Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential movies of all time, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ was produced and directed by American filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999). Noted for his scientifically accurate depiction of space flight, pioneering special effects, and ambiguous imagery, Kubrick used sound and dialogue sparingly, often in place of traditional cinematic and narrative techniques. This epic science fiction film from 1968, which follows astronaut Dr. David Bowman’s voyage to Jupiter (with the sentient computer HAL) after discovery of a featureless alien monolith affecting human evolution, deals with themes of existentialism, human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence, and the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. During his interplanetary journey, Bowman’s pod is pulled into a vortex of coloured light and carried across vast distances of space. Seated at his pod controls, computer readout displays and panel lights are reflected in Bowman’s helmet visor but these screens were actually miniature rear-projection systems, using 16mm film that was reduced from 35mm ‘drawn-on-film’ animation frames (a technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock). Internally referred to as ‘Manhattan Project’ but more popularly known later as the ‘Star Gate’ sequence, the visuals were achieved by special photographic effects supervisor, Douglas Trumbull, who designed a slit-scan machine for the infinite light show through which lone astronaut Bowman travels. His device could produce two seemingly infinite planes of exposure while holding depth of field from a distance of fifteen feet to one and one-half inches from the lens at an aperture of f/1.8 – with exposures of approximately one minute per frame. Then animation artist, Roy Naisbitt, prepared a maze of abstract artwork to be fed through the slit-scan corridor of light effects. This formal technique was used to capture thousands of images on high-contrast film negatives, including op-art paintings, architectural drawings, moiré patterns, printed circuits, and electron-microscope photos of molecular and crystal structures. Various nebular phenomena (such as interstellar dust, gas clouds, and the expanding star field) were made by mixing coloured paints and interacting chemicals, swirled together in a small pool of water called a ‘cloud tank’, and shot with slow motion in a dark room. The live-action landscapes, filmed in the Hebrides (Scotland) and Monument Valley (Arizona/Utah), were given a weird appearance on screen by using different coloured filters instead of normal filters when making duplicate negatives, and it took months of experimental processing until the aerial footage was developed into a successful effect. Finally, their slit-scan movie was projected onto multifaceted screens, mounted on a three-foot-high rotating rig, and repeated until seven diamonds gradually appeared. This ‘mind-bender’ effect, seen whilst Bowman is viewing bizarre cosmological phenomena and strange landscapes of unusual colours, was used by Kubric to emphasise the symbolic scene’s theme of future man, surrounded completely by his machinery and the silent reflections of organised energy. In her book about the evolution of film-viewing technologies ‘Death 24x a Second’, British feminist film theorist, Laura Mulvey (1941-), discusses how filmmakers take advantage of phantasmagoria (a sequence of real or imaginary images, like that seen in a dream) and harness new technologies to old superstitions. With Kubrick’s depiction of humans evolving from biological beings into ‘immortal machine entities’, Mulvey explains why this uncanny of ‘the new and unfamiliar’ leads to the disorientation caused by a ‘technological uncanny’:
The most rational mind experiences uncertainty when faced with an illusion that is, if only momentarily, inexplicable. As [Wilhelm] Jentsch puts it: ‘even when they know they are being fooled by merely harmless illusions, many people cannot suppress an extremely uncomfortable feeling’.
In the original script, one idea had been for extra-terrestrial beings that resembled a Giacometti sculpture, to be portrayed by an actor dressed in a white skin-tight costume, and photographed using a 2:1 anamorphic lens which made him appear extremely thin when projected without corrective distortion, yet the results were dull and unconvincing. A fully three-dimensional ‘City of Light’ was digitally generated, with geometrical shapes through which Bowman would traverse. However, this environment never got used, and another effect that looked like flying carpets was quickly rejected. Near the end of production, they also came up with a television video feedback technique that produced lifelike, pulsating light images. This would’ve let Bowman ‘see’ extra-terrestrials telepathically and some footage did get made but unfortunately was not ready in time for inclusion with the sequence.
Reference List
Agel, J. (1970). The Making of Kubrick's 2001. New York: New American Library. Available at: https://issuu.com/lcohailag/docs/the-making-of-kubricks-2001 [Accessed 02 Jan. 2020].
Mulvey, L. (2006). Death 24x a Second: Stillness and the Moving Image. London: Reaktion Books. Available at: https://philpapers.org/archive/HARTSA-6.pdf [Accessed 02 Jan. 2020].
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