Month: November 2019

Mars Attacks!

Invasion literature became popular after the publication of The Battle of Dorking in 1871, which describes a fictional invasion of Britain by a German speaking force.

H.G. Wells published The War of the Worlds as a serial in 1897 (and in hardcover the following year).

And before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?

H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

Invasion stories tend to reflect the cultural anxieties of the time.

• The War of the Worlds novel (1898) – colonial expansion
• The War of the Worlds radio drama (1938) – World War II
• The Thing from Another World (1951) – communism
• War of the Worlds Pal adaptation (1953) – Cold War
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) – McCarthyism
• Village of the Damned (1960) – family values
• The Andromeda Strain (1971) – Space Race
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) – Watergate
• The Thing (1982) – disease
• They Live (1988) – consumerism

The Wacky 1990s

In the 1990s, a lot of big disaster movies were released: Jurassic Park (1993), Outbreak (1995), Twister (1996), Dante’s Peak (1997), Deep Impact (1998), Godzilla (1998), and Armageddon (1998), to name a few. While the plots of these films involved a tremendous loss of human life, this violence was shown through cartoonish spectacle, usually involving the destruction of major landmarks and often accompanied by witty one-liners. This trend carries over to alien invasion films of the time as well.

Mars Attacks – directed by Tim Burton (1996)

Independence Day – directed by Roland Emmerich (1996)

It’s a fun-pocalypse!

Lindsay Ellis, Independence Day vs. War of the Worlds

Starship Troopers – directed by Paul Verhoeven (1997)

Men in Black – directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (1997)

The Faculty – directed by Robert Rodriguez (1998)

The Grim 2000s

In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, moviegoers lost their taste for bombastic disaster movies. As a direct consequence, alien invasion films became darker and more focused on human loss than symbolic destruction. The most direct comparison can probably be made between Independence Day in 1996 and War of the Worlds in 2005. In the former, the invasion unites humanity against a common foe. In the latter, the alien threat fractures humanity and drives it towards its worst impulses.

Apocalyptic movies eventually began to resurface, with films like The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and 2012 (2009). Even though these films no longer feel “distasteful” in the way they did immediately after 9/11, the collective trauma of the 2001 attacks is now an inescapable point of comparison.

It’s not that aliens equals terrorists. It’s Spielberg’s ultimate statement on living in an America that no longer feels secure. We can’t just mindlessly enjoy the cinematic destruction of a major city or landmark, because we had just gone through this in real life.

Lindsay Ellis, Independence Day vs. War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds – directed by Steven Spielberg (2005)

Cloverfield – directed by Matt Reeves (2008)

District 9 – directed by Neill Blomkamp (2009)

Where Are We Now?

Comic book movies are now the most popular examples of alien invasion and disaster movies, by far. Like the disaster films of the 1990s, these tend to be loud and colorful – lots of destruction, with little emphasis on human suffering.

In parallel, a number of smaller, more “intimate” invasion films have been released, with a greater emphasis on loss and personal struggle.

Spectacle!

Transformers – directed by Michael Bay (2007)

Avatar – directed by James Cameron (2009)

The Avengers – directed by Joss Whedon (2012)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Roge_wdreZI

Man of Steel – directed by Zack Snyder (2013)

Avengers: Infinity War – directed by the Russo brothers (2018)

Bummer!

Attack the Block – directed by Joe Cornish (2011)

Edge of Tomorrow – directed by Doug Liman (2014)

10 Cloverfield Lane – directed by Dan Trachtenberg (2016)

A Quiet Place – directed by John Krasinsky

Scripting

• Most scripts begin as a rough outline – write out the sequence of events that will happen in the film
• Flesh out the outline with additional details as necessary
• Add individual character beats and actions
• Add dialog, but don’t get too attached to it
• Show, don’t tell – remove dialog that serves as exposition and use visual storytelling instead
• Edit, edit, edit – strip the script down to its essential elements and remove sequences that aren’t absolutely essential
• Things may change significantly between the original idea and the finished script and they may change further between the script, production

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A film is written three times: in the screenplay, during production, and in the edit.

Storyboarding

• Storyboarding is your opportunity to edit your film before you film it
• Your storyboard serves as a guide for what footage you need to capture, although you can still improvise during production
• Storyboards do not need to be detailed or well-drawn – they only need to make sense to you
• Don’t worry too much about the backgrounds, unless they are important to the shot; draw the characters and important elements
• Generally, each panel in a storyboard is a shot, although shots with complex actions or movement may require multiple panels
• Camera movement and onscreen actions can be indicated using arrows
• Explanatory notes can be written below each panel

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Optional – Animatic

• Load your storyboard images into editing software and edit them into a simple version of the movie
• Add a temporary soundtrack, with sound effects, voice tracks, and music
• Watch the movie and see where the issues are – there may be sections that are too long or too short, areas that can be cut entirely, or places that need additional context
• This is sometimes called pre-visualization (pre-vis) and is especially helpful for visual effects shots
• Pixar follows this process religiously and generally goes through several iterations of animatics (which they call “story reels”) before they actually start producing animation
• This step is completely optional, but it can really help you iron out any issues with your film before you begin production

Production Challenge: Alien Abduction

Storyboard the following scenario. It may be helpful to write out the events in more detail before you begin drawing.

On their way to get the mail, someone is abducted by a flying saucer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebmwYqoUp44

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAAVwX6pXHs

The New Wave
Science fiction films were tremendously popular during the 1950s – notable releases included The Day the Earth Stood Still in 1951 and Forbidden Planet in 1956. Although these films were successful, science fiction films were not really considered “serious” cinema. Science fiction literature of the time had matured and largely outgrown its “pulp” phase, but there is a notable downturn in the number of science fiction films produced in the early 1960s.

2001: A Space Odyssey – directed by Stanley Kubrick (1968)
• Kubrick had already established himself as a successful (often controversial) director with films such as Lolita, Spartacus, and Dr. Strangelove when he decided to tackle the topic of intelligent alien life
• Kubrick approached science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke and the two collaborated to develop the story and script
• 2001 depicts space travel with a degree of realism that had never before been achieved; a good deal of the first half of the film shows life in space as mundane or even boring

Planet of the Apes – directed by Franklin Schaffner (1968)
• Appears at first to be about an alien planet or alternate reality – but there is a time travel plot twist
• The screenplay was adapted from a French novel by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling of The Twilight Zone fame
• Like 2001, Planet of the Apes had revolutionary visual effects

Solaris – directed by Andre Tarkovsky (1972)
• Like Kubrick, Tarkovsky was a “serious” director who decided to tackle science fiction
• The film involves a mysterious planet that affects those on a nearby space station in mysterious ways – including recreating the main character’s deceased wife
• The film won the prestigious Grand Prix special jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival

Special Effects Blockbusters
2001 and Planet of the Apes proved that visual effects technology had advanced to the point where science fiction’s more outlandish ideas could be effectively visualized. These advances breathed new life into science fiction as a popular entertainment genre, beginning in 1977 with a little film called Star Wars. This era of films used practical effects to their fullest potential.

Star Wars – directed by George Lucas (1977)
• Star Wars has none of the “high art” pretensions of Kubrick and Tarkovsky – it takes inspiration from the rollicking serials of the 1930s, but used cutting edge technology to do so
• Along with Jaws two years earlier, Star Wars helped to establish the big summer blockbuster

Close Encounters of the Third Kind – directed by Steven Spielberg (1977)
• Used contemporary folklore about aliens and, in turn, helped to establish the idea of the “grey” alien
• Fundamentally optimistic about extraterrestrial intelligence

Superman – directed by Richard Donner (1978)
• The most expensive film ever made at the time, with a budget of $55 million
• The film was originally offered to Steven Spielberg, who passed to work on Close Encounters
• Received a special Academy Award for visual effects

Star Trek: The Motion Picture – directed by Robert Wise (1979)
• The original TV series aired from 1966 to 1969, but later developed a following in syndication
• The film had a rocky development and was canceled a few weeks before Star Wars was released in 1977

Alien – directed by Ridley Scott (1979)
• Took science fiction in a decidedly darker direction by blending it with horror

E.T. the Extra Terrestrial – directed by Steven Spielberg (1982)
• Based on Spielberg’s imaginary childhood friend and a darker undeveloped film called Night Skies (in which aliens terrorize a family
• There are plot similarities to an undeveloped Satyajit Ray film called The Alien, which was written in 1967
• Surpassed Star Wars as the highest grossing film of all time the year after its release

The Thing – directed by John Carpenter (1982)
• Adapted from the 1938 novella Who Goes There? – and had been previously adapted in 1951 as The Thing from Another World
• Like Alien, the film blends science fiction and horror
• Features horrifying practical effects

V – miniseries directed by Kenneth Johnson (1983)
• Reptilian aliens try to take over the Earth!

https://youtu.be/HvwfdLdEdVA

Dune – directed by David Lynch (1984)
• Adapted from Frank Herbert’s ambitious and influential 1965 novel
• In the far future, noble families vie for control of a desert planet with a precious natural resource
• David Lynch directed Dune after passing on The Return of the Jedi
• Experimental director Alejandro Jodorowsky attempted an ambitious adaptation in the 1970s (check out the excellent documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune) that never materialized
• Arrival director Denis Villeneuve will release his version of the story in 2020

Emergence of CGI
Computer imagery had been used in films as early as the 1970s – the opening titles of Superman are one example – but the technology began to be widely used for visual effects in the 1990s. Many films of this period used practical effects such as animatronics and puppetry in combination with computer imagery.

The Abyss – directed by James Cameron (1989)
• Underwater alien pseudopod!
• First expressive fully CG character
• Tortured and dangerous underwater production

https://youtu.be/MqjaTnBLGys

Independence Day – directed by Roland Emmerich (1996)
• Upbeat, adventurous take on the alien invasion story first told by H. G. Wells in The War of the Worlds
• Combination of practical and digital effects
• Unique alien design – internal alien is based on grey alien folklore while external suit is horror-inspired and seems to have Geiger influences

Starship Troopers – directed by Paul Verhoeven (1997)
• Panned upon its release as shallow and silly, the film has gained a cult following as a subversive parody of war and violence
• Modeled closely on propaganda films from World War II

Men in Black – directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (1997)
• Secret agents monitor the activity of extraterrestrials on Earth
• Based on UFO mythology and adapted from a comic book series
• Fantastic creature design

The Fifth Element – directed by Luc Besson (1997)
• Multipass!
• Kind of like Die Hard with aliens
• Lots of practical effects combined with CG elements

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace – directed by George Lucas (1999)
• Pushed CG further than previous films with a fully CG main character and a huge number of visual effects shots (around 1,950)

Post 9/11 Science Fiction
It can be difficult to analyze contemporary media trends; we don’t have the benefit of objectivity that distance from the material brings. However, we can see a clear shift in the thematic and tonal qualities of extraterrestrial cinema after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Invasion stories tend to be darker and more focused on human loss and suffering. Issues of xenophobia and class strife are also explored, often using extraterrestrials as stand-ins for marginalized groups.

The War of the Worlds – directed by Steven Spielberg (2005)
• Follows the same basic plot as Independence Day in 1996, but with a much darker tone
• One of several notable adaptations of the Wells novel, including the radio drama in 1938 and the previous film adaptation in 1953

Cloverfield – directed by Matt Reeves (2008)
• Found footage film in which a group of friends struggle to survive and alien attack on New York
• Very strong parallels to the 9/11 attack on NYC

District 9 – directed by Neill Blomkamp (2009)
• Aliens land in Johannesburg and are relocated into slums
• Inspired by events that took place during apartheid in South Africa
• Reflects fears surrounding immigration, including child separation

Avatar – directed by James Cameron (2009)
• Having depleted Earth’s natural resources, humans mine unobtanium on a moon inhabited by big blue humanoid aliens
• Extensive computer generated backgrounds and characters
• Motion capture used for digital characters
• Casts the human characters as the ruthless invaders; Cameron himself drew comparisons between the film and the Iraq War

Attack the Block – directed by Joe Cornish (2011)
• Aliens invading South London come into conflict with a teenage street game
• Humans from different backgrounds have to come together to survive the alien threat
• The aliens themselves have no eyes and use smell and echolocation

Edge of Tomorrow – directed by Doug Liman (2014)
• Based on the Japanese novella All You Need is Kill
• Aliens arrive in Europe via asteroid and take over
• Ingesting alien blood gives a soldier the ability to be reborn
• Unique alien design and movement