“This required a ton of fans just to keep cool.”

Concurrently, the model shop was producing double layers of acid-etched brass sheets to face the flying buttresses on each side of the pyramid. The buttress design posed a different lighting problem, which Kris Gregg solved with U-shaped fluorescent bulbs. “Despite heavy filter correction,” notes Stetson, “the buttress lighting was notably cooler in color than the main pyramid. We decided that was just part of the look of the building.”

SPINNING OUT SPINNERS

Equally iconic in Blade Runner lore are the flying police vehicles known as Spinners. In visual futurist Syd Mead’s design explora- tions for Blade Runner, he called the flying vehicles ‘aerodynes’

– Spinner was a brand name. Modelmakers crafted several scales of Spinner models (there were also full-sized versions built by legendary hot-rodder Gene Winfield) ranging from one inch to 50 inches.

The models were laid up in molds made from original wooden patterns, with plastic detailing and a vacuum-formed canopy.

The vehicles were particularly recognizable for their flaring and spinning police lights. In fact, the larger scale Spinner models were a significant feat of engineering. They were made to include room for cabling, stepper motors, lighting, and even nitrogen plumbing for exhaust.

“Late in the development of the models, Ridley asked for a rack of gumball-style police lights to be mounted on top of the car,” says Stetson. “Getting the lights to spin on the model required a new lighting rig that replaced the rear bodywork on the model and was shot on a repeat pass using motion control. We made little brass cans for each halogen light, with lensed snoots driven through speedo cables by a rack of stepper motors on the back of the car.

Shooting in a heavily smoked stage, you’d see these beams of light rotating around, done on a second pass on the model. It was really effective and it really looked beautiful.”