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Hello, my name is Rod Hardy
and I directed the episode

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"Vienen" of X-Files
that you're looking at right now.

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I see that fabulous oil rig sitting out there
in the middle of the water,

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and it reminds me of our first visit
out to that thing for a location scout.

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Big waves and trying to get on board

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this particular thing
made it very difficult indeed.

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This particular scene was in the studio,
we, in fact, made...

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It was made up of three different places,
we built an interior.

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Corey Kaplan, the production designer,
who was a fabulous production designer,

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created the interior of the oil rig.

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We then used a location
in South Central LA

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which was a gas company,
an old oil refinery,

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for some of the scenes with pipes, etcetera.

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And then, we also used the oil rig

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out on the Pacific, off Santa Barbara.

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This episode, for me,
was probably one of my favorites to do

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because it entailed the mythology

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and I’ve always found
these episodes of X-Files,

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the stuff that really draws me in.

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Again, here we are in a studio set.

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Still in the studio.
A lot of planning went into

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combining both the studio
and the two different locations.

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Bill Roe, director of photography,

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some of the best looking television,
I think, creating an atmosphere...

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Trying to establish
the setup of the story here.

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We have our supposed worker on the thing,

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who is about to lose his life
to a bad guy, we think,

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but the thing
you'll discover about this episode

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is that nothing is as it seems.

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Very clearly, the "Who can you trust
in life?" theory works pretty well here.

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And in this world, you can’t trust anybody.

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We took some time in casting
of these extras, too.

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As the story unfolds, and we discover
that the whole crew have been taken over,

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their bodies now are being used as hosts,

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and the black oil which is being mined here.

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So, to get the right faces
and to make them interesting,

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a lot of time was spent in casting
of the extras.

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The visual effects also in these shows,
are terrific.

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You can see that crawling worm-like thing
under the skin, very realistic.

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This young man, playing the one
that's being strangled, as we speak,

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terrific young actor,

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no dialogue at all, but was able
to show the fear and the terror in his face.

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Now, there's classic X-Files.

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You’ve got to love this stuff.

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Again, great visual effects,

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and a really terrific teaser
for any X-Files fan.

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As I hear this music, I
might say it reminds me that...

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I actually was lucky enough to be involved
in three of the episodes of Season 8,

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and this particular one was the first one
that David Duchovny came back into,

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having spent some time out of the series.

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And so, his arrival
was filled with much anticipation.

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The dynamics were interesting,
Doggett was now in the series.

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David had been out of the show
for some time.

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And so, I kind of felt
there was a sense of anticipation,

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and wondering what David would be like.

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And I might say, it was an absolute delight
to work with the full cast.

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They were all professionals,

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and everybody worked
extremely well together.

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A tricky one for Robert, I might say,
because David had set the series up,

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and had certainly been there
as the leading player,

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and then when he left,
Robert took over that role,

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and suddenly, there was the leading player
back into it again.

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But the ever pro,
our Robert, he is a terrific actor.

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He really carried it off extremely well.

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Now, this scene was one of the first
scenes to be shot in this episode.

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And there's the good stuff, too,
there's the gory bits of X-Files.

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The makeup was always a treat to do,

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and in this particular one,
when anybody was affected by the oil,

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or they were burnt,
there were bodies all over the place

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as you'll see as the story unfolds.

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This information coming out
from Robert now, I remember

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was such a, it's a very...
If you listen to the dialogue...

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Damn, what a mouthful,
and what a way he delivered that line.

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I might say, it wasn't a simple one
for him to do first up,

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but it was only a couple,
three takes maybe,

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before we were able to get
the whole thing in one take.

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Great chemistry on-screen these two, too.

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I would have loved to have done more
episodes with both of them together.

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I think they play off each other pretty well.

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Miguel Sandoval was
the Spanish gentleman

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that was here to tell the story of how

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the oil well was having problems
and bodies were being found, etcetera.

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Here 's Mitch Pileggi.
I worked with Mitch on a series after this.

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In fact, just recently,
called The Mountain, up in Vancouver.

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It was nice to see him again,
playing a totally different role.

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This was actually
the very first scene of the episode,

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and you have every player of the series
in the one room, David’s very first scene.

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It was interesting dynamics.

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The X-Files was the first episodic television
production that I did in the United States.

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Having been a director in Australia
for some years,

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I had moved to the United States to work
in movies of the week and miniseries.

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Having had the opportunity
of working with some terrific actors

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like Anjelica Huston and Michael Caine
and Pierce Brosnan and Kris Kristofferson

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and a whole bunch of others,
Melanie Griffith, etcetera.

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That to come to this show and work
with a cast of this caliber was just terrific.

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But I'd never done episodic television
in the States before, I'd done it in Australia.

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So, I was surprised
after having done an episode...

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Sorry, a remake of High Noon,
the classic Western for TBS

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that somebody saw it at The X-Files

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and l was then offered a couple of episodes
to come and do.

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As I said, it was the first television I'd done

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and what a great opportunity
to work on a series

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as large as this one was.

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Maybe later in the series, but it was still...
Every episode was like a little movie.

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And the attitude of everybody
working on the production

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after eight seasons
was absolutely, fully professional.

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From Bill Roe the DP,
right through the whole thing.

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It was as if
they had just started making the series.

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And I think that's what shows

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on the screen very clearly,

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the professionalism of everybody.

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And trying to achieve the very best.

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You know, an episode of this was
being made for the same amount of money

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that we’re about to make
a feature film for in Australia.

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So, that's an interesting challenge
for a one-hour episode.

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So, here we are, arriving at the oil rig.

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We did one day's filming on the oil rig,

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which started at first light
and finished at last light.

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There was a lot to be done,
but a lot of preparation went into it.

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Including the chopper to chopper shooting,
and storyboarding sequences, etcetera.

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And it was quite a challenge to take on

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that we were gonna
get all this done in one day.

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Hopefully, the weather
wasn't gonna turn on us

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’cause that would make it
extremely difficult.

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You're right out in the middle of nowhere.

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And I might say,
standing up on this helicopter pad

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was probably the most scary thing
I've ever done in my life.

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And going down those steps,
just prior to these steps,

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I gotta tell you,
I looked over the edge of that thing,

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and it's like about 300-400 feet down.

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It brings the chills to the back of my spine
as I speak, right now.

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And particularly when the wind picks up,
you really are very vulnerable out there.

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The challenge was always trying to find
ways of making this thing work.

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As I said,
there were three different locations.

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The studio, the oil refinery,
old gas place down at South Central

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and then the oil rig out on the water.

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And people were walking
in and out of shot.

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So, trying to keep that continuity going,

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and not just the normal continuity,
but the continuity of performance etcetera.

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It seems to flow very well.

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Nice tension
between the two characters here.

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And I think,
that's what kept this stuff alive.

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That you're watching
a story about the unknown,

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but in fact, you really care
about each of these characters

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and how they feel about each other.

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Gillian spent most of the time
on this episode back at base.

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So, there were very few scenes
where we were able to all be together in it.

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Apart from that first scene I mentioned,
which was in the office.

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When you looked at the episode
with the full dialogue, without me

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talking over the top of it,
did you get the sense...

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At the beginning,
did you know who were the bad guys?

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Hopefully, that unfolded very slowly, so,
you were able to be drawn into the story.

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But I thought
this guy's face and his whole persona

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was something really interesting
that we were able to turn him into...

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At the beginning, he seems
the very supportive foreman on the oil rig,

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but at the end of the day, of course,
he's one of them.

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These were my favorite moments, too.

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You know,
watching those eyes change and turn.

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So once again,
here we are out on this oil rig.

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We had two cameras operating.

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And to try
and get a sense of the whole thing,

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we took dialogue scenes like this
and just got them to walk around the thing.

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So, at least you got a feeling
of the whole location.

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Steadicam used quite a bit
on this particular location.

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'Cause you can appreciate

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it's quite a dangerous place to be
out on one of these oil rigs.

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And because of the oil, etcetera,
the floors can be fairly slippery.

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But Steadicam seemed to, sort of,
fit and blend in quite well.

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And some of the shots we were able to get,
I thought were quite amazing

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considering the fact
that we had to rehearse them

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probably once,
and maybe twice at the most

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and suddenly have to shoot them.

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That's one of the great lines.

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"You could find a conspiracy
at a church picnic. "

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I'll tell a story
about this particular dummy here.

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Here 's a secret.

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Underneath that sheet,
is a rather large rubber penis.

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Practical jokes were regular
on the scene of X-Files,

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which was terrific ’cause they were
just like one big family, the crew,

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they had been together for so long.

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But they would tease
and play on Gillian quite a lot.

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And I remember when it was first revealed,

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this rather large, rubber device,

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the look on her face was very funny,
and she dealt with it extremely well.

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I'll leave it at that.

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That question is always there in X-Files,
isn’t it? "Why?"

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Keeps the story driving fon/vard.

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That shot you just saw then
was something we shot

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first up in the morning
as the sun was coming up.

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We took advantage of
every moment of light to get something

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because, as I said,
we only had the one day to achieve

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the whole shooting on the rig itself.

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And so, we’re about to see
the oil drip from his body.

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Molasses, chocolate syrup,

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all used to at least start the journey

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of the oil coming out
of the mouth and eyes.

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Mostly out of the eyes, the rest of it
is put in by visual effects at a later stage.

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I might say,
the guy that had the oil dripping on him

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had to put up with
a hell of a lot of that stuff

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pouring down his throat, I can tell you.

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It was about, I think, nine takes
to get the oil to spill in the right places.

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And you think about the fact
that this oil rig

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is set supposedly in the Gulf of Mexico,

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and is some distance off the coastline.

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You know, 100 miles,
200 miles off the coastline

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where people actually do live
and work on these rigs.

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A pretty lonely place,

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and a fabulous type of place
to set a horror story like this one.

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Because the isolation alone
sets up many things.

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We're on a set...
We 're in the studio right now.

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This is all still in the studio.

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Just while this scene takes place,

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I'm sure you've probably,
on other DVDs about The X-Files,

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the series was

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made with a seven-day
pre-production phase,

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and then a nine-day shoot with main unit

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and then up to two days with second unit.

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Some episodes went on much longer

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because of their involvement
and complication,

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but this particular episode
was done in the 11 days.

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And there's a lot involved

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in doing this much work in those 11 days.

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The work day was probably
between 13 and 14 hours.

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So, we 'd start very early in the mornings
and work till very late at night.

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And sometimes the locations
were an hour and a half out of town,

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so you'd be on the road for 16 hours a day,
which was quite a feat.

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The crew who did the series,

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I don 't know how they kept doing it,
episode in, episode out.

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But they did it with a smile on their face.

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I'd love to see a reel of shots put together
of all the special effects makeup

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that was done on X-Files
over the nine seasons.

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There 's some stunning stuff.

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They may not look like it
in this particular shot,

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but just even coming up and
going down these steps was pretty hairy.

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And the actors on this particular shot
probably did this four or five times.

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It's a good 100—foot drop down there.

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To be on board one of these things
during a big cyclone or something,

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I would imagine,
would be quite an experience.

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Keeping the crew together
and making sure that everybody was safe

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and in the right place
so that nothing happened,

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we had safety and security people with us.

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But there it is,
everywhere you look, it's water.

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Although, there is a part of it,
which is coming up very soon,

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just on the right-hand side of this shot
that’s, in fact, the mainland.

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So, we had to keep
moving the camera around

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so that we didn’t see any of that land.

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So, we just kept getting the impression
that we’re out at sea.

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Of course, the occasional speedboat

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in the background

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that we didn’t want to see, all those things.

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Now, we’re back at the oil refinery
down in South Central.

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So, as you can see, the whole thing
blended together quite well.

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Of course, if that's the Black Oil,
what’s gonna happen to him?

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So, special effects department
were brought to the fore here.

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And in the studio, we created the fire.

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Obviously, we couldn't have any
naked flame out on the oil rig itself.

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So, all this sequence
was filmed in the studio.

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The set did almost burn to the ground,

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but we had to keep as much as possible,

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so it wouldn't burn down
because there were scenes to follow

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that we would shoot
in six subsequent sequences.

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Another great face.

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This kind of character development
in X-Files works extremely well.

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Each of the characters have a story
and a relationship.

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And as much as we’re looking
at the science fiction, the horror,

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the whatever else goes on in X-Files,
you really care about these people.

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They've spent a lot of time together,
you can tell that.

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Doing episodic television
is always quite interesting.

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The shoots are usually
around seven, eight days.

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X-Files having an extra day there, the ninth,

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and then the second unit being two days,
ten and eleven.

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But getting these shows shot on time
is really the key issue.

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But X-Files in particular because of

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all the visual effects etcetera,
usually uses that time up quite efficiently.

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Here we are, after the fire.

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Art department came in,
it wasn 't just a matter of burning the set.

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Art department had to come in and spray
black paint, etcetera, to create the illusion

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because we couldn't allow the sets to burn
because they would eventually.

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They’re not real, it's not metal.

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It was made with wood

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and various other substances.

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So, the art department would come in
and make it look like it's been burnt out.

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l was saying before about these episodes
done in the times that they’re done,

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it always is quite surprising that
there 's no rehearsal time allowed actually.

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The rehearsal is done exactly
prior to shooting the scene.

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So, I think the level of performance
works out extremely well.

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And this is all about performance.

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I mean, the scripts are very solid and
then the next thing is performance,

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and this cast, I think,
worked together extremely well,

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but more importantly,
they make something of these scenes.

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They keep drawing the audience into it.

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Some of the favorite bits of working
on X-Files for me was,

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the script meetings one would have
with Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz

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and the writers,

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where you could see that this team that
had been working together for a long time,

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just knew how to solve some of these
problems. "What’s this all mean?"

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I would ask the question,
"What does it mean?"

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And there was always
a solution to something.

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Chris would sit on the floor in his office,

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at the coffee table with his computer,

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and every time there was
a question that you had, a difficulty,

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suddenly, he'd be there, typing away

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and up would come,
a solution to the problem.

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Chris and Frank worked
extremely well together

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and I had the fortunate opportunity
to work with Frank Spotnitz

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on a follow-up series
called Robbery Homicide Division

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produced by Michael Mann,
starring Tom Sizemore.

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Frank was the producer on the
first part of the season of that series.

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It only lasted one season, unfortunately.

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But it was nice to work with Frank
on Robbery Homicide Division.

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And Bill Roe,
who also was the DP on X-Files.

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We 'd shot...
The X-Files is done on film, of course.

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Robbery Homicide Division was 24p,
which is this... Digital images,

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00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:52,552
and it still is early days
with this technology

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00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:55,916
and it's getting better all the time,
but Robbery Homicide Division

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was certainly up there as being
one of the earlier shows to do 24p,

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and Bill's abilities to go from film
to digital is quite extraordinary.

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We 're leading up to
the big finale of the stories.

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They're now on the oil rig and they now
have to find their way off the oil rig.

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00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:10,078
And of course, the cavalry is on its way,
but will it make it in time?

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This part of the sequence, I quite
enjoyed shooting because it revealed

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as you'll see now, that the whole crew

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are basically already taken over
by the Black Oil.

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The conspiracy grows.

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That would be the last shot
we ever shot on this particular story,

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was the sunset shot you just saw then.

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As I said, we started at first light
and finished at last light.

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00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:02,831
David has that wonderful ability
at delivering lines like that one.

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He has a great sense of humor and
I think that's one of the reasons

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00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:09,155
why the character was able to be
so appealing to an audience.

331
00:38:09,240 --> 00:38:13,199
It's that sense of irony, etcetera.

332
00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:02,032
That classic X-Files lighting.

333
00:39:02,120 --> 00:39:04,509
The smoke, the back-lit smoke

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00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:10,038
really is a signature of the production.

335
00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:12,594
And you got to love it.

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00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:16,468
And now, we’re moving into a sequence
that was completely storyboarded

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00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:20,195
because we were shooting between
the three different locations once more.

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So, the oil rig is about to blow up

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00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:13,232
and our heroes have to get off the thing
as best as they can.

340
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:18,992
The helicopters arrive,
but they can’t land because if they do,

341
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:24,677
these guys with the Black Oil
will obviously take them over.

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00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:27,360
So, our heroes
now have to find a way off it.

343
00:40:34,720 --> 00:40:37,712
And as the oil rig slowly,
but surely gets destroyed...

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00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:56,228
Visual effects are creating
the flames, of course,

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00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:59,596
because we couldn't set a naked flame
on the oil rig.

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00:41:14,520 --> 00:41:17,398
Props men in the foreground rattling pipes

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00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:20,874
to create the illusion of the thing
about to blow up.

348
00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,995
Green screen shots, actors in studio
in foreground with the green screen

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00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:36,072
and then, of course,
we add in the chopper aften/vards.

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00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:54,472
It's almost like Butch Cassidy and
the Sundance Kid as they jump off the cliff.

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00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:57,794
The effects that you see happening now,

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00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:01,919
a number of them were there
on the night when we shot this sequence,

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00:42:02,040 --> 00:42:05,077
and then, of course, like in this shot,
they were added in.

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00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:06,599
The oil rig falling apart, etcetera,

355
00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:08,439
all added in at a later stage.

356
00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:06,153
So, Mulder is back and then Mulder is gone.

357
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:12,755
Of course, the following episodes,
he found a way back in again

358
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:15,991
and was able to lead the story
to its conclusion.

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00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:42,158
My opportunity to work on X-Files,
I was very grateful for.

360
00:43:42,240 --> 00:43:45,277
I did three episodes,
this one being one of my favorites as I said,

361
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because of the mythology story.

362
00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:51,435
But a great opportunity
to work on a great series

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00:43:51,520 --> 00:43:53,715
and I am pleased that I had that chance.

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00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:04,719
So, thank you for listening.