Want more content folks ... follow these links. Check out the current discounts on my offline vids and articles www.collativelearning.com/ Join my Film, Game & Media analysis page on Facebook facebook.com/groups/4637000646361309 ... as well as following the Collative Learning FB page facebook.com/RobAgerpublic Get a copy of my video game To The Death store.steampowered.com/app/2758570/To_The_Death/ ... and follow the game on the Ager Games RU-vid channel www.youtube.com/@robagergames ... and at the To The Death FB page facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555615927786 Follow me on Twitter / X twitter.com/RobAger Signing up as a monthly supporter on Patreon gets you arround 12 hrs more content www.patreon.com/RobAger PLEASE ALSO POST YOUR RESPONSES TO THE VIDEO CONTENT ABOVE SEPARATELTY FROM THIS PINNED COMMENT, THANKS.
@@TPFB129 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!
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. ❤
Rob has this unique cadence to his delivery that seeps into your mind like how a hot bath might for your muscles. What you're experiencing with PTSD is tragic and difficult, and every little bit to help ease that is important.. it's awesome to know these videos can do that for you too
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!
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.
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.
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! :-)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
Yay... a video that isn't RU-vid 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 RU-vid account back when I first found this channel. Anyway, I hope to continue watching CL videos.
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, I don't know what else to say. Your video essays are just tops man. Once again you make the simple act of observing and sharing insightful opinion entertaining, informative and engaging. You have a natural gift for presentation, and it's clear you truly enjoy making these.
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.
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
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.
4:39 Aprerrently its called a Hoptimist it was popular toy from Denmark in the 70s and came in an assortment of colors. Being a bobbelhead i guess its presence is meant to convey the idea that the ship is constantly vibrating ?. The one in the game is sightly different from the movie (Big eyes vs the beedy eyes of the original). Apparently they are still made today they are so popular 🤔
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.
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.
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!
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.
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 :)
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.
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.
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
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.
@@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.
If you're favorite alien film was the first, you'd immediately love this game. The first film has always been my favorite horror film since a child, this game is a literal wet dream, had me foaming at the mouth of how faithful it was to the first film 😂
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.
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".
Your game looks pretty dope these days. I didn't expect such progress at all I have to admit. Nice work. Ever heard about the game "prodeus"? It's a pretty cool little retro shooter, maybe you want to do something in this fashion as your next project. Seems right up your alley. Btw Alien Isolation is so awesome, too bad I can't find another game that comes close in terms of ambience, detail and subtle Horror.
Cheers. Was trying to just make a very simple fun arcade game, but development has spiralled into loads of features I never originally planned. Funny thing is, every time i learn how to do something new technically, it gives me a half dozen ideas of new features to add. Looking forward to working on boss fights pretty soon. Just watched the Prodeus trailer and it looks like a fab Doom-style game. I might buy that. thanks for the heads up.
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.
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.
Weird. Been thinking of this movie A LOT lately and found your channel on an unrelated search. The content was good enough that I wanted to see what else you had and… This is just weird.
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”
Great video Col! Another vote for best unknown editor: George Lucas* The opening scene in Star Wars is better than all the other prequels, sequels and spinoffs combined (ignoring EP V and VI here) The 'Stop that ship!' scene in which Han, Luke, Chewie and Ben blast out of Mos Eisley is better than all the other 'laser tag' gunfights in the prequels/sequels combined. The 'gunturret' sequence against the four tie-fighters that pursue the Falcon as it escapes the Death Star, Lucas himself says is one which typifies his style or philosophy of it all being in the edit and is better than all the... OK, so the point generalises. *Maybe it was Marcia Lucas, but it was one of them!
Over-complexity can indeed produce anxiety, but over-simplicity can as well. Look up examples of the “liminal space” trend to see what I mean. Oh yeah, and this also applies to sound. Pretty much everyone finds total silence to be extremely uncomfortable, especially since it allows you to hear your own pulse. I know lots of people who put on ambient noise when they sleep.
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.
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!
Have you played the game Dark Seed, Rob? It's a DOS game which uses the artwork of H. R. Giger. It's admittedly kind of weak plot-wise and has frustrating gameplay but it has fantastic atmosphere and is pretty damn creepy. Worth at least watching a playthrough.
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.
Total silliness. They can see the conscious mind 😆 no director would ever try to play that off in a movie. Because it's silly. They can see, hear, smell and touch. They don't "see or sense" fear. They instil it into their victims. Honestly, stop getting lost in comic books. Films and games do a much better job of suspending disbelief as well as reinforcing realities. Just stop it. Aliens see a man's consciousness 😆 What does that even mean 😂 and it's only fear. Mot joy or happiness. Only when the victim realises. That's when their ability kicks in 😆 This is WHY film makers and game programmers stay away from crap like that
