Comparison
Stan Winston on Aliens and Predator
James Cameron, John McTiernan, and Stan Winston discuss creature design in excerpts from separate commentary recordings.
- Citations
- 8 citations
- Commentaries cited
- 2 commentaries
- Approximate length
- ~600 words
About these excerpts
These passages come from separate recordings of the Aliens and Predator commentaries. They have been arranged by subject to compare the filmmakers’ work with Stan Winston. This is an edited comparison, not a recording of a conversation among the three speakers.
The speakers are James Cameron, director of Aliens; John McTiernan, director of Predator; and Stan Winston, who created creature effects for both films. Each quotation links to its source transcript.
Designing and building the creatures
Stan Winston
I'm Stan Winston. I created the creature effects and the alien effects for Aliens.
James Cameron
It would be natural to assume I'd wanna work with Giger, but it just didn't occur to me at the time. Maybe it was because we really only needed to design one new creature, and I had already designed her by the time I wrote the script.
James Cameron
I had a very specific idea for the alien queen — to extrapolate beyond what had been done before. In a funny way, part of what attracted me to doing this film was the opportunity to do cool design stuff.
John McTiernan
When we hired Stan Winston, the first thing he did was look at all the pieces we had, and all the drawings we had, and then he went to work for a week or two. Drawing on his own.
John McTiernan
Stan went to work on his own and came up with a whole Rastafarian hairdo. Yes, those are sort of dreadlocks — but there was no notion that people should somehow think he seems African. I mean, everything that Stan came up with, the producers were thrilled. Because it looked so much better than anything else we'd had up to that point.
John McTiernan
We knew we had to rework things the moment the original predator came out of the box. It was clearly ridiculous.
John McTiernan
When we had the new suit, the new predator, from Stan Winston, he brought in a kid named Kevin Peter Hall. The suit weighed 200 pounds or more. And the man was seven feet six inches tall.
James Cameron
I'll never forget my first conversation with Steven Spielberg about Jurassic Park, when he said to me, "You built a 14-foot alien, full-size." "Why can't you do a dinosaur?"
Two different starting points
Cameron had designed the alien queen before writing the screenplay. He knew which new creature he wanted and describes design as part of his interest in directing Aliens. Winston’s assignment began with a specific idea from the director.
McTiernan describes a different situation. The original Predator was unacceptable to the filmmakers. Winston reviewed the existing pieces and drawings, then worked independently on a replacement. McTiernan says it “looked so much better than anything else we’d had.” In this case, the effects designer helped determine what the central creature would look like.
The comparison shows that collaboration can begin with either an established design or a problem that requires a new one. It also shows why appearance is only part of the task. McTiernan’s account of Kevin Peter Hall and the heavy suit connects the design to the performer who had to wear it.
Cameron’s recollection of Spielberg asking about a full-size dinosaur gives a further example of how completed effects work can influence later production decisions. The alien queen demonstrated a practical possibility that another filmmaker wanted to discuss.
Most of the explanation in these selected passages comes from the directors. Winston identifies his role, but the selection does not provide an equally detailed account of his own process. The directors’ recollections should be read with that limit in mind.
Topics
Commentaries cited