The Los Angeles of Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 is a bleak and smoggy noir, a vision of a dystopic and inhospitable world in ruin. The film’s intensely atmospheric mise-en-scene was realised with cutting-edge lighting technology and the craftsmanship of creative people such as gaffer Krisztián Paluch and lighting programmer Titusz Badonics. Presenting the centrality of lighting to the storytelling and explaining how the crew collaborated with Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins, the experts demystify the daily routines, challenges, troubleshoots and fixes that the production team faced when shining a light on our future world of 2049.