Cinematography: The definition of cinematography is the art and process of movie photography. An example of cinematography are the decisions made about lighting, camera filters and lenses when shooting a movie scene.
Cinematographer: a person who oversees or directs photography and camerawork in film-making, especially one who operates the camera.
How is a Cinematographer different to a director?
• Cinematographer is the one in charge of camera and lighting in a film.
• Director is the person in charge of the whole movie making process.
• Cinematographer gets to choose his camera and light crew.
• Director gets to choose the cinematographer with the rest of the crew, as well as the cast of the film.
• Cinematographer does not meet or discuss with producers about the movie.
• Director is the person who meets and discusses with producers.
• A cinematographer works for the director. However, they can discuss and come to decisions about the way pictures should be captured by the camera.
• Cinematographers are usually paid less than the director. But, sometimes they can get a better pay than the director; especially, in the case of commercial advertisements.
• Directors are usually paid more than the cinematographer.
In Blade Runner (dir. Ridley Scott, 1982), one scene which stood out for me was the death of Zhora, one of the escaped Replicants. This scene occurs around half way through the film, and is significant for a number of different reasons.
The costumes used in this scene are very different for the characters of Zhora and Deckard. Deckard wears a long coat and scruffy clothes, which is quite a simple outfit. This reflects the typical costumes that detectives would wear in this neo-noir genre of film. On the other hand, Zhora’s outfit seems more futuristic, due to the see-through coat she’s wearing. Both costumes have elements of eighties clothes in them, but also futuristic qualities to them, which both sets the scene of 2019 but keeps it grounded in reality for the 1982 audience. The costume designer for this film – Michael Kaplan – would have thought carefully about the costumes for each of these characters. Deckard’s costume has been used to reflect his personality as a Blade Runner, while Zhora’s strange style makes her easily identifiable to Deckard. The detail that has gone into these costumes helps to immerse the viewer into the advanced society, making it more believable for them.
In this scene, there are also lots of extras, making the city street seem very overcrowded. This is important, as it helps the audience to imagine the city life in future Los Angeles, which makes it more realistic for them. Also, the confusing noises and sounds of a typical street help to increase the believability of this scene for the audience, as normally a futuristic world would be difficult to imagine. Many of the extras featured in this scene are wearing clothes that would be typical of Eastern cultures, such as China. This is because, in the film, these cultures have become more prominent in America as the countries became more wealthy. Some of the props that the extras use also help to remind the reader of the futuristic society that is in place – for example the man with flashing glasses or the man whose umbrella has a light in it.
As Zhora falls through the series of glass panes, there is harsh neon lighting which fills the screen. This helps to capture the scene, as it contrasts against her dying. Again, it creates verisimilitude for the audience by making the world of 2019 Los Angeles more real for them. The heavily lit background around Zhora also contrasts the darkness that surrounds Deckard. This section of the scene also has sad music in the background while Zhora is dying. This could have been used as a way to show Deckard’s empathy for Zhora, as he didn’t really want to hunt the Replicants down at the start of the film. It helps to create a poignant tone to the scene, and makes the audience feel sorry for Zhora, even though she is just a Replicant.
In the background of this scene, there are also some neon advertising signs, for example the Atari sign. These small details in the set design make the city appear to be well thought out by the designers involved in production. It also adds a bit of context for the audience, as it helps them to understand the culture of the 2019 society. There are many neon signs with Chinese writing on them, as well as many umbrellas designed like traditional Chinese paper umbrellas. This is anther way of showing the audience the Eastern cultures that have dominated the society.
The moments when Zhora is shot are in slow motion, emphasising her fear that she feels just before she dies. It also could be representing how she is helpless to do anything in this situation. The fact that it is in slow motion means that the flickering of the neon lights are captured more than they would have been otherwise. However, this is quite effective, as it adds a dreamlike quality to the scene, making the audience relate to the suffering that Zhora faces in her last moments. The sound of gunshots bring the scene back to reality, rather than allowing the dreamlike qualities of it become too intense.
Blade-runner uses Mise En Scene specifically with the set and costume design throughout the film. In the first scene the main think you focus on is the grit and grime of the world. The future in the film, shows us how everything is overpopulated and dirty. The neon lights and smoke is occasionally shown throughout with lights being casted through the smoke as if to expose to the audience the feeling of suffocation and isolation. Everything looks wet and uncomfortable, people wear clothing with dull colours that seem worn and nothing looks very new. That is the setup for this world.
The next thing brought to the audience’s attention is the futuristic technology which has clearly advanced from now which includes replicants, flying cars, cloned animals and androids with limited life span made to do the humans’ work.
The plot of the story revolves around replicants that have hijacked a spaceship and need to be destroyed. Throughout the movie we see animals that have been cloned and have certain characteristics that differ from real animals such as an owl with an eerie glow in its eyes. We also see a flying police car roaming around the town in the air.
A technique used to create an eeriness to the movie and lighting is the amount of smoke used throughout the film. Most of the characters smoke cigarettes and there is smoke or fog is nearly every scene. The smoke is a form of mise en scene as it helps to establish how this new world is because smoke can signify something that needs to be cleaned or purified, therefore it creates a sense that the futuristic world is dirtier than how it is now.
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.
