Alien: Covenant is a 20th Century Fox film directed by Ridley Scott. It is the second in chronological order after Prometheus (2012) and is a prequel to Alien (1979).

Ridley grounds everything in reality. Sets, props, computer interfaces and special effects are designed from the ground up as though they are real. The goal is to film as much 'in-camera' as possible without being visual effected in later. With input from a NASA consultant, the script was broken down and everything was designed as though it was scientifically correct based on current day technology and extrapolated to the end of this century.  With the spacecraft propulsion system, mechanics, telemetry and biological systems all mapped out, user interfaces to all of the crafts systems were designed using the typical data that would need to be used by the crew. All of the materials, chemicals, physical and cosmological properties, units and scales of measurement were properly incorporated into the designs.

The visual design direction from Ridley was to keep the style mid-way between the glitzy top-of-the-fleet USCSS Prometheus and the low tech mining craft of the USCSS Nostromo. 

A team of four of us designed over one hundred and fifty different screens of which only a small fraction made it to the final film. All were designed as though they were real world devices and user interfaces, then made interactive with a large scale distributed real-time compositing delivery system, and a custom programmed iOS app for set pieces and props. The complete range of designs includes navigational screens used in the USCSS Covenant, Lander One, the Cargo Lifter, the Terraforming Truck (not seen), Med Bay, Engine Diagnostics device (not seen), tablet Devices used by the crew (not seen), Botanical Bay (not seen), field biology microscope (not seen), architectural design interactive (not seen), crane operator dashboards (not seen), heads-up-displays, the Holotable controls, computer override (not seen) and small embedded screens in all doors, airlocks, weapons lockers, field transmitters, helmets and in the costumes themselves.

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All screenshots Copyright 20th Century Fox