Enhance thirty-four to forty-six

September 1, 2010 12:27 PM

BLADE RUNNER revisited >3.6 gigapixels - An experimental film in tribute to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (SLVimeo)
posted by fearfulsymmetry (32 comments total)

I think I prefer the old way of watching films.
posted by mrnutty at 12:34 PM on September 1, 2010

Now project it onto the side of a blimp!
posted by zippy at 12:38 PM on September 1, 2010

Man, simple idea used to pretty breathtaking effect. It's just a camera running over a giant wall of cells, but the camera scripting for some of those moments is amazing.
posted by eyeballkid at 12:38 PM on September 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

I feel like I'm watching the opening credits to a futuristic movie review TV program, something like Robo-Siskel and Ebert 3000. It's a cool animation, even if it doesn't add much to my appreciation for Scott's film.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:38 PM on September 1, 2010

*cough* cels *cough*
posted by eyeballkid at 12:38 PM on September 1, 2010

All those moments will be lost in time, like Blade Runner posts on Metafilter.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:44 PM on September 1, 2010 [8 favorites]

Is there a way to play it in this player?
posted by hortense at 12:45 PM on September 1, 2010

From the same artist (previously): ANTS in my scanner > a five years time-lapse!
posted by homunculus at 1:10 PM on September 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

That's pretty mind blowing. I wonder what the render time for that whole thing was and how many computers were used... I can't imagine that mine could do it in a whole month.

I think it would be tasty X 1000 if projected at IMAX scale....
posted by fantodstic at 1:25 PM on September 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

Neat-o movie, but that awesome score could make just about anything seem grand.
posted by Bookhouse at 1:34 PM on September 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

That's the same guy who did the ants-in-my-scanner thing? Wow.

I'm a lot more impressed with this than I am with the scanner clip.
posted by spitefulcrow at 1:45 PM on September 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'll have to watch later on a computer that doesn't completely suck.
posted by slogger at 1:46 PM on September 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

*looks benignly at Blazecock Pileon, then places a piece of candy in his mouth and politely smiles from the side of a building*
posted by adipocere at 1:50 PM on September 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

I think if blade runner were made today, it would kind of suck. Unlimited special effects have kind of spoiled movie makers. Sci-fi and adventure movies used to be forced to have slow pacing and lots of subtly because they didn't have the budget for constant special effects.
posted by delmoi at 1:51 PM on September 1, 2010 [4 favorites]

Interesting that the longest time that it pauses for a single scene appears to be one that isn't even in the original release.
posted by googly at 2:06 PM on September 1, 2010

Sci-fi and adventure movies used to be forced to have slow pacing and lots of subtly because they didn't have the budget for constant special effects sometimes gave a rip about making a movie instead of selling toys
posted by shakespeherian at 2:10 PM on September 1, 2010 [3 favorites]

In the immortal words of Jessi Helms, "Art is no damn good."

I found it really weird and dull, kind of pointless.
But it DID make me want to watch the movie, so it gets points there.
posted by Stagger Lee at 2:13 PM on September 1, 2010

The worst thing you can tell an artist is, "It's been done before."

It's been done before.
posted by charlie don't surf at 2:18 PM on September 1, 2010 [3 favorites]

I would have bought a Rutger Hauer action figure. If you pull the string, you give him more life!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:24 PM on September 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

That's pretty cool, but I was hoping for some zoom-pan-enhance action like the title suggested! Though looking around obstructions in three dimensions may be a bit much, we're well on the path to gigapixel consumer cameras that will allow (nearly) Deckardesque adventures into small details. I've already seen a number of web sites linked on MeFi that offer this kind of experience with huge images. Sometimes I like living in the future, or maybe this is just the eve of it.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 2:33 PM on September 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

Ditto Bookhouse's comment. There's something about the Vangelis score that makes my adrenaline surge every time the sound starts building. Even after having seen the models used to create the Tyrell headquarters, the combination of music and camerawork for those establishing shots make those buildings a very real part of a futuristic city that I can still picture vividly in my mind 25+ years later.

My appreciation of the story and dialog itself has mellowed, but I can always get excited to re-watch the fantastic work of placing the story in a believable future. Hampton Fancher created the vision, but Vangelis' score adds so much in capturing the grandiosity of the Tyrell Corp. empire.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 3:09 PM on September 1, 2010

Yep yep. The soundtrack was enough to get my pulse racing. But though I love the film dearly, I couldn't help but feel like this was otherwise a giant wank.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 3:14 PM on September 1, 2010

I'm not normally one for experimental artsy stuff, and maybe this is all because I love the original material, but the video really spoke to me on some gut level. Now I just need to figure out what it was trying to say.
posted by immlass at 3:53 PM on September 1, 2010

It's really incredible how perfect the BladeRunner soundtrack is when Vangelis' soundtrack for Ladyhawke is so utterly, utterly risible.
posted by Sparx at 5:26 PM on September 1, 2010

Blazecock Pileon: "I would have bought a Rutger Hauer action figure. If you pull the string, you give him more life!"

If you pull the string, you give him more life, Fucker.

FTFY.
posted by bwg at 6:48 PM on September 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

This is so much better than the artists' previous work. That ant colony could've been great but he'd lit the scanner darkly.
posted by mhjb at 7:27 PM on September 1, 2010 [2 favorites]

If you pull the string, you give him more life, Fucker Father.

FTFY
posted by KokuRyu at 8:55 PM on September 1, 2010

Father? Faszher
posted by zippy at 11:44 PM on September 1, 2010

If you pull the string, you give him more life, Fucker Father.

Ok, I'm geeking out here, but I specifically remember notes of Hauer saying "Fahker", because it sounded like both Father and fucker together. But what he was REALLY saying was Falker.
posted by hanoixan at 11:57 PM on September 1, 2010

Well, whether we liked it or not, I'd say it's a success as an experiment.
posted by maus at 12:05 AM on September 2, 2010

If you pull the string, you give him more life, Fucker Father

I was aware of the deliberate mispronunciation by Hauer as directed by Scott, designed to meld 'father' and 'fucker', but I went for the worst of the two, given what happens after he says that.

Mostly I was just going for a little joke, which of course now has been completely ruined.
posted by bwg at 3:08 AM on September 2, 2010

Must you? Literary reference jokes are already Ubikuitous here.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 9:27 AM on September 2, 2010