For scenes in which Ripley is in close proximity to the aliens, Khondji was presented with a problem that yielded a fortuitous solution. "The lighting for the alien was completely different than the lighting for Sigourney Weaver," submits Khondji. "The difficult part was finding a way to light her differently than the alien, even though they were interacting together within a shot." Considering Ripley's duplicitous character and mysterious agenda, however, the photographic predicament actually added subtext to the character's lighting in those instances. " I decided that I would sometimes light Sigourney closer to the way I did the alien. I would have her skin wetted to make it look shiny and then use fluorescents to create reflections around her arms and face, underexposing slightly. This gave a strange texture on the skin that is reminiscent of the way the alien looks."
A particular challenge for the entire crew was filming an extensive underwater chase sequence that takes place in the Auriga's flooded kitchen. Khondji who got his diver's certification before shooting The City of Lost Children in order to operate during the film's underwater sequences worked with veteran underwater director of photography Peter Romano to tackle the physically draining three week submerged shoot. "We had several discussions about the lighting and how much you would see underwater," explains Khondji. "We wanted to have the freedom to shoot the chase almost in a choreographed manner with two underwater cameras. So I decided to utilize overhead lighting, making shafts of light using virtually no fill at all and underexposing a lot. The only lights I would actually bring into the water were these new underwater Kino Flos built by Peter Romano's company HydroFlex and Kino Flo which could be used to add some half-light fill on an actor's face, making one side go completely black. I would also use the Kinos near the camera to bring light into the actors' eyes as they swam through frame. I tried to keep the underwater lighting more clair-obscur which means clear and dark in painting terms by creating light and dark areas underwater, which is very difficult because water spreads light very quickly."
Explains Strong, "The kitchen and all of the underwater sets were lit from above the water with 1200-watt ACL Pars on scaffolding shooting down into the water. They were used to edge the actors as they swam through different areas, as well as to highlight certain parts of the kitchen metal support pillars, chrome appliances, utensils, etcetera. The Pars weren't totally directional because the water did disperse the light, so they naturally lit other areas. However, the 1200-watt ACLs basically aircraft landing lights made with clear glass, which have very hard mirrors behind them are very spotted and directional, so they had a better chance of reaching straight to the bottom of the set [than a normal Par light]. We ran AC for the majority of the underwater shooting, but we did have everything ground-fault interrupted [GFI] so that if anything ever fell in the water it would trip immediately."
The intense underwater chase leads Ripley and her cohorts into a flooded elevator shaft with their xenomorph pursuers right behind them. Approximately 30' tall, the six-sided elevator shaft was lit by a series of Maxi-Brutes and Dino lights suspended from the permanents by chain motors, which illuminated modular 4' x 4' frames of 129 diffusion and quarter CTB that could be affixed to the side panels. The water at the bottom of the shaft was illuminated with individual 10K bulbs to provide a ghoulish blue-green glow; these were run on DC power due to safety concerns. "We designed that set so that whenever we opened up one side, all of the unnecessary lighting and frames could be sucked up out of the way to the permanents on tag-lines through a pulley system," details Rawlins. "We usually used about three different layers of gel. One layer of diffusion was built in the frame that mounted directly on the set. Then, hanging outside the set, another layer of diffusion was used to soften the light even more. There was a layer of color hanging in front of the lights as well.
"Additionally, we worked with the set designers to make sure that we could pull two of the sets' walls completely out to make a path for the 31' Technocrane which we had mounted on a Titan crane. I believe that was the first time anyone had put the larger Technocrane on a Titan. We went through a lot of research with Chapman and Technocrane to make sure that we did not exceed the specified weight and safety limits set by Chapman."
Both Khondji and Jeunet are pleased with their experience on Alien Resurrection, and they believe that they have delivered a fresh perspective on the series. Asked if his shooting style has a consistent methodology, Khondji offers, "I don't want to have one set method that's always fixed throughout my films. When I walk onto a set or a location, I already have the mood of the scene in mind, so I try to adapt that to the set or location. However, when I visit a location, there are actually two things that may effect how I shoot there. First, I may be inspired by the location itself. And second, sometimes the ambiance of the location's natural lighting may bring out a certain quality. When you visit a set, it's much more of a constructed, planned world, so you rarely have as many intuitive and instinctive emotions. By that point, I've already done a lot of planning with the designer, so I usually know beforehand how it's going to look and be lit.
"I would like to think that my methods change according to the director that I'm working with and the story that I'm telling visually," he concludes. "I always try to stick with the director and really become his friend. I try to understand what he has in mind and what's important in the story. And then I try to work with the actors almost as if I'm another actor on set, performing through my work."
