Making an alien

D

David W. Richardson

Chapelgrove Films
I've got a short scifi script I'd like to produce. It has only 2 characters, but one of them is an alien. I can't get away with just green skin and antennae. This alien has to look like a 'gray' -- which means gray, leathery skin, bulbous head, thin frame, and large black eyes. He's seen prominently on-screen for long stretches and has extensive dialogue with the other character -- so digital effects are most likely out of the question.

It goes without saying that he needs to look REAL.

Any ideas??? (Budget is micro, unless there's something smaller.)
 
The amount of costume shops on the web is huge. Alien gray costumes are everywhere. Or you could design your own. The best bet is to google alien gray mask or costume. I did and there were 233,000 results.
 
I can't afford a puppet, and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work anyway. The alien and the human in this story interact physically a LOT. He needs to be life-sized.

I don't think a mask would work either, since he needs to talk normally. Special effects makeup is probably the best bet, but it would require extensive prosthetics and I don't know what else.
 
What I (may or may not) be doing for my next short is getting a model of a creature made. (1:1) to interact when we simply can't use digital effects. We will be using the model as a stand-in in non-animated, or limited animated scenes.

Johnny-5 (Short Circuit) was a combination of a 1:1 model and a puppet for animated scenes.

But that might not be in your price range. Wouldn't hurt to make a few calls though.
 
An animated model would certainly work. The alien in my film doesn't move around the room -- he stays seated the whole time. He is very active in movements and speech, though.

Cost would probably be prohibitive for a full-size (at least 5' tall), articulated and animated alien.
 
this will depend enormously on the look you're going for - as you have one 'normal' human character onscreen, the audience will at least subconciously immediately compare the alien's appearance, and think 'puppet', 'guy in a costume' or whatever.

In a comedy that might not matter, it could even help, but if this is a 'serious' film, that's harder, because ideally you want the audience thinking 'hey, how'd they do that?' That illusion will be easier if the alien's movement is as restricted as possible (e.g. sitting on a couch?) so that you can cheat more with your costuming/puppetting.

A 'gray' does sound difficult - especially if you want something like blinking eyes (do they blink? _ I'm no expert :) ). A fake head top and a jaw (glued to the actor's real jaw) would probably be the way to go, but I can see it being expensive to do believably. Personally I'd consider redesigning the alien.

One thought on the mouth - does it have to speak 'normally' like a human, or could it use some kind of translator box?
 
Without revealing too much, I can only say that the alien does have to be a 'gray' and cannot be redesigned. And yes, the mouth has to function fairly normally. I can loop the actor's dialogue to overcome the muffling that would likely occur, but the movement of the mouth has to seem normal and realistic, even if that movement is restricted somewhat.

Thanks for the help. Any other ideas?

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Do you have any concept art for the alien?

I don't know how exactly an alien would speak? I can think about it a bit. Since I am going to have a similar issue soon.
 
If I come up with anything, I'll let you know. My creature isn't an alien....but it is a general 3D character creation.
 
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