How Genre and Narrative are represented in the Opening sequence of the film Blade Runner.

        Blade Runner falls into the category of Science Fiction as in terms of genre, genre is the French word which translates literally as ‘type’. Films of a specific genre follow and utilise similar elements such as character types, settings, etc. These are known as conventions of the genre. Science fiction has been popular since the early days of cinema when George Méliès astonished his audience with special effects combining theatrical tricks and photographic techniques to portray a landing on the face of the moon 'A Trip to the Moon', (1902). In the 1930s and 1940s audiences enjoyed the fantasy adventures of comic book heroes such as Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy and Captain Marvel and in the 1950s there was a massive revival of interest in the genre -partly due to the anxieties of post war relations between the USA and the USSR, a fear of the effects of new weapons and increasing reports of UFO sightings. Although Stanley Kubrick’s '2001 - A Space Odyssey' (1968) had great impact science fiction did not become popular with audiences again until the late 1970s with 'Star Wars' and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' (1977). The special effects created for these two films set a standard for future productions. Budgets for this new type of film were huge but so were the potential profits - the commercial possibilities of film merchandising were first realised with 'Star Wars' and the popularity of science fiction blockbusters continued up to the present day with the success of films like 'E.T.' (1982), Jurassic Park (1993) and 'Men in Black' (1997). Blade Runner also contains elements from the visual style of Film Noir in its unique presentation.

        The sequence I am studying contains specific generic conventions in the sequence, from this we can break down the meaning of the sequence and how it helps present us with an expectation of the film we are about to see. The first thing we see at the start of the sequence is a view of Los Angeles in the year 2019, it shows a vast cityscape with the whole horizon packed with buildings and flying traffic. Towering city blocks with huge advertising boards adorning the gargantuan buildings, it is what we would expect of a city in the future but it also presents us with a new look upon the world in the future. The sky is blackened, no natural light is present, and the only light in the whole of this sequence is from various buildings and sky scrapers. This shows us a very bleak and generic way of life as we expect from  Sci-fi films as they usually show civilisation to be larger (building compacted together) and a lot more advanced in technology (flying traffic), and this is evident from this initial scene. Sci-fi also presents us with the notion of travel (intergalactic and otherwise), this is shown to us as we start to descend into the street scene. We are placed at building level looking towards the sky at a blimp advertising ‘the off world colonies’, as this shows and represents the notion that man has mastered the technology to explore and travel beond our earth. As a convention about science fiction genre is space travel and mans relationship with technology, this Is fairly represented here. The film then presents us with an ‘obscuring mise-en-scene’ as we descend into the street level scene, this is to show us how these people in the future are living their lives, there is a great squash of people in this scene with people walking by. There is a general confusion around this part as there is so much going on, sounds, music talking, as the camera decends to the people in this scene the cacophony fades in as we drop with the camera and the confusion is created here. We then travel through the crowds and fall upon our main character Rick Deckard.