Ridley Scott’s Alien – Cinematic Colour Grading Project

The Cinematic Colour Grading Project is a digital art project exploring the fascinating world of cinematic colour palettes. I will discuss how strong colour grading, lighting and environmental effects are used to convey mood in key scenes from iconic movies. These techniques will then be applied to photographs of abandoned buildings, to produce a digital art piece.

Welcome to the third instalment of my Cinematic Colour Grading Project. This digital art project explores the interesting world of movie colour schemes. I am a bit of a horror and sci-fi film buff, and this project offers me a chance to talk about some of my favourite movies. For an added twist, I will be apply these colour schemes to my own photographs.

Without further delay, I will delve into one of my all-time favourites, Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979).

Other Cinematic Colour Grading entries include : Bladerunner and Mad Max : Fury Road.

Plot synopsis of Ridley Scott’s Alien 1979

The commercial salvage vehicle, Nostromo, is returning to earth. Her seven crew are in hypersleep. Mother, the ships AI computer system, detects a distress signal. Following company protocol, the ships wakes the crew to investigate the source. The signal is coming from a mining colony on the surface of a nearby moon. So the Nostromo charts a course, and lands on the planet’s surface.

A landing party is designated, and they exit the ship to embark on a rescue mission. The source of the signal is emanating from a crashed alien ship/ As the crew enter, all communications with the Nostromo are lost. Meanwhile, the Nostromo crew decode the distress signal further and determining it to be a warning.

The crew inside the alien ship discover a vast chamber filled with egg-like objects. As one crew member touches one, it opens. A creature leaps out, breaking through his helmet and latching onto his face and throat. Panicked, his crewmates evacuate the team and carry their fallen comrade back to the ship.

Subsequently the crew member is taken to the medical bay. Attempts to remove the creature are unsuccessful. After a time, the creature detaches itself and seemingly dies. The crew member awakens and appears unharmed. Initially. The crew have one last group meal, before returning to statis. The crew member quickly begins having some sort of seizure. An alien creature burst from his chest, killing him and then scurrying off into the shadows.

As the crew attempt to track and kill the creature, it grows in size and strength. The tables turn, and one by one the crew members are brutally murdered by the rampaging alien. The senior officer uncovers a corporate conspiracy, and realises the entire crew had been used a pawns and deemed “expendable”. The corporation had known about the deadly creature, and planned to use the crew as hosts to smuggle the aliens back to Earth within their bodies.

The last remaining crew members hatch a plan to destroy the creature. They set the ship to auto destruct, and head for the escape shuttle. Only one crew member, the senior officer, makes it to the escape pod. To her horror she discovers the alien is waiting for her. In a last ditch effort she dons a spacesuit, and straps herself to a chair. She opens the airlock, flushing the creature out into space. Seemingly this is not enough to kill the creature, as it begins crawling around the outside of the spaceship. Firing the thrusters finally blast the creature away into the cold depths of space.

Striking colours of the iconic movie poster

For this project, I will use the iconic movie poster. I usually use screenshots of key movies scenes, but this time I wanted to try something different. I adore lime green. Especially when bright yellow-toned greens are displayed alongside blacks. I find the colour scene used in the Alien movie poster exquisite.

For me, the key features of the colour palette and color grading are;

• Low key. High contrast with blacked-out shadows. Amplifies the suspense, as you can’t see what is lurking in the dark.
• Prominent green, especially the mid-tones
• Highlights picked in bright yellow
• Brightest accents in white
• Some green/yellow/white fog to add to the foreboding mood

Photoshop colour grading of a derelict Hungarian power station

I thought something futuristic looking would be a good base image for this project. Something with a circular theme might also emulate the alien egg. These two points made me certain that the best choice would be Special K, and abandoned Hungarian power plant control room.

Comparison – from Art Deco power station to 1970s sci-fi movie poster

Suggest a movie (or video game) for my Cinematic Colour Grading Project

I thoroughly enjoyed this project. In addition, I have many inspirational movie colour palettes I would like to explore.

If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment below or Contact Me. I would love to hear your ideas!