Designing 'Blade' (1998) (V)

Genre:

Documentary | Short

Cast

Richard 'Dr.' Baily	...	Himself
Greg Cannom	...	Himself
Kirk M. Petruccelli	...	Himself (as Kirk Petruccelli)
Jeff Ward	...	Himself

Produced by
Mark Rance	....	producer

Film Editing by
Mark Rance

Art Department
Ron Elliot	....	graphic artist

Camera and Electrical Department
Ken Kobland	....	additional camera operator
Mark Rance	....	camera operator

Other crew
Ivan Ladizinsky	....	production assistant
Kurando Mitsutake	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• New Line Cinema

Distributors

• Alliance Atlantis Home Video (Canada) (DVD)
• New Line Cinema (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Herzog Productions  behind-the-scenes footage produced by

Runtime:

22 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

This featurette is featured on the DVD for Blade (1998).

Movie Connections:

References The Mask (1994)

Does what it's supposed to

This featurette consists of four sit-down interviews, shown one by one, inter-cut with a few pieces of artwork, stills from production, behind the scenes video and footage from the movie itself. One person also spends a minute or two describing his work on the subway scene while he shows the audience the animation software he used. There's not really anything fancy or wildly attractive about the production of this... it's very straight-forward. The editing is about as to-the-point and without surprises as it comes. At one point, the slides the guy's been showing are put away, and we see the slow pan back to his face... no effort is made to conceal it. The camera-work could be better, especially early on, where there's too much movement. I think some more B-roll might have been beneficial. This clearly wasn't made to entertain, it was put together in an effort to explain some of the effects of the film, as well as giving us an idea of how the design came to be... and it succeeds in doing that. It's a fairly interesting and informational throughout the entire half hour or so, and it is neither too long nor overly short. Each bit goes into one specific aspect of the film, the one that individual dealt with. These include the creation and conception of Pearl and the fighting styles(including a brief outtake from practice). There is a brief glimpse of Snipes as he has a bit of scene planning explained, and as he practices some choreography, but apart from that, this really focuses on what is divulged by the talking heads, and the details they reveal. All in all, an adequate presentation. I recommend this to any fan of the film(and anyone in general, really) who wants to know more about the look, choreography and FX. 5/10