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Design Thread: Nostromo interiors and deck configurations
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FenGiddel
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 9:01 am    Post subject: Design Thread: Nostromo interiors and deck configurations Reply with quote

Since Space Jockey's external blueprints project proved that EXTENSIVE research pays off, perhaps the same approach should be take for an internal blueprints project.

When I drew my 'prints years ago for "The Nostromo Files", about the only things I accounted for were:

    1. stowage for the forward landing gear, a possible route(s) to the escape craft,
    2. the embarkation lift (since then I've been won over to SJ's idea, however),
    3. a possible debarkation airlock,
    4. secondary means of moving between decks, other than the ladderways,
    and the airshafts.


This thread can capture ideas, movie references, stills, novel references, comparisons to real-life large-scale heavy lift/cargo vessels, all this in order to dream up what a craft like the Nostromo would look like inside and why.

Also: pose your questions, things you've thought about over the years. These can be an excellent sounding board and may spur creative ideas amongst the talented artists and model-builders that follow all things ALIEN on Propsummit.com

So, guys, what do you think?
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Space Jockey
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 9:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm going to throw these thoughts out there.

The image below always puzzled me. But lately it got me thinking, especially when I saw the description of this plan as follows:-
"Title: Stage layout revamped to B&C 272"

Some areas of the Nostromo interior, such as the C-Deck corridors and undercarriage room and cargo bays, were built as separate entities. Mirrors were used in the corridors to make them appear longer. We know that the Infirmary was re-dressed and used again as the Engine Room.

However, this plan, and the title 'revamped to B&C' now makes me think that the set to A-Deck was redressed to look like parts of B and C deck.
For instance, the area I've marked with the red dot, is possibly (I say possibly as I don't know for sure) the camera location for the scene after the chestburster runs off, immediately before Kane's 'funeral' takes place. The camera pans at this point down three corridors.

I'll bet that the blue dot is the re-vamped engine room.

The black dot I bet is the Airlock that Kane, Dallas and Lambert are suited up in for the scene where Ash opens the door against Ripley's wishes. Maybe that same airlock room was raised up and re-used for the scene where they go out and descend to the planet surface.

And I'm betting that the green dot is the Narcissus set. If you look at the shape of the corridor leading upto it, imagining the engine room set blanked off and it is exactly the path that Ripley, Lambert and Parker took toward the end of the movie.

What I'm saying is is that it is unlikely that we will ever see a B-Deck or C-Deck plan that was used on the movie. I'm betting that this is the closest we'll see for the time being, as this plan possibly shows how A-Deck was re-dressed and re-used for various scenes involving B and C decks.
Through careful manipulation of signage, lighting, set re-dressing and the camera only focusing on certain areas of the set and hiding others, we the moviegoer are lead to believe that this small set is actually depicting various areas scattered about the ship.

What do you think? (And better still if anyone owns this print, please let us know what the writing on the print says!)



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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 2:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mates, a lot of things you're talking about was already heavily discussed here :

http://propsummit.com/viewtopic.php?t=1522

and there :

http://www.propsummit.com/viewtopic.php?t=1454&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Browse the pages of these threads and you'll see the light at some point...



Fred

PS : mods, could you please attach these posts to the thread below, it would make sense imho :

http://propsummit.com/viewtopic.php?t=1522
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andy
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 2:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't have the power to combine threads myself. If you open up the other threads you can cut and paste and even quote the other threads into your own post, but other than that I am not sure how to add the other posts into this thread. Maybe Amish has that ability.

Andy
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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 2:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SJ and FenGid, what do you think ?

Ready to paste your posts in the Nostromo thread ?



Fred
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Space Jockey
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 6:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fred,

I say leave it as-is; the Nostromo thread concentrated heavily on the exterior of the ship and going through 33 pages much of which is not relevant to the interiors is a little daunting. I feel a new thread here works best.

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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 6:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK then...



Before you ask : No, I'm not (alas) the owner of that blueprint...

Fred
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Vader
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 10:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Seems like this fellow is sitting on a gold mine:

http://www.remington-rand.com/alien/
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FenGiddel
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 10:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Space Jockey, I believe you're RIGHT about the re-dress of the set! (The only other one I haven't yet seen is the air shaft that Dallas used.)

It could be that we consider the Nostromo's pressurized innards to be as modular as those in the shooting set, with LONG corridors on C Deck.

Skin Job 66, I respect your suggstion, but, I agree with SJ's notion to leave the interior discussion here. After re-reading the sections linked above, there might be some cross-over, but where that section had many many photo references, this project may be more in the mind... Twisted Evil ooooh---weeeee---oooooh! Twisted Evil
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FenGiddel
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 5:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cobb's Leviathan design said the craft was "a modified Lockmart CM-88B Bison transporter," indicating a standard spaceframe used for different purposes.

I've had to suspend disbelief when I hear the N called a 'tug', since in space the refinery wouldn't need something to pull it, but I can see the need for a freighter to accompany it with cargoes other than ore, oil, etc.

The N is huge, so her holds must also be vast.

At one time, I thought maybe the N did the harvesting of material and, via the umbilical, transferred it to the refinery for processing.

But then I took an anti-fanboy pill and realized it's all good...all for the dramatic look and feel of a lonesome ship far at sea, etc., etc.

But it has me stumped on where to start with the non-habitable spaces since uncertainty of the ship's secondary duty, after shepherding the refinery, might entail.

Thoughts? Reality checks?
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Space Jockey
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 9:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I recently bought a photo of the colony map used in Operations (ALIENS). On it, much of the writing that describes parts of the colony is legable. One of the 'modules' according to this map created for the movie states that it houses 'Weyland Yutani Corp. Offices' and 'Geo/Surv Office'. The entire east wing is marked as 'Under Construction'.

Given that some traction vehicles, one 'moon-buggy'-like vehicle and the helicopter vehicle designed by Ron Cobb are seen in the cargo holds (maybe they should be refered to as 'garages'), I think that in Nostromo's case, the fact it is towing ore during the movie from Thedus, at least some of the ship is used for the transportation of Geo/Surveying equipment to and from ports and colonies as well as perhaps refining parts and tools (though the refining part of the ore is probably done by the time Nostromo reaches Earth).

Perhaps the Nostromo does not need the volume of fuel to be on board to last the whole trip, as once connected to the refinery, maybe the fuel needed for the FTL trip home is on the refinery and not Nostromo. The refinery fires up and powers the trip back to Earth. Whatever fuel is on Nostromo, may be used for life support and atmospheric re-entries and departure. However there is no 'brain' aboard the refinery (MU-TH-UR 6000) and it does not know where to go. That's what Nostromo is for; a guide at the front of the train, with crew aboard incase anything goes wrong.

So where am I going - sometimes it works to think of the function of such vehicles and what it needs to work. Often it makes planning out what is inside the vehicle easier and more relevant.
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BR26354
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 1:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Vader wrote:
Seems like this fellow is sitting on a gold mine:

http://www.remington-rand.com/alien/



Vader,
FANTASTIC find--thank you for sharing this link!!!!
BR26354
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FenGiddel
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 7:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Space Jockey: kudos on the colony reference material addition!

I concur with your thoughts about N's functions and the refinery's too. I'd imagine N's sister ships, sans refineries, would FTL to Company sites to off-load said items you mentioned, too.

I like the idea that, if the refinery fuels the journey, N's tanks are left for maneuvering to/from orbit. Figuring out possible ship functions does help imagine design aspects.

Back to the blueprint you marked up and annotated. I notice two alcoves just outside what would seem to be the hypersleep chamber. While not depicted in the film, this is a good example of additional rooms used by crew during wake-time, like showers, etc.
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Space Jockey
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 8:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, I don't remember seeing any rooms with the alcoves like that during the movie, do you? Only place I can think of with alcoves is the Mess, and it isn't that.

I thought Starigger's idea for the bathroom adjascent to the hypersleep chamber was a good one (this is where you'll have to go to the other thread...). Not on the set plans, but the area where the door would be is just off-camera, so one could design it in. I have som ideas for the hypersleep chamber too... I will try to sketch something up...
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 11:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okay, slight deviation, but I want an ALIEN version of THIS!!!!

http://www.theblueprintsbook.com
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FenGiddel
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 1:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maybe one of the two bathrobes that fluttered in the breeze when the chamber pressurized was Lambert's, you know, the one complaining about how hold it was?

Maybe someone else liked some cover on their way to the dressing rooms. I thought maybe Ripley, but I doubt she'd've cared who saw her topless.
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Vader
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 1:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When imagining the functions of spacegoing vessels, I often think it helps to think of their present-day, oceangoing counterparts. It is of course by no means guaranteed that in the future, spacecraft will obey by the same design criteria as ships on the oceans, but I find this mental exercise helps ground designs that would otherwise be pure fancy in concrete, recognisable reality — sort of like the "reality" represented by the interior design of the Nostromo herself.


I am thinking about the very first canonical fact we learn about the Nostromo — in fact, pretty much the very first thing we get to learn about the world of Alien at all, only two minutes into the feature: the captioned words "commercial towing vehicle".

Now as for ships on water, a towing vehicle pretty much needs to be built as a towing vehicle from the keel up. Towing other craft places such rigorous demands on a vessel that rebuilding some other design, e.g. a tramp freighter, to work as a tug would be impractical, if not downright impossible.
Furthermore, these vehicles are so specialised, that they do not usually do well doubling as other types of craft, if for no other reason that it makes little economical sense to waste such a specialised resource to do other tasks.


As we know, the conceptualisation process that ended up in "commercial towing vehicle 'the Nostromo'" didn't go the straight way there. The Leviathan seems not to have been a tug of any kind; indeed, I seem to recall images in Chris Foss' conceptual artwork of the full bulk of that craft landed on the planetoid, with crew walking by wheeled landing gear.
But in her final version, the Nostromo ended up a tug. And real world contraints would suggest that she must always have been one.

But what do the words "towing vehicle" imply here? This is one of those issues that has been bugging me for the last thirty years...
Just as what the hell does any kind of a "commercial vehicle" do with a Science Officer? ... but that's another discussion.

It has never seemed likely that she would be able to actually tow the refinery — big as she is, she's still a mosquito next to the refinery itself. Newtonian physics simply wouldn't allow it — even if there was reaction mass (fuel) enough, the engines themselves would be impractically small to eject the mass required at a rate great enough to do much good accelerating the total mass to useful velocities, even in space.

No, what this suggests to me is that the Nostromo must be a hyperspace tug — the unit to contain all the hyperspace bubble generators (properly vastly oversized to be able to envelop something as huge as the refinery) — and yes, computers — to enable the refinery to move into non-Newtonian space and navigate interstellar distances at what equates to superrelativistic velocities.


So, all realspace propulsion, and fuel, to move the refinery is on the refinery, and the Nostromo's contribution as a towing vehicle is a huge hyperspace generator.


But what are the various vehicles doing in the cargo bay? Well ... this is where the Science Officer comes in.

Imagine that in this future, Humanity has spread out over a vast volume of space. Vast, and almost completely unexplored. Humans have through telescopes and probe missions identified points in this volume that are of economical interest, and have built colonies there, but all the volume between these points is nothing but a vast terra incognita.

This might have lead to a policy stating that every single manned vehicle, be it only a lowly tug, may at any point be called upon to act as a research vessel.
Hence also the policy that any indication of non-human intelligence must be investigated, at the pain of forfeiture of all shares.
And hence, vehicles are brought along to transport crew on planetary surfaces or through its atmosphere, should it be necessary.
And hence also the presence of a Science Officer on commercial spaceships.

Elegant, no? Very Happy
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FenGiddel
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 1:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Space Jockey wrote:
Okay, slight deviation, but I want an ALIEN version of THIS!!!!

http://www.theblueprintsbook.com


Aye!
Shocked
But they price themselves out of my range, which would seem to hurt them in the long run since the more they sell, the more they make. But at $1,000/$500 a pop, they won't do bad.
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FenGiddel
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 1:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Vader wrote:
No, what this suggests to me is that the Nostromo must be a hyperspace tug — the unit to contain all the hyperspace bubble generators (properly vastly oversized to be able to envelop something as huge as the refinery) — and yes, computers — to enable the refinery to move into non-Newtonian space and navigate interstellar distances at what equates to superrelativistic velocities.


So, all realspace propulsion, and fuel, to move the refinery is on the refinery, and the Nostromo's contribution as a towing vehicle is a huge hyperspace generator.


Vader: that's pure genius and shows the value of brainstorming the imaginary. Never thought about the hyperspace angle, but now you mention it, the N's engine room is V-A-S-T!

More elegance, please Very Happy
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Vader
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 2:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks!

FenGiddel86 wrote:
but now you mention it, the N's engine room is V-A-S-T!


By my way of thinking, and in analogy ro real world tugs, the Nostromo would need to be pretty much all "engine room" — in that all of the space that does not contain the crew and life support, Mother, the engines to shift the Nostromo's own bulk through realspace, features such as the landing gear bays and cargo holds, and the powerplant (which ought to still leave the vast majority of the main hull) should house the "towing rig", i.e. the oversize hyperspace generator.
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