It’s one of the greatest moments in science fiction: How was the opening scene of Blade Runner created? – Cinema news

A living legend of visual effects, the genius inventor Douglas Trumbull notably created the visual effects for science fiction masterpieces such as Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, those for Star Trek and those for Blade Runner.

Three films each time earned him an Academy Award nomination. Without forgetting, of course, his tremendous and wonderful work behind the visual effects of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. A work that entered the seventh art pantheon, thanks to its visual and revolutionary effects that had never been seen before.

In November 2016, we had the honor of speaking at length with the professor who sadly left us in February 2022, in particular about the creation of the film’s famous opening sequence. Blade Runner; The person concerned is also called Abyss landscape. Obviously, “Hades,” for those who don’t know, is a reference to the god of the underworld.

The film’s hypnotic opening stunned even Philip K. rooster. After watching a short 20-minute montage, the latter announced in a January 1982 interview that… “That opening is one of the most stunning things I’ve ever seen in film.”

Below, the opening in question…

“Ridley Scott He approached me and my partner Richard JurisicTo create the special effects for Blade Runner. At that time, I was going to start working on my next film, Brainstorming, through my new process called “Showscan”; The film was produced by David Begelman, who was the CEO of Columbia Pictures and was behind the film’s production Encounter of the third kind.

He was allowed to achieve great success in this film. In fact, the film saved Columbia, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. However, David Begelman was fired from Columbia and took over as president of MGM. He was the one who finally suggested that I return to directing.

That’s when Ridley came to me to do visual effects on his film. Richard and I told him, “We can start making it, as long as we start as soon as possible. But halfway through production, we’re going to have to leave to make our movie. So we need a third person to help us with this task.”

David Dryer Then he joins us; He was an amazing VFX artist and supervisor. So we were able to make our transition with him during the production of the film; He completed most of the visual effects we worked on.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Blade Runner: Same Battle

“One of the interesting things about producing Blade Runner was that we actually had the equipment we wanted because it had been used in the filming of Close Encounter of the 3rd Kind. All the cameras we used, smoke effects machines, lens flares, etc.

Everything was already tested, so it was also a huge financial gain. You should know that Blade Runner was a very low budget film, and we only had a few visual effects shots; Something in the neighborhood of 85 takes, where we did over 350 takes on Close Encounter of the 3rd Kind.

If you look closely at this level of visual effects, you will see great similarities between the two films. The illuminated theme of the film’s opening recalls the mothership from Spielberg’s film. It’s exactly the same lighting, the same technique used, the same camera lens… same for the deer, including Harrison Ford, where we used the same Lens Flare effect and animation effects.

The fact that we had previously developed what we called a smoke chamber, crossed by a whole range of light rays, was also crucial; This was exactly what Ridley Scott was looking for. A very foggy atmosphere, due to pollution, where light passes with difficulty, shadows, and rain. He worked on this aspect a lot with his director of photography. Jordan Cronenwethas well as her own production designer, Lawrence J. Paul“.