Pietro Scalia Talks Editing Alien: Covenant

[Corporal Hicks]

Art of the Cut has just released a lengthy interview with Pietro Scalia, the editor on Alien: Covenant, talking working on Alien: Covenant and editing in general. In the interview, Scalia discusses how the prologue with Weyland and David almost hit the floor of the editing room:

“SCALIA: At one point Ridley wanted to take the "white room" Prologue out at the beginning. I said, "why ... no absolutely not. You can't. It's very good." It's very formal, the way was shot and edited. The compositions and deliberate pace is the beauty of it. A chess game in the formal sense, triangles and lines that intersect from a design point of view, beside it's thematic importance I mentioned before. I love that the whole scene It reminded me of Kubrick and ....

HULLFISH: Kurasawa.

SCALIA: Yes! Kurasawa. A beautiful and austere scene at the same time filled with tension. I wanted the whole movie to be like that. Ultimately it's the director's film and Ridley decided to keep it at the front. At the end of the day regardless of disagreements or different opinions one leaves personal imprints behind; all choices are filtered through.”

Alien vs. Predator Galaxy had previously heard that the film’s prologue had nearly been released as a viral video before being inserted back into the film. Ridley Scott has also previously spoken about how 20th Century Fox had also wanted to remove David’s flashback from Alien: Covenant in its entirety before a shorter version made it into the finished film. You can read more about the alternate and deleted scenes here.

Scalia also talks a little about the temp track he used while editing the film, revealing that he used Alien, The Snowtown, Macbeth, Sicario and Midnight Special.

“Ridley really wanted to pay tribute to Jerry Goldsmith's score of Alien. I also started working with Jed Kurzel's cues from The Snowtown. and Macbeth.  One particular track fro Snowtown had this relentless pulsating tone and rhythm that I used in the Med Bay sequence and Ridley immediately responded to it. I also used some Harry Gregson-Williams music thematic temp cues that he provided us with.  For some really low-end voices and beats I used elements from Sicario and some David Wingo from Midnight Special.”

Be sure to head on over to Art of the Cut to read the interview in full!

Keep a close eye on Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest on Alien: Covenant! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien fans on our forums!

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[Ingwar]

Thanks Hicks! Gonna read whole article.

Cannot believe Scott wanted to cut prologue off. It's essential for the whole movie.

[PierreVW]

I love the openning scene.

The openning scene is VERY ELEGANT and BEAUTIFUL!.

[tleilaxu]

So it basically seems like Fox pressured Ridley to go for some of these cuts. Makes me wonder what else was cut... And yeah, this scene is absolutely essential as a counter-piece to the ending.

[Ingwar]

Scalia:

There were a lot more scenes that connect directly to Prometheus but structurally it didn't work to have two or three scenes or about 12 mins. of film that connect one film to the next. And then start the actual story of AC. I think that the prologue scene with Weyland and David sets up the thematic of creation in a more cinematically elegant and concise way.  In the overall context of the film, Prometheus, connects halfway through Alien Covenant as a flashback. At a point when it was important to tell what happened to the Engineers planet, the destruction, and the truth yet a hidden lie on David's part. It could possibly help answer some questions for people who had seen Prometheus, but I don't think it takes away from people who hadn't. We also tried to have two flashbacks, when David touches Shaw's grave and explains to Walter what happened and how she died, again another misdirection from David. On the Fox AC website you see some of these deleted prologue scenes and flashbacks that became part of the marketing campaign to engage viewers who wanted to know more of how the two films are connected.

[Evanus]

I need to see these deleted scenes. I hope we'll get them on the Blu-ray, but I doubt we'll get as many as with Prometheus.

[shawsbaby]

I loved reading this. An editor spends so much time with the film, it makes total sense that he has such interesting insight into the themes and ideas of A:C.

[tleilaxu]

SCALIA: In Alien: Covenant the fundamental theme is the relation of God/Man or Creator/Subject. With creation also comes death and destruction. There can't be creation of something new without something else dying. So from the opening prologue scene where David and Weyland talk about creation and art, and it becomes clear that we are revisiting the themes of creation from Prometheus – In that film we explored the theme of human hubris, the arrogance of man that he can create like a God, which is what ultimately leads to the fall of man. Creation, destruction, life and death, knowledge, and survival of our species in the future are themes that Ridley talked a lot about even during Prometheus: the idea of stealing the fire (knowledge) from the gods. In a way Weyland represents the pinnacle of a man's ability to create something superior that is almost human – in our likeness, just like God did with man. Yet David, the perfect android, equates creation with the power of imagination. I think the subtext or the themes in Covenant are expressed through David's actions. We know David is brilliant, very likable yet at its core purely evil. Is that a trait that he somehow inherits from his "father-creator" Weyland?  You can see in Fassbender's performance the under-current of his deviousness. This self-awareness allows him to create simply because he feels the need to match or surpass the accomplishments of his creator. We get a sense of his superiority complex from the prologue scene when David challenges his creator, and says, "If you created me who created you?" The age old question that we all want to know. – Where do we come from?  As Weyland replies. But David goes even further and says, "You will die, I will not." Again, death and creation; you are mortal and I am not. That makes him more powerful than his own creator. It's that spark that makes him superior in evolutionary terms to man. He thinks, therefore, he is, as Descartes said. Yet he's something new. He's immortal like a God. Weyland shows he can still control him by ordering him "Bring me my tea". (You're my servant. You're still my subject). But throughout the film, Ridley shows moments of creation and mutations of creations and that life in its form and creation is not pleasant. The alien, in a way, represents the most perfect creation of a creature that is perfectly engineered to be a superior killing beast. Its only purpose is to destroy any other living form. Specifically, man, the flesh or "the meat" as David describes in the Hall of Heads. Later he tells Walter of his achievement by creating the perfect form, void of the capacity to procreate by itself without a host. That's the genius of what David has accomplished. The Alien – a perfect killing machine, as the culmination of his imagination.

So well said. Sadly, modern audiences don't seem to be into this stuff. They prefer exposition heavy action and explosions, like those Oats short movies. The marketing campaign also plays a role here though, they focused too much on the action/horror elements instead of what was the core of the movie.

[DorkiDori]

REALLY!?!?!?! SO WE CAN BLAME THE EDITOR FOR THE CRAP JOB IN NOT EXPLAINING ANYTHING ABOUT SHAW AND DAVIDS STORY!?!?!?!

Ridley and the writers wanted to incorporate the destruction of the Engineers' world as a prologue to bridge the two films and to show what happened to Shaw after she and David when traveling to the Creators/Engineers' world. There were a lot more scenes that connect directly to Prometheus but structurally it didn't work to have two or three scenes or about 12 mins. of film that connect one film to the next. And then start the actual story of AC.

Funny, wouldve worked FINE in my eyes! I wanna slap the shit out of this guy... Knowing idiots like him were involved in the making of this film makes me hate it even more! And honestly, the blame lands SQUARELY on Ridleys shoulders! He was in charge of this film, he made the decisions about the final cut and it was HIS job to oversee the finishing of the movie! Yet, here we are with one of the WORST Alien films in the franchise!

[SM]

So many 'u mad' memes; so little time.

[426Buddy]

REALLY!?!?!?! SO WE CAN BLAME THE EDITOR FOR THE CRAP JOB IN NOT EXPLAINING ANYTHING ABOUT SHAW AND DAVIDS STORY!?!?!?!

Ridley and the writers wanted to incorporate the destruction of the Engineers' world as a prologue to bridge the two films and to show what happened to Shaw after she and David when traveling to the Creators/Engineers' world. There were a lot more scenes that connect directly to Prometheus but structurally it didn't work to have two or three scenes or about 12 mins. of film that connect one film to the next. And then start the actual story of AC.

Funny, wouldve worked FINE in my eyes! I wanna slap the shit out of this guy... Knowing idiots like him were involved in the making of this film makes me hate it even more! And honestly, the blame lands SQUARELY on Ridleys shoulders! He was in charge of this film, he made the decisions about the final cut and it was HIS job to oversee the finishing of the movie! Yet, here we are with one of the WORST Alien films in the franchise!

You ever think that maybe you're taking a piece of entertainment too seriously?

Personally I can't imagine wanting to slap the shit out of someone because of a movie.

[SM]

I dunno.  Some posts make a pretty convincing argument. 

[Highland]

The beat scene in the med struck me as very good (and still is) on first viewing at the cinema, the pace and sound of it I assumed at the time was to mimic a heart beating faster to get your own heart beating faster. It was very effective and you knew it was going to go bad as the relentless beating kept going. One of the cooler moments in the film.

When I think about it I think the sounds of this movie were my favourite thing.

[Captain Dallas at Thedus]

Know I've sent this transmission b4,but if you add The Crossing&The Last Supper between The White Room and Starfield opening credits it makes the first hour better!It also puts Noomi Rapace&James Franco In The film ,not on the cutting room floor

[0321recon]

Scalia:

There were a lot more scenes that connect directly to Prometheus but structurally it didn't work to have two or three scenes or about 12 mins. of film that connect one film to the next. And then start the actual story of AC. I think that the prologue scene with Weyland and David sets up the thematic of creation in a more cinematically elegant and concise way.  In the overall context of the film, Prometheus, connects halfway through Alien Covenant as a flashback. At a point when it was important to tell what happened to the Engineers planet, the destruction, and the truth yet a hidden lie on David's part. It could possibly help answer some questions for people who had seen Prometheus, but I don't think it takes away from people who hadn't. We also tried to have two flashbacks, when David touches Shaw's grave and explains to Walter what happened and how she died, again another misdirection from David. On the Fox AC website you see some of these deleted prologue scenes and flashbacks that became part of the marketing campaign to engage viewers who wanted to know more of how the two films are connected.

I had a suspicion that the original cut of the film started with Weyland and David sequence, then cut to David and Elizabeth's journey to Planet 4, and  the eventual genocide of the Engineers. No wonder, Noomi spent a few weeks in Australia.

As an editor, I have to disagree with Pietro. He made a grave mistake. As an audience member, you needed that connective tissue of Prometheus to tell this story. I'm speculating in those twelve minutes we might of saw some interactions with David and Shaw in the ship, were she begins to trust David, then the extended bombing sequence with the dogfight between the juggernaut and scorpionaut. 

Seeing how Covenant had a lackluster performance in the box office, I hope Fox pushes Scott on doing an extended cut with these 12 minutes put back in.