Original Stormtrooper / Shepperton Design Studios Portfolio

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BANANA PAUL
1980

THE BERLIN CREW

C & H Film from Berlin contacted Andrew to make this rather comical bear. The bear is the symbol for 'Berlin' so to get it right was a touchy subject. A glassfibre head was made from a plaster mould. The articulating jaw and roving eyes were radio controlled and even tears were all realistic features of the bear. Various types of fur skins were used to simulate a real bear - fine otter fur was used for the face.

BANANA PAUL
1980

OTTO

Otto a very tall and fit lad, drew the short straw for being inside the costume. A rough size was carved out of expanded Polystyrene before the build was decided upon. Although light-hearted, the bear had to respect the history of the city.

BANANA PAUL
1980

PRETTY HOT!

Pretty hot in there - Otto taking a breather.

BANANA PAUL
1980

CLEVER BEAR

'Bana Paul" was not such a stupid bear. Not many bears can ride a motorbike.

ALIEN
1978

GIEGERS CONCEPT

Giger`s concept of a monster that was translucent, showing all internal organisms,was a tall order for Andrew. To develop a material and invent a moulding process in the space of the time scale of a film shoot, was always going to be challenging. A very tall Massai Warrior from Kenya was the actor engaged to be inside the Alien costume. Alas,the tear strength of the material was not adequate in time for the shoot. Ridley Scott said OK, let`s go without the monster, it might even add to the suspense. ndeed it did, because you never saw the monster in the original Alien film.

ALIEN
1978

GIEGERS CONCEPT

Giger`s concept of a monster that was translucent, showing all internal organisms,was a tall order for Andrew. To develop a material and invent a moulding process in the space of the time scale of a film shoot, was always going to be challenging. A very tall Massai Warrior from Kenya was the actor engaged to be inside the Alien costume. Alas,the tear strength of the material was not adequate in time for the shoot. Ridley Scott said OK, let`s go without the monster, it might even add to the suspense. ndeed it did, because you never saw the monster in the original Alien film.

ALIEN
1978

CLAW-LIKE-FINGERS

Andrew developed a translucent flexible material that he also used for the 'Face Hugger' He built a large rotisserie oven with a rail tracking system to wheel in the monster. Even the making of this monster was a weird 'Frankinstein' like experience.

ALIEN
1978

HEADS ABOVE THE REST

Andrew's production of Aliens head was very successful. Made by pushing the boudaries of vacuum forming on one oif Andrews self built bespoke vacuum forming machines.

ALIEN
1978

A SNAKE IN THE GRASS

The “Face Hugger” was made with articulating fingers and a body filched from an animal skeleton. This mated to tail made from a snake skin and produced a really spectacular monster.The resulting 'Face Hugger' could walk in a crabbing style and clamp onto any unsuspecting being, inserting its eggs into whatever orifice it could find... gruesome.

ALIEN
1978

IT'S A WRAP!

Running out of time, Andrew did actually solve the tear strength issue. At a dramatic showdown with the production team Andrew playfully slapped the head accountant with the new marial. It shattered, he picked up the wrong piece. 'Its a Wrap' was Ridley Scott's exlamation let’s go without it.

ALIEN
1978

THE LEGACY

Both Andrew and Giger were disappointed with no monster in the film. But it was a sterling effort that did not quite come off, and so Giger gave Andrew the copy of his book that was used as reference for all work on the film. The book is signed... “For Andrew....H R Giger 78 ” with a little doodle from Giger`s friend Salvador Dali.

FLASH GORDON
1979

THE STAR OF THE SHOW

Brian Blessed played a main character as Prince Vultan, dressed in a spectacular costume with enormous wings and feathers made by Andrew and his crew.

FLASH GORDON
1979

THE SILVER SCREEN

The silver shimmering backdrop on this set was made from 9,000 vacuum formed plastic panels strung together. There waS no end to Andrew's capacity for production in very short timescales.

FLASH GORDON
1979

FEATHERS...AND MORE FEATHERS

Andrew and his team made thousands of individual feathers, all cut out by hand and painted.

FLASH GORDON
1979

WOOD BEAST

This large eyed cyclop with long spindly legs was only seen hiding in a tree trunk. Dino de Laurentis claimed that he never used it and so would not pay! However, before the film was finished the lads in the editing rooms at Shepperton spilled the beans to Andrew who was able to force the production company to pay up. Dino, surrounded by his Italian bopdyguards, thretened Andrew with the suggestion that he would never work in films again... Heard that one before!

SUPERMAN
1977

WHISPERING WIND

Up until then, to create wind for a film shoot, productions used an areo engine on a dolly. This was so noisy that it was impossible to shoot sound at the same time. Andrew built foam filled plastic fan blades around a steel spaceframe and powered it with quiet electric motors. Wally Vivas, an expert in front projection, approached Andrew to see if it was possible to use a real man to play Superman. The concept was to suspend Superman in the air on a wire in front of a front projection screen and use lightweight fans to create the background wind and the movement of the cloak.An exiting proposition and Andrew built a thermplastic front projection screen.Christopher Reed, playing Superman was up for anything...so the prospect of life on the wire with a fan in front of his face didn’t phase him.

SUPERMAN
1977

AN ENGINEERING FATE "FAN-TASTIC"

Before ART School, Andrew spent 3 years studying Engineering at Kingston Poly and so the chalenge of designing the large 15 ft diameter wind machines was an exciting prospect.

SUPERMAN
1977

CRYSTALS

Andrew and his team made hundreds of crystals that made up the birthplace of Superman. Each one was individually sculpted from Acrylic and polished to perfection.