Date:   Thu, Aug 31, 1995 2:28 PM PDT
From:  Steve 1957
Subj:   Alien Autopsy Comments

Gang, 
Here are some comments I found on America On-LineI do not know the author.


From "DAVE"

I just wanted to add my two cents to this discussion.

I have been building creatures for the film industry for over ten years.  I just looked at the "Alien" pics on Art Bells web page.

They have been the center of discussion for the last few days.  I must temper what I am about to say with the note that I have not seen the "footage" just some stills taken off of a tv screen of  b&w 16mm footage.
Now having said that, from a professional eye this does not scream "fake" as some would say.
What I am seeing looks pretty good for a static body.
I say this for the following reasons.
In the images that I have seen :
1. The body at least gives the appearance of being seamless.  Not an impossible feat, but an expensive one.  You can find seams (created by the molding process) in even the best most expensive films.  To make things easier to fabricate you often will divide the sculpture down into bite sized chunks i.e.. the head, at least, and possibly the arms and legs could be seperate pcs. .  This allows you to have air bubbles  appear in the casting of lets say the arm, without this screwing up the entire skin, as in a one pc. process.  The fact that I am not seeing a join between the head and the body and no seams running down the arm or the head tells me several things:
  a. This is a real artifact-or-
  b. This is a very expensive prop.
  c. Or just the gods of film and video helping out our  
     work.  Film hides a multitude of sins and video 
     hides even more.

2. If this is a sculpture it is a good one.  Most of the forms are very nice.  The posture of the hands (six fingered?) is very natural.  Although in one shot, from the feet up to the head, there appears to be a slight uneveness in the brow area, a common problem in our industry.

3. The fact that the figure appears to have a serious wound on its right knee and its right arm pit as well as an almost severed right hand.  This says to me either, a real wound, or, a fabricated wound to hide a casting problem.  An inexpensive way to save an expensive and otherwise nice casting.

4. The concept of "expensive" comes from this basic idea :
  a. To make a static dummy, full body, with no    discernable seams costs "X".
  b. To make a dummy that can be manipulated i.e.. the arms are picked up or the body moved in any way, without it wrinkling in an unrealistic way ( believe me, even for the best in the business this is tough )
is an expensive task.  This would put the cost at "2.5X".  
  c.  If this body is autopsied, on camera, this presents a logistical problem, not only does the body need to be able to be moved, but now the interior needs to be finished, and filled with gods knows what kind of animal insides.  Again, not impossible, just costly and very very stinky.  Also, once you start cutting, you hope that you get it right on the first take, reseaming a cut in a character can be a bitch.
Also if the top of the head is cut off you might as well live with a bad take, you probably never will get that looking the same again.  The only material that I know of that could make this easier would be a silicone.  The use of silicone as a skin material has come into the fore in the last 24 to 36 months.  This would make it easier and also sort of date the fabrication of this dummy if thats what it is.
This would put the costs at aprox. "3X".  

  5. The idea that has been put forth in UFO circles that this is somehow from a Brazillian UFO film, is IMOH, completely false.  My wife and I worked in Brazil for two weeks at the beginning of this year on a commercial.  The state of materials and processes, at least in Sao Paolo, would make this kind of fabrication impossible.
A viewing of the film would probably yield either a thumbs up or thumbs down. 

So if it is false, I would say that it was either built in L.A., or London(possibly N.Y.,or San Francisco but these are more of a long shot).  Plus given the origin of the current owner of the footage I would put my money on London if it is fabricated.  IMOH

Dave