Blade Runner Research

Ridley Scott
Studied at Royal College of Art, where he helped establish the film department. Made his first film, Boy and Bicycle, there. Early work also included working on the TV programme Tonight, Z-Cars and Out of the Unknown. First directing job was in 1965, directing an episode of Adam Adamant Lives!
First film called The Duelist (1977), was nominated for the main prize in the Cannes Film Festival, and won Best Debut Film.
Did advertising in the '70s, e.g. the Flake advert, 1978
Inspired by the success of Star Wars, Scott decided to make Alien (1979) which made him internationally famous. Created themes that he'd follow after - strong female protagonist, dystopian future etc.
Blade Runner (1982) followed this and gained him even more success, although at the time it was commercially unsuccessful.
Other work that solidified his title as a successful director early in his career is the Apple advert 1984 and Legend.
Later on he directed Black Rain, which was the first of six collaborations with Hans Zimmer, Thelma and Louise (1991) which got him his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director.
Gladiator (2000) was his next big success. It won 5 Academy Awards, and Scott was nominated again for Best Director, which happened again for Black Hawk Down (2001). The successful Hannibal (2001) was also made in this year.
The next large success Scott had was The Martian (2014), which was commercially Scott's most successful film and was positively received.
Always has female leads/strong females
Highly concentrated visual style
Very atmospheric films
Often focus on issues such as identity, isolation, invasion/colonization, humanity etc.
Need to know about him an as auteur (French word for author, when someone makes such an impact on their work that its instantly recognizable as theirs, i.e. how they use film form micro-features, aesthetics, repeated use of performers, use of music, could be a common thread of themes and ideas within their films)

Harrison Ford
Interest in acting started at University, where he took a drama class to get over shyness. His experience with student radio and newfound interest in acting took him to LA to become a radio voice-over artist, but he was unsuccessful in finding work.
Joined the New Talent program with Columbia Pictures to find bit-work in films, his first was in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966). First speaking job was in Luv (1967).
As he needed to support his family and he wasn't happy with the acting jobs he was getting, he became a carpenter. He worked for many celebrities, which would eventually gain him contacts.
Fred Roos, a Casting Director, got him a role in American Graffiti (1973) by George Lucas. From this and doing carpentry for the director he got small roles in The Conversation (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979).
Worked with Lucas casting for Star Wars (1977) and from this was cast as Han Solo, the role that would make him internationally famous. Starring as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) also did this, and he was now one of the most famous stars of the time.
His next major success was starring as Deckard in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982), which although not majorly successful at the time became a cult classic.
Films from then on were hit-or-miss, with varying levels of success overall. Examples include Patriot Games (1992), Sabrina (1995), Six Days, Seven Nights (1998), Firewall (2006) etc.
His latest big commercial successes were in reprising his titular roles in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull (2008) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), which was also well received by fans and critics.



Blade Runner
Released in 1982
Directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer
Based on the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
Budget $28 million, box office $33.8 million, although since then it has become far more prolific
Themes - humanity (what makes us human, religion, paranoia)
Film noir
Casting for Deckard was difficult, many actors were considered before settling on Ford (Gene Hackman, Dusting Hoffman, Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery etc. were all considered), as Ford was prolific at the time they wanted him to attract attention
Philip K. Dick wasn't consulted for production, and as a result Scott had his own take on the world. However, Dick approved of the version and said that they enhanced each other.
Need to know about critical reception