he shoulders head and dropping the Daniel Falconer – designer Daniel Falconer “To hide the form of a human puppeteer, I looked I looked form of a human puppeteer, hide the “To into a stoop. I also thought it’d be interesting to to it’d be interesting I also thought a stoop. into legs, maybe aliens of fully developed the deprive suggesting a semi-aquatic origin and giving them disguise would stilts that industrial-looking robotic legs (above).” actor’s the at hunching t he first design task tackled by the artists, the he first by tackled design task The stigmatized aliens themselves would would The stigmatized aliens themselves be t with a large team contributing ideas in an initial a large team with frenzy of conceptualization. The guidelines at creatures should have the that time were the and hands, be designed faces tentacled human practical creature-suit wearing with performers in mind, distorting recognizable the possible. human form wherever Alive in Joburg , Alive among the Project X among the in late 2006. At the the 2006. At in late Weta Workshop’s designers began exploring designers began exploring Workshop’s Weta the world of world the film, about the which known time, little was as simply referred to was earliest direction made it but the crew, Weta be similar in setting and tone it would clear that short film, Neill Blomkamp’s to humanoid aliens in a featuring tentacle-faced, African slum. grim South  “In the harsh slums we were referencing for the referencing for the were harsh“In the slums we – designer Christian Pearce aliens’ Earth environment we saw that sometimes sometimes that saw we aliens’ Earth environment bizarre elements these have would kids there the sometimes that explained It was get-ups. in their could or pieces of clothing seemingly random items on meanings – perhaps a guy who is wearing take a particular in a fight and ends up killing hat gets hat might suddenly become special. someone; that similar habits, so aliens might adopt the thought We that you stuff all this on him tells seeing a guy with he carries items and the things he’s been through mana or good juju. It made have him somehow with eclectic visuals.” for really interesting, “I had one idea that the aliens might have very very aliens might have the “I had one idea that – designer Christian Pearce sensitive skin or eyes, so they’d cover themselves themselves cover so they’d skin or eyes, sensitive garbage bags, could find, like they whatever with it’d signs, hats… I thought clothing, newspapers, sunglasses, but of wear all try to if they be funny and then break them don’t fit, so they course they on.” tape them maybe

 world, with crustacean anatomy. Early ideas anatomy. crustacean with world, blades or other perhaps wearing about them of dropped in favor were weapons improvised barb. The finala nasty tail design maquette sculptor Weta by sculpted page) was (facing Don Brooker. As seen in the finishedAs seen in the film, slums in the bets are made on cockfights involving alien bets are made on cockfights involving ship came on the presumably creatures that Meng and Designers David Prawns. the with offered were Christian Pearce options that same home be clearly from the to intended

 “The gas projector was going to fire a corrosive gas out of the end. We rigged the prop with a tube coming out the side so that on set they could pump something through it. In the end it wasn’t used that way on film, but that was the intention. It Above: Propmakers Callum Lingard and John would have worked like a flame-thrower, but instead Harvey working on the District 9 gun props. of firing an ignited jet of liquid or gel, it dispensed this very dense gas that would have an immediate and fiercely corrosive effect.” – lead conceptual designer Around a quarter of the way into the production there was a coalescing of the alien design aesthetic. Around this time the graphic design work being done by Leri Greer and the technology (including ships, props and Along with the arc gun, the assault rifle was the decision to utilize fully digital aliens was weapons) being designed by Greg Broadmore, all the first of the District 9 guns to be resolved made, their hands still conformed closely to converged. Common features began emerging and approved for manufacture. The design human physiology, with two large fingers across the film. These included a certain flat- itself evolved and was refined very quickly, but aligned closely and a divergent thumb. sided squareness, the strong use of forty-five there was a to-ing and fro-ing between designer Some of the practical guns were scratch- degree angles, bevel-ended cylinders and the Greg Broadmore and director Neill Blomkamp built, but most were digitally modeled from bold use of a stark black, white and orange while they found the color scheme, eventually designer Greg Broadmore’s drawings by the color scheme. This quickly became the design settling on the orange that then permeated all Weta Workshop miniatures department’s digital bible for the film. “People had to look at these guns and know the alien technology design. team using Rhino [a CAD modeling program]. The effect of this strong new design lead they’re looking at firearms. They could be exotic All the functionality of real weapons were The finished models were milled on Weta’s CNC and a little mysterious in function, but they are was most keenly seen in the alien weapons. It clearly guns with an obvious dangerous end, a stock built into the District 9 guns, so that the router [a computer-driven milling tool], and was something of a reset. Previously approved and a trigger.” distances between barrel and handle, trigger those milled components were then assembled weapon and tool designs, some of which had Greg Broadmore – lead conceptual designer and stock, and the like, were all correct and and detailed as a more traditional, physical been built as prototypes, did not conform to comfortable to hold. These were checked model-making exercise. Alien graphic symbols the new aesthetic. against real guns to be sure they conformed designed by Leri Greer were cut out by laser and The first of the new weapons to be approved to those standards. This was done for two applied to the props. was the assault rifle, designed by Greg reasons – firstly because it meant that the The assault rifle prop also included a special Broadmore, who then steered the designing props would look and handle like real weapons, firing mechanism which created real recoil, and building of the other new weapons but also because for a time at least, the aliens developed by propmaker Callum Lingard. This requested by the director. themselves were going to be realized as suited was housed inside a cavity designed into the performers, so they too would match human digital model of the gun so that it could be proportions, justifying weapons built to suit comfortably inserted once the prototype was that anatomy. milled. “Greg did an awesome job with these. I wrote out guns. Besides the very well machined, well designed five different types of guns and what they were look I wanted, the other thing was that they have This affected the trigger and grip design used for when I was sitting in a hotel in LA. They bright colors, like much of the alien technology. I as well. Even though the aliens had tentacled actually started off not as guns, but as tools, but wanted to give it a Chris Foss sci-fi feel.” hands, they were going to be achieved as then the geekiness took over and they just became  Neill Blomkamp – director creature-gloved human hands and even after    the cellshrank to becomeconcealable. photograph onpage91). Asthe changed, story of the cellplugged (seeconceptonpage89and of itsjetpackinto whichaphysical prototype suit stand-in was inthe back builtwith aport that powered the exo suit.Thefull-sizedexo earliest designsitwas anarm-sizedbattery originally goingto bemuchlarger. Inthe The alienfuelcellWikusuncovered was It was madevery quickly andshippedoutto set.” that was digitally animated to openinthe finalfilm. see the ferro-fluidinside.Ithadan irisinthe back that itwould have transparentsectionssoyou can of designiterations –oneofthe lasttweaks being cell was stillneededto power the dropship. get hishelp.Thatwholeplot morphed,butthe fuel was goingto lay itonhimthat ithadbeenaruseto and power upthe mothership and that’s whereCJ They neededitto fuel the dropshipto fly backup his transformation,oratleastaccording to CJ. essential item requiredto enableWikusto reverse Greg Broadmore–leadconceptual designer “When itwas redesignedthere were acouple “The alienfuelcellwas always goingto beareally

cut detailing. We madetwo ofthem.” film was madeinjusttwo days usingpipesandlaser in hispocket. Thefuelcellpropyou seeinthe final Ed Denton –miniaturestechnician “We neededasmallpropthat Wikuscouldcarry  Having designed and built content for his own short films, director Neill Blomkamp had both the tools and skills to tackle the design of the mothership himself and was an active participant in the process, as well as offering feedback on the Weta concepts.

“Obviously one of the biggest design jobs of the movie would be conceiving the alien mothership. I had a meeting with Richard Taylor at Weta at the start of this process and he mentioned the idea of a “vertical” ship, like a floating skyscraper. I really liked this as a concept and couldn’t think of ever having seen that realized before. I spent a bit of time on my computer, and came up with a vertical ship design idea (left and above). “Ultimately though, I thought it was the wrong direction. There needed to be a certain basic sci-fi familiarity in some of the designs. I thought the strange setting of South Africa was already weird enough, and therefore having a certain level of familiarity to some of the science fiction elements would actually be a good thing. “Because of that I went back to the pure saucer (facing page), a shape that has defined alien arrivals since the nineteen-thirties.” Neill Blomkamp – director