Tapped to create screen graphics for Blade Runner 2049, Territory joined the art team in the early stages of production. With an open brief to reconsider technology interfaces, we worked closely with the Director and Supervising Art Director to support key storybeats, performance and narrative context.
Asked to explore physical and organic alternatives to digital, LED and devices, we adopted an experimental approach to create original highly original screens that felt seamless with this bleak world.
Setting aside CG tools and sketchbooks, we turned to the physical textures of old school technology. The first weeks of the project were spent experimenting with the different visual effects that optical lenses, cine projectors, microfiche, card systems, etc. could produce. Even grapes and grapefruits, eyeballs and bone were dissected, magnified, photographed and scanned to create organic abstraction.
Marrying experimental concepts with narrative content and textural layers in CG, the team designed and animated each specific storybeat, creating original interface and interaction systems that felt authentic and credible within the context of each specific scene. From evoking social status and the alternative technological trajectory brought about by the Blackout event, to using physicality and organic abstraction to contrast the technological context on Earth with the minimal purity of the Wallace Corp’s off world capability, each element was concepted and choreographed to support Villeneuve’s story and universe.
Category: Abstract, Black & White, Complex, Data, Gritty, Live action, Scientific, Visual Effects