G.C.S.E media essay : bladerunner

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Olivia Lee                                                                                                             11.DM

G.C.S.E  media essay : Bladerunner

The film I am looking at for this essay is Bladerunner. This film was released in 1982 and directed by Ridley Scott. It has a 15 rating because there is quite a lot of violence, blood and some scenes of a sexual nature which would not be acceptable for younger children and teenagers.

The target audience is late teens and young adults because it has quite a complex plot and is very far from reality, so a younger audience may not understand. Bladerunner is in the science-fiction genre because it is about the imagined future and what technology could do to out planet and society. In this essay I am going to explore and analyse the first 20 minutes of the film. I will look at all aspects, for example, characters, camera shots and costumes, then decide which aspects are most effective for a science-fiction film.

At the beginning of Bladerunner the director grabs the audience’s attention by having a black screen and the opening title in blood red. Haunting music playing makes the audience automatically sense that this film has violence in it so they watch it to see if any violence starts.

After this, scrolling words come up from the bottom of the screen in plain white on the same black background as before, some words however are in red which immediately draws the audience’s attention to these particular words such as ‘replicant’ the red colour of these words provoke thoughts of blood. While these words are scrolling up the screen, there is an occasional drum beat to break the silence. This helps to create an almost sinister atmosphere before we even see anything more than writing. We then see ‘Los Angeles, November 2019’ in big bold letters before we see pitch black with only lights from buildings, suddenly there are bolts of lightning and fire this is very strange for the audience as this is not how we can currently see Los Angeles, in fact it is the exact opposite. The height and expanse of the flame is huge; it breaks apart the dark sky and this does shock because it looks like something unnatural, which again creates a very disturbing atmosphere. This zooms in to show one building, the Tyrell Corporation. The amount of tiny lights leads the audience to imagine the enormous size of it. We then get a flash shot of an eye, reflected in this eye are the flames and explosions this gives the audience the feeling that someone is watching over all this and has control. This opening certainly meets the expectations for a science-fiction film because we are already starting to see the modern technology that has driven the city to be in that state.

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The first characters the audience meet in Bladerunner are Holden and Leon. Holden is dressed in a 1940’s style brown suit. This makes him appear superior in comparison to Leon who is dressed in a blue, prison style jump suit with an identity number on it. This gives the audience an immediate impression that Leon is a bad person or else he wouldn’t be in prison. Leon shows the audience that the place is not meant to be comfortable for him as he looks very uneasy and rigid as he sits down where as Holden is in his comfort ...

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