Hey guys, I’m Dev and I think Denis Villeneuve is going to knock ‘Blade Runner 2049’ out of the park.
The director of ‘Sicario’ and ‘Arrival’ is fusing his stylish modern vision,
with the props and practical sets from Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic.
All those moments will be lost... like tears... in... rain...
The insane detail of ‘Blade Runner’ set a new bar for science-fiction worldbuilding,
And its cyberpunk visuals inspired the careers of directors like Christopher Nolan and Guillermo Del Toro.
So let’s take a look at the people and the process behind the practical effects of 'Blade Runner.'
When Philip K. Dick wrote his extremely weird 1968 novel,
‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’
He set it in the distant future of...1992.
For the adaptation, Ridley Scott moved ‘Blade Runner’ to the unthinkably far-off year of 2019.
As a director, Scott is extremely hands on with the visuals and design of his films.
He wanted ‘Blade Runner’ to feel like a depressingly realistic version of things to come.
So to design his scientifically plausible world, he hired futurist artist Syd Mead.
You know how Steven Spielberg hired a think tank to design the eerily accurate future in 'Minority Report?'
That’s what Mead brought to the table for ‘Blade Runner.’
He considers science fiction “reality ahead of schedule.” which is the greatest elevator pitch for a genre.
Anyways, his vision for the future has been sought by everyone from electronics giants to Hollywood studios.
He designed the light cycles in ‘TRON,’
The Sulaco in ‘Aliens’
And even Johnny 5.
No disassemble
Scott originally hired him for just a few days, to create the flying cars called “Spinners.”
Eventually the crew built 25 working vehicles based on his iconic design.
Organizing the mechanical detail systems which made it look like it actually flew.
It was an internal lift idea called an aerodyne.
But Mead’s sketches were never just a vehicle on a white space.
He always drew intricate backgrounds to provide mood and context for his concepts.
The director took notice, and kept Mead on to design the entire environment of ‘Blade Runner.’
And you can bet he kept his original $1,500 day rate too,
which was probably a factor in the movie going way over budget.
You know what else wasn’t cheap? The sets.
In Syd Mead’s 2019, technology is a trap for people in society.
The rich live in massive skyscrapers that blot out the sky,
And decent people never go below the 60th floor.
The street level particularly had become like the sewers or the underside of the city.
And being trapped on the street was not only just unromantic but a thoroughly nasty way to spend your life.
To film ‘Blade Runner,’ Ridley Scott used the classic New York Street set on the Warner Brothers backlot.
You can see it in noir films like ‘The Maltese Falcon’ and ‘The Big Sleep.’
It’s even in ‘Batman Returns.’
But it won’t look anything like Rick Deckard’s L.A.
Thanks to an actor’s strike, the crew had more than nine months to retrofit the old exteriors.
It took 400 workers and way too much money, but the results were absolutely worth it.
Everything from the police badges to parking meters are thought out and built to excruciating detail.
This parking meter is a kind of miniature example of the whole visual concept of accumulation.
The post's mechanical case becomes electrified, so if touch it or try to attack it you get electrocuted.
Scott filmed at night to hide the very non-cyberpunk green hills in the background.
And he used lots of smoke and rain to hide the cheap materials he was forced to use,
Even if it made the set pretty unpleasant.
The conditions we were shooting in were so unbearable.
It was boiling hot, it was wet, it was damp, everybody was sitting in their underwear shooting.
For on-location shoots, they did the same process to other spots around L.A.,
Including the landmark Bradbury Building where the final fight takes place.
‘Blade Runner’ uses icons from the past as a springboard into the future.
Whether it’s classic film noir tropes,
Or vintage buildings from the old Hollywood era that gave birth to them.
But the sets were just half of the equation.
Let’s talk about the special effects.
There aren’t actually that many effects in ‘Blade Runner.’
It’s not like the organic Replicants need any fancy makeup or animatronics,
And Roy Batty squishing Tyrell’s head is the only real gore.
There are just 90 effects shots in the film,
But they blow the world wide open.
The matte paintings and miniature work turn a cramped city set,
into a sprawling urban hellscape.
They’re the work of VFX legend Douglas Trumbull.
He was the special effects supervisor on ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’
where he developed the slit-scan technology used in the Stargate sequence.
Most of the tech used in ‘Blade Runner’ he developed for ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’
Which, incidentally, he turned down ‘Star Wars’ to work on.
He built huge cityscapes out of brass etched with acid,
And stuffed them with miles of fiber-optic cable connecting thousands of tiny lights.
His crew also used kitbashed model parts to flesh out the skyline.
Basically, they took apart hobby-shop models of spaceships and military vehicles,
And cobbled them together into something almost brand new.
If you look close, you can see an extremely well-hidden Millennium Falcon.
The ‘Star Wars’ crew repaid the favor by sneaking a Spinner into ‘Episode I.’
The models were built with forced perspective techniques,
Designed to trick the audience with the illusion of size.
It’s the same gimmick Peter Jackson used brilliantly in ‘Lord of the Rings.’
Trumbull imposed a matte painting in the distance,
And used motion-controlled cameras to record multiple layers of effect elements.
Every billboard, screen, and spinner in the background required a seperate precision pass with the camera.
And the end result is nearly seamless.
The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure!
From giant picture windows to rainy rooftop chases,
Blade Runner creates a beautifully hideous world of technology gone amok,
All without a single digital effect.--
Let’s take a closer look at the famous opening scene,
Which the crew called the "Hades Landscape."
First of all, this miniature is extremely impressive.
It’s only 13 feet deep and 18 feet wide, but the perspective makes it look like the city stretches for miles.
Filmed against a black background, the room was filled with smoke to simulate the dense L.A. fog.
The fiber-optic lights interacted with the smoky air to create a sense of depth.
Now, the massive Tyrell Building pyramid was a 9 square foot plexiglass model.
The crew painted it black and scratched out tiny squares for the windows,
Then illuminated it from inside the with one giant light.
Unfortunately, it was so hot that the pyramid actually caught fire and melted after a long day of filming.
RIP Pyramid.
But don’t worry, you can see a surviving section up close at the Museum of the Moving Image right here in New York City.
When all was said and done, it took 17 precisely choreographed takes,
to combine all the explosions, aircraft, and lighting effects into ‘Blade Runner’s’ cyberpunk inferno.
And the resulting scene is the perfect visual introduction to the surreal science-fiction world we’re about to enter.
When it comes to depth, immersion, and impact,
It’s hard to top Ridley Scott’s legendary vision.
For a sequel 35 years in the making,
It would have been easy to just stick some big-name actors in front of a green screen and call it a day.
But Denis Villeneuve is going the extra mile to make sure his world measures up to the original iconic dystopia.
Just like the first film brought detective stories into the science fiction future,
‘Blade Runner: 2049’ is bringing a cinema classic back to life for a new generation,
And paying tribute to the same effects techniques
that changed the game 35 years ago.