2001: A Space Odyssey Rotating Hallway Shot Stabilized
About | Information | History | Online | Facts | Discovery
When I was a little kid my dad showed me 2001 because he was trying to teach me about the great movies of the past. There was one shot that I couldn't figure out how they did, I was obsessed with it. I asked my dad—he said no one knew. I revisited the film recently, and now that I work in the film industry and among other things do visual fx, I was able to pretty quickly figure out how the shot was done--but I wanted to see what it would have looked like on set. And so the idea to stabilize the shot came to me. It's an amazing movie, so you should see it if you haven't and see it again if you have. http://www.finite-films.com Twitter @michaeltuckerla
Comments
-
noooooo, you take away the magiiiiiic :(
-
so that's how Stanley did it.
-
Thats relativity folks.
-
As explained by others, this practical movie effect was a two part set where each section would rotate independently from the other. Production Designer Tony Masters designed this effect for Kubrick. This set was referred to as the Hublink. This particular shot of Dullea and Lockwood coming past the camera and exiting into the Centrifuge was done in April 20, 1966 in 6 takes, the first 4 of which were no good due to the effect not working. The last two takes were printed and one of those used. The camera at the back of the set was a Todd-AO 65mm with the, well known, Fairchild Curtis 160 degree lens used for many of 2001's wide angle shots...many of the HAL POV shots were done with this lens as well. There were 2 days spent on this set with other variations of just Dullea or Lockwood coming up and down into the Centrifuge. The harder shot was both of them coming up from the Centrifuge, which was shot the same day and took 15 takes, the last 4 being printed...the rest deemed unsatisfactory by Kubrick.
A similar effect was used during the filming of Dullea re-entering the Discovery through the Emergency Airlock. The set was filmed vertically with the camera at the bottom for Dullea to come in from the top...the set was reset the other way with stuntman Bill Weston being pulled up to and hitting the back door. During the filming of Dullea rebounding back toward the outer door there was an angle change made...and, most significantly, a speed change on the filming camera. When Dullea bounds back...the camera is under-cranked so that his movements seem rapid...then, when his feet are up near the ceiling, there is a speed change to over-cranking the camera that makes his movements slow and leisurely..floating. The neat thing about this is that the airlock door has to make a speed change also to appear to be closing shut at the same rate. This was done by tying the door speed with the camera change...which was done a lot on 2001 and engineered by Wally Veevers, Tony Masters, and Ernie Archer. -
It's a cool effect. Even knowing how it was done, you still have to marvel at the timing between locking off the background section while simultaneously rotating the foreground (while synchronising both to the actors' movements, to avoid injury.)
The rotating-set effect was, of course, used quite effectively several times in the movie (and was also used for a brief shot in "CE3K.") -
Excellent explanation of a stunning visual effect. Many thanks.
-
thx
-
My explanation from Reddit: The hallway is split into two segments, each attached to a geared barrel that can rotate. I'll call the hallway nearest to the camera Section A, and the further section where they climb down Section B.
For the first half of the shot, Section B is rotating, while the actors are walking through Section A—the hallway—which the camera is fixed and attached to.
Then, as soon as the actors step from Section A to Section B, Section B stops rotating with the ladder pointing down, while simultaneously Section A starts rotating. -
what's the song used in this?
-
Good job! Now, find out how he created those moon landings!
-
Kubrick directed the lunar landing
-
@Atnas Ingetnamn
Indeed, out of the box thinking -
smart.
-
grooovy
-
I feel like the stabilized one should have been in the movie.
-
Did you ever learn how the scene was made, where Bowman re-enters Discovery through the emergency airlock? THAT was epic!
-
Still though... getting the sections of the set to rotate and stop rotating in-sync with the camera and such... still quite the achievement and more than a mere camera trick.
1m 28sLenght
787Rating