Tom Southwell Q & A

[andy]

As far as the idea of putting a picture of Deckard's mother in the wallet. The line "There is a piece of me in you" makes me think that the scientists working for Tyrell may have used some of their own DNA to make the replicants, and even some of the replicants may have resembled them as a result. Also if the memories of Deckard could have been taken from an employee, the picture of his mother may have been from an employee and resembled one of the replicants. Perhaps the 6th replicant Mary, that was supposed to be played by Stacy Nelkin. A photo of her in his wallet would be a real Easter egg that only an obsessed fan would have a clue about.

Andy

[Tom Southwell]

Andy,
I know this will sound like a cop out but here it is any way:
The prop master, or Harrison, or Ridley would have to answer your question.
I designed the graphics, and some badges, and a ton of neon.
But I wasn't there day in and day out. If one of the above folks
wanted a badge it could have been added.

I didn't design the badge in your photo.
The I.D in the photo differs from the one I did.
I can see the VidPhon card there is based on the Cinefantastique image,
Which has differences from my design.

But after all that, I think that is a nice looking set, and a set you could be
proud to have in your collection. Ridley would have asked for it to be worn
out a bit, with care like the wallet in your own pocket.
TS
_________________
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[Tom Southwell]

Andy,
I'm like Hampton. I like to keep the mystery alive about Deck: he doesn't know
and we don't either. It puts us in his shoes. What is our origin? Where did we come from?
Some very smart fans think the film doesn't work if Deck is a rep.
I don't agree. But I do believe P.K.D. wanted to plant that question
in the mind of his reader. And are we heading to a society where the animals
and some people are recreated by man, and we have lost feelings.
And these new creatures are more human than us, with more, deeper feelings than us.

I think of the KKK leader who discovers his grandmother was black.
Or the Nazi assassin who discovers he's Jewish, or so on, and so on.
"I've had a belly of killing." I think this is the meat PKD was serving up.
TS
_________________
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[andy]

Thanks Tom. I had a feeling that was what it was going to be. the fact that the ID or badge were not designed by you is not a final word, but it certainly puts another nail in the coffin. I do think he did a great job on the set, and I do own pieces of the sets including a gold chromed version of the badge and a miniature version of the ID made for the first set. To me it is all part of the history of being an avid Blade Runner collector. That is why I did the history of the replicas of the gun. If you have seen Adam Savage's video about his collection you will see how I feel just as fond of the inaccurate stuff as the accurate stuff. It all makes a good story to me as well and fleshes out a larger picture. Thank you again for adding to that story for me.

Andy

[andy]

Yeah. I have my own ideas about Deckard that have never been discussed as far as I know. Still I agree keeping his origin a Mystery is part again of the duality within the film. I like the fact that every time I watch the film I can get a different sense about it. To me it borrows from dream imagery and has elements of things I have dreamed about since I was a kid in it. It also has that disjointed sense of reality where things don't always add up, and can change up. like for instance the Bradbury building and how it changes into a different building for Sebastian's apartment and then is also much higher in elevation. Also when Deckard is playing back the Holden/Leon interview in his car the dialogue is slightly different. It may be just a goof, but it creates an uneasy feeling, and affects your emotions without you noticing. It is almost surreal. A final answer about Deckard makes it too easy to walk away and not try to experience the film with a different perspective. It also makes the film eternal with the discussions about it.

Andy

[joberg]

Thanks Tom for those valuable infos and as far as the Deckard is a Rep discussion is concerned we'll certainly do that in another forum for sure. (I wrote my view in Gavin Rothery's blog last time and somewhat the discussion stopped at that point ...maybe a fluke).

Andy, thanks for these pics of the wallet; as you said, you gotta love the wrong with the right and each of these "errors" have a certain cachet after all.
It's almost like archeology: you discover something, but you don't have the complete and detailled image, so you're trying to extend, stretch and extrapolate what you have not seen and create from that...interesting

[8th_Passenger]

Not wishing to detract from the interesting discussion going on above, I have a quick question for Tom:

Tom, joberg's VK machine has got me interested in making one myself. I've been drawing some plans up over the last couple of weeks. Earlier in this thread you posted your original artwork for the VK logos on the machine. If possible please could you give me the dimensions of each graphic as seen on screen. From this information I hope to be able to proportionally work out the overall dimensions of the machine.

Colin

[Tom Southwell]

Clever idea Colin. I'll do some digging and get back to you.
TS
_________________
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[8th_Passenger]

Thanks Tom.

Look forward to it.

Colin

[BeastMaster]

Wow! Great to finally see the reverse of that card! Thanks Tom Crazy that all this time I wasn't even sure the $ card existed as an actual prop so it's very cool seeing the proof.

Is the writing about the Bonds on the back something you copied from a source or wrote yourself?

Also how was this card constructed? Is the green and black printed onto the clear film and then (spray-glued?) onto the white card?
_________________
"F*ck it, it's just a movie. Let him worry about it" Harrison Ford

[joberg]

Colin, great idea! Reverse engineering, should've thought of that

[Tom Southwell]

Beast,
I'm not totally sure how Jack Neville did this one.
It may be green ink photo lithoed on white paper and
a film pos. of black over that for the front and just green
litho on the back. Then laminated. Not really sure.

Some of the rear text may have come from an auto club
card (but don't tell them). Balderdash was another word for B.S.
And I stuck that Nikosey logo saveral places in the movie
including Decks bathroom.
TS
_________________
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[Tom Southwell]

One more note about Holden:
(forgive me if you experts already covered this).
Morgan did Deckards voice over for the first BR trailer.
(The one with the Ink Spots song in it.)

I was glad that his hospital sequence ( both of them) were
removed from the cut because ( as was mentioned here)
the set resembled Alien too much and was more futuristic
than the rest of the film BR.
TS
_________________
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[joberg]

You're right Tom, that set was never a good fit for the look of the movie in general...glad they cut that one... Even if Peter Weyland talks about Tyrell in that "Ted Vid" made for the viral publicity campaign of Prometheus

[Tom Southwell]

Last night at 20th Century Fox (LA) I saw a screening of CRAVE.

"A remarkable first feature film." is no over statement. Seems like it was
made by a veteran , which it was, when you consider all his documentary
assignments proudly added to DVDs in deluxe packages. But for me what
proved to be astounding was his confidence working in dangerous,
controversial areas of sex, violence, comedy, and romance.
And it all works. Beautifully. No accident you feel tones of
Blade Runner: Crave production designer is David L. Snyder,
and director Charles de Lauzirika wrote the book...I mean
created the last word document on Blade Runner : Dangerous Days
(the documentary). Congrats Charles and David.

Also in attendance Syd Mead, Future Noir author Paul Sammon, and ...
me.
Tom Southwell
_________________
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[Tom Southwell]

Please be advised that this unit may not be the one used in the movie,
as the earliest one was rejected. Your study will determine which unit
this is.

(More photos to follow.)
TS
_________________
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[Tom Southwell]

THESE PHOTOS ARE NOT A RE-CREATION.
THIS IS THE ACTUAL MOVIE PROP BEING BUILT.







As I said earlier, you will have to study these photos to discover which unit this is.
TS
_________________
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[8th_Passenger]

Wow! Amazing photo's Tom.

Colin

[Tom Southwell]

Ok community, here are the guys you really want to meet,,,or BE!

Seated on the left is set decorating lead man Michael Taylor, and
beside him is prop master Terry Lewis, to his left is Marvin Westmore
chief make up artist and part of a huge makeup dynasty. Standing in
the shadows is asst. prop master David Quick who was on set to
service cast and director day and night. On this truck is what your
dreams are made of.
Happily submitted by
TS
_________________
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[Tom Southwell]

The badges were manufactured very crudely.

The Viz FX department sent over pictures regularly.
This early Spinner had the gun Syd put in his painting,
and that Bill Skinner had defined in the early blue prints.
It got cut.


Prop master made these to stamp napkins etc.


A Tyrell tile, front and side view. 14 and 7/8 inches square.

For some reason this Polaroid shows up very scratched in the Signs Of The Times DVD segment and I don't know why.
On the left is production designer Lawrence G. Paull, and way over on the far right is art director David L. Snyder. I'm in the middle.
_________________
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...