©1998

WRITTEN BY SEBASTIAN O'BRIEN

DIRECTED BY DAMON WELLNER

 

The Making of

by Damon Wellner

ALIEN 5 was our first movie. The budget, including the cost of all the toys, was less than $150. It was shot and edited entirely in-camera, which means it was shot sequentially and was not edited later like most films.  This was a very bad idea and is not recommended.  This most certainly extended our production schedule by months.  We used an old, cheap, VHS camcorder and live-action puppetry. We DO NOT use stop motion animation. It's not that we have anything against that technique, we just don't have that kind of equipment.

The story was written by Sebastian O'Brien, with videography and special effects by Damon Wellner.

All of the special-effects in ALIEN 5 were done in-camera.  The only computer graphics we used in this movie were part of a rear-screen-projection effect.

This effect was done simply by placing the camera directly in front of a TV, one person holding the action figures up in front of the screen and another person playing the Alien vs. Predator video game.   Any Doom-type 3/D environment game would work for this effect.  It works so well because the video game is a "virtual-set", a HUGE 3/D environment in which you can easily shoot from any angle and even mock complex camera movements.   And video game graphics are just getting better and better. One of the toughest challenges of this technique is killing all the aliens in the videogame to clear the board for use as a set.

We used a lot of pyrotechnics in the film, and had a fire extinguisher on the set at all times.... We used pump-action hairspray (not aerosol!!) and a lighter to create our flame-thrower effect. Please don't burn your face off making your own movie....

For sets we used a breadbox, a ventilation tube from a dryer, cardboard boxes, a discarded piece from a vending machine, tin-foil, and milk crates. Large Styrofoam pieces from stereo component boxes also work well to create spaceship-like environments.

After filming was completed, Sebastian recorded and mixed all of the dialogue, sound effects, and music on a 4-track recorder. The soundtrack was then dubbed onto the master tape.   Lisa Gwilliam starred as the voice of Ripley. Sebastian did most of the rest of the voices himself, including Bishop, Tweekie, and Mr. Chimpums.

A5 premiered in Somerville, Massachusetts in September, 1998 and was first broadcast on CCTV in Cambridge, Massachusetts.