In
returning to the genre he helped define, Ridley Scott continues to push the
boundaries of storytelling, both visually and thematically. As he notes,
he’s all about the “everything” – from story structure to casting, from sets
and costumes to new ways of telling a story. And while the renowned
filmmaker is scaring the hell out of you, he never loses sight of the big
picture. “After you’ve seen Prometheus,” Scott concludes, “you will have
experienced something completely unexpected.”
In
parallel to the film’s post-viewing experience, the actors likewise have
undergone a gratifying filming experience with the helmets developed for the
film.
Scott
mandated a globe-shaped helmet with no blind spots. Each helmet had nine
working video screens, lighting, an oxygen supply run on two fans with battery
packs within the backpack. The exterior of the helmet features a fully
functioning torch and HD cameras with a transmitter and recorder.
The
helmet has 9 working LED screens, all with specially designed graphics, five of
them in the globe, and the others in the glass. The graphics have all been
designed by the art department to look like official tech. It's the
seismic activity of the land.
Then
there's LED lighting everywhere. There’s a light in the top. There’s a skull
cap, which is wired for sound so they can not only speak, they can hear
direction. And most importantly, it’s completely wired up for air because
Ridley said that on ALIEN, the panic that would set in after their actors had
been in the helmets for more than 30 seconds was immense. Plus there’s all that
condensation you get on the globe.
The
backpack really functions as a huge battery loader for all the electronics. The
editor, Pietro Scalia, decided he wanted to be able to see through the mounted
cameras, so they're real HD cameras, which come with big recorders and great
big transmitters. But apparently the footage has been great – you can intercut,
so that right in the middle of a scene you get little gems: little bits and
bobs that a wide camera can't.
Prometheus
costume designer Janty Yates shares, “We'll make about 60 of these helmets.
We've got so many stunts. It's a constant process of making and mending them.
There are so many things that can and do go wrong with the electronics, but
even with all the maintenance you have to do I think we must have saved them a
fortune, because if it weren't built into the suit they'd have had to create it
in post and that would have been so much more difficult.”
“Even a
little knock to the helmet could knock out the whole sequence. They're so
fragile, but they're just beautiful things. The result of having all these
lights in the suit itself is that you end up with the actors bathed in this
exquisite lighting. My guys have to get together with Dariusz Wolski, the
cinematographer, and figure out what was going to work and where. They
strips of light look like inverted halos and they light the faces really
exquisitely,” recalls Yates.
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