Movies - TV
Blade Runner Had A Simple Solution For Putting The Shine In Replicants' Eyes
By JOSHUA MEYER
As Ridley Scott's movie "Blade Runner" turns 40, it remains a sci-fi classic that continues to find new fans and influence new generations of filmmakers. 2019 has come and gone, and while it didn't look much like the flying-car future envisioned by the film in 1982, we are still marveling at some of the movie’s special effects.
What's all the more impressive about "Blade Runner" in retrospect is it came well before the advent of digital effects and yet its practical effects hold up decades later. One of these marvels is the periodic eye glint we see from the replicants, and while today they may just use contacts or special effects — this was done with a mirror.
Scott explained how they created the effect, stating, "You have a sheet of glass which is half mirror, and you mount it on the camera in front of the lens at a 45-degree angle. And on one side, just behind the camera, is a very small light on a dimmer and when your subject looks at the camera you turn up this light.” This was the brainchild of legendary special photographic effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull.