Blog #5

Ridley Scott chose the Bradbury building to play the iconic role of the Toymaker’s shop in Bladerunner due to its eerie history and atmospheric setting. The location likely stuck out to him because of its combination of classical and futuristic styles, as it was commissioned in the eighteen hundreds but designed to resemble visions of the future in 2000. These choices emulated the world Scott was trying to create, so the Bradbury building fit in perfectly with a planet of cyborgs inhabiting a neo-noir Los Angeles. Its geometrically patterned stairways, wrought-iron railways and open cage elevators coincided with Scott’s imagination, and since the building hadn’t been utilized in decades, it wasn’t too hard to make the place seem haunting and run-down. The location itself radiated an ominous energy, as it was even created by an architect who consulted his dead brother by way of a predecessor to the modern day ouija board. While other films such as Marlowe and 500 days of summer, saw the potential in the area to represent just another corporate estate, Scott used the history of the site to create something unique to both himself and what the building represented.