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Analysis of the aesthetic concepts behind Rachael’s Voight-Kampff test in Ridley Scott’s
Blade Runner
Ridley Scott’s 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner is a rich visual
experience that rewards repeat viewings. The film’s thematic material has been
discussed endlessly in literature, with aspects of discussion ranging from Deckard’s
true nature to the way in which the portrayal of futuristic Los Angeles closely
resembles modern Tokyo. However, the film’s success should not only be attributed
to the acting or set design, but also to the filmmakers for their great use of aesthetic
concepts in manipulating the audience’s perception of the film’s events. These basic
concepts help to enrich and enhance the experience of watching the film, and are
one of the many reasons Blade Runner is still highly regarded nearly thirty years
after its initial release.
Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckard, a blade runner who at the start of the film
is sent to track down a group of Nexus-6 replicants – androids virtually
indistinguishable from humans. The traditional method of distinguishing replicants
from humans is the Voight-Kampff test, which exploits the emotional responses of
the replicants. The sequence I chose for analysis begins as Deckard arrives at the
Tyrell Corporation, home of Eldon Tyrell, the man responsible for developing
replicants, to perform a Voight-Kampff test on a Nexus-6 model, to ensure that the
test work on these newer models. After Deckard is greeted by Rachael, Tyrell’s
assistant, Tyrell arrives and commands Deckard to perform a Voight-Kampff test on
her, claiming that he wants to see the test work on a human before he provides a
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replicant subject. Deckard proceeds, and after an unusually long test, he arrives at
the revelation that Rachael is a replicant who believes she is human.
Panel 1 depicts the first shot of the sequence inside of the Tyrell Corporation.
In this shot, an owl flies from screen left to screen right, creating a strong motion
vector. Motion vectors are the strongest of all types of vectors, and immediately
attract the viewer’s attention. The point of drawing the viewer’s attention to the owl
is because it catches the attention of Deckard, and it will spark the first conversation
between Deckard and Rachael. This conversation reveals that the owl is both
artificial and expensive – two attributes that reveal part of the cinematic world of
the film. First, many species of animals are extinct, and only present in the world of
the near future as robotic imitations. The fact that Tyrell owns an artificial owl
indicates his wealth and power (which can be expected, since he is responsible for
developing replicant technology).
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Panel 2 plays host to a variety of 2-D field forces and graphic depth factors.
The large columns on both sides of the frames are graphic vectors, and they
contribute to creating a vertical main direction in the shot. The vertical direction
exhibits the power of Tyrell and the Tyrell Corporation, and is more visually exciting
for the viewer. This visual excitement foreshadows the importance of the coming
scene in which a main character (Rachael) and her dilemma (coming to terms with
being a replicant) are both introduced.
The lines separating the tiles on the floor seem to converge towards the
center of the frame, as do the columns. The point that they converge to is called the
vanishing point, and here it represents the horizon line. This convergence of graphic
vectors and objects is called linear perspective. Because of linear perspective, the
columns in the background look progressively smaller than the ones in the
foreground because they are further away. This is called relative size, (another
graphic depth factor) and will be explored further on.
These columns seem to push the objects with positive volumes to the edges
of the frame, resulting in a large negative volume that lies between them. Negative
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volumes create feelings of insignificance and awe in the viewer. The filmmakers
employed a negative volume to reinforce the aura of intellect and wealth and power
inside the Tyrell Corporation. The audience responds to this with feelings of unease
and distrust towards Tyrell that his actions later in the sequence only serve to
confirm.
Panel 3 consists of two successive shots of Deckard and Rachael as they talk
to each other. Both characters look directly at the camera, creating z-axis index
vectors. The framing of the two of them (Deckard is placed slightly screen right,
Rachael slightly screen left) along with the fact that they are talking to each other,
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combine to turn these ordinary z-axis index vectors into converging index vectors.
Despite the fact that both characters appear to be looking at the camera and the
audience, from context clues it is understood that they are talking to each other and
looking at each other. From this, it appears that their gazes seem to be piercing one
another, suggesting the sexual attraction that will be revealed in later scenes in the
film.
Additionally, Panel 3A offers the concept of a heavy graphic weight. Because
the filmmakers wish to focus on the reactions that Deckard and Rachael have upon
first seeing each other, they do not crowd the frame. Instead, they frame the
characters to endow them with a large graphic weight, emphasizing that they are
the most (and in this case, only) important things in their respective shots. In the
shot in Panel 3A, Deckard occupies a large dimension of the screen and is oriented
towards the right side of the frame, the more dominant side. The image is also
geometrically simple (easy for the audience to recognize), and vertically oriented,
which itself demands more attention. All of these factors contribute to forming a
heavy graphic weight within the shot.
Directly beneath Panel 3A lies Panel 3B, which beautifully demonstrates the
figure/ground principle. In this shot, Rachel’s head and shoulders are clearly
distinguishable as the “figure” in front of the blurred background representing the
“ground”. All five rules behind the figure/ground relationship are followed in this
shot. Rachael is thing-like, and she stands in front of the blurry, indecipherable
background that is basically just uncovered screen area. The line separating Rachael
from the background is her own outline, thus belonging to her. Rachael is less stable
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than the background and therefore more likely to move across or out of the frame.
Although both Rachael and the background extend beyond the frame in this shot,
this rule would still fall in Rachael’s favor because if the shot were of Rachael’s
entire body, it would not continue outside of the frame, whereas the background
would. The fact that Rachael is a prominent “figure” in front of an indiscernible
“ground” adds to the effect of her heavy graphic weight, ensuring that she is the
focus of the shot.
Panel 4 is a good demonstration of the graphic depth factor overlapping
planes. Overlapping planes increase depth because when one object is shown to be
in front of another, the audience registers the overlapping object to be closer than
the overlapped one. Overlapping planes is also related to the figure ground
principle, because with overlapping planes, the object in front acts as the figure
while the object behind acts as the ground. For instance, in Panel 4, Deckard acts as
a figure as he stands in front of a chair, which acts as part of the ground in that
particular figure/ground relationship. However, the chair is visibly in front of the
table, and in this case, the chair has become the figure and the table is the ground.
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The audience unconsciously knows that this means that Deckard is closest to the
camera, followed by the chair, followed next by the table. Another example from this
still is that Rachael stands in front of the bonsai tree, which rests in front of the
column in the background, which in turn is in front of the panoramic view outside
the window.
Panel 5 is an example of a lighting technique called Chiaroscuro lighting.
The fast falloff of the shadows creates a strong light contrast that defines the whole
scene. The shadows created by the falloff add shape and volume to the room and
seem to suggest once again the vastness of the Tyrell Corporation and the power of
the man whose name it holds. The moodiness evoked by this lighting scheme seems
to label Tyrell and his Corporation as shady and untrustworthy. In Panel 5, Dr.
Tyrell makes his first appearance in the film, walking (appropriately) out of the
shadows.
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With the arrival of Panel 6, comes the arrival of more graphic depth factors.
On the left side of the frame, the base of the frontal column would have a distinctly
smaller y-value than the column behind it if the frame were a coordinate plane. The
column in the back appears higher on a 2-D piece of paper or screen, but the viewer
does not interpret the column as floating, but rather as merely being further away.
This is known as height in plane. The objects on the table in the immediate
foreground appear under the edge of the table at which Rachael is sitting and
Deckard and Tyrell are standing. In fact, most likely, these objects are probably
higher off the ground than the table. But because the table is further from the
camera, it appears higher in the frame. The same goes for the tops of the chairs at
the heads of the table; the one closest to the camera appears lower on the frame
than the one at the far end of the table that is farther away.
Just behind Rachael in the room are two busts on marble pedestals. Whether
or not they are identical is unclear, but they are most certainly similar in size. Their
relative size, however, is different. The bust in the foreground appears larger
because it is closer to the viewer. From contextual clues the viewer assumes that
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both busts are the same size, and the one in the background is only smaller because
it is further away. The bust in the background (as well as the column n the
background on the left side of the frame) seems to get smaller and move more
towards the center of the frame because of the linear perspective in this panel.
Relative size can also explain how the plant in the immediate foreground on the
right of the image occupies more screen space than the character Deckard. It is not
because the plant is larger than Harrison Ford, but because it is much closer to the
viewer than Deckard.
Panel 7 is an example of a superimposition, here a single frame during the
editing transition known as a dissolve. The dissolve is usually used to indicate the
passge of time, and that is in fact why it’s being used in this sequence. As the old
image fades and the new appears, the audio of Deckard asking Rachael a question
from the Voight-Kampff test fades outs and the audio of Deckard asking a different
question fades in. The superimposition is interesting because it offers a
figure/ground paradox. For example, in Panel 7, it is unclear whether the close-up of
Deckard is the figure and the wide shot of the test being conducted is the ground, or
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vice versa. The superimposition is actually a crucial part of the scene, because it
indicates to the audience that the Voight-Kampff test is taking a long time. After the
test ends, Tyrell and Deckard discuss why the test took so long; Rachael is unaware
that she is actually a replicant. The way in which Tyrell acts triumphant following
the test confirms the expectations of him that the aesthetics of the scene have
suggested – he is not to be trusted and his motives are most likely personal.
The depth factors of this sequence contribute to defining the cinematic space
of the Tyrell Corporation, which in addition to the lighting, editing techniques, and
framing, all create a scene in which each frame has a specific job that contributes to
the sequence’s overall effectiveness. Although this scene in particular is successful,
the film as a whole is also aesthetically rich. In fact, the film’s enduring popularity
can be attributed at least in part to this, because a film that is aesthetically strong
can only boost the effectiveness of the other areas of the film.
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