Thursday, May 14, 2015

Alien - photography


I really am one of those people who loves Black and White photographs. There's such a purity to B&Ws. Color is great, more popular than B&W, but B&W photos have a classic look. that just can't be beat I love the way different kind of tonalities come out in a B&W photo which you don't get from color.








 


Alien - Sigourney's breasts

Sigourney's breasts -- there's a shot of Sigourney in the sleep pods with her breasts exposed that caused quite a stir. Pat, Sigourney's father, was a very powerful NBC big-wig, and she and her family had a lot of money, so when Sigourney got upset and threatened to sue us if the shot was released, needless to say, it was nixed.

Alien age restrictions in England

The only time I worried about Alien's audience was when I was in England, after the Worldcon. I went to Birmingham to do a presentation. After my presentation, I talked to a group young boys -- I think they were 11 to 13. England has very strict rating system which separates movie goers by age group. They have a category called Nasties. It's a different rating system than the one we have in the us. I worried we'd be limited in our UK market because their system allows for the arrest of selling video Nasties or box office Nasty tickets to underage kids. This group of young boys assured me there was no way they would be kept from seeing the film. They said if it got a Nasty rating, they'd still be able to see it.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Flash Gordon Concept Art by Chris Foss

Chris was the concept artist on Dino de Laurentis' Flash Gordon. Here is his official website:

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Flash Gordon Storyboards by Mentor Huebner

FLASH GORDON storyboards - there was question as to who the artist was on the Flash Gordon Storyboards. Dino had given these to me years and years ago, saying, in that off-hand way he has, "Here, take these, you like them, these are from Mentor," so I always assumed they were his. Someone here pointed out the boards I was uploading may not be done by Mentor, and provided a link to a Flash Gordon site and Mentor's site indicating which work he did on Flash Gordon. I wondered if Dino was wrong, and let it go... Then I found 4 more boards -- the originals of these are very large, and in the bottom corner they have Mentor's signature. These are first generation production copies -- which means in the process of copying, their lines have been altered. Reduced, the charcoal marks become even thicker and rougher, but in their original scale, the work looks different. The first 2 of are one board, but was too large to fit on the scanner so are two jpgs. The 3rd is his signature and the 4 is a fax copy which was sent from the set to the office, reduced down to an 8x11.















I have 4 more frames of the same scene in the larger format. When you look at them side by side, it's apparent that they're the same. Reducing the large work or scanning it on line art setting vs magazine setting will give you a different look. Line art scanning setting increases the width of lines, so the work appears different. Xeroxing -- dark fine line becomes thicker and darker, but very fine lines disappear. The work ends up looking different. Took me awhile to figure it out on the scanner. You'd think scanning drawn artwork the setting to use is line art, but no, it isn't. A more accurate representation is either photograph or magazine scanner settings.





















Flash Gordon Storyboards, Artist Unknown - Mentor Huebner or Bill Stallion?

Dino gave these to me, saying they were by Mentor Huebner. With the exception of the double sepia faxes, these are the final, original drawings which would have been used by everyone, from the art department to production office. This is the sequence thus far uploaded. Dan Short brought up a question of whether they were Mentor's or not. What do you think? Are they Mentor's? ... Not that it matters because I think this is a great sequence, but I'd hate to have presented these as Mentor's if they are not. Think by looking at this body of work you can tell me whether you see the same hand at work, and if its Mentor's, or some other artist's work.

















John Scoleri adds: "Glen Mullaly (via Graham Hill and IMDB) identified Bill Stallion as the possible culprit, and after comparing to some of his work, it seems pretty conclusive to me."