Blade Runner - Scoring the music
Blade Runner’s, director Ridley Scott , was based in the UK. In the early 1970s, he had a reputation for creating short films which were as visually captivating and expertly crafted as advertising films. Scott had an extraordinary eye for producing outstanding visuals. He dazzled spectators with his natural artistic flare, which became his own definitive style and earned him the admiration of his contemporaries. In 1977, Scott moved onto directing major motion pictures. He made his debut on The Duellist, followed by Alien, in 1979, which received critical acclaim. This was a film that set new heights in the sci-fi thriller genre. Scott’s next project, Blade Runner, was to be his first project filmed in the US. The stage was built on a backlot in Hollywood.
Blade Runner - Scoring the music
After the completion of Blade Runner’s principal filming in Los Angeles, in the summer of 1981, Ridley Scott travelled between LA and the UK. He took the film’s post-production phase to Pinewood Studios, in London, where it was being assembled by film-editor Terry Rawlings. In late 1981, Vangelis began working on Blade Runner’s musical score at his London studio.
Blade Runner was not the first collaboration between Ridley Scott and Vangelis. They had worked together a couple of years earlier, in 1979, when Scott commissioned Vangelis to rework a piece of music for one of his commercials, the iconic fragrance Chanel N°5, entitled ‘Share the Fantasy’.
Blade Runner - Scoring the music
The groundbreaking special effects and breadth of visual design in Blade Runner pre-dated the pervasive use of computer-generated imagery that swept the film industry soon after the film’s release in 1982. The breathtaking special effects in Blade Runner were ingenious inventions drawn from a long-honoured tradition in ‘old-school’ film special effects. It is often said that Blade Runner was the last great film made using analogue special effects, before computer-aided design took over. While Ridley Scott had a tremendous input creating visuals for the city of the future, to help design and realise his vision, Scott consulted with futurist designer Syd Mead, special effects duo Douglas Trumbull and Richard Yuricich, and effects supervisor David Dryer.
Blade Runner - Scoring the music
When composing and recording music for a film soundtrack, Vangelis utilised the control room at the studio, by using a number of televisions sets positioned at various locations at his studio to view the scene. The cut scenes from Blade Runner were delivered on VHS videotapes and did not include a time-code number readout. Vangelis did not work with click tracks and there was no automation equipment for synchronising music to video playback. Instead, if Vangelis wished to add successive layers of sounds to his composition, his studio assistant, Raine Shine, managed a loose type of synchronisation by hand, and this was achieved by aligning a video frame with a line drawn on the multitrack tape and relying on the use of remote controls for the tape recorder and video player.
Blade Runner - Scoring the music
Making music for film reflected Vangelis’ methods he had developed through the years. All aspects of music creation, performance and production were handmade and carried out manually by Vangelis. Vangelis practically worked alone in his studio, the only assistance he had was from his studio assistant. Vangelis composed the score as soon as he received a new film scene at the studio:
Preferring to let his instincts respond to the images and not letting his thoughts or the film’s dialogues interfere with his inspiration, the music was recorded straight onto the magnetic multitrack tape as he viewed the images in front of him.
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Blade Runner - Scoring the music
When Vangelis was asked to work on Blade Runner’s soundtrack, he had already gained respect as the forerunner in composing innovative electronic music. His previous studio albums, ‘Opera Sauvage’, ‘China’ and ‘See You Later’, had already established him as a musician with a distinct style. In addition to his solo albums, Vangelis’ music was also featured on Carl Sagan’s acclaimed television documentary series Cosmos.
When he started writing the musical score for Blade Runner, his soundtrack for Chariots of Fire was being tipped for an Oscar Academy Award.
