page_title: The Post-Modern Prometheus
section_title: Filming
hierarchical_section_title: The Post-Modern Prometheus / Production / Filming
caption_attribution_description: English: Basic layout of Angenieux retrofocus lens.
context_page_description: "The Post-Modern Prometheus" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files and originally aired on the Fox network on November 30, 1997. Written and directed by series creator Chris Carter, "The Post-Modern Prometheus" is a "Monster-of-the-Week" episode, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the overarching mythology of The X-Files. "The Post-Modern Prometheus" earned a Nielsen household rating of 11.5, being watched by 18.68 million viewers upon its initial broadcast. The episode was nominated for seven awards at the 1998 Emmys and won one. The entry generally received positive reviews; some reviewers called it a classic, with others calling it the most striking stand-alone episode of the show's fifth season.
  The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully was initially assigned to debunk his work. In this episode, Mulder and Scully investigate reports of a mysterious creature that has impregnated a middle-aged woman.
context_section_description: The first five seasons of The X-Files, including "The Post-Modern Prometheus", were filmed in Vancouver. It was the third episode of the program that Carter directed; He decided to film the episode in black-and-white—in homage to James Whale—which brought more challenges than he expected. The director of photography, Joel Ransom, had to spend longer than usual lighting the set because of the use of grayscale. The stormy skies in the episode, added to emulate the atmosphere of old Frankenstein movies, were a visual effect. Carter also used a wide-angle camera lens throughout the episode, which forced the actors to act directly to the camera, rather than to each other. According to Carter, it also enabled him to give scenes in the episode a more surreal staging than was usual for the show.
  The makeup for the character of The Great Mutato was designed and created by special effects supervisor Tony Lindala. The Mutato mask went through several design iterations on paper, including 10–15 drawings and a color rendition. Constructed from latex, and containing an articulated second mouth, it cost $40,000 and took between five and seven hours to apply. In addition to the mask, Chris Owens wore contact lenses and dentures. Owens later recalled that "the makeup had taken seven hours, and then I had sat around for three or four. And now I was going to sit in the dark, and I could only see out of one eye. They put a big contact lens in." Initial versions of the costume were deemed "too human looking" and so a newer design was chosen.
  Lindala also created "Baby Mutato" costumes for the twin infants featured in The Jerry Springer Show scene, but the production crew had difficulty keeping the costumes on the children. Lindala later said, "[t]he little babies kept tearing their hair off, we kept gluing it back on". Lindala was happy that the episode was filmed in black and white because it helped "the prosthetic [because] it is difficult to work in a foam piece that long and not recognize it as a painted, opaque, false translucency." Lindala later called the filming technique the "saving grace" of the episode. In addition, he later submitted his makeup for the episode to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in an attempt to be nominated for an Emmy Award.
caption: Director Chris Carter shot the episode using a wide-angle lens.
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