ALIENS Motion Tracker

Simon Friend has informed me of the following project he recently did. If you would like to get more information about this project, please e-mail him directly.
Images below are © Simon Friend, and used here with written permission.

The image above is of the first motion tracker I created.

Most people remember the scene in Aliens where the colonial marines grow increasingly freaked as the alien signals on their motion trackers get closer and closer until they appear to be in the room with them.

"They're in the roof!" comes a plaintive cry from the front row. Cue pulse rifle chaos and the inevitable end of Pvt Hudson. What most people won't notice is the prop attached to the little blue screen (and frantic clicking) that is the USCM Motion Tracker. After stumbling across detailed photos and history of the prop on Harry Harris' ALIENS Collection and Archive. I watched Aliens again, and yup, there it is. Could be that you never get a really good look because it is quickly identifiable as a power tool dressed with photographic accessories. As I grew increasingly interested in the props of Aliens (the marine firepower - "we endanger species!") the Motion Tracker stayed in the back of my mind. Eventually I picked up a garage kit and set about replacing as much of the resin kit with original prop parts as possible. After a good deal of research on the internet I discovered that the scanner unit (the readout) was still available from the photographic company Hama - but only in the UK. This made a nice change from having to import prop parts from the US - I live near London. Hama produces about 8 different slide viewers, including the one used in the movie. It ocurred to me that since the Hama features an internal light source, it would not be difficult to make a 'working' scanner. Using a colour laser-printer, I printed the distinctive tracker readout onto a transparent overhead cell, which I then inserted behind the Hama viewer's magnifier and turned on the light. Et voila!

The Hama was then painted in Brown Bess Humbrol paint (used for all the Marine props in the movie) and the top and bottom details scratchbuilt using vinyl cutouts and graphics I created in Adobe Illustrator. These details caome from a Vivitar Thyristor 2500 Flashgun which is no longer produced (but can be picked up fairly cheaply on E-Bay).

The body of the tracker comes from a Hilti powerdrill that seems to have disappeared from the face of the planet...I used the resin kit for this part. The large front sensor unit was replaced with the original Jobo Minilight darkroom accessory. A couple of photographic cables, some D-rings and a webbing strap, and my prototype motion tracker was complete

For the mark 2, I intend to incorporate sound, motion sensor and light effects. Here is how I created the tracker sound:

I used a professional sampler to capture about 8 seconds of the tracker sound from the movie soundtrack (remember the bit where Hicks looks up at the ceiling and realizes the aliens are in the room?). I then edited the sound to about 1.5 seconds and looped it. This gives a constant tracker 'pulse' that is clean of atmospherics. Using the sampler pitch & time functions it is possible to change the pitch of the sound (gets faster and more urgent) as though a reading is getting closer. The sound can be 'effected' in any way you choose!

If anyone is interested I've created a 12 second Wav. of the tracker going from static to signals approching. It sounds pretty cool, only 1.5 seconds taken from the movie.

I am hoping to use Jim Shima's Vortex unit to produce this effect on a portable soundboard which can be mounted inside the tracker body. The Vortex incorporates a motion sensor which I hope to synch with the sound and pulsing scanner light. All of this is theoretically possible....watch this space.

For details on customised motion tracker replicas, contact Simon at Birdie@cwcom.net