Colegio Adianez

Blade Runner 2049:

Loneliness in Modern Society Portrayed by Cinematography

Adrian A. Morales Salaman

English AP

Mrs. Beatriz Riefkohl

4/8/2024

Research Paper
 Abstract

Blade Runner speaks on the theme of loneliness in modern society in many ways

including its landscapes, artistic cinematography, and the atmosphere. The story follows a

protagonist that battles with loneliness and isolation in an increasingly modern and dystopian

world. I used articles from interviews with the designers and VFX team leaders in order to get a

deeper look on how these landscapes came to be. Not only this, but I also speak about the places

where some of these beautiful shots were filmed. They created such a movie that could go

completely without saying a single word and be by itself a beautiful massive work of art.

Introduction

Blade Runner is one of the most important movies of this century. It points out important

questions about our society and the path we’re going on. A path which isolates us from one

another and creates a lonely and artificial life. The story and screenplays for all of Blade Runner

were written by Hampton Fancher. Hampton Fancher, along with Michael Green, was

responsible for writing the entirety of the movie’s screenplay. This beautiful screenplay was then

adapted just as beautifully in the movie by the director Denis Villeneuve. The director does an

amazing job with building the cinematic world of Blade Runner, one that goes perfectly with the

main themes it carries. Blade Runner speaks on the theme in many ways including its

landscapes, artistic cinematography, and the atmosphere.

Blade Runner 2049 is a sequel to the movie Blade Runner, the events of which took place

almost 30 years before this movie. In Blade Runner 2049 we follow K, which is short for the

protagonist’s serial number “KD6-3.7”. K is a Blade Runner and a Nexus 9 replicant whose task
is to retire or in other words, kill outdated Nexus 8 replicants who are rogue and threaten society.

While on the job he accidentally stumbles upon a secret that has the potential to destroy the

society they have as they know it and cause a massive replicant revolution. This secret leads him

to track down Rick Deckard, the protagonist of the first movie “Blade Runner”, who had been

missing for 30 years. The fact that K is the only one who finds and can know about this secret

other than the rebellious Nexus 8 replicants which he is supposed to be “retiring” forces an

already extremely lonely K, down an even more lonely path in order to discover the truth. While

on this path we see how K struggles through daily life as the world around him forces him to stay

lonely and isolated.

VFX

The head of texturing with Framestore Montreal, Michael Borhi, speaks on the

advancements and changes in his line of work. He is quoted as saying “The unpredictable nature

of production work, due to a mix of numerous factors (scheduling, artistic direction) requires us

to work more intelligently, relying heavily on non destructive workflows that enable us to output

iterations of our work that keep pace with production demands and deadlines”. We can incur

from this that a massive project like what Blade Runner 2049 was, would take lots of intelligent

work. Michael Borhi had a very important role in the building of this movie. Due to the fact that

he was the head of the texturing team helping these massive landscapes and beautiful shots with

VFX, he was responsible for the coordination and administration of the team that created the

beautiful details in these scenes.

 Another very important person in the creation of the scenes in the movie, who was also a

part of the Framestore Montreal team, was Adam Goldstein, the Lead Texture Artist. Adam

Goldstein, speaking about the Vegas landscape, said: “Denis Villeneuve wanted a very specific,

desolate look. A lot of the usual bag of tricks we use as CG artists was thrown out. For example -

moving sand, blowing from hero pieces such as the statue or the car. Pieces of cloth swaying in

the wind. Moving reflections (of the drone's lights on the windows) which really looked nice.All

that had to be thrown away because they brought life to the shot”. Still with these tests and

difficulties Goldstein and the team were able to create one of the most aesthetic shots in the

movie.

The Vegas Scene was incredible at portraying the isolation and feelings of solitude our

protagonist felt at the time. It really set the mood for how the plot was going at the time and built

by itself a foundation for the developments that occur in the scene itself.

Film Locations

The filming for the whole movie only lasted for 4 months, from july to november 2016.

The first opening shot of the movie sets the expectations for what all the landscape shots will be

like for the rest of it. It is a beautiful, aesthetic, but eerie scene. This opening shot was filmed in

Spain at the Gemasolar Thermosolar Plant. In reality the plants seen in the shot are digitally

copied and edited ones, because there is only one single solar plant. This just demonstrates the

ability the production team had to create such a landscape and atmosphere using regular places.

The second massive landscape scene of the movie, which is shown as a desolate looking massive
area of farmland that cannot grow any crops because of the destruction of the ecosystem, was

filmed in the sea of greenhouses in El Ejido, Almeria.

Another way they opted to create some of these massive structures was by going back to

the basics and like in the first movie “Blade Runner” using miniatures. Not only this they built

the massive buildings from the Wallace Corporation in Budapest, so at some point some of these

beautiful rooms seen in the movie were real and you could walk through them. It is impressive

how much dedication was put into creating these massive aesthetic shots. It definitely paid off as

well because these shots are some of the most beautiful and artistic shots in cinematic history,

every single one of these scenes could be its own art piece. Watching the movie is like walking

through a gallery of art. It is also quite incredible how they aren’t put there without reason. Each

scene, with its colors and detail, has something to do with what the character K is feeling at the

moment. They do an amazing job at portraying the character’s emotions through the cinematic

shots, gorgeous landscapes and the atmosphere they build around these, usually emotions of

loneliness or feeling small and unimportant in the grand scheme of things, which is

foreshadowing to the end of the story, where K really realizes he’s not what he began to believe

he was, he was not the replicant child, and instead dies an unsung hero.

The Framestore team also spent a lot of time working on the atmosphere for the shots

specifically. A big example is again the Vegas scene, where the team had to work around to have

the vivid burnt out orange look work properly and make audiences love it. “The extremely

orange and hazy environment is not something that people are used to seeing”, said Saint Girons,
and he is right, but they made it work in such a beautiful way that you can’t help but have your

eyes glued to the screen admiring the work this team did.

Conclusion

The amount of work that was put into the movie by the film and production teams was

incredible and created one of the most important movies of the century. The atmosphere, massive

landscapes, and beautiful cinematography complimented the journey of the character K every

step of the way. While K went through this journey of loneliness and isolation, the atmosphere

built around him complimented him and the plot every step of the way. The scenes put into

perspective the solitude that comes with such an artificial life. The massive landscapes and eerie

atmosphere helped us understand and feel through them what K was feeling, and the

cinematography tied it all together and really pulled us into the movie itself. The movie uses

these to demonstrate what modern life can really do to us. It also serves as a warning to us to not

let ourselves get carried away by modernity, it can lead us down a path where we feel nothing

but alone.

Bibliography:

1. “Blade Runner 2049.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt1856101/plotsummary/.

Accessed 8 Apr. 2024.

2. “How We Achieved the Iconic Look of Blade Runner 2049.” Foundry, 4 Dec. 2017,

www.foundry.com/insights/film-tv/iconic-look-blade-runner-2049.

3. “Blade Runner 2049 (2017).” Script Slug,

www.scriptslug.com/script/blade-runner-2049-2017. Accessed 8 Apr. 2024.

4. “Blade Runner 2049.” Framestore, www.framestore.com/work/blade-runner-2049.

Accessed 8 Apr. 2024.

5. “Blade Runner 2049 - Opening Sequence 4K.” YouTube, YouTube, 9 Mar. 2021,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GdA8d1VWWo&list=PL_KY_n7slCM7-mMuIfuHuqWo

V86M18Hn4&index=1.

6. Moon, Ra. “Filming Locations Guide: Where Was Blade Runner 2049 Filmed?” Atlas of

Wonders, Atlas of Wonders, 29 Jan. 2024,

www.atlasofwonders.com/2017/10/blade-runner-2049-filming-locations.html.

7. “Blade Runner 2049.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt1856101/locations/.

Accessed 8 Apr. 2024.

8. IMDb. “Denis Villeneuve | Director, Writer, Editor.” IMDb, IMDb.com,

www.imdb.com/name/nm0898288/. Accessed 8 Apr. 2024.