The FX of Prometheus and revelations

yeah... I thought the explosion of the severed engineer head was because of some sort of infection that had been reawakened due to the introduction of electrical current/whatever tool they were using in that scene. Basically, we just got to see a glimpse of what was going on inside of the engineers while all hell was breaking loose in the facility. @engineering...thanks for the confirmation. Keep the info coming!

Engineering...your posts are always informative. There are a lot of moving parts in this film. Many levels.

Thanks guys! One really cool FX techinque is in the scene when David is touching the ampule in the chamber. They used a loudspeaker with blackened corn starch as the black goo. They vibrated the speaker at a certain frequency which gave the effect of the goo being alive and "dancing". They had to get the camera in sync with the speaker vibration so you wouldn't notice the vibration if that makes sense. Yet another effect that almost any other director would have gone digital on. Yet Scott insists and his crew find ways to do it for real and create an effect that has an organic feel that you just don't get with CG. As I said earlier I thought the head was CG which you might think of as kind of an insult if you will. What I meant was that I thought there was no way that the head was real. It simply looked too amazing so I thought it was CG. But it wasn't, which explains why it looked so amazing. I've been an FX freak since I was 9 years old and I saw A Nightmare on Elm St 2. We had a bookstore by our local grocery store which sold Fangoria magazine. After viewing NOES 2 I immediately begged my mom to buy me Fangoria and never looked back. So being obsessed with FX and Prometheus and reading this article is obviously a wonderful treat for me. So please forgive me if I seem over-enthusiastic.

I just started to read into the Cinefex article myself, it's a great read so far for sure... I agree with you, certainly an amazing meld of practical and digital effects.

I thank the Engineers that Ridley Scott and Doug Trumbull worked together and that Trubmull gave Ridley some of the best advice he ever got... [i]"Can you do it for real? If you can do it for real you should.'[/i] I'm paraphrasing a bit of course.

Wow, awesome read, thanks Engineering! I'll make a mention of this on our social feeds. This is great, keep the info coming!

Well that explains why the Engineer kept falling when the hologram was showing them bolting for the door...

Loved the Engineers......but did anyone else notice a slight resemblence to Woody Harrelson...IF....he was a giant blue guy?

The device Shaw and Ford used on the Engineer's head was a [url=http://www.weylandindustries.com/health]Synapse Reestablisher[/url]. At the time, I thought the process was a little too convenient for the scenario, but on reading the description, this probably was just one of those technological aspects Scott felt he didn't need to explain - it's just another part of that universe.

@Ovum6...I thought he looked more like Maynard James Keenan from Tool and A Perfect Circle... [img]http://images.askmen.com/photos/maynard-james-keenan/52925.jpg[/img]

So if the engineers were infected, why were they running into the ampule room? What did they hope to achieve?

@Skybird...I've been wondering the same exact thing. Maybe the room was sealed and they hoped they weren't infected yet. Plus, we have no idea how this infection is spread. Could be they were running from some kind of alien or bioweapon that delivered the infection and it caught up to them before they were able to get the door open. Maybe a facehugger type deal. Maybe that's what they were sending to earth to destroy us. A simple organisim which infected it's host and casued their heads to explode. If it was an organism and not just an airborne infection then where did the organisms which infected them go? Lots of juicy questions there!

Yes, the more you study film and give a chance to breath. The more info you will perceive. Those who did not enjoy the film were expecting something else. But what we really have in this film is a very interesting universe that continues to make us think and rethink. When we finally think that we have the answers. Then bang another community member comes up with another idea that they noticed in the film, that adds more questions to the original subject. Great thread @Engineering .

Thanks, Rubirosa! A few of us have got to talking in the ultimate plot holes thread and I had to spit out some material I was reserving for this thread. There's at least one pretty big revelation that was revealed in the Cinefex article. I'm just going to copy/paste parts of my posts from that thread here... [i]there is debate regarding the Deacon being the beginning of the xeno or being a later variation of the xeno. More insight from the Cinefex article sheds some light on what may be...[i] [b]"It represented the BEGINNING of Giger's Alien, although it did not directly resemble that creature."[/b] [i]Now that's a revelation if you ask me as many, including me, thought that the Deacon just might be a later version of the xeno." [/i] [i]"I don't get at all why so many seem to be baffled by the Engineer's reaction to being awakened from cryo. Here's just a little insight from the Cinefex article as to the "hostile, violent, aggressive and desperate actions of the Engineer...[i] [b]"...David encounters the sole surviving Engineer and discovers it's disdain for Weyland's quest for immortality and it's overarching contempt for human life..."[/b] [i]This Engineer has been awoke by creatures it was on a mission to destroy. During trying to carry out this mission something went horribly wrong and all his Engineer homies were wiped out. Now, he's awoke by the very thing they set out to destroy and these inferior beings have not only found their weapon stash, found him, awoken him but they also seem to not be affected by the virus or bioweapon which killed his bretheren. Then one of these inferior beings starts barking orders about immortality. Then one starts yelling other questions at him an gets hit for her trouble. I'd be "hostile, violent, aggressive, and desperate" in this situation as well. "[/i] [i]"Here's a few insights as to the pressure suit...[/i] [b]"Engineer flight suits contain form-fitting pressure suits that feed life-giving fluids to the beings during hibernation. Connor O'Sullivan's team created pressure suits as part of the Engineer full-body makeup. Colin Shulver sculpted the pressure suit as a neck-down, skintight covering layered with translucent organic details."[/b]

Great revelations! [i]"It represented the BEGINNING of Giger's Alien, although it did not directly resemble that creature."[/i] I take issue to this statement in the article.....If I have to accept it then it throws a lot of plausible theories out the window to be replaced by less plausible ones.