'Alien: Romulus' Cinematographer Breaks Down Shooting the Horrifying Chestburster Scene
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00:00I am Galo Olivares. I am cinematographer of Alien Romulus.
00:10Should be in and out in 30 minutes.
00:15Welcome to the Romulus Space Station.
00:18I was, like, involved in another project and, like, a month later my agent called me, like,
00:23we need to talk because we have this project and I think we should not, like, let him go.
00:30And then I got this call with Fede.
00:32We start, like, talking and then finally he said, like, you know what, I think we need to meet
00:37because I'm not sure that the studio will allow me to hire someone that I just met on Zoom.
00:44As you know, Fede is Uruguayan and Uruguayans, they just love to barbecue.
00:50So I came this Saturday with a mezcal bottle and I think we speak of everything less than the movie
00:57and at the very end, like, okay, like, you're hired.
01:01I say, okay, let's do it.
01:06I'm not a huge fan of large format because it changes everything.
01:10We shot this on the Alexa 35. It's more classic.
01:14The perspective is something that for me is more pleasing.
01:17And at the very end I just decided to use Master Primes.
01:21I love those lenses. They are beautiful. They're reliable.
01:24Then it was the mix between the Alien 1 that it was on anamorphic lenses
01:30and Aliens that was spherical but the aspect ratio was 185.
01:35We did the 239 but with a spherical that was, like, the perfect balance from each other.
01:42We started with more wider lenses and as the movie goes to the end
01:47we started going tighter and tighter and tighter to create this thing.
01:50But it was something that at the very end, the scene, I asked for it, you know.
01:58It was a challenge.
01:59We have, like, a lot of previous Alien movies and it was like, oh, we need to do it good or we're gonna be blasted, you know.
02:06This movie sits between 1 and 2 and it has, like, elements that already was there
02:12but the thing was to create something not new because it's not the word
02:17but for the people who never saw, like, an Alien movie it was like, okay.
02:23And the people who know it is like, all right, we're familiar with this stuff.
02:28Another big influence is the video game.
02:31Fede loved that video game so we brought a lot of things from that.
02:35And you actually, at some point, you feel like you're in a video game, you know.
02:39It's this first person or, like, feeling lost in the station.
02:42It's a feeling that the video game gives you.
02:45This place gives me the creeps.
02:47We mixed this studio mode and handheld work.
02:50When the scene required, I remember that we started thinking that we needed more,
02:57to be more, like, static or moving the camera as less as possible so you don't feel the camera, you know.
03:04But at the very end it was so crazy that it was just a handheld thing.
03:08And Fede loves to involve the audience, like, to feel what is going on.
03:13And it would, like, go up and to see what is going on, yeah, to react at the scene.
03:19And it was pretty straightforward.
03:21It was like, yeah, no tricks, no nothing, you know.
03:25Like, just like if we were, like, documenting something like if you were, like, in a war,
03:30like, just turn the camera, pan, like, go down and so you can feel it, actually.
03:37Tomorrow.
03:44The Chess Buster was, first of all, the setting of the scene was pretty complex
03:51because it happens on the cockpit.
03:54We need to build a fake floor, a fake thing that they put on Alien.
03:58At the very end we were, like, ten people working on a three by three square, you know.
04:05And it was, like, impossible.
04:07Like, even the camera, you know.
04:09We tried to make it, like, as small as possible the setup and it be, like, more handheld thing.
04:14We built, like, a humongous rig of lights outside.
04:17That rig should work for when they take off and they are going to the space station.
04:26They go across atmosphere, thunderstorms, and a lot of stuff.
04:31And it was, like, we need to make one rig that help, like, or work for everything.
04:37And, actually, it was kind of, like, a happy mistake.
04:41The Corbellan crashes.
04:43It goes into the space station again.
04:50All those lights was not going to be there at the very end of the scene.
04:54But we start shooting and we say, like, you can take this out.
04:59I mean, it looks really cool at the very end.
05:02We kind of love it.
05:06It was so small that I remember sawing the mock-up of the cockpit and I said, like,
05:12Jesus Christ, no one is going to fit here, you know.
05:16It's going to be, like, it's going to be pain.
05:19And then Fede, no, no, it should be like this.
05:22Like, you're in the back of a truck.
05:24So, there's actually no room for nothing.
05:30Most of the sets has lights built in.
05:35So, it was a very long process with our department guys.
05:39So, we kind of not using cine lights as we know it, like, C-stands.
05:44We use it, obviously, but you step into a spaceship and there's always, like, a blinking light.
05:50There's always, like, a flashlight.
05:52Fede always says, what you are most scared of is the things you cannot see.
05:57Most of the time we were, like, taking or killing lights or this is too bright or just down, down, locked.
06:03And then it was crazy because we could make, like, a nightclub there.
06:06And action!
06:09I work with Mitch Paulson, a long-time collaborator and a friend.
06:13And we have, like, this lot that he used a lot.
06:17And we tweak it a bit because actually the reds were so intense.
06:23It was weird because Fede loved it, but at some point he always thinks on the color psychology
06:29as you are not scared when you're having these warm colors.
06:32And the film has a lot.
06:34But in the very end, I think it helped a lot to create this tension.
06:42I really love it because it was the experience of my life having this kind of...
06:48Because I've never done a movie like this, you know, in every aspect.
06:54I came from another world.
06:57And at the very end, I remember with Fede at the grading room.
07:03And it was like, damn, I think we have something to show.
07:08We saw, like, reels now.
07:10And then one reel stopped and we need to go to another.
07:13And you wanted to keep watching.
07:16And it was, like, cool.
07:18I mean, like a month ago, I found a photo of us walking on the sound stages in Budapest.
07:28And there was nothing.
07:29It was just, like, blueprints on the floor.
07:32And I told Fede, like, there was nothing there.
07:34Everything is from scratch.
07:36From his imagination and from Neyman and from...
07:39I mean, the team is huge.
07:41This is the beauty of this.
07:43A lot of people involved in this.
07:44And they'll make a wonderful, wonderful job.