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I'm trying to recreate the Blade Runner eye reflection effect found in these examples:

Blade Runner - Owl

Blade Runner - Android

The closest I've seen is with a flash where the light bounces off in the eye and causes a bright red or white pupil but that would be inconvenient during a live shot like the movie. I've tried shining a bright light angled between the light, my eye, and the camera without much success.

mattdm
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worbel
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    Since this is primarily about a film effect, this might be better on http://avp.stackexchange.com/. But, it's also one of those things where the lighting setup could be done for stills as well. – mattdm May 06 '13 at 15:54
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    You know, I've watched Blade Runner a lot of times, even studied it in school, but I've never actually associated that eye reflection in some scenes with being a replicant before. I guess I've always assumed it was just a stylistic effect. Now I have to watch the film again to see whose eye has a reflection and whose doesn't! – thomasrutter May 07 '13 at 04:56
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    It will be interesting to see if the eye effect is continued in the Blade Runner sequel. I expect details will be published on the Blade Runner 2 information website once available. –  May 19 '13 at 15:31

2 Answers2

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This effect was done by shining light directly in the same path as the lens. A half-translucent/half-reflective mirror (as in a "two-way" mirror) was placed in front of the lens at a 45 degree angle, and a beam of light directed on to that.

Like this:

         subject


           \    
darkness     \         <-- light
               \

            ^
         camera

The light would shine half through the mirror and half be reflected onto the subject; the camera's image would be half from the subject and half from whatever is to the left; to avoid that being an issue, one would presumably mask that with dark cloth to absorb the light shining through and avoid reflecting it back.

One could also use a ring flash to obtain a similar "on-axis" lighting effect, although of course the characteristic reflections would be ring-shaped, not the full circles seen in the replicants' eyes.

See this article in the American Society of Cinematographer's magazine for more on how these effects were done, including quotes from the film's cinematographer, Jordan Cronenweth. (He notes that "very subtle colored gels" were used as well.)

mattdm
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    +1, but just a pane of glass would do it; that's how a TelePrompTer works. –  May 06 '13 at 15:54
  • @StanRogers: I remember reading the cinematographer saying he used half-translucent mirrors; found an article with the quote and linked it in the article. (I love this movie!) – mattdm May 06 '13 at 15:59
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    Kind of want to try it with a pane of glass now. We'll see if my kids are cooperative this evening. :) – mattdm May 06 '13 at 16:01
  • A "proper" beam splitter would probably be better when working wide (wide-angle lens and a wide-throw light) since you could work with a dimmer light and reduce flare, but with normal-to-long (and a restricted budget), you don't need to go there. –  May 06 '13 at 16:41
  • Half-translucent mirror would affect exposure by a whole stop; ideally you'd want something like 99% transmitted light, 1% transmitted light. It's easier to make the light you're bouncing off it a lot brighter than it is to make the entire scene brighter. – thomasrutter May 07 '13 at 04:53
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    Just a note: many animals (in particular those that need good night vision), have a special layer over the retina called the Tapetum lucidum which reflects the light. Humans don't have it, so you see their blood vessels (red eyes). Presence in dogs depends on breed and individuals. – xenoid Aug 08 '18 at 20:12
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Essentially, mattdm's answer is correct. In addition, to the half-refelctive mirror, they used a tight, dimmable light to control when/how bright the eye reflections would appear.

Ridley himself discusses how they did it here:

https://youtu.be/IpzFOHEO8Sc

Max P Magee
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