Blade Runner
Blade Runner: A technical ReviewRidley Scott's film Blade Runner is a 1982 film that depicts the future of the world in the year 2019. The setting takes place in Los Angeles, California. The set appears to have a half earth, half space look to it. The complexity of the buildings and the set plus the coloring and the constant fog give evidence that this movie was not filmed on location but instead in a specially designed studio. Harrison Ford plays Deckerd, an ex-blade runner who is given his old title back in hopes that he will stop the five Nexus 6 Replicants that have escaped from the off world to earth. Through the use of mise-en-scene and cinematography the director was able to foreshadow events as well as to portray the cold and dark attitudes and feelings of the future. Lighting and colors are an important aspect in mise-en-scene. The opening scene starts out by panning slowly over the dark and foggy city. Mountains of fire are spit up into the air. The use of light, in this scene, helps to set the feeling for the entire movie. The city is dark and foggy like the Nexus characters. The fire spitting into the air gives the viewer a feeling of war. This foreshadows the war bet
Two aspects of cinematography are the duration of an image in a clip and the speed of motion. In most scenes, the image is held in the clip for a long time. This is to put emphasis on the tension and stress that the characters feel as they slowly move through the world. In the scene where Pris and Deckerd are fighting, the duration of the images are short as the camera moves from one character to the next showing the struggle in both of their faces. In the scene that Roy plunges out Mr. Tyrell's eyes, the image of Tyrell's eyes and the blood dripping down lasts for a while. This is to show the anger, resentment and pure evil of the Nexus 6 Replicants as well as the strength they have. This scene also represents evil putting evil in its place. In the scene where Rachel kills Leon the camera focuses for an extended period of time on Rachel holding the gun. This portrays the importance of the fact that Rachel not only saved Deckerd's life, but she killed one of her own kind. Agai! n this is an example of Rachel being portrayed as good and not evil. When Roy dies, the camera switches back and forth from Roy to Deckerd, holding both characters in the viewpoint for extended periods of time. Also, they both appear to be motionless in these clips. The use of this technique is to portray the emotions and the ease that are now running through Roy as he surrenders and dies and through Deckerd as he completes his mission. In the scene where Pris is dying, she is shot and then falls onto the ground. Her body flips around and as the light hits, there is an effect of electrocution. This is symbolism that although appearing human, the Replicants were actually more like computers. This is example of fast moving motion. At the end of Roy and Deckerd's fight, Roy saves Deckerd from falling off of the building. The shot shows Roy pulling Deckerd up very slowly as if to show his strength is fading as he slowly starts to die. An example of a long take is when Gap is drivi! own in the entire movie are once in the beginning when Deckerd comes to the Tyrell Corporations to test Rachel and then again at the end of the movie when Rachel and Deckerd drive off together. The lighting in all other scenes appears to be artificial and dull, usually illuminating the character's faces from the side. This gives the viewer a feeling of death and an over all state of depression. Without mise-en-scene and cinematography being as important as they are in a movie, a lot of ideas as well as the use of imagery would be lost. These two ideas add many aspects to film making a
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1724
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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