Alien 1979- Ship Sounds

The all time classic sci-fi film. This film is over 30 years old, yet the sound track is still relevant today, especially in relation to my Solaris project. There are so many subtle little noises and effects, drones, beeps, whirs, clicks and hums that make up the sound of the Nostromo spacecraft. Much of teh sound design was done by Jim Shields, who has built this incredibly complex, yet subtle ambience that runs, even when other key sounds are more present (e.g. alien breath, heartbeats, scuttling, acid etc), maintaining the background noise and adding believability to the scenes.

The beauty is no-one has ever been on a space craft like this, so Shields can take full creative control, and makes something that we all instantly believe a space craft should and would sound like. This is something I shall explore in creating the ambience and atmos within the space craft of my own chsoen Solaris clip. If the location can be made believable and absorb the audience, the other sounds and effects will fall more easily into place. A jarring, un realistic atmos would thrown the whole film out, and greatly alienate the audience from the piece.