text stringlengths 0 238k |
|---|
anamorphic format aspect ratio, believing that it allowed for placing several |
actors in an environment, and making use of the scenic vistas available, while |
still creating a sense of confinement within the image. It also enabled the |
use of negative space around the actors to imply something may be lurking just |
offscreen. [14] Principal photography began in August 1981 in Juneau, Alaska . |
Principal photography began on August 24, 1981, in Juneau, Alaska. [12] [47] |
Filming lasted about twelve weeks. [48] Carpenter insisted on two weeks of |
rehearsals before filming as he wanted to see how scenes would play out. This |
was unusual at the time because of the expense involved. [34] Filming then |
moved to the Universal lot , where the outside heat was over 100 °F (38 °C). |
The internal sets were climate-controlled to 28 °F (−2 °C) to facilitate their |
work. [36] [47] The team considered building the sets inside an existing |
refrigerated structure but were unable to find one large enough. Instead, they |
collected as many portable air conditioners as they could, closed off the |
stage, and used humidifiers and misters to add moisture to the air. [49] After |
watching a roughly assembled cut of filming to date, Carpenter was unhappy |
that the film seemed to feature too many scenes of men standing around |
talking. He rewrote some already completed scenes to take place outdoors to be |
shot on location when principal photography moved to Stewart, British Columbia |
. [25] [40] Carpenter was determined to use authentic locations instead of |
studio sets, and his successes on Halloween and The Fog (1980) gave him the |
credibility to take on the much bigger-budget production of The Thing . A film |
scout located an area just outside Stewart, along the Canadian coast, which |
offered the project both ease of access and scenic value during the day. [25] |
On December 2, 1981, roughly 100 American and Canadian crew members moved to |
the area to begin filming. [48] During the journey there, the crew bus slid in |
the snow toward the unprotected edge of the road, nearly sending it down a |
500-foot (150 m) embankment. [44] Some of the crew stayed in the small mining |
town during filming, while others lived on residential barges on the Portland |
Canal . [40] They would make the 27-mile (43 km) drive up a small, winding |
road to the filming location in Alaska where the exterior outpost sets were |
built. [36] [40] [50] The sets had been built in Alaska during the summer, |
atop a rocky area overlooking a glacier, in preparation for snow to fall and |
cover them. [25] They were used for both interior and exterior filming, |
meaning they could not be heated above freezing inside to ensure there was |
always snow on the roof. Outside, the temperature was so low that the camera |
lenses would freeze and break. [36] The crew had to leave the cameras in the |
freezing temperatures, as keeping them inside in the warmth resulted in foggy |
lenses that took hours to clear. [47] Filming, greatly dependent on the |
weather, took three weeks to complete, [49] with heavy snow making it |
impossible to film on some days. [40] Rigging the explosives necessary to |
destroy the set in the film's finale required 8 hours. [51] Keith David broke |
his hand in a car accident the day before he was to begin shooting. David |
attended filming the next day, but when Carpenter and Franco saw his swollen |
hand, they sent him to the hospital where it was punctured with two pins. He |
returned wearing a surgical glove beneath a black glove that was painted to |
resemble his complexion. His left hand is not seen for the first half of the |
film. [40] Carpenter filmed the Norwegian camp scenes after the end scenes, |
using the damaged American base as a stand-in for the charred Norwegian camp. |
[52] The explosive destruction of the base required the camera assistants to |
stand inside the set with the explosives, which were activated remotely. The |
assistants then had to run to a safe distance while seven cameras captured the |
base's destruction. [51] Filmed when the heavy use of special effects was |
rare, the actors had to adapt to having Carpenter describe to them what their |
characters were looking at, as the effects would not be added until post- |
production. There were some puppets used to create the impression of what was |
happening in the scene, but in other cases, the cast would be looking at a |
wall or an object marked with an X . [36] Art director John J. Lloyd oversaw |
the design and construction of all the sets, as there were no existing |
locations used in the film. [49] Cundey suggested that the sets should have |
ceilings and pipes seen on camera to make the spaces seem more claustrophobic. |
[49] Post-production [ edit ] Several scenes in the script were omitted from |
the film, sometimes because there was too much dialogue that slowed the pace |
and undermined the suspense. Carpenter blamed some of the issues on his |
directorial method, noting that several scenes appeared to be repeating events |
or information. Another scene featuring a snowmobile chase pursuing dogs was |
removed from the shooting script as it would have been too expensive to film. |
One scene present in the film, but not the script, features a monologue by |
MacReady. Carpenter added this partly to establish what was happening in the |
story and because he wanted to highlight Russell's heroic character after |
taking over the camp. Carpenter said that Lancaster's experience writing |
ensemble pieces did not emphasize single characters. Since Halloween , several |
horror films had replicated many of the scare elements of that film, something |
Carpenter wanted to move away from for The Thing . He removed scenes from |
Lancaster's script that had been filmed, such as a body suddenly falling into |
view at the Norwegian camp, which he felt were too clichéd. [23] Approximately |
three minutes of scenes were filmed from Lancaster's script that elaborated on |
the characters' backgrounds. [40] A scene with MacReady absentmindedly |
inflating a blow-up doll while watching the Norwegian tapes was filmed but was |
not used in the finished film. The doll would later appear as a jump scare |
with Nauls. Other scenes featured expanded or alternate deaths for various |
characters. In the finished film, Fuchs's charred bones are discovered, |
revealing he has died offscreen, but an alternate take sees his corpse impaled |
on a wall with a shovel. Nauls was scripted to appear in the finale as a |
partly assimilated mass of tentacles, but in the film, he simply disappears. |
[53] Carpenter struggled with a method of conveying to the audience what |
assimilation by the creature actually meant. Lancaster's original set piece of |
Bennings's death had him pulled beneath a sheet of ice by the Thing, before |
resurfacing in different areas in various stages of assimilation. The scene |
called for a set to be built on one of Universal's largest stages, with |
sophisticated hydraulics, dogs, and flamethrowers, but it was deemed too |
costly to produce. [54] A scene was filmed with Bennings being murdered by an |
unknown assailant, but it was felt that assimilation, leading to his death, |
was not explained enough. Short on time, and with no interior sets remaining, |
a small set was built, Maloney was covered with K-Y Jelly , orange dye, and |
rubber tentacles. Monster gloves for a different creature were repurposed to |
demonstrate partial assimilation. [53] [54] Carpenter filmed multiple endings |
for The Thing , including a "happier" ending because editor Todd Ramsay |
thought that the bleak, nihilistic conclusion would not test well with |
audiences. In the alternate take, MacReady is rescued and given a blood test |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.