Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner Page #8

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And he said.

"Sure, that sounds right."

He's very matter-of-fact.

And that really allowed me

to then explode in my own world.

He never questioned it.

Of course, I guess

the powers that be at that moment...

...questioned the fact

that nobody knew what I was saying.

And I could care less.

You know, because I knew

that what I was saying was correct.

And it was...

It was real dialogue.

it was up to him.

I basically didn't think

you needed those.

He would be very, very Hispanic.

Could almost be dressed

as if he was a well-to-do drug dealer.

And, in fact, was the manager

of all the dirty work for the department.

The word Gaff

is a good name, actually.

He groomed himself

obsessively, actually.

And efficiently.

He changed his eyes...

...but the most elaborate

was this curious gutter speak...

...which he helped put together

or maybe even invented mostly.

It's a huge amount of work by him

put into not a very big part...

...but very effective.

Today, as we look back on it,

it was an extraordinary cast.

Then, it was a cast who I knew,

and who Ridley was meeting...

...and who Ridley would guide

through the film.

He brought out the best qualities

in his performers.

It may not have always been

the most pleasant process...

...but on the other hand, he coaxed...

...and very gently manipulated

performances from these people...

...that in some instances

I think they've rarely topped.

I saw a very large canvas.

I saw a very eclectic canvas...

...where basically we were

gonna make our own rules.

Art direction, set design, I think

generally was one massive challenge.

But evolution told us it

had to be this much money.

We had to make it on a backlot.

Michael had a saying

that when Ridley takes out...

...the pencil it's hundreds of dollars...

...and when he takes out a pen,

it's thousands of dollars.

Ridley was over here,

hunting around for people...

...to work on this film

that he'd agreed to do.

I went over and had a meeting

with Michael Deeley. Ridley Scott...

...I think Ivor Powell and John Rogers.

And got the script handed to me...

...called Dangerous Days.

Isn't it fortunate it wasn't used?

And took it home

and started to do sketches.

And started to submit work

to Ridley and then...

...Lawrence Paull was hired.

I was the first hire on the staff.

A futurist, Syd Mead,

was one of the great illustrators of...

...industrial objects.

Cars, electric irons...

...apartments,

skyscrapers, cityscapes.

Urban development.

And I'd looked at this.

Started looking at them

as if they were fantasy.

Now. Syd was actually a great preview

on where we've gone now...

...in Tokyo, in... I've just been

to Shanghai. In Shanghai, certainly.

The way the urban development

is going.

Syd absolutely had it nailed.

And I didn't know that at the time.

I just felt he did.

And I brought him in

for a meeting and said:

"Look, we gotta do it this way.

I'm gonna be on the backlot...

...we're gonna do the best we can.

We have a limited budget.

I can't make things..."

Like Stanley took... At the time, I think.

2001 for the time was expensive.

But he'd actually made everything

including the centrifuge wheel...

...and it all worked and I would

never have the budget to do that.

That's why the idea

of retrofitting things came about.

It would have to be

retroed to the surface of...

...the backlot which had

traditional buildings.

Upon which

we would put pipes and ducts.

And air conditioning.

And one famous architect

years later...

...stopped me and brought me

to his offices, his rather...

...superb offices in London

and said to me:

"We run Blade Runner

about once a month."

Because he said.

"When I saw Blade Runner...

...the evolution

of the beauty in technology...

...suddenly became very apparent."

Which is...

...where the building

and where the guts on the outside...

...and the guts become

part of the decoration.

So that's the way we'd gone with

Blade Runner, so it was by necessity...

...we actually kind of started

to design it that way.

Syd Mead,

although his visual influence...

...on Blade Runner was indeed great

was only part of a larger entity called...

...the Art Department.

Every film has an Art Department.

And this is where

the designs and the blueprints...

...and the whole overall

visual concept of the films...

...is nailed before filming starts.

The one in charge of the Art Department

is called a production designer.

On Blade Runner, that was

a guy named Lawrence Paull.

And Larry had a lot to do with hiring

the other people in the Art Department...

...and coordinating

all of the varying looks...

...and synthesizing them

to Ridley's specification.

The big advantage we had

was the famous actors' strike.

That lasted for months.

And the fact that... Because I don't

think we ever would have been able...

...to finesse the designs...

...that we were developing...

...in the Art Department.

Finesse the technical aspect of it...

...had there not been

an actors' strike.

We needed the time, so consequently

we were in preproduction...

...for nine months,

or nine and a half months, which is...

...as long as I've ever been

on preproduction on a film.

We went over to Sunset Gower and he

brought me into Ridley's office.

He said. "I want you to meet...

This is David Snyder.

He's the... He's gonna be

the Art Director."

Ridley took his Macanudo out of his

mouth and stood up and shook hands...

...and he said.

"Too bad for you, mate."

This is a rather different

Art Department situation.

Ridley's in charge

of the Art Department on this picture.

And I imagine on most pictures,

but this one specifically.

It's not quite fair to sound

as though one's diminishing...

...the Art Department or the art director

but one is in a way because...

...Ridley's so on top of it and he's

micromanaging the Art Department.

Which is pretty hard for art directors to

take but okay when the credit comes up.

It was them.

Those guys had to work awfully hard

to do what Ridley wanted...

...and they had to be very efficient

to do what Ridley wanted.

But it was Ridley

who decided what it would be.

I knew that he had been

an art director and I knew that...

...that was probably a good thing,

you know, that he understood...

...and it would mean that unlike

some pictures where a lot of money...

...and focus is placed on the script...

...and the performances,

which is a good thing...

...that a fair amount of emphasis

would be placed on the look of the film.

We were evolving what

the future would be with...

...Larry Paull,

my chosen production designer.

I hadn't worked with him before, I think

he thought I was absolutely crazy...

...but because I could draw,

it helped a lot.

The three illustrators

that were working with...

...Larry Paull are Mentor Huebner.

Sherman Labby and myself.

Ridley looked at absolutely

everything that I drew.

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