📖 Overview
The Art and Making of Alien: Covenant provides behind-the-scenes details about the 2017 film directed by Ridley Scott. The book features production artwork, photographs, and interviews with the cast and crew who brought the science fiction horror film to life.
The content explores the film's design process, from concept art to final execution of creatures, spaceships, and environments. Readers get access to pre-production sketches, costume designs, and storyboards that showcase the evolution of the film's visual elements.
Technical aspects of filmmaking are covered through discussions of practical effects, CGI integration, and set construction. The book includes commentary from key department heads about their creative choices and problem-solving approaches during production.
The book reveals how the film continues the Alien franchise's examination of creation, destruction, and humanity's relationship with artificial intelligence. These themes emerge through the artistic and design choices documented in its pages.
👀 Reviews
Readers consistently note the high print quality and detailed behind-the-scenes photographs showing the practical effects, creature designs, and set construction. Many highlight the comprehensive coverage of the film's development process and concept art.
Readers appreciated:
- Large, clear photographs that show intricate costume/prop details
- Concept art variations for creatures and environments
- Thorough explanations of practical effects techniques
- Production sketches and storyboards
- Quality binding and paper stock
Common criticisms:
- Text is brief compared to image content
- Limited coverage of CGI/digital effects work
- Some felt it focused too much on early design phases vs final film
- Price point considered high by some readers
Ratings across platforms:
Goodreads: 4.21/5 (85 ratings)
Amazon: 4.6/5 (156 reviews)
"The production photos alone are worth the price" appears frequently in reviews. Multiple readers noted it's "more of an art book than making-of," with less technical detail than expected.
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🤔 Interesting facts
🛸 The book features over 200 images, including exclusive behind-the-scenes photos, concept art, and storyboards from the production of Alien: Covenant.
🎬 Author Simon Ward interviewed key members of the film's production team, including director Ridley Scott and production designer Chris Seagers, to provide detailed insights into the film's creation.
🔧 The book reveals how the production team created practical effects for the film's creatures, including using over 750 liters of blood during filming.
🎨 Concept artists worked through approximately 1,000 iterations of the Neomorph creature design before settling on the final version shown in the film.
🏗️ The massive Engineer temple set built for the film was one of the largest practical sets ever constructed at Fox Studios Australia, measuring over 95 feet tall.