Blade Runner was highly successful, outstanding piece of art. Not only is it visually appealing, but everything neatly ties together which develops the clarity of the film. Many aspects of Mise En scene are used to create a wonderful atmosphere within the film and add some verisimilitude to transport the audience into the world of Blade Runner

A scene of which I consider highly significant is the ending scene (referring to the US 1982 theatrical release edition). This is because I think that it cleverly utilises all aspects of Mise En scene to clarify the realism required for this film to work. In this particular shot, we can see that Batty is standing up whilst Deckard is on the ground. This clever balancing suggests that Batty believes that he is above and better than Deckard, who is trying to get away whilst in the mid-ground. Batty is positioned in the foreground, trapping Deckard from getting away. This is an interesting concept because it shows the arrogant nature of Batty who believes to have superiority over Deckard. The physical positioning of the shot reflects this, by physically towering Batty over Deckard. This particular shot is significant in developing the relationship between the two characters, which gives the audience an insight into the personality of the protagonist; Deckard

The fluorescent lighting used in this shot is significant in brightening up the dark scene, physically and also metaphorically. The bright, harsh and neon lights artificially light up the darkness of the night which brightens up the chiaroscuro of the setting compared to the stark white pigeon held by Batty. Overall, I would say excluding the neon artificial lighting provided by the commercial signs, that the lighting used is low-key. As the scene is deliberately set at night, there seems to be little natural lighting. This can convey the whole idea of a commercialised and also artificial future at the hands of technology. This is portrayed by the burst of bright, blue light which almost feels painful to the eye at the sheer brightness and unfamiliarity. I think this lighting creates an element of tension and suspense by forcing the audience to only focus on specific parts of the scene which are illuminated more than others. This diverges the focus to whatever the director wants by ensuring that the focal points are those which are constantly highlighted by the bright and shining light

I think the makeup used for Batty in his final scenes, perfectly portrays the character. Although he is smeared with violent slashes of blood, there is almost a childlike innocence with the way rain and tears have merged together. The simplicity of the makeup also works beautifully with the famously well-known ‘Tears in the rain’ monologue. This adds to the confusion about whether it is the rain staining his cheeks or the tears of which he is clearly trying to repress. Along with his prior reaction to seeing Pris dead, this allows the audience some sympathy for the antagonist because we are beginning to understand his feelings and thought process. This newly developed sympathy can be a factor in suggesting why the writers have decided to allow Batty to save Deckard, suggesting and expressing that he is an emotional and caring character despite his previous portrayal of being a blood thirsty, malicious replicant. This example of situation irony is interesting because although the film has nearly finished; it still ensures that his has lots of depth and twists to engage the audience right until the end

Film stock and aspect ratio plays a small yet important role in establishing the leitmotifs of the relationship between lighting and emotion. The film is typically set at night or late evening, maybe to set a gloomy tone. But the increased usage of bright and bold neon lighting helps to elevate this otherwise darkening tone to something of a wild atmosphere. Using the technique of night for night, and illuminating the fictional city with overly-bearing neon lights helps to categorise this film as neo-noir which adds more depth and structure

Costume does not play a vital role in this scene, mainly due to the fact that there are really only two characters (Deckard and Batty) that are shown. However; when Batty removes his shirt it signals that it is near the end. This physical change shown in his character is accompanied by the expression of his real personality as he saves Deckard before his inevitable death. This suggests that he is not in fact a villain, but rather a granted selfish, yet damaged individual

The setting bears great significance to the plot because it’s what easily emplaces verisimilitude within the audience. Personally, I think realism and verisimilitude are the hardest aspects of film to achieve successfully. This is because they are so challenging to get right, but if done to a strong extent; they can really set the atmosphere of a film. Science fiction can be a hard genre to make believable because everyone pictures different aspects of it in their head as its usually an imagined setting. I think the setting here is believable, because it was based on the world at the time with some adaptations. Nothing is too out-there, as even the flying cars which seems absurd, look somewhat realistic and not too futuristic to the point where they look fake. The large buildings are also aesthetically pleasing because they look realistic compared to some in the time, just upgraded

The Deckard introduction scene uses Mise-en usefully as a way to introduce the world and main character of Blade Runner. Ridley Scott wants the audience to understand clearly the world and characters as he knows as this scene is the best way to further the plot, as for some it will be too complexed to fully get the movie. So by feeding the information through this scene, to whom Deckard’s character and the world he lives in.

Set Design is very important to the scene as this is the audience’s first real look of the streets of this cyberpunk world, so he needed to make an impact. The way he does this is by compacting the scene with many people to show how this is dystopian Los Angeles facing over population but the surprise too many audiences of the 1982 would have been how familiar it looks to a normal street covered with stalls and restaurants. By 1982 futuristic films always used unusual sets such as in Alien with the space ship but this scene is used to create a realistic future unlike the latter what was using sets to create a unrealistic one. So by the use of these stalls and restaurants with an over compact street shows this world as being small scaled. This sets ups the world perfectly as it’s different to anything else what comes before, while achieving verisimilitude what is done by a familiar set but in an unexpected place.

Costume is used in this scene to separate everyone from each other through culture, job and personality as Deckard can be seen in a mixed cultured district and is distinguishable through his bleak brown clothes unlike the others who have colour to their costumes. Culture is shown by the cook wearing traditional Japanese chefs clothing. Personality can be seen by Gaff who looks like he is wearing high end clothing what can show his smug personality. However these characters are wearing normal clothing, so again it’s used to make the audience feel familiar with the setting. Though there are costumes what uses the futuristic setting in their design such as woman on screen for 5 seconds can clearly be seen wearing futuristic goggles. The reluctance of using that many futuristic costumes is likely to not take away focus of the plot by not going over the top.

Space at the beginning is by the focus being on the narrow street until the camera shifts focus on Deckard who becomes the foreground while the neon light background surrounding him to signify him as the protagonist and is important in this story. When Gaff comes up to Deckard, again he is the foreground while Gaff and the other detective are in the background as a way to show them as unimportant. This focus on Deckard is a way to show the audience this is the person you’ll be focusing on.

Lighting is key in this movie as a whole as this movie is presented as bleak to connect to its theme of being in a bleak future. Throughout this film and this scene light is always used in minimal quantities. This is shown by the neon lights and restaurant, even though the part with the restaurant takes up most of the scene, the lighting seems to be off by the use of steam and the dark background when focusing on Deckard by them blocking out the key light hitting the faces of Deckard and Gaff’s. The use of light gives unease as it’s a very unusual feeling you get from the light on the screen. Scott or his team likely came up with this effect to show the themes such as global affects what at that time would cause unease as these weren’t that much of an issue.

Composition is used well by the arrangement of both sound and lighting. This is seen by the narrow street where the sound is foreign music further implies the themes of mixed-culture and overpopulation. The scene also becomes unbalanced by the amount of people walking down the street what shows the same theme. While lighting is presented only being seen on both sides of the street not in the centre head on, this is implying that the only source of light is from artificial light and not natural light showing the theme of global dimming. This affects the audience as this gives more layers of understanding to the world.

Make-up and hair plays a small part in the scene as these can be only be seen on background characters such as the man at the restaurant with green face paint. This is likely done to make those characters more memorable to the audience.

Film stock and aspect ratio plays into the film by being shot in colour. The use of neon colour gives the film its identity of being cyberpunk. The use of colour also makes it more unique viewing for the audience.

My chosen scene from Bladerunner (1982, Ridley Scott)is very near the end. It is the scene where the replicant “Pris” is killed by Bladerunner “Deckard” In this scene many elements of Mise-En-Scene are used to create a very fitting effect for the scene. These elements include:

Light, sound, set design, character position and costume/makeup.

 

For example, in this scene there is a high contrast between light and dark, it is currently night-time and so it is very dark inside the building however there are random spotlights floating around. This contrast of light represents the contrast between good and evil. Pris and the other replicants being the ever-present darkness and Deckard being the light. This sets a mood for the audience and lets them who has power in each scene. At the start of the attack Pris seems to be in control, she has Deckard in a head lock and is inflicting a lot of pain. At this moment in time it is very dark constantly. However, soon after, Deckard shoots Pris. Now it can be seen that Deckard is in control and therefore there is a lot of flashing lights, the more he shoots her, the more the light flashes and the faster it flashes implying light overcoming darkness and Pris Dying.

 

Additionally sound is used to affect the audience. At the beginning of the fight there is quiet eerie music playing, This is signifying danger, later on in the scene when Pris is somersaulting over to Deckard she lets out a war cry-like shout. This then implies to the audience that there is more danger and this is proved correct when she manages to put him in a headlock and hit him. Finally, towards the end of the scene when Pris is being shot the is a huge amount of ambient noise as well as her screaming which then stops stops when she dies indicating that there is no more danger.

 

Not only that, but set design is a factor in Mise-En-Scene. This final scene uses an abandoned dusty building, This creates an effect of unpredictability on the audience as it is out of the ordinary and so anything could happen. Additionally the mannequins used at the start of the scene also create an extremely eerie effect on the audience as if there are many different people there and many possible enemies. Additionally the large amount of mannequins gives the audience something to look at and focus on since nothing much is happening, however later on in the scene the background is very plain and dark and we only get to see a few bits of detail on the all and floor. This is used to focus the audience’s attention on the fight going on and not the background.

 

Furthermore, we have character placement. Throughout the whole scene the actor; Ford, is the centre of attention however the character; Deckard is actually continuously being consumed by the darkness. This creates a sense of confinement and makes the audience feel uncomfortable as the actors actual position and the characters emotional superiority/ inferiority do not match up. For example while the actor is in main focus in each scene the character is constantly being beaten by the physically inferior character because of the emotional superiority she has over him. This also links to there being more darkness than light as mentioned before and how the Deckard must use his character’s emotional inferiority along with his actor’s physical superiority to overcome the ever present darkness. Only when Deckard shoots Pris do we suddenly see her in main focus, this also creates sense of discomfort because, although she is finally in main focus she has lost the superiority she had over Deckard and now has lost.

 

Finally the element of costume design really helps to create an effective scene because it accentuates the characters feelings and intentions. For example: Pris has very pale white skin with black and white makeup and a skin coloured costume. First of all this accentuates her black and white feelings. She is a replicant who is supposed to not have feelings, she is only supposed to have two feelings, life and death – light and dark. On the contrary Deckard’s suit is composed of many warm colours and his skin is full of red, this exaggerates his human nature and the complications and accumulation of colourful feelings he has. Secondly, the pale skin could represent the fact that Pris is going to die soon and therefore she does not have a healthy body or skin tone/texture. This juxtaposes with Deckard’s skin tone which as i said before is much more colourful and full of life representing the fact that as he is not a replicant with a short lifespan, he still has a long time to live theoretically and therefore looks healthier. In short Deckard is has a complicated and colourful costume where Pris doesn’t and this is because of Deckard’s healthy body and human nature (having all these feelings).