Optical anxiety in ALIEN 1979 & ALIEN ISOLATION - film analysis & game analysis by Rob Ager
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2024
- Interfering with the viewer's visual cognition is a major technique used in Alien & Alien Isolation to subliminally induce a state of persistent anxiety. This video explores how Alien & ALIEN ISOLATION use this method in terms of lighting, geometric patterns and more.
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00:00 Intro
03:30 Movie to game continuity
06:00 Terry Rawlings consultation
08:45 Alien features in sets
09:50 Visual cognition & survival
11:15 Optical illusion anxiety
11:45 Dark spaces & fear of falling
14:35 Hidden clutter
15:40 Sleepy lighting
16:17 Diseases in the dark
17:39 Insufficiently visible
18:30 Strobe lights
21:42 Painful light
25:40 Detail overload
33:43 Geometrical torment
44:25 Discounts
45:55 Game trailer
47:57 Visual smudging
50:53 Combined anxieties
52:11 Bloody impressive
56:10 More content - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
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Excellent work Rob, was wondering how you were doing, glad you're back, and with such a gem. Love your channel, but especially your Alien videos.
@@TPB129. Cheers. I needed a big psychological break from the routine of film analysis and editing. So dove deep into game development. Wasn't worth coming back to making videos until my heart was genuinely in it, which it now is again. So will now be splitting my time between the game and the vids ... and hopefully fit the writing of my book in there somewhere!
Thumbs uuuuup
Subscribed.
An hour long video on Alien is a gift I didn't expect today.
Such a treat!
Also I bought you a car.
@@heatrayzvideo3007 wow thanks!
I love that Rob loves the aesthetic and creative execution of Alien Isolation as much as I do.
I would LOVE a full playthrough with Rob giving his commentary while hiding in lockers!
As would I
He should narrate the game Stanley parable style
Former combat medic here. Rob, you have no idea how much your videos help with my ptsd. I listen to them often, and they help me get through so much mental shit. Keep up the great work. I always look forward to these. ❤
Thank you for your service
I agree, thanks for you're service too mate.
An hour long video was worth the wait.
Are you joking?
Always, haha
Dude, I can't believe they haven't made an Alien Isolation movie yet. They have everything they need: a great storyline, interesting characters, and an awesome set design. It could easily be a better trilogy or even a sequel to the original Alien movie.
I got to know Terry Rawlings fairly well in the last year of his life. We kept missing each other for years as we both went to the same cafe in Borehamwood and then the owner’s new cafe at Elstree Aerodrome.
He was unbelievably nice and told me all kinds of stories about his music choices for Alien and the rift that caused with Jerry Goldsmith. But it is because of Rawlings that we hear Goldsmith’s earlier work from “Freud” instead of his score for Alien in regard to the Dallas tunnel death scene.
Terry also chose the closing piece that wasn’t Goldsmith at all.
Terry told me about the cut shot of the xenomorph hanging above Brett in a Christ pose, which I found later in a documentary that Terry was in. Terry wasn’t aware that shot was in the documentary.
He also spoke of his high regard for Alien 3 the Directors Cut, which he also edited.
We talked a bit about Blade Runner and also about his work on Legend.
And then about his love for music in general. Terry was a massive jazz fan and because I was a bit of jazz drummer he made a jazz cd for me. I also reconnected him with an Apartment neighbour he had in L.A. back during the filming of Blade Runner. The neighbour was acclaimed jazz drummer Jeff Hamilton who I was once a student of. It wasn’t long after I managed to get Jeff to email Terry that Terry had a heart attack and was hospitalised. He was 83 I believe. He later passed away in hospital.
He was my super cool new friend for a cherished short while. I saw his wife just a couple weeks later at the local Tesco and gave her a hug. She just looked at me like she had been blind sided. It was maybe only a couple months earlier we were all laughing about scenes in the movie “Indiscreet” with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant.
Terry met his wife working on that film. He was doing sound editing and she was an assistant to someone.
All I ever really asked him was how he was able to edit these amazing films and he just shrugged “Well you just follow the script.”
Brilliant
And amazing analysis video here - well done.
Lovely story. Wish i could have met him. I've done a fair bit of editing on fiction films and his work on alien is incredible.
amazing story
@@collativelearning • I wish I could’ve managed to introduce you two. A deep regret. At least we can be grateful you’re “still collating”.
Wonderful story . You're so lucky .
One of Ridley Scott's sons speaks about Rawlings in the Blade Runner making of documentary. He tells about taking a summer job working with Terry as he is editing Blade Runner. He would walk into the editing suite, be greeted by the smell of cigarettes & celuloid and Rawlings excitedly calling him over to look at some footage he put together. I love that this master of his craft was so unpretentious, he'd share his work with a teenager, even if that teen was the boss' son.
It's a treat when Collative Learning uploads a video because unlike other channels, it's quality over quantity.
Even if it’s 10 years old, this is one of the best video game reviews on the internet 💯👍
10 yrs old? I finished editing this video yesterday :)
@@collativelearningperhaps he meant a review of ten year old game it came out in 2014
@@collativelearning I just meant the game was 10 years old. And that I appreciate the new upload nonetheless! Great stuff as always!
@@dpyousee Haha, got ya. My bad. cheers :)
@@collativelearning another time traveler, sheesh
Rob, have you considered giving a commentary on Alien Isolation while actually playing the entire game itself. I'm sure I'd be among thousands of others who'd be interested to see you do it.
Yeah have considered it. Might do that and put it on the Ager Games channel.
this channel is a gem
Just recently I found out there was a pair of enthusiasts (InCamera) rebuilding and refilming miniature Alien sets made from 3D resin printers. Absolute joy watching them recreate the atmosphere of suspense and horror with Giger's fabulous ideas from a garden shed.
Hats off to the Alien Isolation team. They really created something amazing. Really the best thing to happen to the franchise since Aliens
I've never had the inclination to play Alien: Isolation but you've changed my mind there. Today, as I write, it's April 23rd, 2024 so Friday is 26th April, or 0426 as our American cousins would tell me. That means Friday is ''Alien Day'', when, if I didn't dress as Samuel Brett the rest of the year anyway, I would on that day.
I saw Alien on its release back in 1979 and its always stayed with me, at first due to Giger's designs, then the Nostromo took over. I don't think a spaceship has ever been so fully realised and ''made flesh'' as the Nostromo was. I'll admit the Discovery from 2001 holds a place in my heart but not like the Nostromo. As you so rightly pointed out, it was a team effort and the exterior was more chance than design from the information I've read.
As a committed (and some say I should be) player of Eve-Online for 19 years I've managed to shoehorn both of my obsessions together to become, in my own mind, a true ''space trucker'' amongst many other things.
All of this has very little to do with your analysis to be sure, but I do want you to know there are those of us (or possibly just me) who enjoy any views on Alien, its hardware, and the effects on the audience.
Thank you for your work and time taken to make it, and thank you for reading my thoughts!
Alien Isolation is the ONLY game I ever quit because of the nightmares it gave me.
Wow. I like the game a lot, but it didn’t give me nightmares. That’s a bummer You can’t finish it, it’s pretty good. The ending is kind of lame, though.
The more it (alien) moves, the less scarier it gets. Good point.
Such a great ambassador for this epic game 👍
The airlock scene where it opens to allow the astronauts to walk onto the planet's surface is very good at contrasting the safe ship from the hostile environment
The fact that the Nostromo is such an enormous ship and has living quarters for the crew that are cramped and minimal adds to the corporate prioritizing of profits over people. There's plenty of room for all that mineral ore they mined.
HE'S BACK!
Rob, I unabashedly love your work. Thank you.
Certified classic Rob Ager drop!
Yay... a video that isn't TH-cam content creators bickering and sniping...
I also have realised that I have been subscribed to Collative Learning for over a decade now. Or at least been watching for over a decade, because I think I was using my old TH-cam account back when I first found this channel. Anyway, I hope to continue watching CL videos.
The bouncing blue rubber toy is called a Hoptimist and was designed by danish furniture designer Hans Gustav Ehrenreich in 1968 :)
A L I E N
A L I E N S
ALIEN³
Alium
Wow. I didn't even realise geometry could induce anxiety, but that's just a wonderful example
Any talk of the original Alien is a gift. I just watched it the other night and realized how rough the editing is. Maybe that's the charm of the dirtiness of it. Also playing Isolation and love the feel. Takes me right into the film!! I also love that they use unused designs from Ron Cobb and other artists for the original film!
Rob, could you please make a video about the 'Working-Joe'-Androids?
I find them to unbelievably horrifying, and there are certainly many subliminals at play (the mask-face, the staring eyes, the weird chatter they give off etc.).
Have a nice weekend! :-)
I just finished playing Dead Space Remake and is fantastic! Also, the top down game Aliens: Dark Descent has a good story(canonic)!
playing Dark Descent made me realize more USMC movies could be made in the Aliens universe, instead of forcing Ripley into some new story. thinking that repeatedly trying to put a spin on the first movie would work.
I love Alien Isolation.
the best horror survival game...
26:00 when you described the complex detail of the spaceship with all the protruding bits, my thought went to Airplane to panning shot of the cockpit.
Thank you for this. Ive had Isolation on the shelf for months without playing it, now its my weekend project.
I hated it when I first played as the gameplay was too slow. Took me years to give it another shot without expecting an Aliens style FPS shoot em up. So glad I did.
Isolation was all about dread. And it follows Amanda Ripley which hits the emotional connection. Great analysis
Awesome Vid!
Thank You very much for Your Work! Greetings from Germany
Another theory on the zebra stripes is that the predator can't figure out one individual when the zebra pack is running close together. The cat only see a bulging mass where the many black and white stripes confuses the cat. Like those optical illusions shown here in the beginning of the video. If one single zebra gets behind or to far a side, the cat sees one individual zebra, and sets after it.
That's a good one. Makes sense :)
I was scrolling to find this comment.
Further, I’ve heard an anecdote of biologists studying zebras but failing to keep track of individual animals due to each zebra being camouflaged to their background of other zebras.
To make their job easier, the biologists made a paint mark on one zebra. And would you know, that zebra was soon attacked by a predator.
@@sauliluolajan-mikkola620 That poor zebra.
The Geometric Torment section feel similar film noir lighting. Alien Isolation does look amazing. I love that title art at 3:40. I just can't bring myself to first person shooter type of video games. I may need to commit to watching a full play-through video at some point. Thanks for another incredible video, Rob.
Man, you're videos are so good! I enjoy them so much and love the in depth analysis you do. Thanks mate. Big fan, the cleanest best pleasure this channel is.
Great analysis, once gain. You've got a real knack for articulating and distilling everything I love about Alien and Alien: Isolation. I wanted to add some thoughts to your discussion at the end on color. The sleepy lighting you mention isn't disconcerting for its dimness alone, but also for the hues it casts on the general surroundings. I think Alien: Isolation does this particularly well, for example, with the drab, sickly-looking green of the fluorescent lights in the medical wing or the dull yellow-brown of some of the warning lights. These remind the viewer of the sorts of dim sodium lamps which would light a sidewalk or alleyway at night, and in a way it feels as if the very environment itself is possessed with a sort of malice or ill-will towards the viewer, never mind the alien milling about within it.
Such a good channel!
I’ve been waiting for this one, thanks Rob!
31:29 - The clinking chains alone in this scene freak me out every time…
I’d love to see another video along these lines focusing on “Aliens.”
Really missed your analysis videos!
Great video!! Keep them coming👍👍
Right on! Great video as always.
Dead Space is the only other game I can think of that does the optical anxiety perfectly.
One thing i find interesting is unlike in the films you as the player can be killed by the alien while attempting to read an entry or unlock a door. Something the film didn't show it's audience as the cinema goer's need to be able to read what is displayed where the game doesn't. The audience will not feel stressed when reading the monitors in the film. But anyone who has played isolation will be reading with an uneasy feeling under stress knowing at any moment the alien can and often will show up behind you. Plus you need to memorize codes adding to the amount of brain power being taxed in game. Love when you delve into alien lore!
Epic new video!!! Watching now, look forward to the game as well hope it’s a success for all your hard work Ager :)
thank u so much for this ive been suffering with temprol lobe seizures and so many are around the movies that were on repeat in my toxic house groing up so deep dives like this help me untangle 34 years of sparks
What a fantastic surprise, thank you rob👍
What a wonderful suprise this morning, time to watch every second twice
I loved your vids on Optical Anxiety in The Shining, so this was an instant click!
The bouncing toy is called a Hoptimist, its a danish art toy. The point of them and the other "gachapon" like the drinking bird, the spring bird (which is also a hoptimist) that Ash hits is that each space port they would pick up stuff from the gift shop. This was mentioned by i think the art department or even Scott. In the beginning of the movie when the camera moves through into the cockpit and stops at the computer terminal of Kane's seat there is an elephant keychain dangling which is a dutch 60's jam mascot. John Hurt played Joseph Merrick, the elephant man, by coincidence? Probably but still very cool. I actually own three of those keychains.
Thankyou so much for that info. I had picked up on the Elephant Man possible connection to the dangling toy, but had no idea what the origin of the bouncing blue ball was :)
Thank you!! It's been a truly cr*p Easter and you've actually made me happy with this today. Thank you for what you do. It's truly appreciated.
Superb glad your back 👍 going to enjoy listening to this with a beer after a 2 -10 shift !
fantastic analysis
Red is apparently a color that exacerbates insomnia and is infrequently used as wall paint for this reason. It would certainly not mesh well for that reason if used alongside the sleepy environment prevalent in the ship design.
Great video mate. Seeing Ron Cobbs conceptual art for the bridge design is awesome.
Great content as usual, Rob
I reccomend Amnesia The Bunker. It is similar to Alien Isolation and absolutely terrifying.
Love Alien, my favorite movie
love your stuff!
Brilliant work 🤘🏻
Love your videos!
What an amazing looking game... such a perfect capturing and even intensifying of the Alien film atmosphere
That game was so intense!
I noticed that Alien Isolation is such a weird exception for the video game medium. Usually video games are regarded the highest at the time when they come out, because they are heavily evaluated on how advanced video game graphics/technolgy is at the time of their release. Alien Isolation is an extremely rare case of a video game where many thought that it was kind of mediocre when it came out, yet when they go back to it and realize it's far better than they remember when they first played it in 2014. Usually, this phenomenon of people rediscovering something and realize that it's better than it was given credit for when it came out mostly happens with movies, such as The Shining, The Thing, etc.
Dunno it was pretty immediately brilliant for me. I think just many people never played it when it first came out
@@ReanimatorsMutilationsActually, I’ve never played it when it first came out. But what got me to play it was learning about more and more people who said that when they first played it it was disappointing or only okay, but when they played it again several years later they thought that it was a masterpiece. It also got a 79 score on MetaCritic, which was only okay.
@@PoletBally they probably played it for half an hour, didn't see the alien anywhere so turned it off 😂
I love this game for his space horror, art design, how it affects our prime anxieties like be alone, darkness, fear for big animals and toxic small animals, The most what I like it shows how dangerous space trips are really. The space is not what many scifi stories tells us, it's very dangerous.
The game and the movie are absolutly masterpieces. I can understand why someone likes alien 2 more than one but not how someone can say alien 2 is better than one. Objectivly the first one is far more sophisticated. This is like comparing a cheap comicbook with a picaso.
Lovely. I'll enjoy this tonight! And it's not even my birthday until next month!
Thanks Rob!
He's back! I like what your doing with your game.. but I bet I'm not the only fan waiting for a film review.. and Alien too! The rape vibes from alien are worth exploring because its an illusion to how the Weyland Yutani treats their employees.. "perfect lifeform".
A Rob video about Alien is always welcomed.
Thanks Rob
I think the utilitarian lived-in realism Millennium Falcon cockpit design, and corridors, inspired the set design changes of the Nostromo.
welcome back. long time no see! sucks that the youtube algorithm is not promoting your work
I keep forgetting y'all call flashlights "torches" on the other side of the pond.
And you folks call torches flamesticks ;)
Always interesting. Thank you.
Fear and wonder is a strong element in Alien and the game, fear is the darkness, but the light brings wonder such as in the space jockey reveal- the best reveal on film in my opinion. And in the game, the light (which can be wholesome) shows us wonderful views.
Also I find paperwork put up on walls is ignored.
And ask people to wish list and follow your game on steam, this has a big impact on visibility.
The game looks awesome Rob!
Cheers. Lots more planned for it too. Haven't even got into boss fights or story mode yet.
Scouse for an hour, love it.
As much as I enjoy your other content, I'd be happy if you continued to analyse the Alien franchise until the end of time.
If you are not into gaming but love the Alien franchise, Alien Isolation is probably the best offline single player game ever. Just to experience the immersive atmosphere without the immediate threat of the alien itself is uniquely rewarding. With the threat prowling close by heightens every sense of the atmosphere. 10/10 Game
Great video, Rob! I wanted to point out a bit of layering to the techniques you pointed out in this video. Namely, that the visual effects utilized operate on the audience and not the characters. I often observed in past viewings that while I was admiring and deciphering the cluttered backgrounds, the characters never seem to think twice about them. There's never a scene where Brett says, "Oh that docking bay gives me the creeps, go with me!" And I always remarked that Dallas descends into the ventilation shafts alone. In many horror movies this might be passed off as "the dumb characters dancing to their deaths" but in Alien it feels more convincing because (I think) the audience is more willing to accept that it is their own unfamiliarity that is enhancing these locations
I also want to give a shout out to Victoria Cartwright, whose performance as Lambert I find more and more important with every viewing. While the audience may want to relate more with strong characters like Dallas, Ripley, or Parker, I suspect most people feel distanced from them by their somewhat unnatural reactions to the locations and situations they find themselves in. Also, the film gradually removes these options either by killing them off or revealing their evil nature. By the other token, while Lambert's shrill protestations and emotional outbursts likely put off the audience consciously but I suspect a lot of people subconsciously relate more to her paralyzing fear than to other characters
Oh yes, def works on us. Such creepy workplace designs would be ridiculous in reality.
15:34 this game feels so cinematic and so real that it tricked you into calling it a "set"
Ha so it did.
Alien Isolation is a great game. Can't believe it's been 10 years.
I think it's a filmmaker if I was given the opportunity to actually do an Aliens film I think the one I would want to do is definitely a film adaptation of isolation. Byw, I salute you for your game. It looks fantastic!
It's been rumored both Alien & Blade Runner take place in the same thematic universe. Just what I heard, but it does makes sense.
16:50 The dirty shafts, sticky substance in the dirty shaft, infection? And a shaft entry that clenches up like a bumhole watching an Alien movie.
I think i can see what they were going for.
Here I was hoping the Alien's "Jazz hands" was mentioned.
It's honestly a shame that we haven't and sadly will never get a sequel to Isolation. It would be so cool if we got an Isolation type game for John Carpenter's The Thing. *THAT* would be extremely terrifying! Rob, why weren't you a fan of the egg morphing scene in the Director's Cut of the film? I thought it was creepy and fantastic because in the greater scheme of things it showed that the Xenomorph didn't necessarily need a Queen in order to reproduce.
Have you seen the documentary Jodorowskys Dune? It really opens how Cobb, Giger, O'Bannon and the rest are connected
Haven't watched that.
Flickering/flashing lights = fancy fast motion for the brain.
Yes please and thanks
The bouncing blue things are called hoptimists- they are danish collectibles
Awesome video! Was just wondering when the Amityville II full analysis is coming out? Take care
Not sure. The first vid I did on it was slow to build up views so that put me off a bit. It's been a year and it's hit 30k views. Not terrible, but below my usual counts.
Hell yeah dude
Fun little bit of lore, we know from Aliens Labyrinth that the Xenomorphs can see fear, they can see the conscious minds of men but they can’t understand them. Which means the Alien at the end in the escape ship with Ripley knew she was there the whole time!
Well, to be fair that’s assuming that supplemental material like comics are even canon to the films themselves, which based on what’s been spoken, they aren’t.
However, that doesn’t mean it cannot be your personal head cannon.
@@MBG.426 I mean by that logic nether are the games.
Great thumbnail for the video Rob! Did you make it yourself?
As soon as the video started I was thinking if he wants to talk about camera work and optics creating fear he needs to play alien isolation.
Playing that game in the dark. Scary af. My husband’s cousin couldn’t even finish the game. He said “I almost sh** my pants”
Heh. You convinced me to download this game Rob.
Enjoy :)
We need an Alien movie but from the Alien's POV. That way we can actually see the complexity of the ship.
It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the two versions of Alien 3, even one of those videos where you're just sitting in a chair talking. Whether you like either version or not, the dual existence of those films is something to learn from. The longer cut results in different feelings when viewing scenes present in both films. They aren't the same movie.
The little bouncing blue thing, is called a hoptimist.