Some broken links removed. Facts of life. Network is alive… and dead too. So, I’ve removed all the black holes in the site.
Oct 052010
Some months ago I’ve ripped all the frames contained in the Final Cut 5 disc edition. Thousands of pictures, more than 1,080,000 snapshots… The Workprint edition, Director’s Cut, Final Cut, Dangerous Days, featurettes… all. Ok. Many people asked me why such a huge task, why to store more than 1,3Tb of data. Well, my answer is ever the same, I need to get a particular frame to illustrate my book, my own creation about Blade Runner props. Silly? Yeah! Sometimes a second snapshot is not enough I need to go to frame level to get the best picture possible.
Ok. Time passed… I’m still working in my book. Meanwhile, another sick man has done some huge task like me with the 167,819 frames of Final Cut edition… A huge gigapixel picture with all the movie in, flying over them with a (virtual) camera. And the result is here:
Impressive, isn’t? Pump up the volume, turns light off and enjoy. The technical details are in the original post here. And, for archival purposes only, here you have the complete text:
An experimental film in tribute to Ridley Scott’s legendary film “Blade Runner” (1982)
This film was made as a unique picture with a resolution of 60.000 x 60.000 pixels (3.6 gigapixels)
It was made with 167,819 frames from ‘Blade Runner’.1>first step : the “picture” of the film
I extracted the 167,819 frames from ‘Blade Runner’ (final cut version,1h51mn52s19i)
then I assembled all these images to obtain one gigantic image of colossal dimensions : a square of approximately 60,000 pixels on one side alone, 3.5 gigapixels (3500 million pixels)2> second step : an illusion
I placed a virtual camera above this big picture. So what you see is like an illusion, because contrary to appearances there is only one image. It is in fact the relative movement of the virtual camera flying over this massive image which creates the animated film, like a film in front of a projector.
Aug 222010
Long time since my last post here. Now, a premiere, or better, a pre-post… I have so much work at home, classifying, cleaning and setting up my room space to achieve a clear goal. Have all my collection in order and accesible… No more boxes, no more piles of books, magazines and so on in a chaotic environment. The work is not finished yet, but light is near to come. Philip K Dick is one of the most important sections in my collection about Blade Runner. In fact, I think is the largest book collection I have about one topic. More than… 500 books? perhaps more, I cannot be sure. From early publications in pulp magazines until new releases, thru all kind of editions, languages and related works. The shelves devoted to PKD are in a way a sickness of collector… yeah, I know it. But, what? I’m happy with it!
In the next weeks I’ll redo my pictures of any book and magazine related to Philip K Dick. I wanna do it for several reasons. First, list all of them with complete information: title, edition, publisher, year, origin and so on, you know… Then, take pictures of all covers and backs, since some editions are worth the value of such task. Hardcover editions, with jacket editions, rare editions (custom ones, fanzines, etc), and other rarities. More than 15 years collecting -not so long time for a serious collection, I guess- had bring me several little jewels I’m happy to share. In fact, I’ll start a new sub-site in this page only for PKD. A kind of public library to share all the information. A hard work waits, I know, but is fun to do it.
And, what about Blade Runner? What about the book project? Well, Blade Runner is ever in my mind, but each time I take a look for new items to add, is harder and harder to find new ones… I’m aware of news, of course, but… sometimes, the most, these items are not affordable (too expensives), or vendor don’t agree to ship internationally, or whatever… So my collection grows slowly nowadays. No matter. A collection is a kind of lifeform, ever growing, despite what happens around.
The book. The book is in standy until I have all the items and information classified and well ordered. It’s a must for doing a good job and avoiding time-consuming useless task like finding a particular info in the miriad books, magazines, reports and digital files I have for now. So.. yes, the book is still in progress. And will be available “when done”.
The past weekend was a nice one. The Basauri Con 1.0 (near Bilbao, Spain) about Battlestar Galactica was fun and interesting. With Mary McDonnell and Edward J Olmos, two stars so charming I never will forget!
The complete comment about this Con is in the Spanish site: http://www.blade-runner.es and you may translate with the page tools (Global Translator option in the rightside bar). But now I wanna share one of the videos I’ve made. It’s the answer to one of the more controversial questions about this movie: ¿what means the unicorn? Let’s see Mr. Olmos explaining it… And, finally, the complete transcription in text (for all we don’t have such good English).
Transcription made by Neil Hardwick (Gaff87):
It’s ok……umm……the question is…….you know there’s been all the,you had a lot of influence in the directors….everybody does influence on a piece.
What was your intention when you made and left the unicorn in Blade Runner?
Well…(Spanish)….this is a problem for me to really, really talk about …umm….When I made the chicken..Ok..that was the very first..um…origami that I made, and I put it down in the scene because I couldn’t figure out exactly what to do when Ridley said “You walk in and then you go sit down over there at the back”..And I said…oh my god…why not just bring him in and then turn around and leave. Why do you need another person in the room?
When Harrison’s character..You know, Deckard is talking to the chief?..(Spanish?) why do I, why should I stay in here? And I said this is really difficult because.. like, if I’m sitting here like this…and the scene’s say around over there, where these people are located, and I’m sitting here like this and the cameras on….and can see me in the background..and I don’t move…I draw a hell-of alot attention…you might say “Well, no, I mean..” Uh uh…that isn’t how it works because when you don’t move it’s very very much a false note…something incredibly difficult. People don’t just sit there…like a tree… …you see what happens. “What the hell’s that guy doing? Why is he, why is he just sitting there?
Then compound (?) that by having me move…now I’m upstaging….I’m pulling attention. So, either way you’re stuck inside (?) how to sit in a room without bringing attention to yourself when you know that the scene has to hold it and you can’t really pull away from there. Knowing full well that if you just move a little bit you’re gonna be drawing attention and if you don’t move you’re gonna be drawing attention so what do you do?
So I sat down I thought “Man, this is like the worst possible when you’re standing and I got, there was a little piece of paper…gum wrapper….juicy fruit gum, kind of …you know it’s got…a…a..cellophane(?)…I mean, it’s got white paper one side and it’s got like a, what do you call that kinda paper?….foil, foil on the other side, so it looks like a piece of metal…and…And….it’s sitting there like that. I reached over and I got it and I started…NOW I had something that I was doing that was broad but now I was doing something..Okay…you know it’s just a….So if you see the movie and you’ll see him back there and he’s doing something but…it’s not big so it doesn’t really pull you away and, but, he’s doing something so he’s taking care of himself…okay, so you think he’s doing something….
Back to the movie. And so you’re inside of the scene and you’re watching. At the end of the scene, of course, Deckard says “I’m not gonna do this, I don’t wanna do this, I’ve retired, it’s over, forget it” you know “find somebody else” and I put the little..And I was messing around with the thing and it started to look like a…a chicken and I’m saying..”huh”…and this is perfect for this scene, my god. It was finished, the scene was finished I put it down…(Chicken noise)
Ridley “Huh….uh…..Edward….What was……bring the camera please” And they took a picture of the chicken..and shot it..(camera noise)
OK, that’s two.
I’m with Deckard now, again, we’re inside looking at a…what’s the names..Ah…um…um….James…um…oh god….I’m gonna remember..Um…Lee…uh Leonard…Leon, thank you, Leon. We’re in his room and he’s like going around, he’s in….. and I, of course, I’m just his driver…I’m just suppose to be driving the guy…looking very weird…and acting very weird and..and I’m standing there and he’s walking around, looking for every clues and all this stuff, and so I found a match-stick and I grabbed the matchstick and I opened it and I started playing with it while he’s doing….again, didn’t wanna upstage him, didn’t wanna do anything, just leave him alone, let him do his thing.
What was I suppose to be doing? Looking for the…you know…replicant’s..oohh..No, I’m suppose to be taking care of him and nobody knows why, but I’m just there, you know…so, I don’t do any…and, so, of course the memorable moment comes when I put the..the stickman down…and the stickman of course has a little hard on…(gesture)…(¡pepito!)….and he has a hard on for Leon….Urrghhh….you know, This’ll remind him (?)…so I put the little stickman down and that was it, and of course Ridley..bing!..
So, cut to…I finished my part, I finished my thing…and….the show, I got to see the movie…and….I’m watching the movie, I’m watching the movie. I’m watching the movie and all of a sudden we get to the end…Bingo…there’s the unicorn made of origami I said “Wow, I was there”….I wasn’t but my character obviously had been ’cause I made the origamis and there’s an origami of…the….you know…unicorn. And of course if you saw the scene you realize that the unicorn was, and is, and understanding of his reoccurring dream…I knew his reoccurring dream therefore it placed him in the position that he hated, Harrison Ford hated the fact that he was a replicant. That’s what it meant.
It meant that he was a replicant also…and he didn’t even know himself. So that was really, I mean, Harrison said “I never played any” ’cause you’re not suppose to…you’re not supposed to know…okay….and so that one became the big thing…and years later…it only came out in the last 25 years, 25 years after the fact, this one….people really started to get into it and now on the 30th anniversary, this year it’s the 30th anniversary but, 25…you know… At the 25th anniversary it became a real important understanding….when people would finally have huge battles…”No he wasn’t a replicant” “No way. Deckard’s not areplicant man”…he was. He is. And then finally, uh last….in the final edition, when they released it I think that Ridley Scott comes out and says it…he says “Yeah,he was a replicant” So..yes, you’re right….I did have an incredible influence on…..and even though I didn’t make that, I didn’t make the origami…(?)…but thank you for asking.
Yes, go ahead.
-Neil Hardwick-
Feb 092010
Sorry, this entry is only available in Español.
Jan 192010
Some little changes in the page. The “Pages” section has been moved up in the right sidebar, and now includes a new topic: Galleries, with some pages plenty of pictures. News pages uses internal galleries with a trick, the Lightbox feature, making possible to navigate thru images with cursor keys or mouse. Enjoy them!
Jan 092010
After some hassles and issues with mail service, today is a great day. Received a big box with two Tyrell pyramid parts inside. They was casted from originals molds, as the companion letter saids. The pieces measures 130×368 mm and 60×155 mm. Color match the movie and the details are awesome!
Letter follows:
To Whom It May Concern:
This letter is to state some background information on the Blade Runner Tyrell building castings. The molds for both of these pieces came from Mr. Eric Stohl who had worked on films such as Armageddon, Broken Arrow, Total Recall, The Hudsucker Proxy, among other films. Mr. Stohl had worked with Mark Stetson at Stetson Visual Services p.n. a number of films and it was from Mark Stetson (Blade Runner 1982 Chief Model Maker) that Mr. Stohl had acquired these molds. Extra Blade Runner castings were also used by the effects crew to decorate many of the Mars buildings in the film Total Recall.
I personally worked with Mr. Stohl at mattel inc. between the years of 2000-2003. He had at the time brought into Mattel all of his castings and molds from his time with Mark Stetson. The 2 Blade Runner pieces you have purchased came from Eric Stohl’s personal collection. We had intended on building a replica of the Tyrell Building with Spinner models and these parts were never used. They were painted and weathered very accurately to the real Tyrell miniature model made for the film Blade Runner.
Best regards,
Dave Martis
Senior Hot Wheels Designer, Mattel Inc.
1999-2004
(signature)
Jan 052010
These nice clay pipes are very very fragile, so, I’ve stored for months in a sturdy cardboard box plenty of foam bubbles and so on. Till now. I’ve found this neat wood box (thank you Carles!) and size are perfect to place some pipes inside. Using a balistic simil foam inside, I’ve put four pipes in with no hassles. The result is a almost proof protected environment for the pipes, and a good showcase, IMHO.
Sep 132009
A new figure from China, the Blade Hunter. A new Deckard at 1/16″ escale. Well done, except, IMHO, in the shoes. Two heads included, one with some blood. Two extra hands, a wrist clock, unicorn and wallet. But… where is the blaster? A missing here boys… The box is a sturdy cardboard one, perfect to protect the figure. Now, is time to launch Google and search for a blaster… one more time! XD
Aug 212009
Sorry, this entry is only available in Español.
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