7 Popular Motifs of Cheap Science Fiction

Since last week’s article about the glory of cheap science fiction, the switchboard at The Outland Institute has been running hot. Poor Glynnis has been swamped with calls, all saying much the same thing – “I’m all ready to make some cheap science fiction – I’ve got a camera, some actors and a clever script that uses Martian terraforming as a metaphor for the war in Iraq – but I don’t know what special effects to use”. They usually go on to say that their film’s budget is three fifty cent stamps, and that Glynnis has a lovely telephone manner (it’s true, she does).

So as a follow-up to last week, let’s look at some of the common elements you can find in cheap science-fiction. You can even try these out at home!

Telepathy

What is it? Hardly a special effect at all, all you need is a shot of your actor looking intense, a voice-over with a lot of reverb and voila! Spooky.

Where can I see it? Sapphire and Steel, Cally in Blake’s 7, The Tomorrow People, The Champions.

A Scary Wind

What is it? It could be the full force of a psychic power out of control – or just a couple of fans. Only you can tell!

Where can I see it? Quatermass and the Pit (and the film version, Five Million Years To Earth), Patrick, Doctor Who: The Daemons.

Explosive Collars

What is it? Future prisons are expensive – you need fences, towers, robot guards – but not if you have explosive collars! Cross the prison’s perimeter and the collar activates, leaving the prisoner with no further need of a hat. Do away with all that tedious set-building while also giving your film some cool futuristic sadism.

Where can I see it? This one’s surprisingly common, examples include Battle Royale, Cleopatra 2525, Wedlock (aka Deadlock), The Running Man, Blake’s 7: Bounty.

Invisibility

What is it? Want a scary monster but can’t afford to make one? Have you considered making it invisible? It’s not just monsters this works for, either – Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home used invisibility to get around the expensive tedium of landing a spaceship in Golden Gate Park. Doctor Who‘s Planet Of The Daleks goes one better – the Spiridons are invisible, but they also like to wrap themselves in purple fun-fur (after all, they’re invisible, not nudists). So you end up with a lot of extras wrapped in fun-fur, but underneath? They’re invisible. Honest.

Where can I see it? Doctor Who: Planet Of The Daleks, Planet Of Evil, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Forbidden Planet, any version of The Invisible Man.

(In this clip from Planet Of The Daleks, the Doctor and some Thals are pretending to be invisible men wearing purple fun-fur, but come undone due to shoes. Oh, shoes!)

Or you could try –

Alien Point-Of-View

What is it? Like the above, this gets around the monster problem by placing us inside the suit. Simply grease the camera lens, or add an unusual filter, and you can film screaming vixens to your heart’s content. It’s not quite as cost-effective as invisibility – you will need to reveal an actual monster at some point, usually near the end of the film. But you can postpone audience disappointment by anywhere up to 80 minutes!

Where Can I See It? A lot of Roger Corman monster films, any of the many Alien rip-offs (Forbidden World aka Mutant, Creature, etc), The Nightmare Man.

Here’s some clips from Doctor Who And The Silurians that show how it works:

Portals Of Light

What is it? Alfred Hitchcock once said “there is never anything more frightening than an unopened door”. What a shame he never made any science fiction. The next step, however, is to open a door to find blinding light streaming in, obliterating anything beyond it. It’s mysterious, awe-inspiring, frightening. And always cheap. No sets to build, no CGI to key in – just a really big light.

Where can I see it? Again, a very common one. Good examples include the original cut of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (before they added the terrible “aliens at a disco” ending), Communion, Doctor Who: Arc Of Infinity.

Future Architecture (aka Multistory Carparks, Business Parks, Convention Centres etc)

What is it? Again, not an effect per se, but a way of giving your film some futuristic design cred. Rather than building sets, just find some corporate architecture and suggest we’ll all be living in call-centres soon. Offices, carparks, art galleries, sporting facilities, you’ll be surprised how many buildings will do. Here’s the Vancouver Public Library appearing in Battlestar Galactica:

You can see Jon Pertwee battle Ogrons around London’s Hayward Gallery in Frontier in Space, and even Kath & Kim have used the Australian Centre Of Contemporary Art to represent the future. Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes was filmed largely in the Century City Shopping Centre in Los Angeles, and Mad Max features a scene shot in a Melbourne University car park.

Where can I see it? Where do you start? Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes, Fantastic Voyage, Doctor Who: Sunmakers, Revelation Of The Daleks, Frontier in Space.

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