Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/891583
The production team developed an iconography of brutality that continued to grow through our collective knowledge. This included Ridley's suggestion to film in Budapest, due to his positive experience working there on The Martian. The harsh Budapest winter allowed us to conceive a film that would be contiguous to the first Blade Runner, yet original to this production. The triumvirate of Denis, Roger Deakins and I collaborated on the tone for this journey. Finding the story in Los Angeles 2049 was the key element. Things have changed. The world is harder; the atmosphere is overcast, wet, snowing. It is a harder life than in the first film. The brutality of this life dictated the architectural style of the film. The design and lighting must unite to ensure balance. This path to a design is always unique and privileged, sometimes even daunting. Nevertheless, it has to be done. The constant circling of narrative and visual story has always intrigued me, a desire to find that perfect balance, something I call pattern language. Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, with its strong opening and lyrical storytelling, inspires me. I initially work with a black-and- white architectural study and begin adding in perceptions of color to correlate with the mood of the story. Our advantage over the first film was the advances that have been made in visual effects and digital set extensions. This presented the possibility to work on a massive scale, an architectural scale. Exploring these architectural themes, we puzzled together our world using stage space and locations available in the Budapest area. A. Las Vegas skyline. Concept art by Kim Frederiksen done in Softimage and Photoshop. B. Las Vegas penthouse. Concept art by Kim Frederiksen done in Softimage and Solidangle Arnold Renderer. A B