FX Productions' Alien Earth is set in 2120, when a deep space research vessel crash-lands on Earth. Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat - a planet governed by five corporations and inhabited by both cyborgs and humans. The cast also includes Timothy Olyphant (Kirsh), Alex Lawther (Hermit), Samuel Blenkin (Boy Kavalier), Babou Ceesay (Morrow), Adrian Edmondson (Atom Eins), David Rysdahl (Arthur Sylvia), Essie Davis (Dame Sylvia), Lily Newmark (Nibs), Erana James (Curly), Adarsh Gourav (Slightly), Jonathan Ajayi (Smee), Kit Young (Tootles), Diêm Camille (Siberian), Moe Bar-El (Rashidi) and Sandra Yi Sencindiver (Yutani).
The show received several Emmy nominations, including those for Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes, Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Season Or A Movie and Outstanding Cinematography For A Series (One Hour). Supervising sound editor/sound designer Lee Gilmore led the team that's nominated in the Outstanding Sound Editing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour) category. Here, he shares insight into the show's soundtrack.
Lee, how did you first become involved with Alien: Earth, and what appealed to you about the project?
"I was in the process of finishing up Alien: Romulus when we got word that Alien: Earth would be coming through Pacific Standard Sound. Due to some previous commitments I had, I was originally only meant to come on as a designer when time would allow, so I wasn’t sure how involved I would be. Sound designers Chris Terhune and Craig Henighan were already hard at work sending pre-design to the picture department, so I thought that train had left the station at that point. Some schedule things shifted around on my end, and I was asked if I’d be interested in coming on to co-supervise it. I thought it over for about two seconds and said yes. Of course you’re going to say yes to that."
What were the key sonic objectives for the series?
"From our first spotting sessions with Noah Hawley, it was clear that he was really going to be expanding the Alien universe. We knew we were going to have established things like Xenos, pulse rifles, Muther. Those things are tricky enough because you’re trying to create updated versions of things that were already seriously rad way before you even got involved. On top of all that, he was also introducing a ton of concepts and creatures that we have never seen. Our main objective was being tasked with creating sounds for all these new ideas he had and making sure they fit snuggly into this world. It was crazy intimidating at first. I fired up Soundminer on my first day and typed in 'small octopus eyeball thing' and nothing came back. The blank slate of it all was very much, 'Oh man, what did I get myself in to?'"
What were the production timelines, and how did they influence your creative process?
"This was the first tv show I had ever supervised, so I had no idea what I was doing at first. I co-supervised with Brad North, who is a TV master and that took a lot of that initial pressure off. He handled the dialogue side of the show and kept me calm throughout the post process. I come from a features background, and it was pretty eye opening (i.e. terrifying) to see how quickly television moves. Television is insane these days with their feature level production values. They also demand feature level sound work without the luxury of time and money that you 'might' get on a movie. Our only option was to be as efficient as possible with the time we were given. I’m proud that we found a balance in being efficient while also not cutting any creative corners. We never said, 'Okay, that’s sound is good enough, let’s move on.' We have an opportunity to be part of one of the coolest franchises, so let’s bring it as hard as we can, but also as quick as we can because, holy cow, we have no time!"
Which tools did you depend on to get it all done?
"As far as workflows, we’d start each episode by having a Zoom spotting session with Noah Hawley. We’d get a general broad stroke idea of what he was looking for and then he’d basically let us run with it. As soon as we’d get turnover, I’d sift through the AAF and see what I thought was worth keeping around. Our picture editor, Regis Kimble, had some seriously fleshed out AAFs and they really served a roadmap for Noah’s intent for the episode. I’d then divide up the work amongst myself and my designers. I was so lucky to have a killer sound design team supporting me made up of Chris Terhune, Nolan McNaughton, Justin Davey, Tim Walston and Craig Henighan.
"I found it was the most efficient to have assigned roles for everyone. Nolan would hit the eye midge, Justin would hit tech, I’d hit Xenos, etc. Everyone would do a pass on their own food group and then we’d do an internal review, see what other ideas we could come up (with), and by the end, everyone had had their hands all over everything. Once our mixers, Joe Deangelis and Richard Kitting, would finish their premix, we’d send off a WIP bounce to our picture editor, and he’d send back his notes. We usually only had a day or two to knock these out before we were back on stage starting the final mix. Sometimes we’d have one editor working on last minute VFX updates that had to be on stage in the next five minutes, while another was working on an episode that wouldn’t hit the stage for another month. We were constantly pivoting and had to be quick on our toes to put out any fires that arose. We had a really great post supervisor in Kristy Reed, who was always helping extinguish those fires."
Is there a particular scene or sequence that best represents the team's approach to the soundtrack? What made it especially rewarding or challenging?
"If I had to pick, it would probably be our fifth episode of the season. We spend the entire runtime on the Maginot research vessel, and that episode really gives you all the classic Alien visuals. That in turn let us open the floodgates on our take of sounds that matched the legacy vibe. It was a challenge because we are on a single ship the whole time, so how can we keep things fresh and interesting? Apart from Xenos, Weyland tech and a million blast doors, we spent an exhaustive amount of time giving the backgrounds as much personality and differentiation as possible. We really went to town on spotted backgrounds in the different labs, bridges and hallways.
"Really proud of how that one turned out because we got to expand on already established concepts. Yes, Muther does this, but what if it also did this subtle new thing? What if we introduced new ideas here and there, that all feel authentic to the world, while also being something we haven’t heard before? I wanted all our new sounds to almost sound like outtakes from the original films that had just never been used. That episode was such a playground for us."
Is it a challenge to balance the legacy of the Alien franchise while bringing in a fresh sonic identity?
"I think it’s super important, vital even, to honor what came before. It felt like it was my duty, as this Alien super nerd, to keep the world grounded in the sonic palette that was established in ’79 and ’86. Those tracks are iconic as they come and they’re a huge identifying part of what makes Alien feel like Alien. The blueprint has already been established on what this world sounds like and now it’s my job not to screw it all up. This world has a very specific sonic target to hit. It can’t be too Star Wars, it can’t be too Star Trek. You’ve got to land the dropship, so to speak, or the fellow nerds are going to notice.
"There’s a delicate balance in all this though. You want to do your best to give props to what came before, but you also don’t want it to completely handcuff yourself creatively. It’s no fun to just be copying someone’s homework word for word, so how do I use legacy sounds as a thematic springboard while also throwing my own spin and personality onto things? This franchise is so deeply ingrained in my veins going all the way back to when I was a kid. I just kept telling myself, 'What would I want to hear as a super fan? What would get junior high Lee stoked?' Even if I had nothing to do with this show, and I’m sitting at home watching it, what sounds would get me pumped up enough to say, 'Oh these guys get it. They understand this world. They care as much as I do.'"