetic to something that looks like shit – I mean literally, it looks like a turd."

(I know it's been addressed. Just a little devil's advocacy  :laugh:)

I knew about the turd remark and looked for it on Giger's website. Couldn't find it.

Local Trouble

Local Trouble

#47
I wish we had video of him saying it.  His accent would sell it even better.

Valaquen

Quote from: SM on May 01, 2021, 10:11:18 PM
I knew about the turd remark and looked for it on Giger's website. Couldn't find it.

Quote from: Local Trouble on May 01, 2021, 11:32:21 PM
I wish we had video of him saying it.  His accent would sell it even better.

Look for it on the Alien Evolution documentary from 2001. Giger is dubbed, however.

BigDaddyJohn

Mmm I get why he would say that. Can't find the documentary though, would love to hear it  ;D

Corporal Hicks

*deleted

Let's keep on topic folk. Don't appreciate that little derail.

Immortan Jonesy

Ok sorry for that  :-X it's just that I found it funny  :laugh:

Darkness

Here's the transcription from the interview: https://www.avpgalaxy.net/website/interviews/alec-gillis-tom-woodruff-2/

Yeah, good work. The Giger stuff was interesting. I just feel sorry for him that it ended up like that. But it's understandable, the studio just wanted to crack on with the movie and Giger didn't want to sort of be on set to work on it. I can't seem to find the Cinemafantastique article they mentioned.


xeno_alpha_07

Quote from: Darkness on May 07, 2021, 11:26:19 AM
Here's the transcription from the interview: https://www.avpgalaxy.net/website/interviews/alec-gillis-tom-woodruff-2/

Yeah, good work. The Giger stuff was interesting. I just feel sorry for him that it ended up like that. But it's understandable, the studio just wanted to crack on with the movie and Giger didn't want to sort of be on set to work on it. I can't seem to find the Cinemafantastique article they mentioned.



Hi Darkness.  I think the Cinefantastique article Alec mentions regarding Alien 3 might be in the off-shoot Cinefantastique magazine Imagi-Movies from spring 1994 Click But I could be wrong.  I'm basing my guess on Alec's 'nice coincidence' comment.  On the top left of p19, they talk about the removal of the "tailpipes" from the creatures back which ends with 'It was a very welcome coincidence'.

And I think, but again guessing, the Aliens article mentioned that Gale Anne Hurd was upset about was this one Click  Thought I'd try to find it in case anyone was interested.

Thank you for the transcription Darkness  :)

Immortan Jonesy

Quote from: Darkness on May 07, 2021, 11:26:19 AM
Here's the transcription from the interview: https://www.avpgalaxy.net/website/interviews/alec-gillis-tom-woodruff-2/

Yeah, good work. The Giger stuff was interesting. I just feel sorry for him that it ended up like that. But it's understandable, the studio just wanted to crack on with the movie and Giger didn't want to sort of be on set to work on it. I can't seem to find the Cinemafantastique article they mentioned.

Thanks!  :D




Quote from: AVPGALAXYAdam: Tom, what you mentioned with the combination of practical and other types of effects, kind of leads into another question I had. I would say there was a time in the early 2000s where you had very strong harmony of practical and digital seen quite prominently in films like AvP as well as others like Jurassic Park 3 where you had digital and practical effects interacting with each other in the same shots.

There was a shift more towards digital for a while but it seems like that earlier harmony may be returning. In particular we've seen really strong practical effects and even older techniques like Phil Tippet's go motion return in The Mandalorian along with very new special effect techniques such as the impressive digital sets that they use. Do you see a renaissance of practical effects in today's quickly changing entertainment landscape?

Alec: Yeah, I think there's a lot of talk about it which has become... maybe a decade ago it feels like they were talking a lot about it and we kind of got the feeling on a couple of productions that we were building things just so that they could say "We've got practical!". Like it's whatever a studio feels will help sell the movie.

That is a very interesting question. Also I agree with what they answered. And in the case of The Mandalorian's crew, they really are killing two birds with one shot. Making a Star Wars live-action series out of pure CGI would be very expensive, plus they know that a considerable number of fans love the OT-style practical effects. The virtual sets are a cinema breakthrough indeed.

Edit~ I know RidgeTop is not a big fan of Prometheus, but I think that was a quite recent & good example of a balance between practical effects and CGI.  ;D ;)




Quote from:  ADIAlec: Oh, the giant thing that you see in that scene. The giant one was just brought to us by I think by I think Prop Store brought it over... oh actually we were using it as reference. It was a fiberglass casting of the original. We used it as sculptural reference just to get... because Neill's deal was, he wanted to get back to the feeling of the '79 Alien and we were asking "You're a master of photoreal CGI. Why aren't you doing the CGI?" He said "Because having something real forces you into shooting it in a way that will look like what Ridley Scott did in 1979".  That's what he wanted. So, there's a guy that is a master of CGI who understands that it is a tool to be used to get certain results that are right for certain stories. But that's why that was there.

Wow, that makes me happy and sad at the same time.  :o




Quote from: AVP GALAXYAaron: We do have just a handful of community questions from community members so ImmortalJonesy in particular would like to know if you'd have any interest in taking a crack at a Space Jockey animatronic?

Tom: Yeah, it'd be great. Any anything iconic in this whole world of Aliens and Predators is a really... it's just such a cool thing to be able to look at something that inspired you 40 years ago and actually be able to put your thumb print on it, particularly with movement and motion and character performance.

Glad to hear they would like to make it if they could.  :)

I asked that question because Alec Gillis and his studio have done a wonderful job when it comes to animatronic characters. And I'm not just talking about science fiction, as is the case with the gorilla suit they made for Old Dogs. It's a top tier piece of practical effect.  8)


I also liked their criminally unused pilot in the 2011 prequel to The Thing. Whether that creature got infected by the Thing and crashes it's spaceship million of years ago becoming a Jockey to so speak is subject of speculation.  :laugh:

Still the closedt thing of a SJ performed by ADI studios in my opinion.  8)


I know we have Engineers, who are superior to the jockeys in the comics ~ but you know ~ nerd dreams.  :laugh:

BigDaddyJohn

Quote from: Immortan Jonesy on May 09, 2021, 12:45:37 AM
Quote from: Darkness on May 07, 2021, 11:26:19 AM
Here's the transcription from the interview: https://www.avpgalaxy.net/website/interviews/alec-gillis-tom-woodruff-2/

Yeah, good work. The Giger stuff was interesting. I just feel sorry for him that it ended up like that. But it's understandable, the studio just wanted to crack on with the movie and Giger didn't want to sort of be on set to work on it. I can't seem to find the Cinemafantastique article they mentioned.

Thanks!  :D




Quote from: AVPGALAXYAdam: Tom, what you mentioned with the combination of practical and other types of effects, kind of leads into another question I had. I would say there was a time in the early 2000s where you had very strong harmony of practical and digital seen quite prominently in films like AvP as well as others like Jurassic Park 3 where you had digital and practical effects interacting with each other in the same shots.

There was a shift more towards digital for a while but it seems like that earlier harmony may be returning. In particular we've seen really strong practical effects and even older techniques like Phil Tippet's go motion return in The Mandalorian along with very new special effect techniques such as the impressive digital sets that they use. Do you see a renaissance of practical effects in today's quickly changing entertainment landscape?

Alec: Yeah, I think there's a lot of talk about it which has become... maybe a decade ago it feels like they were talking a lot about it and we kind of got the feeling on a couple of productions that we were building things just so that they could say "We've got practical!". Like it's whatever a studio feels will help sell the movie.

That is a very interesting question. Also I agree with what they answered. And in the case of The Mandalorian's crew, they really are killing two birds with one shot. Making a Star Wars live-action series out of pure CGI would be very expensive, plus they know that a considerable number of fans love the OT-style practical effects. The virtual sets are a cinema breakthrough indeed.

Edit~ I know RidgeTop is not a big fan of Prometheus, but I think that was a quite recent & good example of a balance between practical effects and CGI.  ;D ;)




Quote from:  ADIAlec: Oh, the giant thing that you see in that scene. The giant one was just brought to us by I think by I think Prop Store brought it over... oh actually we were using it as reference. It was a fiberglass casting of the original. We used it as sculptural reference just to get... because Neill's deal was, he wanted to get back to the feeling of the '79 Alien and we were asking "You're a master of photoreal CGI. Why aren't you doing the CGI?" He said "Because having something real forces you into shooting it in a way that will look like what Ridley Scott did in 1979".  That's what he wanted. So, there's a guy that is a master of CGI who understands that it is a tool to be used to get certain results that are right for certain stories. But that's why that was there.

Wow, that makes me happy and sad at the same time.  :o




Quote from: AVP GALAXYAaron: We do have just a handful of community questions from community members so ImmortalJonesy in particular would like to know if you'd have any interest in taking a crack at a Space Jockey animatronic?

Tom: Yeah, it'd be great. Any anything iconic in this whole world of Aliens and Predators is a really... it's just such a cool thing to be able to look at something that inspired you 40 years ago and actually be able to put your thumb print on it, particularly with movement and motion and character performance.

Glad to hear they would like to make it if they could.  :)

I asked that question because Alec Gillis and his studio have done a wonderful job when it comes to animatronic characters. And I'm not just talking about science fiction, as is the case with the gorilla suit they made for Old Dogs. It's a top tier piece of practical effect.  8)


I also liked their criminally unused pilot in the 2011 prequel to The Thing. Whether that creature got infected by the Thing and crashes it's spaceship million of years ago becoming a Jockey to so speak is subject of speculation.  :laugh:

Still the closedt thing of a SJ performed by ADI studios in my opinion.  8)


I know we have Engineers, who are superior to the jockeys in the comics ~ but you know ~ nerd dreams.  :laugh:

The last one was supposed to be in The Thing 2011 ? Cool !

Nightmare Asylum

Yep, it was the pilot creature, which was then replaced by the big digital game of Tetris.


Kradan

That pilot creature looks absolutely disgusting. In the best way possible

Voodoo Magic

It sure is gooey! I wonder how screening audiences reacted to it.

Wasn't that the story, where test audiences complained about The Thing 2011's practical fx (among other things) and everyone acknowledged improvements needed to be made in areas, but the debate was go CG or replace some of troublesome practical fx with improved practical fx?

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