“Blade Runner” Three Decades Later: How a Masterpiece of Production Design Left Its Mark On Los Angeles (and Vice Versa)
April 18, 2010 § 29 Comments
Downtown Los Angeles, 2019, in "Bladerunner"/Courtesy http://www.inchrysis.com
A version of this article appears–along with new, unpublished essays–in my new eBook, “On Blade Runner: Four Essays.” It can be purchased for $4.99 at:
Other eBook sellers that have it include Amazon, Kobo, Baker and Taylor, Copia, ebookpie and Scribed.
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Really drawn to this image. Who has the copyright to it? The inchrysis link doesn’t work and I would love to use this…Thanks!
Warners Bros. owns the copyright; however, my use of the photo is in accordance with the Fair Use Doctrine of U.S. copyright law. You might want to check the definition to see if it applies to you.
Actually, this image was created from scratch and rendered in I believe, CryEngine 2, the game engine by CryTek Studios, creators of the games Far Cry and Crysis.
Your assertion that WB owns the copyright is questionable, as it’s not a scene from their movie.
It’s derived from the movie, though, and Disney has certainly had some luck asserting copyright infringement in such cases. Although studios don’t bother suing unless there’s money to be made, they certainly have intellectual property law on their side.
[…] For those of us who first saw "Blade Runner" in theaters, the first nighttime street scene –Harrison Ford, as the blade runner Deckard, wandering through acid rain in a wrecked, neon-lit downtown Los Angeles–is forever etched in our brains. The street life of the future is chaot … Read More […]
I was blown away when I first saw this film. The mood was perfect, the music so right. I even liked the voice-overs by Ford which were put in solely for exposition. It matched the retro-futuristic feel. Such attention to detail that really put you in the future.
I was a little surprised that others didn’t care for it, but I guess they went expecting something more like Star Wars and were disappointed. Seems strange now, after seeing Ford in so many different roles, but at the time folks only knew him as Han Solo.
Some damn good commentary on a damn good film.
Pretty sure this is a rendering that someone made post-Bladerunner, and not a film still.
One clue: the logo for the movie Brazil in the middle left, which was not released until 1985 (Bladerunner was released in 1982.)
Good observation, but since it was photoshopped from a production still, Warner Bros. still owns the image.
Actually I found out the image is a competition entry for a video game concept by a team of 3 artists. It is all in virtual space with no photoshop work…see here if interested…http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-751436.html
ultimately, warner bros still holds copyright to the imagery but the work is of the artists…
[…] Scott is better at production design than anything else (see: Alien, Gladiator), and Blade Runner is his masterpiece. There’s […]
But Scott’s not a production designer! From Jodorowsky to HR Giger, Chris Foss, Jean “Moebius” Girard and Dan O’Bannon there are huge contributions that are often overlooked.
Scott’s a great director and has pulled off some of the most memorable moments on screen, ever. Bit let’s not forget the exceptional work of visionaries such as Moebius, Jodorowsky and Giger.
I never said Scott was a production designer, but there’s no doubt he strongly affected the look of “Blade Runner.” Using “Metropolis” as a model for the Tyrell headquarters and making the street scenes “look like Hong Kong on a very bad day” were his ideas, as interviews show.
[…] “Blade Runner” Nearly Three Decades Later: How a Masterpiece of Production Design Left I…April 2010 7 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com, 3 […]
Ok, so late last night I caught wind of there being talks about the creation of a new movie in the Blade Runner universe. I also learned that so far, Ridley Scott is not involved?! How can you even talk about making a Blade Runner without Scott at the helm?
Read More: http://www.shawnmichaeladamsonline.com/2011/03/blade-runner-prequel-talks-where-is.html
I totally agree!
[…] I wrote about the film “Blade Runner,” just over a year ago (https://underthehollywoodsign.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/blade-runner-nearly-three-decades-later-how-a-…), I never imagined it would be the most-read post on my blog, with 7,332 hits to date. After […]
i understand ridley scott is planning on remaking ‘blade runner’ in the uk next year. – i imagine so noone else can! imagine what the new production designer ( no doubt arthur max) will be able to create given the technological advances
scott is just completing prometheus – his follow up to ‘alien’ over here at pinewood studios, and then early next year onto ‘blade runner’.
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Traditionally overlooked in commentary on Blade Runner, including this piece, is the role of P.K.Dick in both science fiction writing and film… while Blade Runner is a bit farther afield from the original story, Ridley Scott and a young Harrison Ford do a fantastic job of creating an eerie, and quite plausible future world. Not sure we will get there in 7 years, but maybe not too many more.
The reason the article isn’t about Dick is that his work is outside my area of expertise. Although that hasn’t stopped anyone else, I prefer to write about what I know, i.e., film.
If any of you are interested, I wrote a book that looked at SF and architecture with PKD as a major influence (and a chapter on Blade Runner)…not too cheap unfortunately but thought I’d mention it…http://www.amazon.co.uk/Architecture-Science-Fiction-Film-Ashgate-Studies/dp/1409407489
[…] looks like a more Blade Runner world setting than the previous trailer (which was incidentaly 30 years old on Tuesday, the film […]
I wrote this piece more than two years ago, on April 18, 2010, but just removed the “nearly” from the title.
I was living in downtown LA and working in Hollywood at the time that Bladerunner was being filmed. My shift ended after midnight and I had to walk a considerable distance to get back to my room on 5th … around 3 a.m. I was walking down Broadway and blundered right into the set of Bladerunner. I had no idea what was going on but it was very, very cool indeed … the storefronts had fake facades and all those little shops & restos were atop trailers parked in the middle of Broadway. Pretty trippy stuff when you’re half-awake & dead-tired …
To me, Bladerunner has always been the best LA movie of them all; it caught something indefinably melancholic and dangerous about LA, especially being downtown in the early 1980s well after midnight.
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