Blade Runner cityscape concept by Syd Mead. Could be the only one painting from preproduction that shows cityscape during the day. However the concept is never used for various reasons. One of them is: not enough money to develop day scenes that will actually work and follow the distopyan concept of the movie.
“Mark Stetson sets up a miniature cityscape on an EEG soundstage. The buildings shown here represent the variety of techniques and resources used on the project. For example, one of the original, large-scale miniatures built for the film is the left foreground, while Stetson is working on a row of miniatures greatly-deminished scale, originally built for ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. The view beyond Stetson, showing buildings hundreds of stories tall, is rear-projected Syd Mead painting. The film’s cityscapes were a hodge-podge of variously-scaled structures, rearranged for each particular shot.”
Paul M. Sammon - Cinefantastique Vol 12, No 5/6
“I invented a social theory for each car - why it looked and acted the way it did. The theory rested on the projection that the city was in bad shape - that the consumer exchange system had broken down”
Syd Mead - Cinefantastique, 1982
Concept artwork by Syd Mead
‘Rather than rely on sketches, the EEG art department used frame blowups of various filmed elements to try out various concepts for the wide vistas of Los Angeles in 2019 (dubbed “Megacity” by the EEG FX crew). By using photos of elements they had already shot, the artists could come up with several different concepts by arranging the cutouts of the various elements. These concepts served as a guide for the matte paintings that were used in the final composite.’
Up: One of the frame blowups / Down: Syd Mead’s concept painting in combination with a frame blowup.
