Blade Runner Opening Sequence

In the opening sequence for Blade Runner, the director Ridley Scott uses an extreme wide shot to show the city which is a futuristic city. In the shot we can see a future interpretation of Los Angeles. The skyline is dominated by industry and tall buildings, the buildings have fire firing out of the top of it and lightning shooting out of the sky. This gives the impression that this place is like hell. To add to this illusion, the sky is completely dark, no sign of the sun and no stars to indicate that it is night time, that is the constant reality. This place also seems dystopian, theres signs, with the fire and darkness, that something drastically wrong has gone occurred to leave this place in the "hell" state its in. We get some indication as to what has gone wrong because the sky is brown and heavily polluted, telling the audience that industry gone wrong is the reason for this destroyed area. Theres also no nature which suggests that all plants and animals have been killed off by some sort of chemical and that they haven't been able to re grow due to the air being to polluted.

While all this is happening, the camera is constantly moving in, giving a sense of scale to the viewer as we are allowed by the director to see more of the city. It also give the shot a more three dimensional feel. The audience is drawn in by the movement of the camera because from our point of view, its like we are being directed to something. The slow movement in towards the Pyramid shaped buildings highlights there importance to the audience, furthermore, they look important because they are the only buildings lit up with white lights and they have spotlights out the top of them, like they are marking their place in the sky.