Case Study - 'Blade Runner'

Shots

Wide cityscapes:

Blade Runner features several moments that are purely wide shots depicting the 'Hades' landscape of Los Angeles in the future of 2019. These shots show some extremely strong and striking images of a polluted and perpetually night-time cityscape, establishing, without dialogue, an instantly infamous setting. Effectively, the birds-eye-view of the city conveys the scale of humanity's expansion and, as a result, shows how it has deprecated the world, plummeting it into darkness. The film opens with this but we move to the lower ground, giving the impression that the audience has descended into the depths and immersing them into this gritty and grimy world. For my film, 'Forgiven Force', I do not have access to equipment capable of aerial photography; nor do I have the materials to construct a miniature set. However, I do plan on utilising wide shots in the film in various capacities as, for example, I aim to use wide shots to establish a city for which the character is placed in, depicting the towering landscape with modern neo-classical concrete channeling everyone in their day-to-day lives. Despite this, the establishing shots will be used later on in wider, open countryside to give a feeling of vastness.

Close ups, intimate, claustrophobic:

Despite the wide, establishing shots, the world of Blade Runner feels more claustrophobic with its down to earth, dark reality presented through use of close-ups. In the shot above, the close-up is used more for the growing intensity as Deckard investigates a photo that leads to the discovery of a replicant. The scene leads up to this point, beginning from a medium-wide of Deckard sitting in his apartment and eventually drawing the audience in as Deckard gets closer to finding a piece of evidence in a photograph that will lead him to a replicant.

The close-up here contains both Deckard and Rachel after several shots showing them individually and, thus, with this one shot, it depicts how the relationship between the two is developing, growing. It efficiently reveals how they are both bonding together.

Music

The majority of the music in 'Blade Runner' is opposite to being a euphoric soundtrack but instead focuses on creating an oppressive, synth-heavy track. However, what makes the music so memorable is that these dark moments spark contemplation with the music often coupled with the scenes showcasing the city and perfectly encapsulates Deckard's, and the audience's, own reflection on the world that he is surrounded by. By the end of the film, during the Roy's speech, a less overtly synthesised melody crescendos to the emotional climax of Roy's death. The way the music is - at its least electrically enhanced stage, nearing the end of the film - reveals the humanity in Roy but also shows how Deckard has developed over the course of the film when listening Roy and then comes to realise the importance and value of life. As the music had built up to that, it increased the importance of that scene ten-fold. In my story, I, indeed, desire to utilise a similar and gradual change in the style of the music in order to also build to a pivotal moment in the narrative and present the change the protagonist goes through.

Colour

Notice how, in the middle frame, both the beam of light and Deckard's eye-level follow the diagonal lines that cross the screen corner to corner. The effect creates almost a V-shape in where the audience focuses their and attention which happens to expertly lead into the centre and the actor's countenance. The use of blue that fills the screen also aids in creating a cold atmosphere to scene which shows how mechanical and emotionless the mission is for Deckard, at first.

The strong usage of red in this shot articulates the anger that Leon has and connotes his violent intentions for Deckard, bringing a sense of danger and tension. In addition, it exposes the human nature of the replicants and furthers how they are just as human and, at this point in the story, are almost more human than Deckard.

When you use the same grid pattern in these shots, you see the method behind what is shown on screen and see that it's not random. To make images that are pleasing to the eye you need to strike a visual balance of colours and shapes, by looking through these apex samples from 'Blade Runner' you see that they planned the framing of the characters, props and environment in such a way that the layout and spacing creates a satisfying sense of contrast. The lines created lead your eye to exactly where the director wants you to look, all while developing the characters, story and world you are in, all while creating some beautiful imagery.

Whereas in 'Blade Runner' they use more in-camera, practical lighting to illuminate these scenes in a specific colour/way, I do not anticipate having that amount of resources for my film. Therefore, I will have to rely more - during the editing process - on effectively using colour correction/manipulation to improve the visual aspect and elevate the mood in scenes.

Blade Runner 2049:

A significant visual factor of 'Blade Runner' is its use of colour. In particular, 'Blade Runner 2049' broadens the colour palette of the original whilst also implementing colour at different points in the film for narrative effect as well. For instance, saturated oranges/yellows become intertwined with locations/sections of the film where some form of truth lies within. Varying up the colour palettes for different scenes can be a great way of adding variation to the mis-en-scene but this visual connection, through the use of colour, then layers intrigue and deepens meaning within the story and, once you begin to realise, becomes a much more efficient way of showing, rather than telling the audience the atmosphere of the scene. With inspiration in mind, I found that it could incredibly pertaining to a short story narrative as so much can be expressed with colour and, in fact, aided me when re-writing the script as I could place more emphasis on using colour to help show the change/progression of the protagonist's view of the world without having to say it. This saves time, keeps the audience more interested and saves on dialogue performed by actors that, admittedly, are not professional.

Narrative

One of the key aspects in the narrative of 'Blade Runner' is the character of Deckard and his development from hunting replicants to falling in love with one and fleeing. The symbolism that surrounds Roy becomes especially prevalent during the final act of the film, showing him impale nails into his palms linking him to Jesus as he, himself, becomes a martyr and plays a key role in finally making Deckard realise the errors of his ways. This awakening of a character is an area I wish to explore in my film. I realise, however, that this would be quite a challenge to do because of the nature of a short film not being able to provide enough time to showing this development. Reading a book, 'The Art of the Short Fiction Film' a memorable and enlightening moment was, when discussing the nature of shirt films, it states how it is difficult to show internal change of a character in the limited time but, instead, short films begin in one setting and finish in another. Thus, change is presented through the dramatic difference in the environment/situation the character/s start from and end up in. I took this as sound advice and altered my script accordingly. Before, I had it so that both the main characters would be presented as going through internal conflict and change but this fattened the script to an unnecessary degree. I found that drastically cutting it down to just the main character journeying through this made the narrative, generally, more concise which is right for a piece of short fiction. Furthermore, I made the environment the characters end up in different to the start because I felt that id the internal struggle wasn't shown as clearly as I would like then, at least, there would be that element of a short that will still maintain the audience's attention.