Didn't realise Bill was no longer with us. That's sad. I love his laconic/cheeky interview style. According to IMDb his work on Moon was uncredited, which is surprising. I wonder why that was.
Bill was one of the nicest people in the industry. Even in person he was an absolute joy to talk to. The fact that he genuinely seemed surprised that anyone was interested in his work, after the fact, was very endearing. Put simply, his craft and talent was sublime. A great man who is missed by a lot of people. Thanks for these snippets Piercefilm, they are a joy to watch.
I have to agree with Bill here: Moon is a masterpiece, and the modelwork there was astonishing. Flash Gordon is a poster child of good campy fun,.I always thought the rather "cheap" looking models where a homage to the old serials, not because of art design studios battles.
I appreciate all these videos. Thank you everyone involved. I’ve never done anything and I’m attempting my first sci fi short with miniatures etc. inspiring stuff.
I was given the Wood Beast model by the solicitor who was doing the legal work for FLASH GORDON. So I took it home on the back of my bike which was a laugh and did some simple animation with it which I still have. Eventually I phoned the Blue Peter studios at the BBC and offered it to them and they took it and gave me a Blue Peter badge! You wouldn't believe how messy the blue Peter offices were.
Thank you so much for your upload. It is so interesting to listen to you guys. I know, i am always typing this. But it is the truth. The real heroes behind the scenes. I always watch the making of on DVDs and Blurays. Keep up the good work.
Interesting to see that the Alien ship (as much as I can see at 0:53) is much more U-shaped than circular, as it is depicted in the later Prometheus-era movies.
One thing I can't figure out is WHERE is the shuttle area located on the Nostromo? The part showed here: 6:26 . When looking at pictures of the entire ship from various angles, there is NO place on the whole model that matches the cavernous inlet where the shuttle is. A lot of Nostromo illustrations suggest the shuttle area is on the underside of the side protrusions. But that simple doesn't match. They built the shuttle area model for filming closeups of the shuttle, but they didn't bother to maintain continuity with the whole ship model.
I don't know how accurate they are, but according to the NOSTROMO schematics, the NARCISSUS is housed below the wing-like area between the fuselage and the port engine nacelle, with her sister shuttle, SALMACIS, on the other side by the starboard engine. And it launches backwards from astern! (Apparently, SALMACIS was lost before the story began.) 🤷♂️
@@peppermintspacecapsule9898 Technically, though never referenced in the film, the Salmacis is there, but inoperative for unstated reasons, which is why the surviving crew could only use the Narcissus. I agree about the bewildering geography of the Nostromo in relation to the lifeboats. I could never for the life of me understand where they could possibly be located, either. I think this MIGHT be on purpose, though, as Alien is peppered with such things. For instance, many/most people think the egg chamber that Kane explores is part of the Space Jockey's ship when it's actually a hollowed-out cavern using the same biomechanical processes which constructed the derelict. There's also the quick shot of what looks to be Nostromo's nuclear engine space during the "first climax", which looks preposterously large when compared to the Nostromo itself. Either no one really bothered to check whether these spaces made sense OR they were intentionally done to further make the whole universe feel more, well, alien. Either way, the model work is exceptional.
As is shown in this video: The crash site of Hans Zarkov's spacecraft on Mongo originally had other wreckeded spaceships around it, that had crashed there before. I remember seeing photos of that in STARLOG {or some other} magazine. The scene as shown in the movie is fine, but I think it might have been a wee bit better if used the version with the other crashes as well.
2:25 I like the implication that Zarkov wasn't the only one (from other planets encountering Mongo) that had a crazy scientist who flung themselves out into the void.
Queen did the soundtrack to Flash Gordon. The band liked the low-budget image of the film, so they went on composing. The remarkable thing about it is, that Queen as a band was not very familiar with synths back then, but they packed some really great synth based ideas into the album. I mean, the Flash Gordon soundtrack is widely accepted as Queen's weakest release, but when one looks closer to it, it is a fine, synth-based piece. Absolutely matching the time back then. In my own opinion, I guess John Deacon as well as Fred on the piano were the driving force behind it. Like it was usual in Queen. Fred and John were amazing!
The sound track made the movie work. It was the final touch of "this is for kids, don't take it too seriously" that shapes the movie. It's still one of my favorites because everytime I watch it I'm 8 years old again.
As always so many richly detailed photos to enjoy behind the lovely recollections, I’d love to know the story behind the Alien ship being in that lighter colour scheme.
@@piercefilm There are some interesting comments about the Alien model work from Martin Bower in Charles de Lauzirika's documentary, The Beast Within. His exasperation with Ridley changing his mind and bashing bits off the refinery with a hammer. Ultimately, though, as Ivor Powell says in the same doc: Ridley wanted to do those shots himself so they scrapped everything that had been done previously (shot mostly by Brian Johnson) and changed various things, including the colours of many of the models, and the planets. I'd love to see all those outtakes (though I doubt they exist any more).
I swear whenever I see that picture of Bill where he is looking up at the life boat from Alien he looks like Weird Al Yankovic. I thought when did Weird Al work in visual effects. LOL
Hey, that's great how you got Weird Al Yankovic in the thumbnail. Modeller's rule of thumb: Never glue down more in a morning than you can sand off in an afternoon. Wait...Bill Pearson's gone? Well, crap. Thanks for all your wonderful work, Bill. [removes hat] 😢
You know that feeling of utter madness you get when trying to do something like threading a needle, but you keep missing and missing and missing until you finally explode and start screaming at nothing? This is why I could never do the sort of stuff these guys do, with all the nurnie and greeble attention to detail. It would literally - and I mean LITERALLY - drive me insane. I wonder if they knew the impact they would have on film and the associated general public. Well all like to sing the praises of Giger, Scott, Foss, and Cobb, but background heroes are still heroes.
@piercefilm productions Wow! Love it! Not just another excellent interview filled with awesome insight; but truly incredible as I had the pleasure to attend the Opening Day screening (second matinee show) at the Egyptian in Hollywood! What Bill neglected to mention is that Fox had also replicated about 40 feet of the lower level of the INT of the Nostromo; so that to enter the Theater (1st you had to buy your Ticket at the Box Office seen at 0:20) then you walked through this hastily thrown together SET that at first glance (from an Art Dept guy's POV) really looked like crap (compared to the details in SW)! ... But then you had to walk through "Mother"... the white room where Dallas & Ripley's had "interface" scenes with Mother... and THEN, you stepped back outside in order to enter the Theater's Entrance.. but there, to your immediate left (0:23) was the Space Jockey! This is the Only Image I've seen of the Space Jockey at the Egyptian Theater! Regrettably, Fox neglected to have sufficient Security at night, and some idiots set the Space Jock on fire (?!) and it was gone the next time I came back. Last but not least, the matinees were all Sold Out, so after the Credits ended, I hid in the Men's Restroom, hid in a toilet stall for a few minutes, then went back into the Theater to see A L I E N again, this time with a far better seat! 😝
My Flash Gorden experience was being at one of the few sneak-previews they did in the NY area - DeLaurentis was there with the other members of Queen (without Freddie). At the end they gave us comment cards to fill out as one of Dino’s yes-men ran up the aisle yelling “It’s better than Star Wars! It’s better than Star Wars!” - this did not sway our opinion.
That's funny. I remember going to see it fairly soon after its release in 1980 and thinking: "this is definitely NOT better than Star Wars". It was enjoyable but hokey throwaway sci-fi, I thought. The line "freeze you bloody bastards!" has stayed with me ever since, though. ;-)
I did not know until just a few years ago -- maybe only as recently as 2010 {the year, not the movie 😊} -- that the voice of Flash in this movie was NOT Sam J. Jones' voice, but the ENTIRELY DUBBED due to a falling out between Jones and Dino De Laurentiis. I would also add that this movie deserved better than it got. I would have preferred it be more serious, but to me the level of 'camp' was NOT to excessive. If it has been much more though, the film will not be as enjoyable.
In the mid 1980s there was a kid that lived behind my house in the suburbs of Preston - a place called Lostock Hall. I cannot remember his surname but his name was Mark, he lived with his mother and step dad (I think he real father was Irish and died in a car crash young), he had a smaller brother named John and an infant sister that may have been called Rebecca. He claimed that his grandfather worked on the ship model of Alien at the time a few years prior, can anyone kinda guess who his grandfather might have been, the guys working on the models of Alien don't look that old to me. Could have been B.S. you never know. I remember he had a Dragon 32 8-bit home computer and didn't seem to go to any of the local schools, so I rarely saw him about.
Amo los efectos de miniaturas ...son mil veces mejor y es a pulmón a diferencia de ahora q es todo computadoras " y parece muerto y tan fácil ...antes las cosas costaban más y había mucho más mérito en todo y era todo artesanal encambio ahora es lo cómodo y todo se arregla con la tecnología
@@piercefilm La de ahora es pobre en comparación con la de 1984 ...es como comparar un cuadro de Daly con una mamarracho de manchas de arte moderno " ...la actual es una pálida representacion en donde los efectos son todo gracias a la computación del cgi...encambio antes los efectos eran artesanales llenos de delicadeza y detalles con escenografías reales q llevaban tiempo y sacrificio...antes los efectos sí eran a pulmón con maquetas mientras q ahora es todo fácil gracias al cgi....nosé como la gente no aprecia la calidad de fotografía de las películas ochenteras ...de los colores vividos y escenografías reales sin cgi q transportan a otro mundo realmente mientras q ahora las escenas son grises osea pobres en colores como los autos grises q sacan en serie las fábricas automotores cuyos diseños son horribles ...todo lo de los ochenta es mejor ...nadie sabe apreciar eso ...es como la gente q oye reguetón y no entiende ni aprecia la música de los ochenta ...gente zombie sin capacidad para apreciar nada ni comparar nada osea sin sentido de la estética ni valoración o valores de nada ....q epoca más patética la de este Kaly yuga
Myself Dennis Lowe, Jon Sorenson, and Simon Deering had a nice long chat going on for what seemed like a year. Some of the nicest people I've ever talked to. Jon wanted me to help him with a project of his but I had to gently let him know that he was just in another league from me and he should find more qualified help. Dennis still answers his emails (sometimes) but Jon does not. I hope he is doing well.
It's unfortunate that Flash Gordon was a flop. I truly believe it was ahead of it's time. Everybody wanted a serious space opera and it was just goofy, campy and highly entertaining fun.
RIP Bill Pearson. He was a joy to work with, and always had interesting stories to tell. I'll never forget him.
Didn't realise Bill was no longer with us. That's sad. I love his laconic/cheeky interview style. According to IMDb his work on Moon was uncredited, which is surprising. I wonder why that was.
Bill’s voice & his laconic delivery is always a joy.
Bill was one of the nicest people in the industry. Even in person he was an absolute joy to talk to. The fact that he genuinely seemed surprised that anyone was interested in his work, after the fact, was very endearing. Put simply, his craft and talent was sublime. A great man who is missed by a lot of people. Thanks for these snippets Piercefilm, they are a joy to watch.
Rest in peace Bill, a very talented guy and a good friend
He seems a genuinely lovey soul.
I have to agree with Bill here: Moon is a masterpiece, and the modelwork there was astonishing.
Flash Gordon is a poster child of good campy fun,.I always thought the rather "cheap" looking models where a homage to the old serials, not because of art design studios battles.
And the matte lines...
Really cool. There are a lot of photos I've never seen before. Thanks.
This channel is a gift. I love this video.
It was an joy I do think to work on that set.
GREAT !!!
Historical moment to see it
Fantastic
Wow thank you for uploading this epic stuff ❤
Fascinating stuff, as always.
Alien AND Moon. wow!
I appreciate all these videos. Thank you everyone involved. I’ve never done anything and I’m attempting my first sci fi short with miniatures etc. inspiring stuff.
Pearson and his team did brilliant, brilliant work on Moon. His contribution to the industry will never be forgotten.
I have a segment about Moon here on my channel. Great film and miniature work.
Yes, that was great. I could watch for hours about model-making for film. Pearson was such a cool cat.
@@piercefilm
I was given the Wood Beast model by the solicitor who was doing the legal work for FLASH GORDON. So I took it home on the back of my bike which was a laugh and did some simple animation with it which I still have. Eventually I phoned the Blue Peter studios at the BBC and offered it to them and they took it and gave me a Blue Peter badge! You wouldn't believe how messy the blue Peter offices were.
London W12 8QT?
@@hgwells1899 ?
@@jean_mollycutpurse_winchester the home of Blue Peter back in the day ;)
I remember watching that episode of Blue Peter as a kid! I've ALWAYS loved Flash Gordon! ⚡⚡⚡
@@peppermintspacecapsule9898 that's great
MOON was a brilliant film.
Thank you so much for your upload. It is so interesting to listen to you guys. I know, i am always typing this. But it is the truth. The real heroes behind the scenes. I always watch the making of on DVDs and Blurays. Keep up the good work.
Especially enjoy hearing more about behind the scenes craziness of Flash Gordon 🤣
Flash Gordon was literally a campy , almost 60's Batman kind of movie. Still a fun watch,my first recollection of Timothy Dalton.
Fantastic!!!!!
Fantastic stuff as always! Keep it coming.
Interesting to see that the Alien ship (as much as I can see at 0:53) is much more U-shaped than circular, as it is depicted in the later Prometheus-era movies.
One thing I can't figure out is WHERE is the shuttle area located on the Nostromo? The part showed here: 6:26 . When looking at pictures of the entire ship from various angles, there is NO place on the whole model that matches the cavernous inlet where the shuttle is. A lot of Nostromo illustrations suggest the shuttle area is on the underside of the side protrusions. But that simple doesn't match. They built the shuttle area model for filming closeups of the shuttle, but they didn't bother to maintain continuity with the whole ship model.
I don't know how accurate they are, but according to the NOSTROMO schematics, the NARCISSUS is housed below the wing-like area between the fuselage and the port engine nacelle, with her sister shuttle, SALMACIS, on the other side by the starboard engine. And it launches backwards from astern!
(Apparently, SALMACIS was lost before the story began.) 🤷♂️
@@peppermintspacecapsule9898 Technically, though never referenced in the film, the Salmacis is there, but inoperative for unstated reasons, which is why the surviving crew could only use the Narcissus.
I agree about the bewildering geography of the Nostromo in relation to the lifeboats. I could never for the life of me understand where they could possibly be located, either. I think this MIGHT be on purpose, though, as Alien is peppered with such things. For instance, many/most people think the egg chamber that Kane explores is part of the Space Jockey's ship when it's actually a hollowed-out cavern using the same biomechanical processes which constructed the derelict. There's also the quick shot of what looks to be Nostromo's nuclear engine space during the "first climax", which looks preposterously large when compared to the Nostromo itself.
Either no one really bothered to check whether these spaces made sense OR they were intentionally done to further make the whole universe feel more, well, alien. Either way, the model work is exceptional.
@@fredleggett923 - Yeah, I don't know how accurate those schematics are, I just typed what I read.
William Shatner called...said to get a life.
I just googled it, that's all. I didn't write the thing. Go bug someone else.
As is shown in this video: The crash site of Hans Zarkov's spacecraft on Mongo originally had other wreckeded spaceships around it, that had crashed there before. I remember seeing photos of that in STARLOG {or some other} magazine.
The scene as shown in the movie is fine, but I think it might have been a wee bit better if used the version with the other crashes as well.
Love the video
2:25 I like the implication that Zarkov wasn't the only one (from other planets encountering Mongo) that had a crazy scientist who flung themselves out into the void.
Queen did the soundtrack to Flash Gordon. The band liked the low-budget image of the film, so they went on composing. The remarkable thing about it is, that Queen as a band was not very familiar with synths back then, but they packed some really great synth based ideas into the album. I mean, the Flash Gordon soundtrack is widely accepted as Queen's weakest release, but when one looks closer to it, it is a fine, synth-based piece. Absolutely matching the time back then. In my own opinion, I guess John Deacon as well as Fred on the piano were the driving force behind it. Like it was usual in Queen. Fred and John were amazing!
The sound track made the movie work. It was the final touch of "this is for kids, don't take it too seriously" that shapes the movie.
It's still one of my favorites because everytime I watch it I'm 8 years old again.
Now we got 3D printing, that shoud breathe a new life into miniatures.
As always so many richly detailed photos to enjoy behind the lovely recollections, I’d love to know the story behind the Alien ship being in that lighter colour scheme.
It was planned to be yellow at first. Then Ridley Scott changed his mind. It was the right decision for the mood of the film.
@@piercefilm There are some interesting comments about the Alien model work from Martin Bower in Charles de Lauzirika's documentary, The Beast Within. His exasperation with Ridley changing his mind and bashing bits off the refinery with a hammer. Ultimately, though, as Ivor Powell says in the same doc: Ridley wanted to do those shots himself so they scrapped everything that had been done previously (shot mostly by Brian Johnson) and changed various things, including the colours of many of the models, and the planets. I'd love to see all those outtakes (though I doubt they exist any more).
I swear whenever I see that picture of Bill where he is looking up at the life boat from Alien he looks like Weird Al Yankovic. I thought when did Weird Al work in visual effects. LOL
Hey, that's great how you got Weird Al Yankovic in the thumbnail.
Modeller's rule of thumb: Never glue down more in a morning than you can sand off in an afternoon.
Wait...Bill Pearson's gone? Well, crap. Thanks for all your wonderful work, Bill.
[removes hat] 😢
Bragging Alert: I saw the thumbnail model section (minus the 'Narcissus') at USC when 'ALIEN' was first released in 1979. It was glorious-!
D.A.
Es un trabajo de envidia..muy espectacular..sobre todo cuando muestran aviones ,naves magistrales
You know that feeling of utter madness you get when trying to do something like threading a needle, but you keep missing and missing and missing until you finally explode and start screaming at nothing? This is why I could never do the sort of stuff these guys do, with all the nurnie and greeble attention to detail. It would literally - and I mean LITERALLY - drive me insane.
I wonder if they knew the impact they would have on film and the associated general public. Well all like to sing the praises of Giger, Scott, Foss, and Cobb, but background heroes are still heroes.
@piercefilm productions Wow! Love it! Not just another excellent interview filled with awesome insight; but truly incredible as I had the pleasure to attend the Opening Day screening (second matinee show) at the Egyptian in Hollywood! What Bill neglected to mention is that Fox had also replicated about 40 feet of the lower level of the INT of the Nostromo; so that to enter the Theater (1st you had to buy your Ticket at the Box Office seen at 0:20) then you walked through this hastily thrown together SET that at first glance (from an Art Dept guy's POV) really looked like crap (compared to the details in SW)! ... But then you had to walk through "Mother"... the white room where Dallas & Ripley's had "interface" scenes with Mother... and THEN, you stepped back outside in order to enter the Theater's Entrance.. but there, to your immediate left (0:23) was the Space Jockey! This is the Only Image I've seen of the Space Jockey at the Egyptian Theater! Regrettably, Fox neglected to have sufficient Security at night, and some idiots set the Space Jock on fire (?!) and it was gone the next time I came back. Last but not least, the matinees were all Sold Out, so after the Credits ended, I hid in the Men's Restroom, hid in a toilet stall for a few minutes, then went back into the Theater to see A L I E N again, this time with a far better seat! 😝
My Flash Gorden experience was being at one of the few sneak-previews they did in the NY area - DeLaurentis was there with the other members of Queen (without Freddie). At the end they gave us comment cards to fill out as one of Dino’s yes-men ran up the aisle yelling “It’s better than Star Wars! It’s better than Star Wars!” - this did not sway our opinion.
That's funny. I remember going to see it fairly soon after its release in 1980 and thinking: "this is definitely NOT better than Star Wars". It was enjoyable but hokey throwaway sci-fi, I thought. The line "freeze you bloody bastards!" has stayed with me ever since, though. ;-)
It's better than Star Wars.
I did not know until just a few years ago -- maybe only as recently as 2010 {the year, not the movie 😊} -- that the voice of Flash in this movie was NOT Sam J. Jones' voice, but the ENTIRELY DUBBED due to a falling out between Jones and Dino De Laurentiis.
I would also add that this movie deserved better than it got. I would have preferred it be more serious, but to me the level of 'camp' was NOT to excessive. If it has been much more though, the film will not be as enjoyable.
On 0:49 seconds of this clip you can see a tie-fighter model kit under this model. I had to look a number of time when I saw it
wow!!, very creative
In the mid 1980s there was a kid that lived behind my house in the suburbs of Preston - a place called Lostock Hall. I cannot remember his surname but his name was Mark, he lived with his mother and step dad (I think he real father was Irish and died in a car crash young), he had a smaller brother named John and an infant sister that may have been called Rebecca. He claimed that his grandfather worked on the ship model of Alien at the time a few years prior, can anyone kinda guess who his grandfather might have been, the guys working on the models of Alien don't look that old to me. Could have been B.S. you never know. I remember he had a Dragon 32 8-bit home computer and didn't seem to go to any of the local schools, so I rarely saw him about.
Damn... when movies where treasured
Amo los efectos de miniaturas ...son mil veces mejor y es a pulmón a diferencia de ahora q es todo computadoras " y parece muerto y tan fácil ...antes las cosas costaban más y había mucho más mérito en todo y era todo artesanal encambio ahora es lo cómodo y todo se arregla con la tecnología
Si...
@@piercefilm
La de ahora es pobre en comparación con la de 1984 ...es como comparar un cuadro de Daly con una mamarracho de manchas de arte moderno " ...la actual es una pálida representacion en donde los efectos son todo gracias a la computación del cgi...encambio antes los efectos eran artesanales llenos de delicadeza y detalles con escenografías reales q llevaban tiempo y sacrificio...antes los efectos sí eran a pulmón con maquetas mientras q ahora es todo fácil gracias al cgi....nosé como la gente no aprecia la calidad de fotografía de las películas ochenteras ...de los colores vividos y escenografías reales sin cgi q transportan a otro mundo realmente mientras q ahora las escenas son grises osea pobres en colores como los autos grises q sacan en serie las fábricas automotores cuyos diseños son horribles ...todo lo de los ochenta es mejor ...nadie sabe apreciar eso ...es como la gente q oye reguetón y no entiende ni aprecia la música de los ochenta ...gente zombie sin capacidad para apreciar nada ni comparar nada osea sin sentido de la estética ni valoración o valores de nada ....q epoca más patética la de este Kaly yuga
Flash Gordon was perfect. Nothing should have been done different. But there should have been more movies.
Seems ALL GOOD sci-fi movies are because of UK artists! 👍👏👏👏👏👏
Good CV. ALIEN and MOON.
Myself Dennis Lowe, Jon Sorenson, and Simon Deering had a nice long chat going on for what seemed like a year. Some of the nicest people I've ever talked to. Jon wanted me to help him with a project of his but I had to gently let him know that he was just in another league from me and he should find more qualified help. Dennis still answers his emails (sometimes) but Jon does not. I hope he is doing well.
It's unfortunate that Flash Gordon was a flop. I truly believe it was ahead of it's time. Everybody wanted a serious space opera and it was just goofy, campy and highly entertaining fun.
no, it was a hot mess
Agree, it’s a great film. Lots of fun.
i like the Flash Gotrdon Movie
I would have liked to have seen the life sized version of the space jockey. Damn shame it was destroyed by arson.
Yeah, was it destroyed by some religious nutjob, wasn't it? What a shame.
São Paulo, Brasil!
0:47 Darth Vader´s Tie Figther
Yes, there are many tie fighters glued to the bottom of the refinery.
Uau! Uau! Uau!!! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👀🎞🎥🇧🇷
Fanfuckingtastic👍
@0:32 - PAUSE HERE - I see Femur bones in the ground, buried in the 'sand'. WTF???
H. R. Giger used real bones when making the "alien" designs. He incorporated real and castings of real bones into the creature suit and landscapes.
@@piercefilm Hey thanks for the informative answer, sorry for my late reply! Cheers!
So the Nostromo was made of Tie Fighters...
well, many kit parts were used on the refinery underside.
🌕👌😍
SUB :D