Interview with Dante Harper (writer) *spoilers*

Started by echobbase79, May 21, 2017, 05:54:11 PM

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Interview with Dante Harper (writer) *spoilers* (Read 20,589 times)

shawsbaby

shawsbaby

#45
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).

BringbackJonesy!

BringbackJonesy!

#46
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

Corporal Hicks

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.

BringbackJonesy!

BringbackJonesy!

#48
@ 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

GrimmVision

GrimmVision

#49
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.

BishopShouldGo

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.

GrimmVision

GrimmVision

#51
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.

BringbackJonesy!

@ 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.

GrimmVision

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.

BishopShouldGo

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.

Xenomrph

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. :)

shawsbaby

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).

Evanus

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.

harlequinade

I really am stunned a film as well written as Logan shares a writer with....this.

Salt The Fries

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.

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