How to Get the Blade Runner 2049 Look on Video (Orange and Blue)

Two worlds, two grades

Blade Runner 2049 basically has two looks. Los Angeles is cold, gray-blue and wet, lit by signs and screens. Las Vegas is drowned in thick orange dust where everything goes soft and monochrome. Roger Deakins did a lot of this in camera with lighting and haze, so the grade mostly pushes what's already there.

The trick for your own footage is to commit to one color per scene. The film almost never mixes them in the same shot.

The Las Vegas orange

Open the film filters, start from Golden Hour, then change:

• Contrast: 88 (the haze kills contrast)
• Saturation: 110
• Brightness: 102
• Temperature: +38
• Tint: -4
• Highlights: +6
• Shadows: +14
• Fade: 16 (fake atmosphere)
• Bloom: 16
• Bloom Threshold: 40
• Grain: 8
• Split Tone Intensity: 40
• Split Tone Shadow Color: #5a2a08
• Split Tone Highlight Color: #ffb050
• Vignette: 12

It should look like the air itself is orange. If anything in the frame is still blue or green, push the split tone higher.

The Los Angeles blue

For night and rain, start from Blue Hour:

• Contrast: 112
• Saturation: 70
• Brightness: 94
• Temperature: -22
• Tint: +2
• Shadows: -8
• Fade: 6
• Grain: 12
• Halation: 10 with color #ff6030 (for neon signs)
• Split Tone Intensity: 24
• Split Tone Shadow Color: #0a1a2a
• Split Tone Highlight Color: #a8b8c0
• Vignette: 20

Low saturation is what makes it Blade Runner and not a cyberpunk game. Let the neon be the only strong color.

Footage that fits

Fog, mist, steam, dusty backlight, anything that gives the light something to hit. For the orange look, shoot against a low sun or a big warm light behind the subject. For the blue look, rainy streets and screens or shop signs at night. Wide empty frames with one small person in them are very Deakins.

Framing and motion

Letterbox at 2.39:1. Motion should be slow, a gentle push from animations or none. If you want a title, big thin letters behind the subject with depth text look right at home here.

The 30 second version

1. 1Apply Golden Hour
2. 2Temperature +38, Contrast 88, Fade 16
3. 3Split tone highlight #ffb050 at 40

Try it in the filters.

Related: Dune desert look | Cinestill 800T look | Euphoria neon look