VFX Voice - Fall 2017

VFX VAULT
THE MINIATURE MODELS
OF BLADE RUNNER
By IAN FAILES
TOP: Christopher S. Ross checks the scale convergence of the Hades
Landscape. The artist drew the black silhouettes, in progressively reduced
scales, over Virgil Mirano’s reference photography of the El Segundo
refinery. They were arranged on 12” x 24” artboard panels from which
lithographic films were made. The acid-etching supplier used the films
to print stencil masks onto 12” x 24” brass sheet stock for etching the
silhouettes (similar to the process used to make printed circuit boards).
BOTTOM: The Hades Landscape model on the smoke stage set up on
tables with under-lighting. Fans helped control the heat generated.
In 1982, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner set a distinctive tone for
the look and feel of many sci-fi future film noirs to come, taking
advantage of stylized production design, art direction and visual
effects work.
Supervisors Douglas Trumbull, VES, Richard Yuricich and David
Dryer – via Entertainment Effects Group – oversaw Blade Runner’s
Oscar®-nominated visual effects; work that was completed at a
time when practical effects, miniatures, optical compositing and
real film (in this case, 65mm film) were the norm.
On the eve of the release of Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner
2049 sequel, VFX Voice revisits the miniatures of the original
film with chief model maker Mark Stetson, VES. He and a crew
of distinguished artists helped to craft many of the film’s iconic
settings and vehicles, including the opening Hades landscape,
Tyrell Corporation pyramids, the Spinner and other flying vehicles,
the advertising blimp and the Los Angeles city landscape of 2019.
AN INDUSTRIAL BEGINNING
Blade Runner begins with a slow push-in over a heavily industrialized
section of Los Angeles. Many were surprised when it became
apparent that the endless refinery imagery – known as the Hades
landscape – was largely achieved with rows of acid-etched brass
silhouette cut-outs in a forced perspective layout.
“The original thought,” says Stetson, “was that Hades would
be shot in a smoke room, it would all be backlit, and we would
build it on a transparent tabletop so we could angle the lights with
these rows of silhouettes. It didn’t really work out that well in that
respect – there wasn’t enough lighting control or depth in the
fine-scale miniature to separate the layers. So we decided to add a
ground plane of cast-detailed parts to the foreground.”
The ground plane structures were painted quite roughly to make
the buildings look ‘aged and crappy’ – instant coffee was even
used for that effect. Then, after making an evening flight into Los
Angeles, Stetson was inspired to replicate in the Hades landscape
the look of thousands of city lights.
A myriad of fiber optic strands – seven miles worth – was added
underneath the tables holding the silhouettes and other model
pieces. The lights included a mix of different bulbs, too, all filmed
in different passes, as were the gas flares captured ‘in-model’ with
specially placed projection screens and a synchronized 35mm
film projector.
PYRAMIDS OF THE FUTURE
The Tyrell Corporation, responsible for genetically engineered
replicants in the future-verse of Blade Runner, has its headquarters
in a pair of enormous pyramid-shaped buildings constructed
by Stetson’s team as miniatures. Their trademark look involved
intricate side panels made to look as if consisting of thousands of
lit windows.
The core pyramid structure was built essentially as a clear plastic
shell. Flat panel patterns were accurately cut to make up the basic
pyramid shape. The patterns’ surfaces were intricately detailed
with plastic strip stock. “We laid down one quarter-inch plastic
angle stock on its edges to create a stair-step surface,” says Stetson.
98 • VFXVOICE.COM FALL 2017