Analyse and evaluate how effectively Ridley Scott creates another world in the opening sequences of the film 'Blade Runner'

There is then a straight cut back into the city again, except this time on the city streets. The city seems to be extremely over crowded and busy with high rise buildings lit up with neon lights everywhere and 'spinners', flying cars. The overcrowded city adds to the new futuristic world as geographers believe city's will become overcrowded with new, larger developments. A large electronic blimp then fly's in-between the high sky scrapers advertising 'Off World'. There is a diegetic narrator from the blimp describing 'Off World'. Scott then makes a camera change to a high shot looking down on a crowded street. As the camera pans in there is a diegetic sound of a flashing dragons tongue made from neon tubes. Also there are other diegetic sounds from the street such as shouting and the rain hitting the road. In the background of the street there is a sign on a wall which is in a strange language, which is not what you would expect to see in Los Angeles. This is also backed up to be a new world as most of the people seem to be Asian, which is strange for an American city. This is the first sight of the people that live in the city and this adds to the feeling of a different world. The ceiling in this street is very low and has large concrete pillars and bright lights, and as the street is full of people it makes it very claustrophobic. As many of the crowd have umbrellas this does not help the feeling. The umbrellas also add to the creation of a new world as they have neon shafts. Also the people are dressed in strange clothes that are a lot different to today's. At this point the camera pans in towards Deckard who stands out through the crowds as he seems to be the only American around. Once the camera gets through the crowd staying at a mid shot, Deckard gets called over to a noodle bar and you hear the diegetic sound of rain hitting the road and his newspaper. When he orders his food you hear diegetic dialogue and diegetic sounds of food cooking and crashing sounds you would expect in a busy kitchen. Also the audience would hear that the noodle bar worker cannot speak English, which is strange as once Deckard gets his noodles an begins eating, two policemen come over and start speaking the same language as the noodle bar worker. This is then confusing as Deckard asks the noodle worker to translate what the policemen are saying. This makes the audience wonder why the noodle worker changed language within seconds. It is here that you find out that Deckard is the 'Blade Runner' as Gaff reveals this to the audience. Ridley Scott puts this part of the scene in into the film to introduce Deckard as 'Blade Runner' but also to make the audience interested as you would expect Deckard to be the hero, not the villain. This scene all helps to create the idea of a new world. Deckard then leaves the bar with the policemen and there is diegetic sound of people running and rain still hitting the road and the spinner. This all makes the city a depressing place and not a great place to live.

Once Deckard and Gaff are in the spinner the is diegetic sound of the engine of the spinner and also the rain hitting hard against the window. However as the spinner begins to rise there is the introduction of non-diegetic music that makes the process of the spinner taking off very peaceful and relaxing and the takes over from the diegetic sounds. During the spinner journey the camera is of a close up of Deckard's face which occasionally switch's to look outside the spinner The higher the spinner goes there also seems to be a bit more light adding to the more relaxing feeling. As the spinner lands on top of the police station the building seems to be very modern and contemporary. However as the camera cut from a high shot looking down at the spinner landing to a high shot inside the police station, the station looks very old and not modern at all. The camera then moves through the roof of Captain Bryant's office and into the office, which also looks old rather than modern as the roof is very dusty and dirty. This scene helps link up the other scenes as you find out that Deckard wasn't actually arrested but he was in fact brought in to do a job. Also you find out who Leon is and why he shot Holden as Bryant goes through a slide show with Deckard. This helps the audience understand more about the new world and the technical specialist language used helps create the new world. In the room where Bryant is going through the slide show the only light is from the projector and this makes the smoke from there cigarettes stand out and makes the scene very much like a typical detectives briefing of a crime. The camera is at a close up switching from both Deckard's and Bryant's faces when they are speaking. The light being only a small strip occasionally shines across one of there faces making it look mysterious. There is only dialogue in this scene from Deckard and Bryant and also from the slide show, but there is also diegetic sound of the projector changing slides.

In the spinner once more there is very peaceful non-diegetic music as they fly to Tyrell Corporation. The spinners are made to look very elegant as they fly. The camera is either of a long shot looking across at the group of spinners or a close up inside the spinner where there is diegetic dialogue as Deckard is playing the recording of Holden's death. As the camera changes to show the Tyrell Corporation it is made to look large and important as it did in the earlier scene. Once inside the building Deckard is in a very large beautiful room which has a very peaceful and expensive feel to it. The room has very high ceilings and small gold pillars. Most of the room seems to be made from gold and it is filled with gold ornaments. The only light is from a large balcony filled with the sun. There is once again smooth flowing relaxing music combining with the glistening of the room to make is seem a wonderful place. Rachael then walks in and adds to the perfect feel of the room as she looks inhuman as she is too perfect. Her hair and clothes also shine as she walks towards Deckard and the sun. This part of the scene is all at a mid shot with non-diegetic music. A replicated owl then fly's across the room and there is diegetic sound of the owls wings. This adds to the creation of the new world as it shows not only humans are being replicated. There is then dialogue between Rachael and Deckard before it is interrupted by the entrance of Dr Tyrell. Tyrell then asks Deckard to do a Voight-Kampff test on Rachael. Deckard then asks Tyrell to dim the lights so he made a electronic sheet come down over the balcony to partially block the light, this shows that the Voight-Kampff test has to be undertaken in little light. As Rachael begins smoking, the smoke swirls in the light and makes it seem a bit less peaceful and more like a detective interview. Rachael is then made to look less perfect because of some of her harsh responses to Deckard's questions. Deckard takes exceptionally long to work out if Rachael is a replicant or not because Tyrell hadn't told her she was a replicant so she fort she was human. This shows how much depth Ridley Scott goes to, to create this new world.

Overall I think Ridley Scott creates an new dystopian world very effectively using clever film techniques. However for an audience today it would not seem very futuristic as a lot of the technology is not as advanced as it is now and many of the characters are dressed in 50s style clothing. However when it was first released in 1982, the audience then would have a different perspective of the future than what we have today.

Scott Beadle T10 6th June 2005