Filmography:
- Blade Runner
- Black Hawk down
- Gladiator
- The Martian
- Alien
- Prometheus
- Hannibal
- Thelma and Louise
- Kingdom Heaven
- Robin Hood
- American Gangster
Ridley Scott Auteur film form:
- Known for his long films
- Art school references- trained in production design
- Motivated lighting – Neon lights, shadows
- Noir style lighting- low key lighting
- Specific colour pallets
- Use of blinds to create shafts of light
- Smoke and atmosphere
- Themes- colonisation, identity, technology
- Historical based epics
- Gory and violent sequences- bloody close ups
- Motifs- spotlights and rain (pathetic fallacy) , smoke and atmospheres, blinds
- Range of genres
- Meticulously built sets- historically accurate and intricate
- Establishing shots- landscapes
- Collaborations- Russel Crowe (A-list actors)
- Dystopian sci-fi
- Tracking shots
- Character morals
- Strong female characters and protagonists
Scott considers himself an artist where as Curtiz considers himself a Hollywood storyteller director. Both Blade Runner and Casablanca are made by Warner Bros.
Top 5 Reasons why Scott is an auteur:
- Fantasy worlds- meticulously built sets
- Powerful Women- backs feminist ideologies
- Horror close ups- artistic direction of violence
- Lighting- Colour pallets to the set world
- Freedom- interior meaning- centre around escape/ open endings
- Gender representation- feminist discourse
- Non-realist genres
- Single strand narrative- tracking down and killing the replicants
- Extensive use of wide shots and establishing shots
- Paints with light
- Artistic background influence
- Worked in advertising industry and music videos – very detailed and perfectionist
- Ridley Scott interview Directed fashion commercials- stylistic
- Dialogue- seen in Deckard
- Ability to manipulate light
Science fiction genres:
- Sub-genre of alternative societies/ futuristic worlds
- Dystopian and utopian world- what if narrative
- Concerned with human identity but also identity through artificial intelligence
- Binary oppositions of good and evil- eg. Tyrell
- Iconography of science fiction- futuristic technology but primarily the mise en scene evidences noir conventions
Blade Runner Key Sequences:
Opening scene:
- Meticulously built set/ Establishing shot- landscape and atmosphere of LA and Tyrell building
- Detailed mise en scene- machinery and technology
- Commercialisation of future world- advertising past- for people at the top
- Noir style low key lighting
- Opening close up of eye- identity
- Dystopian sci-fi
- Motivated lighting
- Colour palette- grey/blue
- Introduction description- colonisation
- Smoke/ atmosphere motif
- Blinds/ directional lighting- shafts of light
- Theme of technology
- Violence- Leon shoots the gun
- Tyrell building- reference to Metropolis- German expressionism, sci-fi, expressionistic film- art influence
- Low pace of editing- long lingering shots
- (Doesn’t shift genre as much)- sci-fi
Unicorn scene:
- Spotlight motif- reoccur throughout and in end sequence
- Technology- advanced machinery
- Highly detailed sets
- Noir style low key lighting
- Tracking shot
- Smoke
- Deconstructing use of mise en scene as Deckard looks at the detail of the image
- Expressionist- unicorn, tracking shot, dreamy music and high key lighting
Emma Coe Film Studies 