BLADE RUNNER 2049 REFLECTION ON RESEARCH & THE RESEARCH AND CONTEXT ITSELF :

For Blade Runner 2049, since i picked it as my project where i would use the movie as part of my film essay, one of the beginning parts of research i did was watching the movie itself as a dvd (primary research). by doing this, i was able to watch the movie couple of times to get an idea of what the plot is about and take some notes throughout the movie and pause whenever i wanted to. the other styles of research i then started to do was after watching the movie, to see if there were anymore notes and things to do with symbols and themes i was able to take note of, this part was something i struggled with the most. but then i realised, with everything i've learnt to do with research (primary and secondary) , i remembered a particular site where i was able to get some questions out of to do with blade runner 2049, that was an example of secondary research where when i asked questions about the movie and people in the comments section would reply and tell me their opinions and answers for what i was looking for.. Another way i was able to use primary and secondary sources was through books. one of the first books i purchased in order to find more information about Blade Runner 2049 was about the philosophy of the movie, the more knowledge side of the whole point of blade runner 2049 and a rhetorical questions and themes. and that helped me alot in order to create research notes about what it was i was looking for and it helped me alot with explaining more premises of the main point of the movie which helped me link to what it was i was looking for in the first place.

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RESEARCH NOTES, THEMES CONTEXT/ NOTES I GATHERED AS PART OF ADDITIONAL RESEARCH:

The most focus on the movie, though it is on the main character but explores the deeper meaning of themes and symbolisms such as what it’s like to be human, how do we know if we have a soul and how as human beings, are able to identify what’s real and what isn’t. As a replicant, officer K is given a job to take down other older replicants that have gone berserk and though he is not like the others, he thinks differently and sees the world differently because of him not being human, they are reminded of the opportunities they could have had, the things they could not do and the potential they never realised. This is established and shown in two scenes,

the first one with when officer K has the baseline test “within cells, interlinked” which is a daily check up to see if he has experienced any human emotion as a replicant, Which the whole cells interlinked is a reference to the book Pale fires revelation about how the poet had seen a white fountain in front of his eyes and in it and started to describe the movement of his heart attack through how his cells of his skin and body’s reaction. The way this is used in blade runner 2049, is for checking if there is any sign of emotion from the replicants such as for example Officer K, to see if he has been distracted or is becoming aware about human emotion and in the book, it says “A system of Cells interlinked within / Cells interlinked with cells interlinked/ within one stem. And dreadfully distinct/against the dark, a tall white fountain played”. officer K has to listen and repeat the remaining words every time the interviewer ends its phrase in order to test officer K and make sure there is no sudden change. This does change however (which I will get to) after ‘K’ has his first-time experiencing emotion as a replicant after discovering a horse figure through his investigation of the half child and half replicant, which is where memory comes in., he starts to believe that he, may be the the child of the replicant and human that was lost for years and kept hidden from the world. after going to the factory to find out about the child’s record, where he stumbles in the outskirts of the factory before entering, the outskirts represents the mind of ‘K’ , it becomes the representation of his mind, him looking for his own purpose and his own path to follow.

This as well links to when officer k is speaking to his hologram ‘joi’. At officer ‘K’ ‘s home, we see his own split division with how he ranks himself with a holographic projection as his wife also known as joi.

The holographic projection existence is limited since she is part of a projector, installed on the ceiling. The way she reacts, is a scripted response to ‘K’, an example of this is shown when she asks K personal questions like “How was your day” with joi responding “Im getting cabin fever” Officer K doesn’t reveal anything about what had happened to him at work when he went to retire a replicant. In terms of language, he likes to avoid reality and uses joi to distract himself. K also jumps topic to topic since he has designed Joi to interact the way K is speaking to her. This also highlights the relationship between them both, Joi although isn’t just a straight up A.I, she’s programmed the way to engage and respond to human interaction. This is shown when in the movie, ‘K’ is setting up her specifications, like the type of language she speaks, type of face, body shape and ethnicity. This is connected to back to “within Cells Interlinked” when officer K goes to visit anna sterline, a memory maker, shes basically the example and reflection of what officer K is, the existence of his. The life of anna is behind a glass that has an immune system of resulting to have freedom as long as its used to serve prupose like officer K does.

When the conversation goes:

“What makes your memories so authentic?”

“Well, there’s a bit of work to every artist”

The interaction between these two characters, it somehow becomes a a study on the parental role with the potential of the creator and consequences of a tyrant, which is like becoming to receive flaws and problems from parents that are dysfunctional. Which shows the replicants struggling in terms of identity.

After this scene we see anna analysing the wooden horse figure while K sits, you can see both parallels of the characters with anna inside the glass and k outside as they both start reacting. We do not see what there is from their perspective of memory but somehow the strong focus that’s there in both of investing emotion. Anna’s face is shown with emotion of streaming tears.

How does this connect and link back to the first part I was speaking about, the “cells interlinked” ?. With the part of Anna and both K finding out about the memory of the horse wooden figure, anna realising that the memory is hers, Officer K goes into outburst, he has a reaction, experiencing human emotion, in the most painful way possible, after hoping for the idea that he may be the child because of the memory he had as a child felt like it was him. After he steps out into the snow,

He has his hand in front of him in the snowy weather, which is where the pathetic fallacy comes in, with the colour palette of white shown in the scene, it represents the information and truth ‘k’ has seeking until now as he finally receives the truth.

As he's back at the station for the baseline test, this is where Officer K changes, in the parts of the human way and as a replicant.

As baseline tests check if a replicant has changed in terms of changing ion emotion, it shows the change ‘K’ has truly changed after the outburst he had experienced. K has stepped up his boundaries and has stepped beyond the creator (creator)

its dangerous as, he has been fully aware of his purpose and in the sense of looking at replicants as children who are learning, K has reached a level of self development from himself.

the parent, in this scene for example who is the character LT.JOSHI, who officer K follows since he is part of the LAPD as his job, gives him a chance to do something

"I can help you get out of this station alive but you have 48 hours to get back on track...and your next baseline test is out of my hands" , K's dream that was forbidden has become true in terms of reality as a valuable lesson is learnt which is between the barriers of lifeforms.

this as a parallel connects to when one of the characters such as "Luv" who is a replicant confronts LT Joshi

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FMP self reflection Blog

farhan mehmood
May 2, 2021
8 min read

Updated: Oct 2, 2021

My reflection for my fmp:

As I have started my Fmp, I started off with starting with my research. At first I was nervous on how I’m going to get all of my research all together and then I realised, that I have the Blade runner 2049 film for myself to watch. So I watched the film couple of times to try and grab any hidden detail and some notes I was able to take. Which ended up working and I was proud of. I did some other research as well to do with primary and secondary which I already had knowledge of and what I wanted to do. So for the whole of the research and context side of things, I was pretty happy with what I was doing because the fmp I am doing, is something I’m into, which is film essays because I’m able to speak much better about something that is my passion.

I believe some parts I was struggling with with this part of the FMP, was getting the right information and context to do with Blade runner 2049. So, on my budget I brought myself a book to do with the movie about the philosophical side of the movie. I also ended up purchasing the Art and Soul of the movie, which had more notes by the director and some qoutes by the crew of the movie who worked on the movie and ideas he had developed and worked with on the film. and then other than the books, i did some research online by asking questions on forums such as reddit to do with the movie about context and meaning wise and from that i got some pretty good explanation's. Since as well, the fmp im doing is on a film essay to do with Blade runner 2049.

some of the additional research i ended up doing was

As in between of the research and starting my production on my blade runner 2049 essay video, i used a guide to help stay on track to do with the pass, merit and distinction criteria so that i knew what kind of areas there would be for me to make sure i have the requirements i need. i also used a Gantt chart and the gantt chart basically had helped me

Research:

for the research i started to look at across variety different things to do with Blade Runner:2049. the first part of research was watching the film itself. i had watched the movie couple of times to understand the story and purpose and also to see if there were any important parts that i had missed and also to pick out the scenes i wanted for the video essay. i then proceeded to purchase books to do with the movie. the first book i purchased was to do with the philosophical side of the world of Blade Runner 2049 with our thoughts and feelings towards understanding what it is like to be human. and the second book i purchased was "The Art and Soul" of Blade: Runner 2049 where there was more in depth explanation about inspirations for scenes in the movies, the crew and cast speaking about the film itself and also how there were developed ideas when in the post production process.

The Pass, Merit and Distinction criteria:

The most important thing i have to speak about as part of my self reflection is speaking about what kind of pass i am near with to do with my FMP. my tutor had mentioned that when doing my fmp, i should always check the requirements to do with research, process and production etc. and as a whole while i've been checking through, at the moment so far, in terms with the research part, i feel like i am in the pass criteria. and that's because the research i have done so far, is the research that has helped me in order to build not only the knowledge and skills i need for my fmp but also to make my way through for passing my fmp.

As a side reflection, my tutor had asked me to do this “SWOT” analysis thing. And basically, with the “SWOT” analysis, I was able to think about and spot what it was or I need to improve for my FMP, what I’m already achieving and what I could do to make it better. For this I had to do it on my sketchbook.

Critique sheet:

In class i had to create a critique sheet. and what the critique sheet does is, it gives me feedback from others to do with my work/FMP. i asked a series of questions on a questionnaire and that questionnaire would be filled out. but also, other than that another way a critique sheet was used was with me not exactly presenting work but just a quick explanation and analysis of what my fmp is and what the whole aim for it is at the end. and with that, i was able to get some feedback - back. And when receiving the feedback, i would use that feedback as an opportunity to fill out what i need to improve upon in order to make my fmp better.

I followed the feedback given to me in the critique sheet to do with what there was i have to improve on to do with my fmp and if there were things missing. overall. and at the end it helped me improve more and see where abouts i was heading to in terms of the final major project.

Production and process

For production wise, I knew what I was planning to do, which was a video essay for blade runner 2049. and the reason I chose a video essay for the fmp and production wise is because i felt like with all my skills I've learnt to do with audio and video and carrying on from a previous assignment i did which wasn't long ago, I'm able to show my skills and techniques with what I'm able to do. And also because since the theme for the FMP is to do with "Change" it is a way for me to explain the whole journey of how a person can go from someone who has never questioned about his worth to finally asking about it. To start off with, in order for myself to start the video essay, i had plan my script. and i didn't just randomly start writing the script for everything that happens in Blade Runner 2049, i rather actually picked the specific scenes i wanted to speak about. and picking the scenes i wanted to speak about helped me because it helped me deliver what the whole aim for fmp is. in the middle of planning my script for blade runner 2049, i started the plan of a shot list so that i knew what clips to add in and to make sure that whatever i was doing was in order and structure wise. with the shot list i was able to follow the steps and remind myself what needs to be added in and what part i have to shift from

you can see that i somehow in a way created it as a storyboard but mixed in with a shot list and this helped me as a guide so i could remember what specific clips were needed while editing. it has helped me alot as a visual guide.

As for the script, i typed everything in my own words in order to explain the movie and the purpose for why i am speaking about blade runner 2049, including the explanations of scenes i wrote in order to achieve what my first goal was at the start of my FMP.

and it was really important to me tht i would do that so it sounds clear to me and as a final product of a video.

When i started to plan out the script and then following the planning, to start write and typing it in, i had to make sure whatever was said, had to make sense and for it to make sense it had to be 100% clear. i watched examples of video essays to get myself into the process and start point of what the whole point of videos essays are and the purpose made for them.

i started to list and use footage from the movie in order to create the final outcome, which is the video essay. the way i did this was by downloading footage like different individual clips from the specific scenes i wanted from YouTube. and by using those clips i was able to put them into adobe premiere pro.

For audio, there wasnt much problem. in order to record audio over the footage that was being used, i used a different application which was Audacity. and with audacity

in the image, you can see that together i've added into the timeline, the clips ive used, the audio i;ve recorded as part of voiceover when speaking about specific scenes and text to show what part of the video that is coming next, to represent chapters etc.

the video below is a brief explanation what the screenshot means and how it is coming together:

The green boxes represent audio, the audio that has been used is the audio I've voice recorded and added as an overlay to represent and explain specific scenes throughout the video so that there is context and explanation towards the audience and viewers.

the blue boxes represent the clips I've added in, such as the clips I've used from the film, with the use of the clips, I am able to make the video as a moving element mixed in with over lay audio.

and finally, the pink boxes represent text i've added in. adding text into the video explains what part of the video i am about to speak about, it is a way to understand what part i am about go towards to next.

In the video i explain my process towards the production side for the Blade Runner; 2049 video essay. when editing in the application premiere pro. i also then start explaining how it has helped me so far making the video with all the skills i've learnt such as adding in clips from the movie, recording voiceovers as part of an overlay and also what the important parts are in a video essay such as when i start speaking about the use of text, videos and audio.

the process has helped me alot in terms of the production side because i've learnt to put all of my skills applied to premiere pro and with those skills i slowly and started to develop and proceed to keep going forward with the editing as it goes towards the final piece of work.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/e01438_64e37abbbd864df6926a1bac44fbed4e/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

As i was done with the editing of my video, i then exported it into a suitable file for it to be watched on. when watching through, i noticed that the audio levels were not correct and they were in need of being in the exact level as the rest of clips and audio. so what i then had to do was, re record voiceovers and use that to replace the original recorded

Conclusion:

As a conclusion My Final Major project, i feel like this was one of the hardest piece of work i have done. The reason being is because of how i chose to do a video essay and though it was hard it had helped me realize and expand upon my skills and techniques to do with video editing on Adobe premiere pro and I am proud of that. the problems that were faced during production had been solved after many attempts of figuring out and going through the situation countless of times.

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