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The title cards in Blade Runner are amazing

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Re: The title cards in Blade Runner are amazing

#211

Post by oscillik »

tenderfault wrote: post #151

They are! I actually watch this movie pretty often just to understand why the interfaces and the fonts integrate so well into the overall plot and visual flow. So glad to see two of my favorite fonts in your list, namely IBM Plex Mono and Berkeley Mono. But you should have a look at their newest TX-02, you will be pleasantly surprised. Do share your ghostty setup! Did you manage yet to render your terminal data throu…

Do you mean their unreleased typeface Houston Mono TX-24? TX-02 is already the SKU for Berkeley Mono…

Re: The title cards in Blade Runner are amazing

#212

Post by schoen »

the_af wrote: post #194
chipotle_coyote wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen a few people complain that the first trailer for the Neuromancer TV show looks "too bright" or "too clean." I think the real difference is that they're consciously trying to avoid that Blade Runner aesthetic, which includes avoiding the "never get brighter than dusk" trope.

Very likely. However, I see two problems with this: one, I think people are going to make comparisons to Matrix rather than Blade Runner, and judging from the trailer it looks a lot like a modern Matrix (understandably!). Second, Neuromancer starts with "the sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" so the grey/"not sunny" look is kinda baked in and hard to avoid ;)

I'm sure many people have remarked on this before, but the expectation of TV being grey when tuned to a dead channel is probably somewhat unfamiliar to younger readers, who may expect the newer behavior of the TV instead showing a synthesized blue screen, or a textual error message!

I wonder how many people may have read that more recently and thought that the sky was being described as deep, pure blue, rather than a difficult and chaotic grey.

Re: The title cards in Blade Runner are amazing

#213

Post by ilamont »

stronglikedan wrote: post #173
ilamont wrote: post #26

Well, besides the language and the typeface, the other element of this sequence at the beginning of Blade Runner that makes it so special is the accompanying score by Vangelis, and the sound effects that start with twinkling computer notes and gradually build in volume to explosions and the whoosh of futuristic vehicles. It effectively immerses viewers into this incredible world and story.

I've always wondered what was causing the explosions. I've seen the movie dozens of times, and if they explained it, I missed it.

It's the gas flare-offs from oil wells. Los Angeles still has small oil wells in operation.

Re: The title cards in Blade Runner are amazing

#214

Post by Lio »

ilamont wrote: post #187
ilamont wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true. I read an interview with Hans Zimmer who has scored dozens of Hollywood films (including Blade Runner 2049) and when he first arrived in London in the 1980s he couldn’t read music. Not sure about now. ETA: he did eventually learn how to read music: “I learnt to read music after I bought the Roland MC8 Microcomposer, because it then became essential for me. … I learnt music by ear and have picked up most…

So, I looked up this piece of equipment that he references. The Roland MC-8 MicroComposer by the Roland Corporation was introduced in early 1977 at a list price of US$4,795 (¥1,200,000 JPY) ... it was considered revolutionary at the time, introducing features such as a keypad to enter note information and 16 kilobytes of random access memory which allowed a maximum sequence length of 5200 notes, a huge step forward f…

The really interesting thing about the MC-8 is that it’s pre-MIDI, so CV and gate.

Tangerine Dream are listed as users on the wiki page so I guess he could have got it from them with the Moog.

As with all things vintage music Alex Ball has brilliant video on it:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9l79HgXvxP8&pp=ygUNQWxleCBiYWx...

Re: The title cards in Blade Runner are amazing

#215

Post by Lio »

ilamont wrote: post #51
rdiddly wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be surprised at how many famous professional musicians don't read music notation. Outside of the classical world, session work, and jazz fake-books, it's far from de rigueur .

This is true. I read an interview with Hans Zimmer who has scored dozens of Hollywood films (including Blade Runner 2049) and when he first arrived in London in the 1980s he couldn’t read music. Not sure about now. ETA: he did eventually learn how to read music: “I learnt to read music after I bought the Roland MC8 Microcomposer, because it then became essential for me. … I learnt music by ear and have picked up most…

> Have you had any training?

> Hans: Oh yes — I have had two weeks of piano lessons!

Germans are much funnier than they are given credit for!

Re: The title cards in Blade Runner are amazing

#216

Post by account42 »

ilamont wrote: post #209
the_af wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Donnie Darko is (to me) one of those movies ruined by the director's cut. Not only due to the music changes, but also because the "message" of the movie is made more explicit and on the nose. And reading Kelly's interviews and opinions is even worse. One of those movies where keeping the original, and the mystery, is absolutely mandatory.

I haven't seen Darko's director's cut, but am reluctant to do so just because they swapped out Echo and the Bunnymen for the opening scene, which works so well. For Blade Runner director's cut, I had mixed feelings. The unicorn scenes and some other added footage helped. I thought getting rid of Deckard's inner thoughts VO was a mistake. In the scene at the noodle stall, it clarified a lot of things such as the langu…

I do actually prefer Never Tear Us Apart in the opening scene more so the director's cut is the usual way I rewatch it. Have to agree with gp that some of the other changes are unfortunate but not big enough to ruin the movie for me.

Re: The title cards in Blade Runner are amazing

#217

Post by Lio »

ColdStream wrote: post #33
ilamont wrote: post #26

Well, besides the language and the typeface, the other element of this sequence at the beginning of Blade Runner that makes it so special is the accompanying score by Vangelis, and the sound effects that start with twinkling computer notes and gradually build in volume to explosions and the whoosh of futuristic vehicles. It effectively immerses viewers into this incredible world and story.

It was only a few months back that I found out that Vangelis couldn't read or write music notation. He would just improv play and record on a tape, recording additional parts and mixing as needed. If he needed to have other musicians involved, then he would hire someone to listen back and write down the notation. Considering he recorded something like 35 albums, he was doing something right.

Apparently the actual Yamaha CS-80 used by Vangelis on Blade Runner along with his patches is at Nemo Studios in London.

That's like a priceless holy relic as far as I'm concerned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemo_Studios

Re: The title cards in Blade Runner are amazing

#218

Post by srean »

WalterBright wrote: post #94
ilamont wrote: post #26

Well, besides the language and the typeface, the other element of this sequence at the beginning of Blade Runner that makes it so special is the accompanying score by Vangelis, and the sound effects that start with twinkling computer notes and gradually build in volume to explosions and the whoosh of futuristic vehicles. It effectively immerses viewers into this incredible world and story.

I rarely read about the contribution a good music score has to a movie's popularity. A great score makes the movie. For example, The Blue Max, Ben Hur, the first Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Dr Zhivago, Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and, of course, Blade Runner!

Great for listening to while programming. Words/lyrics throw me off but movie scores ... they feel perfect for programming.

Re: The title cards in Blade Runner are amazing

#219

Post by nphardon »

lilboo wrote: post #16
nphardon wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of em dashes in the article as well, along with some phrasing that is very LLM. I think this was written with a mix of LLM and human.

What is up with the LLM police in every comment section lately… even IF so.. isn’t that the authors whole point? It can be LLM assisted, but the beauty is in the human aspects of it. This piece is, at least in part written by a human… this is the future… so?

I'm not policing, I didn't flag it; but for the same reasons you mentioned it's an interesting transition to observe.

Also, when writers use llms to do their writing, it gets injected with these generic phrases that jump out to heavy llm users because theyre repeated so often. It's just kind of a weird phenomenon.

Re: The title cards in Blade Runner are amazing

#220

Post by dhosek »

leephillips wrote: post #203
dhosek wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even a lot of session work. Tony Levin (bass player best known for his work with Peter Gabriel and King Crimson, but who’s also played with Chuck and Gap Mangione, Paul Simon, Dire Straits, Yes, … well, more than I could reasonably put here). commented in his book Beyond the Bass Clef , that he went years doing session work without having to read music. Most rock/pop/jazz music is largely improvisatory in its structu…

Thus we have Stravinsky’s “Ebony Concerto”, not his finest work.

It influenced others as well. As I recall Ravel was among them. There was a great deal of curiosity of elements of African-American music among European composers in the early 20th century.
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