Harley Friedman Assignment 02
Film Research
Essay
Blade Runner is a film about an ex-police officer Rick Deckard who is called back into duty after finding out that four dangerous humanoid-like androids, called replicants, are hiding in LA. The replicants have a short lifespan, so they have come to Earth to find their makers and somehow get more life. As Deckard is learning more about the replicants, he's shown a psychology experiement with one that ends up killing the interviewer. The Chief threatens Deckard to hunt them after Deckard initially declines. Deckard goes to the Tyrell Corporation, who is responsible for making replicants, to start his investigation. He meets Dr. Tyrell, and notices that his assistant, Rachael, is a replicant that truly believes she is human. Later in the movie, Rachael tries to prove that she is human to Deckard by showing him family photos, but he finds out that the memories are implants from Dr. Tyrell's relative, and she has an emotional breakdown, which makes her seem more human than android. Deckard find's Leon's hotel room and finds a picture of Zhora and where she works. Deckard kills Zhora, and then later is told by the Chief that he has to "retire" Rachael as well, and is left in a dilemma and doesn't want to. In the meantime, replicant Roy tracks down Dr. Tyrell and kills him after being told that there is no way for Roy to "gain more life". After this, he goes back to one of Tyrell's colleague's apartment, where he finds Deckard and chases him and tries to kill him. Deckard barely escapes, and actually gets rescued by Roy, who shortly dies after technical issues. Deckard goes back to his apartment to meet up with Rachael, where they then flee.
The film emphasizes on an under-exposed scene heavy with shadows, and bright neon lights present to contrast them. The color scheme mostly consist of blues and oranges, sometimes ranging into greens and pinks. This plays well with the film's noir influence, as by abstracting elements of the scene and characters, the viewer is left with a sense of mystery and uncertainty.
Words to Idea + Thesis Statement
This movie is Dark, Mysterious, Dehumanizing, Furtive, and Dreary
Visual Research (Inspiration Board/Collection)
Exploration/Formulation (Style Board/Examples/Studies)
Exploration/Formulation (Motion Tests)
Story Board
Title Sequence starts with digital tree forming, showing the company that made the film.
Bright abstracted lights appear through the text to demonstrate that the characters are not completely transparent, but also not opaque, which questions if they are good or bad. Also, the colors are dull in the screenshots, colors will be more vibrant in the final edit.
The lights are mirrored resulting in a Rorschach-like effect that shows the double-sided nature of the characters.
The text fades out as the lights fade in and take over, reinforcing the idea of the mystery of each character.
Over time, the background abstractions start to overlap and build on each other to show that the movie gets more engaging, yet unclear as it reaches the end.
As abstractions fade away in the end, the title of the movie appears.