Given Jeunet's affinity for wide-angle lenses, it's not surprising that Khondji chose to build his lighting into the sets when possible. With masters being photographed on 14.5mm, 17.5mm and 21mm lenses, virtually the entire set could be visible in any scene. "I love using short lenses," Jeunet confesses. "On this film, for the first time, I did use some slightly longer lenses not to be more American [in my shooting style], but because sometimes it's useful to have more [cutting] material. On Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children, I used the 18mm and 25mm lenses all the time. On Alien, I often used a 14.5mm. For me, any lens after a 25mm is a long lens. When I put on a 35mm, it's a long lens, but that's also because I like to be very close to the actors. I love when an actor approaches very close to the lens. However, the main problem in using short lenses is that in each shot you have a lot of set to light. So you have to be patient with the lighting. Darius has a very picky eye like I do; sometimes it's tough to work with someone who has a picky eye for the light, because you have to wait and like all directors, I hate to wait. When you work with Darius, you know you may have to wait some, but you also know that the results will be very nice."
In order to illuminate the aliens themselves, Khondji devised a specific lighting treatment to add even more menace to the already abhorrent creatures. "I lit the aliens almost exclusively with reflections of fluorescents," notes the cinematographer. "I had them constantly wetted with [methyl-cellulose] goo, and then we basically built a cage of Kino Flos around them to create reflections in the moisture. Also, I'd often add a little green to the aliens' lighting. You couldn't really tell the color is there, but it had an effect. I love the color green. I find it very sensuous in a way, and I think the aliens have a kind of a sensuous design as well. They're the essence of evil, but there can sometimes be a sensuousness in evil.
"I've found that making films is often close to making love in terms of pleasure and intimacy. I've never really discussed this point in an interview, but it's very important. When I look at paintings in a gallery or museum especially Italian, Florentine, Renaissance and primitive paintings there's something very sensuous and sexy emanating from them. I've always found the experience very exciting and arousing. I think the same sort of thing happens when you play with light studying people's faces and bodies and illuminate a set; there's something extremely exciting about it. Cinematography often forces you to look at something more closely and really examine its features. In doing so, you become much more connected to the inner essence and beauty of that person or object. It's a very intimate exchange between the light and the subject."
"The aliens went almost totally black once they had the slime on them," expands Strong, "So, just as you can't 'light' a black car you reflect light onto a black car - we reflected Kino Flos onto the aliens, which were mostly lit with several single daylight tubes. Additionally, we'd sometimes use a harder light to backlight the steam or drool coming out of their mouths. There, we'd use a small tungsten unit for the backlight because a Kino Flo isn't really hard enough to do the job."
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