Completely under appreciated upon its release in 1982, John Carpenter’s The Thing is a frightening and visually stunning creature feature that’s easily one of the most beloved horror films of all time.
Proof is in the constant breakdowns of the film by genre fans across the globe. The latest comes courtesy of Vashi Nedomansky on his blog VashiVisuals in which he takes Michael Ploog and Mentor Huebner’s storyboards and places them next to footage from Carpenter’s final film, with DP work by Dean Cundey.
The detail and artistry of Ploog’s work up front, allowed the crew to have clear and defined goals on those frigid shooting days in both Alaska and Canada.
To demonstrate this point…I’ve taken two scenes from THE THING and laid down the storyboards next to the shots in the final edit of the film. The video below examines the discovery of the alien spaceship and the transformation of Norris in the shocking scene that still haunts me today. Just like Hitchcock worked with Saul Bass to create the famous shower scene in Psycho…Ploog crafted beautiful storyboards for Carpenter so that the time on set was best utilized to tell the story. Be it pencil to paper or an iPad app…filmmakers can share the envisionment of the worlds they are creating by using storyboards.
Check out this incredible 5-minute video below and then make tonight all about revisiting The Thing on home video.
