Seg Ewlale ane ...the journal of cinematic illusions Ss Pon Se cr Reruns Crd Rd So Robert P. Everett Pree ey Catena aa Re oad PO en Re UTC Rees ee ree Ly Peo reenter eenteaney ee ccs Rea URLS SU Mes side, Califoraia color separations by ViviColour, See ee un Td Sa em ore at without permission is prohibited mee oer Rie cee eee es Pend ec er ee teenies ey id ea eee Cee eee ana Eaten ee and eae ee Biriainamains revraaest scores et sa eee eet eee ree eae Spicer ert ees ESAT ter Tee ree aL Pere eter Sree eetren imate rear further dimension are decor of msllare photography Dave Stevat Perret at ee a er ey rina ron emer cet etd Pree Kee eg ne roe een ee og eee ees ie eed Peek Lee eS Pre reed Pe are rea eee eee en De ee et ee enn et ee eer ea are ee ere tet eee ee Pere on os FRONT COVER ~ A police spinner slices through the skies in Blade Runner. De ee ae eetee sa 2020 FORESIGHTFour desperate fuglves...twent-thre brutal murders... 2 former supercop mustered out of retirement... I the Ingre ents Bade Fuser seem vaguely falar itis ony Because ‘hey have formed Ie basis fora whole subgenre of movie mew dramas stretching back ahalfcentury or more Whal sets Blade Runner clearly apa, however. the stage upon which these familiar elements have been played. The yea i 2020. The place "an unspectied magalopolis blighted by the mutually reinforcing pestilence of overpopulation and pollution, Four replicants ~ genetically engineered humanoids developed for ‘oftworld warfare and slave Tabor ~ have hijacked a shuttle feturned illegally to earth. and in trated the sprawling cy. Veteran bade runner Rick Deckard — playedby Hanson ford {sasslgned the dfica lask of ideiying and exterminating the renegade quasi aumans In the afterglow of hs phenomenal success with lien ditector Ridley cot had been engagedby Dino De Laurentistaapply his Dighiy-naividualized expertise tothe oft abandoned Dune pro ect year later, however: the scrip had sill not developed into Something Scott considered ilmable: so he sled overto Blade Runner, wich was being produced by Michael Deeley for Flimays Pictures. lade Muner’s passage tothe screen wasto Dove almost a convoluted as Rs plot when Filnwvays began Duckling under tne weight of inanclaloverextension and deta eo ettison the $15 milion production only acoupleof months before principal photography was to begin. Decly, however, vas able to Lor the projet around and less than two weeks Tater lade Runner was regenerated on The Burbank Studios lot lander a complex financial infrastructure involving The Lad Company, Tandem Productions and Warner Brothers. Near while. the preproduction effort proceeded vitally unaltered Frome tart. the urban ensitonment set forth inthe a iad been ane of Riley Scott's primany concerns. I came In on the projec after the first screenplay had been written ~ or after the frst presentable screenplay haaben writen, so who knows how ‘many other drafts had been done before then. Butasaresut the indications by the miter sbout what the city was ike. what the World was ike and what the environment was Uke, wet alte Inthere at twasreally beyond description. From thereto the Dont of how you actualy cary it out is along, long road. And mainly that was cooked up by designers and ilustratrs and et fects people That'always the inal Interpretation of any screen play ‘lade Runner represents a significant departure ftom the novel upon mich it was based — Philip Dick's Do Androids Dream of Hectic Sheep? ~ not ony i terms of pot structure but aso in ems of environment Dick oresaw a post Holocaust ‘Nord in which most ofthe plant's animal fe had become ex tinct and in which te eat population centers had atrophied In the wake of widespread off word emigration. Te ety pt forth in the fm, however i teeming with if — an overabun ‘dance of ie, in fat. “The cy we presents overkill,” Ridley Scott adits, “but_lways get the impression of ew York 3s being overall. You go into ew Yorkon&badday and you ook around end youfeel this place Is going to grin ta a male any minute — which neatly oes al to aten All you need is a garbage strike ora subway stike or an electrical blowout and you have absolute chacs So ‘we took that idea and projected fory years into the fuure and ‘ame up with a megalopolis — the hing of city that could be ‘where New York and Chicago join with maybe abundted milion ‘people ling there. Or maybe San Francisco and Los Angeles. It fact at one point we were going to cll the city San Angeles, Which Woulg ofcourse have suggested that the eight hendre@ rilelong western seaboard had been transformed into a single opalation center with gant cites and monolitac buildings at elther end and thea this suange kin of awful subar inthe i le, thought the lea was Interesting but the ly’ now been ‘moved tole East Coast because it's raining so mich, “anyway, seemed to me that ln such a prosentam there ould be alot of air traik. picked that up from hefactthat use fo In and out of New York a lot over a period of about five Yeats. hac belore they stopped the helicopters iandingon topat the Pan American Building, twas seven minutes from the al pot tothe rot, and I could remember coming in in January or Tebruary ~ in blizards and nigh winds ~ and landing on tne Pan Am Building We used to dif in over the ety. very lose to the bullings. and it et Ike the wey ofthe fate, Uimatey. {hey stopped it. There was arash af some sort and they decided it was olay unsafe. But when we started workingon this, seemed logical to me that there’ be aot of alr afi — prob- ably witha handoff asa system of some sort— and every ‘nilng would have a landing platform on is rok. Forty years ‘may bea it oon for that, but Isomeone had projected in 1910 or whenever It was the frst Model Twas bullt — that you'd ‘ome into the ofc every morning with ten thousand other cars vingtiy-fve mlesan houtiteen feet apart. you dprobably Ihave sald "You're fchin’ crazy’ So, fom thereto some fore cy where the World Trade Center might be hal these of some ‘lier buldings, and where rolores ump e platforms are on every rooftop s not temiblyfaretched. In fac. tsa totally Togieal process te way the word's going now. ont suppose there ae golng tobe housewives fying around Manhattan for a Jong time: bt would think very soon they wil get back to the ‘dea of that original Pan Amercan helicopter. So we proceeded {nthat cretion. The fst vehicles would be ple. The police, by then, willbe paramilitary — they e already paramilitary in ‘os Angeles. Then there abe corporate an otter offical vehicles, and already you'd be creating a netuva traffic Jam inthe a But ‘Weal agrcd and fl that that was pretty mac the way the ‘les wll go. And also, fruit as avery nice visual noon.” twas infact the visual potential nerent in he profec hat ‘Rickey Seat found most ntrquing. And so. while theseripwent ‘through a series of progressive rewes ~ sty Hampton Fane cher and later by David W, Peoples — Raley Scott turned his ‘rimaty atlention tothe overall ook of thei, "Before bring produton designe n— no mater what the gene wet ong {Ce attempting ike to vale conceptual ihstror ot two, Just ogee Ideas owing, nas a proces that worked ter} wel ferme on Men when ebse I, Gige an on CODD Tho peopl wo were tll steeped inthat reso inking andnad nem devcap aot ote dsigs Ros good production ‘esgnersean de igs wha thcvow experience ten wll for within the eal ef their own elerencs, wich cout be Soon or whatever Bult lake im production designer and ape ito poke hse one level that vant nog Detiod whieh tes a forty to sty ear nto fhe fare Tren Ards, becawse ne Iwas touching "ea ute {helogial hing to do wast) tod god indus designe, ‘ho ins probably worhg on proleconsazeady saya. {About tree years ao, Bought a book cle Sentech tresSyd Meats book an whch was really very teresting be ‘Gcucltnadeery rote pofectionsaboutveices and instal {sign done or eeeyay fom General Nolo to wasting ‘Machine companies to computer manfacturers, What | epe layed waste ot thatsyaeat suture seamed toe wel {rounded in og and that's what wanted for Blade Rarer ‘Tate to be turtle without bl ly” “orginal {vaste (0s veil Ypesr the move” ead vealed. “And fromthe very ist netting we Stintely ‘nen thatwewanteaa fying eave inte sr was led 2 pimer S01 tought to myseihat we want fing cat, we Soul’ wart lding wing or aft of competed pars Wal Tetded ou ocollapst tok i, nad tobeasetconttned, ‘ied ting | new sbour an enclosed sytem called an cro sje, whlch te as pep ofthe lamer verteal aot [Platraf tne orton nave me aerodye ations out produce {ik ntemaly, without wings ox enything tal and wl the Hare doesn fact have wings fo frwar ight. Ite es oF the cae were going to ptendUat you cold generate al Contolied Mt intra an vent Rot trough the atom. 50 that waste arto tees We weed aso ofa clan shape thatcousrotalong te grundonhelsana blend wcatic tute alto mated t shape that looked tel would do what i ‘suupposedtdo wien st. That sy we hate enclosed Shoot back, because we needed some ceeton tunnel he thrust when you Tetakingoandlning Ande ower Dart of the car had the wheel suspended ot aon for mach esa reason, so you could det and deflect the steam forward nd wp and down, and not bare te whole oot end of theartn on afalthaSetwas basta at distal eign proach to the poten "ane Fd done some nl ea sketches, rough tem sacha wet over them ith Rey. snd hoaght they were toosieck Actual, el that way tbat thought he gia ‘ray to go about I would be to design the vehicles aU they outioenornal eicies-consimertens--30youdsart at! With avery ola, ea ooking ple of machinery. Ten the Testaagewouldbetoloadtupelinsonemoresuso det entertainment fffcts partners Richard Yuriich and Silent Running, Close Encounters of the Thine Kind and star Teck ~ The Motion Picture — and af the te they were approached to do Blade Rune, Doin men were already inolced in reproduction on Brainstorm, reed. however to take on the Blade Runner -asignment, get up and running, and then turn the Supenisory reins over to a designated representative. cnverens » 7arson Ford stars as Rick Deckard a seasoned | para ek demeaning aon in fe aa ry asintate tele hte inuman society. 7 Director ey Sct cones eth ougis rambo test fn Ee superior was teas had daring ay teeactn sequence req inter optical enhancement ott asses 8 mate pnt rg conept wh fate designer Syd Mead and fects Superasor David Der. ger. Took ver for rumba nd sch mid though Princo photography ana sl he poe toh ta comlcton 4 conerex {ook too clean, So as time went on. we gradually degraded the ‘otiginal design by overlaying bits of equipment and things to ‘oughen up the texture. slike lf youse early renderings from Northrop or Lockheed on thelr ighter concept, they're ver. veryslek vehicles, Then asthey ran them through ests — state tests and wind tunnels and actual infleld use — they'l star altering the intake are or adding antenna attachments or maY- bealisream defectors. But i'll change ait goes through. and ranted to end up with that kind of addet-on det ook. Ifyou {hink back at what happened tothe VW Bug ove all the years ‘eas in production, you'l recall the increible coniguations that were done wit that vehicle asa basic unt. And Thad that in ‘mind as sort of a quiing theory of how the vehicles should end up looking” The striely funcional retrofitted approach st apple othe ‘rade Rumer vehicle designs would wmatly color the rest of the fim aswell. "he socal theory.” Mead continued, "was that the consumer delivery system had become interupted andthe larger energes in the system were being collected atthe top by Si arte congloneaes and wee bog spond of na fori explorations. Asaresl, Une capita delivery system to the populace was short crculed. So you had acar, you'd jst have t keep ft working. As the itis and alr become mae dense, you might have to buy new iting packages or another ‘ar conditioner that would goon the root of heavy-duty wind ‘Shield wipers — all sorts of aher-marketequlpment. which you always get anyway So we jus took al the tend in progress in ‘host selected departments and accelerated them. That's why the ears look sort of lumpy. and they have strange lights and at tachments and graphics: This car fs monitored. Do not tamper = youwillbe electrocuted.’ But youtook off this aed surface etal — the ight racks and al this stuff — it would be 2 very ‘srcamined very sleck vehicle, And thal made teal ~ which s very Important. When you'e creating an artiflal realty, you ‘angel to far-ou. You have to do wha te audience believes Is probably te way things woul look. ll he elements have to Took ike tey belong where they ar, and te have o explain themselves a they Mash by. Otherwise It doesn't work, and it ‘its a roadblock In the way ofthe story. “when m designing, Is hard fr me (othink of an object as Aoating insolation. I t's a car it has to be ona street. with some background detal 30 It looks ike it belongs where Its eventually going fo be used. So Inthe process af doing some Tempera sketches fr Ridley to look a. 1aiso putin background indications. 4 tead the script, and Vd been at meetings where Ridley and the others were discussing the feeing they mere alter $I started puting In background elements that thought ‘would help the Idea along so they could not only Just evaluate {hevehicle design, butlso see how kt might into the vishal a ‘mosphere we were creating as we went along idly liked some ‘of my ideas. 0 he said:"Why don't you take the New York street at The Burbank studis and photograph tnd see what you can do with this retrof technique?” ‘Thus working directly over photographs of te existing strug- tures and facades on the old Backlot and applying is custo. ‘manly acute sense of funcUonal rationale ~ Syd Mead prepared ‘elalled watercolor renderings ofthe future he perceived ein Ridley Scat’ mind. "The idea was that basialy Iwas going to De unpeasantto beat strectlevelinthe cites, Teolcity struc tures would stil be there. but the buldings might now be hollowed outand used as service acessor plenum chambers or the really big: megasirucures above them. Or maybe the Dullding Would be Tet where It was, but witha whole colurin built insides you'd have anormal fie story blldlng. and then ‘out ofthe top oft would bea bigpyion that would go up a hun- ‘red stories to the underside of another building. So there'd be allthis incredible changing scale. And | dont think isto far- fetched. i today we can Dull the World Trade Center whic Is {wo buildings, side-by-side, about eleven hundred fet tall, fe seems reasonable to assume that forty yeas int the fare — with Deter sees and tecology and computerized wind loa {ng and such — we could probably atleast triple that 2 fry ‘common occurrence. Andis also reasonable to assume that it thathappens the oler sections ofthe city — those closestto the ground — wil be the least desrable for ving and working, "So thought ift'sunplessant to looK out the window. with fat-screen TV — which isrellzabl right now's justnoton the market — you'd rent a service that would come and put 2 box ‘outside your window and you could have Nagata Falls ot snow: ‘apped mountains or whatever, complete with sound and mo- tion: And you'd end up witha residential wban area thal oks ‘sort ofl a warehouse dstrict because there's al these nay Boxes an things on the ousles of Buildings. Riley thought was really kindof a neat Idea because it produce a Uninhabltable look, but athe same time there was light actity ~ ite lashes coming out tom the match ins, and al. Sothat Slatted my Involvement with doing the stret se "The ather ting was that the street ses were going to show this accamulated progress. The buldings would just become surfaces on which you'd mount retrofitted electrical conduits, air conditioning ducts and all kinds of other ings. Adatonal Dower would come from a generator siting on the street — Wich might be therefor years, but milly It as a temporary ‘dea, And then these big cables would be running up the sidesof all the building. But essentially it was an industrial design ap- proach, because there had to bea very sold, mechanical logic behind that ook tke what twas. And what twas was cy whose discreet individual structures had been enveloped Into Sort ofan urban machine. with people ving Inside” Once 3p° Proved the basic treet designs were turned over to production designer Lawrence G. Foul who handled the dificult transtion from concept to reality. “My Ideas ~ a lot of them — went ‘through practically unchanged,” Mead marveled. "Infact. twas ‘spooky walking aroun that backot stand seing some build ings that were right of my Tempera sketch." At Riaey Scot's continued instigation, Mead transitioned next into some ofthelo crete Interior set design and eventually went onto devise most ofthe film's highly ditnetve props and fixtures. Twas clear right from the start though, that Blade Runner would require more than a retrofitted backotstret to suggest the scope ofthe megalapols Adley Scot anasyaMead were en ‘isioning Miniatures and matte paltings would be required ata Ininimuin. and they needed tobe ofthe highest qual if they ere to meet the increasingly dfeut challenge of suspending Audience dlsbeliet With high ambitions — bt limited funding > Scot ands asorlats visited the ndusry’smost prominent ‘ects felties and solicited bids from those they considered most key, “There are many effects houses In the United ‘States sald Scott “bt really It narrows down to about three ‘groups ~ Trumbull’, Lucas and Dykstr's And alvays ranted {work with Doug Trumbul, because {quess admire his stuff more than anybody else's. Doug is kind of scientist realy, and fan Innovator. And he’s a ditetor, so you're already fourteen ‘steps ahead on an understanding level” ‘Douglas Trumbull was not exactly ree and clea totake on the assignment. however. Aer Star Trek - The Motion Picture, ‘Trunbals contractual obligations to Paramount came to 2 lose, and the studo shuttered the elects fact in Venice and Sold ff ll the equipment which didnot specially belong to ‘Trumbull o his asoclte,Rlcharé Yuriceh. Trumbull, inthe ‘meantime, ha placed his own personal projet ~ Brainstorm — with Meto-Goldwym Mayer, Nevertheless, the Blade Runner {ssignment had considerable appeal ~ both ftom an aesthetic anda pragmatic point of view. “One. of the fist things that appealed to me about the project.” sad Trumbull, “was that It was nt a space movi. Just real tired of doing spaceships against star backgrounds. twas aso very impressed wih Raley Sct and hs abit to ex ‘ress himset, s well a his ably to draw while he's trying to Aescribe something Piste fact he had already come of Alen land had hada lot of experience with television comments — ‘hich sell a geal tal by fie, because commercials tend to Del of eects and camera problems and unique lenses and all that kindof st. Anathen to, they came tous early enough so we could ealy plan in advance what thelr needs would be, and Solve alot of the problems, buld miniatares, and get a lot of ork done before princlpal photography, In fac. we had never dona film before where we were ableto get as deeply intothe e- fects prior to principal photography as we did on Blade Runner. Soljust felt tha the whole project had aot ofcomponents going fort Theone hitch, ofcourse, was hat Dick Yrileh and were {na transition phase fom just being special effects contractors to Dick being the dretor of photography and being te dre: ‘tor on Brainstorm, So we told them in advance that Dick and | would design al the general approaches to solving thelr peob- fems and bull all the appropeate equipment. and in essence |usttry and soreallthe problems up fot and ty to make into sort ofa manufacturing eperation that ould then Be taken over by somebody we would designate”Although he would nt be called upon for several more mont the naval selected by Trumbull and Yueh to take charge In thelr absence was David Dryer. Dryer. a Phi Beta Kappa (Graduate of the University of Southern Calioena film schoo, ad no feature flim experience. but had extensive Background as {documentary fim efitor and a director of television commer (lal. Inthe eatly Seventies, Richard Yricich had served as {ssstant io Dryers regular cameraman ona number of omer {las produced at ZUE/Sereen Gems and Yuricch was impressed ‘ite young director’ creatutyandteehncal expertise. The ‘vo men had kept in touch over the years, and when Blade ur rer presented the need for supervisory relafrcement, oth ‘Trambull and Yurickh were in concurrence that David Dryer ‘would be an lal candidate, “The midstream managerial changeover was acceptable tothe ‘Blade Runner organization, but another malor obstacle was stl {in place. “When we budgeted tne fim originally.” sai Richard Yuri, “it came ina $5.8 milion t wasnt storyboarded oF anything a that point but we were able o break te script down {nd take a broad swipe at itn terms of me and labor materials ‘Apogee came in at about the same figure. Some other, Lunde. ‘sand, were even higher. The problem was that lade Runnerhad ‘only $2 milion reflects, andthat was t-~ period Unfortunate ly: inthis day and age, $2 millon sa pretty limited budget.” As ‘Mturned out, Blade Runner's associate produce, Ivor Powel. ‘wasnot only a longtime asoclate of Ridley Seat but also an old fiend ofboth Trumbull and Yurcich, dating back to 2001: A ‘Space Odyssey on which they had all worked. Together, the three hammered outa mutually advantageous agreement. The Blade Runner production company would take ove the effects faclty~ which Tambull snd Yarich had already leased back ffom Paramount asa preproduction bas for Bralsform — and ut whatever effets personnel were needed direct on the ‘Blade Runner payroll A Blade Runner auctor would bon hané to coordinate between te effects and production staff, and all ‘expenatires would be monitored and approved by the backers Since all expenses for personnel and materials were being borne by the parent company, there was no noed for markup. What it ‘made possible though, was for Douglas Trmbull an Richard ‘Yariich to share time between Blade Runner and Bralnsiorm — ‘and more important, allow them to reassemble their seasoned Staffofegulars and keep them together Unough both projet. Even wth the proposed arangement, however. there was.20 way {hat $55 millon worth of eects could be produced for $2 mil lion The script would have fo be reworked ne ofthe first things to go was an elaborate sequence which ‘nad been designed to introduce both Rick Deckard andthe env onment in which he operates. "We started originally on 2 tai,” Ridley Scot reveled. "coming in over this sort of desert landscape that was so bleak that ~ once aga, Iie the ty — You'd get the impression of overkill The tani very sophis- ‘ated “a high-speed monoral that would do four hundred ‘lesan hour But despite is sleekness, ts still plastered over with graffiti and shit. And except for Deckard — who's "sleep — l'sempty. rom therewe were goingtofolloy the tain into the city and then into the salon ~ which was going o be Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, because ike that Kind ‘offunny arettectureand¥'m sure stil be herein forty years time. Then he was going to get out of the tain and into his own ‘ar. You don'tknow how longhe's been away, but there's athick ‘oat offith on itandhe scrapes of the winéshiel wt hiscredt ‘ate gets nto thecarand pallsout onto thismassive sixteen lane reeway where ne hastowaitinachutefora gap, andthen: light bleep on his dashboard and he fannes into thls hore dus stream of afc. Tom ther, I's a hands-off thing, He sts back and picks up newspaper as his car is taken Into and through the city ta controled speed of say forty miles an hour. ‘Unless, ofcourse, there's a traffic jam — whlch there just hap. ‘ens tobe. & bleep comes through onthe vidsreen inside his ‘ar andthe guy atthe other end say" Blade Runner Oe, where {the hell have you been? And he says “On holly. Where ave you beent” And so you learn a litle bit about the character 25 he's being brought in. Tey want him to comet the precinct ‘mediately, and hesays he can't— he's on the Paxton ramp and {here's sixteerTane trafic Jam and hel beat eas two hous. ‘So they tll im to abandon the vehicle ad they’ pick Ri Up. [esraining, but he does some bution pushing ad then us els ‘utofhiscarand tarts jogging back through the trafic acon: ‘ete toner whichis supporting the freeway. The vehicle on futomatk; so when the trafic slats to move, jest be std of the routeand into the next avallable parking area. He goes upon top ofthis eeway tower and into aking of concrete mushroom Yehich ke a eally small airport ternal with pate gs al ‘round t and al sorts of businessmen Inside. Lie Ue ta. k's ‘very sophistcatedeoking butal grafted up an sushy ~ be: ‘cause i's snowing up there, Deckard gets himself hot drink land sits down and continues reading his newspaper. Then he's bleeped on the intercom and he stands, rows hls paper fn the ‘rash, dumpshis up of coffe and walks ou through some glass ‘doors onto tls concrete ip which looks kind of ikea platypus Dill Apolce spinner settles down onthe ramp and Deckard ans across in the blizzard and elms Inside. ‘By the time the original script was fully revised, the antic pated number of ellectsshols ad been reduced by well over half = split more of less evenly. between reasonably stralghtfor- ward mate paintings and some rather complex miniatures ‘Trumbull and Yuricich agreed thatthe work could be done within the allotted $2 milion. They wantedhiry-eght shots,” Trumbull recalled. “At that point. they didn't know what the shots would be, but apparent Alien had had thirty-eight effects ‘Shots and so they had tat fora frame of reference 2s to how ‘many mate paintings and miniature shols they probably need to pull te story together. So they were specfcn number, but ‘olin content. Within those parameters asuptousto design and compose the shots, develop a storyboard that represented {he shots, determine how big and to what scale the minagutes ‘An exterior and interior view Of the spinner, designed and rendered by Syd Head. The Fina potce cruiser was but ‘one of a halidoren stincive vehicles Mead devised during Ms init Inleement with the fim. AS {the project progressed, Inoweuer, his responses tere broadened to include ‘most of the exterior set esi, plus few interior concepts and numerous Juturteariet,seta icc et ees sr te ens tocay would serve 35 he Joureton frm which tly ee ries ra ‘mes larger than my exetence would pring, M sree eel he oer uldings would stl be presen = refed inh cabs and ducting ad ‘olan with garish neon tepecting a projet sot ‘urban etic makeup. Sed ead traniaed these ideas ino ata colo "ahich served os bases much ofthe set contraction. Pine notre but nous seldom sect New York see! "et ~ relncanated and forty year to the Titre ot Bade Rune 12 omerexo should be bull, how many of them should Be bul, anc then try {ocommittoacourseof acon that wouldget maximum Wiles {lon nthe fim and an absolute minimum of waste, And Think we realy did a pretty goed jo n terms of teehnigu, though, It's all extrapolation fom a lot ofthe tings we worked out on ‘Close cneounters sing the smoke room, ad StarTrek wth 8 ot ‘of flying vehicles and ens Maes, and te optical compositing techniques we've developed and have wse¢ for long ime. Out Dlagest allege. Uthink. was to develop a feeling of mmense scale to the clty the idea of having something tke New York lth aloto yor sixty story bullalngs that are parte ln Scape: and then above that. these megasiructutes ~ as Ridley called them ~ huge stractures that occupy several cy blocks land go way, way Up many hunted of stories. And to get that Sense of scale with a combination of matle paintings and ‘miniatures, using Dulldings that you know the Seale of in the foreground and megescuctures behind them to throw them ‘back bat aso make them look ig ~ i's justnoteasy, In fact was one of our most diMleul things — finding those funny Blends of lighting and scale and aerial perspective to make really look as bigs Riley wanted.” In the eld ofspectal effects, Douglas Trumbull and Richard ‘Yuech stand alone in thelr ae of 65am fn Sock forall com poste work. Like VistaVnfon, 65mm provides an oversize are ‘tea whic tends to dlogulse te image degradaor inherent in ‘Optical duping. Signiicany however. the 65mm frame Is ORY percent lager overall than YistaVision, and in widescreen ap. Blicatons, has dhe added advantage of possessing Beary the Same aspect ratio a the 38mm anamorphic production footage wite which tis generally inert. n te sume aplication, the VistVision frame must be cropped top and bottom. thereby saciflcing nearly Ut percent o its total image area. Overand bore basic fl format. Trumbull and Yurlleh are tkewbe “nique in thelr use of double or multipass traveling mates — ‘as opposed ta bluscrcen — ard in ther employment of aterme- Sate duping stock in tele mate photography. Tormalzng tet fong-stanaing ip under the name ‘exertainment ects Group. Trumbull ana Yurcch began gathering a core group of seasoned veterans for the Blade ‘Runner project. Ason both Close Encountersand lar Trek. Dave Stewart was engaged as ctectar of miniature photography. Mat ‘hey Yurlcich~ Richard solder rether —wascommissioned'o ‘execute the matte paltings. and Greg Jein was approached to ‘supervise the mode construction, Kobert Hall who had worked (Close Encounters but had subsequently Joined the Univeral artlandteam, would return to take charge he optical depart ‘ment, Whlle he remainder of te crew was belng assembled. the facity — whieh had been striped othe wallswhen Paramount pulled oxt— was being repattioned and outfitted by engineer dg chet Evans Wetmore. Meanwtile. around the comer In ‘separate pllding, the model shop was coming together under ‘the direction of Hark Stetson, wh was ling tn a5 Greg dein representative wile Jeln nished yp sper comaitments to, "Prancis ford Coppola's Ove from she tear. ‘neat the fist, and most ‘asignmentsfortheeffets anit was the design and construction ofthe Tyrell Crporatln ‘headquarters and its Immediate surroundings. "Ridley drt havea clear idea of whether twasabuldingouton the outs of town. or big bullding right in town,” Douglas Trumbull ‘recalled, “and tdi’tseemto resolve self n the script. rank ly. Lean’ remember who came up with the idea but we finally decided on palo pyramid shaped buildings out nae middle of this vst sort of industrial anescape, ace that was decided, ve had to get together very. very Fapialy. because they were about to stat zrincial photography andthe frst scenes were Scheie for inside Tyres ofce — which was suppose to be near the top of one ofthe pyramids, and which had thi eat bi sifice window that looked out over the otner one, Since that was going tbe done with font projection, we had to prepare the Process plates right away.” Trumbull called a meeting with Sesignerillutatar Tor Cranham. model stop supervisor Mark ‘Stetson plus afew thers, and together they worked pa basic approach forthe pyramid design. "The iter ofthe fyrel oF fice building was going be ths monolithic concrete and steel att deco siyie and Carry Paull showed us some ideas and Sketches or thal. We used those as babs fr coming up with some ofthe exterior deta designs fr the pyramid. forthe bas Siructare. though, we decided to go aller sot ofa classic pyr mld shape." ‘Tom Cranham was tasked with formulating a speci design for the pyramid, Cranham, during afourcen year assclaion with producer vin Alen had contributed storyboards and pv ‘duction illustrations fora string of disaster epics, ranging fom The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno to suck notedly lesser efforts 25 me Swarm and When Time Ran Out Daring 2 subsequent preproduction stint on the fll Buck ‘agers project. Canam had occasion to meet Doug Tumba fand 2 year or 0 later, when StarTrek came along. Trumbull hired him (0 assist in developing the Spock spacewalk bit. Tollowing tha, Cranham spent we monthsin London as special assistant to Peter yams on Outland, contubuting — uncreited = the intial designs forthe im'sshttlecraft and lustrations ‘ofthe ConA 27 exterior. Mis lade Rumer asigument was Ont) Sligntiy more down-to-earth Doug tough that a good starting point would bethe Mayan pyramids in Mexico in ermsofabasie ‘Shape to work from. Arehteturally,theyTe Very interesting. Iecause they have big massive blocks o tone. and in contest they have these steps that ran up the centers that the surface area are broken up with diferent textures, They alo have vert ‘runners that run upto the tp. with gargoyletype fgares spaced along the way — which suggested to Doug that I You ‘conceive ofthis pyramid as being a mile high. then the pots where the gargoyles were could perhaps be landing reas for spinners or helicopters or whatever else Dey chose, So hat Was the starting plat and {just wen rom there. One ofthe iter ‘sting design aspects (tnought, was the exterior elevators —‘14 4 owerexoWhich were huge and could carry massive amounts of cargo. 1 laced these in the area that cortesponded tothe saison the ‘cual Mayan pyramids. So in essence, the clevatos would take Yyou up the side ofthe pyran in much the same way thatthe Mayans used to go up on fot.” Indeed. Cranham inal design ured out in a matter of days — was remarkably faithful ‘houghout to the anclent stone edifices on which It was mod: led. What sti dstnctively apart. however were eight tower Ing butressespostoned in pals around the base slight part from the multtiered structure and cocked over at an angle cr responding tothe pyramids elevation “The buttrestes, I ee, Were my great conbution, Without them. think Use pyran would have Been a much less interesting shape. ‘Once the basic concept was approved. Cranham prepared a ‘etalled drawing which was then turned over tothe model shop, By thistime less than amonth remalned before thestartof prin cipal photography, andthe Tyre fie interior werestilslated forthe fst days shooting. Convinced thatthe pyramid could rot be completed in time fo the intl font projection plates, ‘Trumbull advised Ridley Scott and the producers ofthe act. and assigned Matthew Yuriich to produce an appropriate painting which could be photographed and used instead. "Even though the overall shape was agreed upon fly eal. Cranham con Unwed, "there wassil the matter ofthe amount of detalling and watt snoud ook ike tomake the pyramid realy fascinating looking structure — detal-wise — over and above the basic Shape. Doug Kept impressing upon ie that ths bullding was Supposed to bea mile high and that had the mass of maybe @ thousand Empire State Buildings or more: and the detail had to be minutia personified, so tha no matter how smal we got the etl, we could’t possibly make I too spel or too smal. ended up doing jst reams and teams of thumbnall sketches of Specific detall teas. Ten | put them together into aarge draw Ing that represented about half ofthe param. Iwas ike dong a igsaw puzae, because I wanted the detlled areas to bein teresting. not only in themseves Dut also in hw the relaed to the detaled areas around them.” Meanwhile the model shop launched into the base shape. “Tirstwe bull afoam-core mockup,” sald Mark Stetson, “and ‘that was used a6 a study model so thatthe form could be ‘evaluated for camera anges. Foanrcore board isa composite Structural material that’s used alot In motion plture work or bullding big lightweight Mats. Basically I's paperboard with a siyrofoam center ~ about aquarterinch thick ~ and itcomesin Tour by-eigntshees. Sols more structural than cardboard The pyramid, nat, was particularly strong because the pyramidal ‘Shape is actually avery high-strength shape. Inthe end. that ‘mochup realy saved us 2 ot. because Doug had originally env Sloned the pyramid as a slteerfoot model so he could get tmnough depth of field on it.The mockup we di was only eight Feet, But when he saw the stl photographs of the approach to ‘our hafscale pyramid, he said: "That's fine. Thal’ enough. [And that really saved us alt of time. The detall we applied to ‘Model shop crew members (hrs Ross. Michael MePilen and Wayne Smith reposition {a preliminary Toar-core rep {resentation ofthe Tyrell pyr “mid. Intended original 3 halscale mockup, the ‘ight oot structure was to rove doubly useful when Subsequent photographic {ests indcated that tas ‘leady large enough 9 hold Sufficient depth of fel. As a result the fra pyramid ‘Could be made tothe same Scale. / Working from dozens of thumbnad sketches, Tom Cranham pre Dares a detaled drawing of {he pyramia'steraced fae. extrapolating from ‘ranham's bask destan. ‘modetmaker Bl George ‘etais a master mold pattern {ohich wil later be repeated in clear casting resin and Symmetrcally repeated round the monolithic ‘Stueture. ‘Joh Vidor ‘scrapes palnt away fram designated window areas so {he model can be simply rom ioinin. / Crouched inside the pyramid, ris (Greag ada fishing touches to the highly detailed miniature conerexg » 15Ihe butetes were constructed over hot inboxes and detailed by cts ss, ho covered tht mtd outer surfaces ~ fist with random andes ems on hghconast him, nd the th ti separate lye of eae titted brs. 7 Once Complete, the tttreces ‘tere postion pars round the be ofthe param. The fhe Tauclre was then transported tothe EE Stooting Sages where was ‘are and protographed nhs large "oma tt camera fo produce tne fra projection plates reed forthe fist ‘ns snot: to cinerex that pyramid was very delicate and fine: and frankly, Lea agine doing one twice tat size.” “Once the overall siz was eiminished it became theoretically possible to complete the project before principal photography began. "Lighting the model was always @ major concern, ‘Stetson continued. “Iwas supposed toe acity unto se. wth ‘thousands upon thousands of ight sources. And we knew that If we tried to fiberoptic. we'd have to live with round light sources — and we d have ive with an awful tof work 50 to ‘ave that ber optic step inthe pyramid body. I Uhought about ‘going to a clear casting technique, We experimented with ‘arlous urethanes and stu and found that clear polyester rein Was perfetly adequate and alot cheaper. Iwas always ou plan {ouse amold-mahing technique. which allows youto put alot of ‘effort into a master o a series of asters and then have them repeated enalessy, Since the pyramid tequited petty accurate _gcomety, our foam core mockup camel very handy asa gui. We cut acrylic template patterns tof the mockup accuraely and then we worked on them for our rubber mold patterns — Setlng them wit trips of styrene an limited model it parts Bil George dld most of that. Then we made our rubber molds Sknce there's always 4 natura shinkage In rubber molds, we ‘were concerned about the geometry holding up inthe resultant castings. As 2 result, we decided to ry cutting acrylic panes to {he orginal pater size of al the pecrs we had used to assem De the original pyramid shape. The molds we prepared by sprayingthemistwitn a primer coat andthen wth an opaqung fla. Ater that we'd pour in clear casting resin and then push the precu aryl pleces into place, which stretched the rubber ‘molds back to thelr orginal sie. When te polyester cued, It Cred right to the aryl and those sandwiched shapes then Dbecame our structural pioces— which were transparent except forthe outer skin that we'd opaqued inthe molds. “After he pats mere cast and preliminary assembly began, we put a 2K light source behind the partially built pyrami. and ‘John Vidor = ina pairafheadphones anda Sony Walkman — di nothing but scrape windows fora week. We'd made itl cise Tike cutting toolsout of acto knives andby using those he was able to scape the opaque palnt away and make these Ite ‘Iateenth-inch quae windows. Even though it was an angled [pyramid face, it was a terraced pyramid and there were areas {hat were obviously assigned to windows. ot wasprett easyto scrape, bit It had to be dane na random patie so that it Joke lke there were light in some windows. and in other win dows there werent. Te buttresses we did in diferent ay. ‘They mere basically hollow lightboxes wih layered artwork to convey a sense of structure and to break up the light Into ‘ecoghizably architectural patie. Chrls Ross id almost al of ‘hat. isthe would lay downa plce of high-contrast film wth tandom window pattem ont, Over that he lai 2 reqular rid of rectangulry etched brave sheets and then over that Was Yet ‘nother gid of brass that was a litle more decorative — not ‘uite a5 regular and ig. All together, the elect Tooked tke you’ relaoking through the acade of massive lee ofarchite: [Mt hind which wan fame that broke up the winds, eid which was the highrcntast fim at suggested that Some ofthe window wee it nd some were mk And once deni. we were ble to get an afl ft oto ied invest iment in master herr of al hs na ht wih fou ve “Sal yorescen bulbs per bites pus» baru 5 lamp imide the base strc, we ad the whole yr IR An then tor dal we went ack wih ot prety mich stateat ne artanaightsand afew fiber optics hercand there. jut toad ite meen to The Overall ues structures da, however generat some early concer among the model alr. "When st put hem Sn!"Yom Cranhameplained." Marka some oe gs nthe ‘ode! shop hough hate ought out coms nto support tiem tothe bck, Tey fe ta ang eae nds of ae fares at suc angles would cause gravity to al em down But tm feng ns that atts point nthe ature they woul have ‘acral designed towiistand suchstresss Arent thee ate {Eminated materials mach tke honeycon = vey ght "lbh ch eae eng han el eas ‘Sowtonetenth the weight So tome wen conceabe tat these strates ofthe future couldexst those angles ant ‘listand ay wihoutany problem. timated tnesupports tere et oot ad lod. brent think ty would have destroyed some ofthe geomet ofthe bul,” The nal mitre tncudingthebuttesses— wasn feet squares te bse, oranda etal and repeenedosly {he top tmoties of ronham' egal eign. The fl Dyranldshpe wvld be ested ony monger shots anor {hose grated clesot mach sae minaes was panned ‘Wen Douglas Trumbull sate competed uppe porto, how ther ne secie tas perfect adequate yet and So he Seti hed was simply deleted fom the neal concep, And Since the approved starboard Involved ony unireiota Ayoys et te ase pyramids the model hop found Ines Sar to bull only a wosdedsruclre "We concentrated. of ours, on thowe ates that had een sarboarded for close Snover and wnatna" ale Steton. "and we mace up alt OF perm for tose areas So where mas important we ha as ‘xpanses wth no apparent seams ~ excep on corer and ma Jordstal nes where they belonged. Then for theless important eas aeasbehind the batressesandonthe ler parse Drama ~ we chopped up pattems that we had already made [ta jus reansemble them ke agsa pure Working at breach pce the model ce shed the ale pyramids wee belo heir already acserated dea st Sore in tne fort oe potstape nage oat il ‘hotographes Vig Man, enna by ars att Cy [Rtg ‘and readied In tne forthe main units tt ay of ‘hooting the yeotice set, Coonaling ays with de: torotpotogaphy Jordan Gnenweth, Daogls Wumbull and cna Yuren treaty aligned one of tet Gorm matecameras tothe 810 plate poet which had nt seen exten Sie use on Case tcouters and ont projected he Ist Completed pjramiainto tne expansive window aes of Lience Fa simponngst creating ramatcactrop for Destard’s tito the corporation heacquartes andi fsesting Counterwi the enigma Rochac Mathew Yrkich ws ad Sten put hee wees non te wrsed backup paltng, mas Dyno means ff the hook bower ne Thetis ree ys were pent shooting inthe Tel ofc.” saidfichardYricen "We broke sala ein font projec fn and bck the whole st That eases sof problems Deca the nearer othe asf projcton You get amp sete’ ging ayo coming owas you Se more he you ae to hae problems wih fare. that waste lok fey was aher anh Douglas sound thes tsach ao titre that cant be broke. So we bac te Mle seta though the son were jus above the hort, and placed the lights caretulyin such aay thal we hada maim cht fect wth aminimu offre ne bean sptr Then we ad togobsckinand.dosmat pasting torte Sper portion ofthe frame both opin clouds andthings bttmoresoto de the festhatwedputsboe and behind te srecn tog eet “The pitig asignment nla enough lta Mathew Yarkich, "The way the abot woe 2 up ne ot precio Sereendidnreaclltheway to te tpet he ame sted trig through the ky ate. We very ic oath Jalnting though sty ana Rkey wants sme mds yyy Sotto xt everhing tat ear oun te the tops ofthe Beads" adn to those are ofthe Frame tha eres mate ptng chs erhanced Porton ofthe lnesction cause the set hing, was Predominant fom the ear some of he foreground cums Ende up being carter than deste. Yo remy the sation, Yarcch painted just the Sigh suggestion oft meer: posed ress nto sate otra Sint Se ena areas were Below the designated matte, when he overal paling was Dhvisvaped thse areas were ts superimpose! the Previously under defined ire acon to provide supoementa Highlight and deta nasa ecmique Yorke wat oemploy ‘onseeral oe Blade Runner paintings a wel "tere fac twa died tat sine te oie scenes were seheavy taki there should probaly aso bes vale un ‘Animation supervisor ohn Wash was signed tothe tas ‘Another US enema graduste, Nash had ha previous feature fim exeriene on Dark Saran had worked on graphs and empater animation or Star ars bat hn strongest nar had beenmadeinthearearinéepedent nus ins, 1 satin ‘bg and commercial fess ceo re andaecommends {on tom both David Dryer and ik asa aod end ascelte of Rina Yercch ~oeezed or i bile onthe Bade Runner team. Working csey wit hr wae animate, sorb troublesome reflections fom the inside. Though fabri is ‘generally used for routine photography, a dense nonporous Plastic material was employed forthe smoke room walls. "Mal way through the production,” said Dave Stewart, “the re de partment came in‘ inspection and told us we shouldn't be us- Ing it because i's very Nammable. Fortunately they agred to TeLusfnish the movie with but next ime itil hae to be re laced with rubber ~ which Ithink s probably pretty appropt ate. Ive always said that special eects needs a rubber room. Im actuality, the Mole Renardson bee smoke used In the smoke rom snot smoke at al butrather alow grade dese uel Which is vaporized ~ not burned — to produce a fine mist of, Suspended ol nthe alt. Though breathable. I-does nt provide fn ideal environment for longtenm human exposure, and so ‘ost ofthe crew members working inside the smoke room wear tering das masks. Outside the ror, the lguld stoke hace s lecrcally heated unt i vaporaes, and then its picked up by fans and blown into the tage area. A battery of fans inside keep the vapor movingsoit doesnot settle in clouds. Then, since most ofthe shots require very long exposures ~ sometimes running into hours — an optical smokesensing system Is employed to ‘monitor and regulate the smoke density infated ight bears ae directed acioss the sage to receiver unis and ifthe density isgeting low, the smoke machine is lggered to automatically ump more smoke Into the room. ‘Since the pyramid wasthe frst miniature tobe completed. and since the basi close-in photography of it would later need to be avgmented with various traveling matte and animation elements. A series of images extracted Irom Tom Cranham’s original storyboard for the opening Iiades fyoser and approach {o the Tyrell headquarters. Though essential, unchanged. the sequence twas orignaly to nave featured only 2 single pyramid. and the final Dverpass was fo have ‘revealed a hollow central core replete with clean air {and landscaped greenery.