Being a hunting society it is likely that their huts would be constructed from the remains of the vast Skywhales that they kill. So the shape of the whale bones and the colour of their skin determine the look of the alien villages.
The voices for the alien characters were made by Robert Llewellyn and Bernie Evans, two members of the alternative comedy group – The Joeys. They worked from an English script and translated it into the alien language which they developed. Their first attempt all sounded a bit like an obscure East European language but they hit on a method of talking only on the in-breath. These noises were then electronically re-pitched and fed into a harmoniser. The results sounded unlike any language we have on earth but in the film the characters give the impression of understanding each other perfectly.
