[HN Gopher] Scratches in 2001: A Space Osyssey (2018)
___________________________________________________________________
Scratches in 2001: A Space Osyssey (2018)
Author : hyperific
Score : 91 points
Date : 2024-10-20 06:33 UTC (16 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (aphelis.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (aphelis.net)
| mmsc wrote:
| https://archive.ph/8lxPO
| Aardwolf wrote:
| This seems to require some preexisting knowledge on forensics of
| scratches on film reels, or something, and I have trouble
| following the article. Is there a TL;DR of what exactly the main
| message is, is there anything special proven by these scratches
| or anything that's different than other films?
| rnewme wrote:
| Nope, just random ramble on and on. But some interesting
| tidbits about the filming of the movie itself in the second
| part.
| justin66 wrote:
| _The fact that the scratches always appear within the confines
| of one of the computer displays indicates they occurred on one
| of the many 16 mm loops used in rear projection to fill the
| screens with animated readouts. Because of the color of the
| scratches, it is possible to infer they occurred on the
| emulsion side of the 16 mm film_
|
| > anything that's different than other films?
|
| It's not like there were a ton of films simulating a
| sophisticated computer display by playing a separate little
| film inside a frame.
| detourdog wrote:
| Douglas Trumbull was the technician behind the special
| effects. He had been working making films for NASA describing
| future space missions.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| He is mentioned in the article but they left off _Silent
| Running (1972)_ as one of his credits. Perhaps they think
| it is lesser known?
|
| Also mentioned, Brian Johnson -- but they leave off that he
| was The Special Effects Guy behind the TV series _Space
| 1999_.
|
| Brian's comment in the article about "blimping" the
| projectors to cut down the noise is an interesting throw-
| back to when they would wrap a camera or projector in some
| kind of throw-together enclosure to try to block the noise
| it made. I believe in addition to using padding to dampen
| the sound, they sometimes used thin lead sheets to build
| the enclosure with as well.
|
| How you vent a blimped projector that is probably running a
| 1000 Watt bulb to keep it from overheating and melting the
| film is something of a wonder.
| rwmj wrote:
| Also used many years later to spectacular effect in War Games
| (1984).
| KineticLensman wrote:
| For me a central message that comes out really well is that
| Kubrick created flat screen computer graphics by back
| projecting manually prepared films onto the screens. In other
| words, although the space parts of 2001 were full of computer
| screens, none of these were actual computer output.
|
| Admittedly this is a bit buried in the discussion about the
| scratches but it was fascinating nevertheless.
| svantana wrote:
| > none of these were actual computer output
|
| Not surprising since real-time, high-def color CGI hadn't yet
| been done in 1968.
| justin66 wrote:
| Bowman and Poole are effectively using/watching tablet
| computers at a couple points early in the movie. It's an
| eye opener comparing that to the much lower budget computer
| stuff in the eighties sequel, filmed by a different
| director. Lots of CRTs and wireframe graphics.
| qubex wrote:
| This is also true for the large NORAD screens in WarGames
| (1983).
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Fascinating to imagine all the 16mm projectors hanging off
| the back of the consoles in order to simulate what would,
| many decades later, be a 1/8" thick OLED display.
|
| I still think that was a rather prescient glimpse of the
| future of technology for 1968 (or earlier when art production
| began). Was that "common knowledge" in the sci-fi community
| back then? That future displays would be flat, thin,
| rectangular? I am thinking that the book _Fahrenheit 451_ had
| wall-sized TV screens so perhaps that was already a popular
| perception of the future.
| KineticLensman wrote:
| Interestingly the 1982 Bladerunner used CRTs for many of
| its computer terminals which (to me) give it a somewhat
| dated look - the screens have noticeable curves
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Given the film-noir vibe and recycled-future look, CRT's
| might have been an intentional artistic choice.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| Yes and be didn't just predict space travel and display
| tech but also AI.
| WalterBright wrote:
| Arthur C Clarke collaborated closely with Kubrick on
| developing the story.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| Oh yeah true I forgot it was just based on a book.
| WalterBright wrote:
| The book and movie were done at the same time. Clarke
| wrote multiple versions of it - see "The Lost Worlds of
| 2001".
|
| The concept is from a short story "The Sentinel" by
| Clarke.
| mikepalmer wrote:
| Love this. The adhd spirit is inspiring.
|
| Right at the end of the article: "There is also an extra colon
| mark in the line just below." pretty sure that's a semicolon!
| arcadeparade wrote:
| reminds me of this:
| https://stanleykubrick.neocities.org/barrylyndoncandles
| bloqs wrote:
| I commend the effort, though I'm not sure if I'm commending the
| author or their Adderal prescription
| rwmj wrote:
| What's interesting is that Kubrick, famous for 100 takes to get
| everything right, didn't spot this, or if he did was
| unable/unwilling to fix it.
| jvanderbot wrote:
| Even after it was called out, and after looking at it, it still
| looks like a low res planet crescent or other attempts to make
| animated logo graphics. Why are we sure that wasn't the intent?
| optimalsolver wrote:
| Evidence he was more doing that to project an image (no pun
| intended) than anything.
| zoeysmithe wrote:
| I think the "perfectionist" is social and Hollywood (and
| tabliod/lawsuit) cover for "this person abuses people on set."
| In Kubrick's case it certainly was, famously with Duvall in the
| Shining, but rumored with other talent too.
| vertnerd wrote:
| Now I have to watch it _again_. How did I never notice.. ?
|
| I thought this was going to be about the _other_ scratches that
| are visible in the film: the ones on the piece of glass that is
| used to create the illusion of a floating pen. I never noticed
| that until I saw my first screening of a pristine 70 mm print in
| a smallish theater. I was hoping to read about that and any other
| physical scratches I might have missed.
| shawa_a_a wrote:
| In the spirit of scratches, it was only at a recent 70mm film
| screening that I spotted the rig used for the floating pen scene
| as Floyd falls asleep in the shuttle.
|
| As the weightlessness begins, his pen floats away - if you look
| really really carefully you can spot that it's actually embedded
| in a thin plastic film which is rotating about an axis, given
| away by minute scratches on its surface.
| cgh wrote:
| They literally taped the pen to a sheet of glass, which they
| rotated around. As low-tech as it gets but it looks wonderful,
| except I guess for the scratches you spotted.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Fascinating that this film continues to draw attention.
|
| Watching it again recently in BluRay I noticed that the Moonbus
| cockpit has nixie tubes near the joysticks. (Must have been an
| older model.)
| yawpitch wrote:
| > Today, [Douglas] Trumbull is a highly regarded special effects
| supervisor
|
| Love this article and its maniacal detail orientation, but man
| what an understatement; the late Doug Trumbull is highly
| regarded, in the SFX/VFX context in much the same way as Einstein
| was a highly regarded physicist.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| BTW, there is a YouTube user (1) that has created "video loops"
| that look like these displays from the film that you could use as
| a screensaver or what-have-you. Very cool.
|
| 1) https://www.youtube.com/@TheHALProject
| pndy wrote:
| I think folks behind this did a great job imitating HAL and
| other computer screens seen in the film. Wish it would be a
| part of XScreenSaver project.
| pndy wrote:
| These computer screens, readouts in 2001 are fascinating -
| there's focus on the information, a little bit of graphic there
| and here and nothing else. Probably HAL manages the rest.
|
| If AI will become the basic form of interaction with computers
| then perhaps our interfaces will be simplified as well - at least
| for the mass-market end users.
|
| The other GUI I really like is MAGI from Evangelion - all these
| black screens with classic amber color accompanied by red, green
| and teal fit very well together - especially with the volumetric-
| holographic displays from new tetralogy
| _wire_ wrote:
| SPOILER ALERT WHAT'S SEEN CANNOT BE UNSEEN
|
| Much regard heaped upon 2001's effects, including the zero-G
| sequences, but if you just watch the people, they are so
| obviously carrying their own weight and the weight of objects:
| the posture and movement yells 1-G at you from the screen. When
| the stewardess reclaims the floating pen, she's balancing her
| weight with each step and touching the seat backs for support,
| then stoops and leans. In the ship crossing to the moon, the
| stewardess is walking and her hips sway to her weight with each
| step and her feet compress. The food trays slide out of kitchen
| console by gravity. When the trays are delivered to the flight
| staff, one reach out his hand under a tray to steady it from
| below. When an officer visits crew in the cabin, he comes up from
| behind their seats, leans in to talk and rests his arms on the
| seatbacks. As food is sipped through clear straws, it rises and
| falls with G pressure. Floyd stands with his own weight in
| contemplation before the long instructions for the zero-G toilet.
| In the Discovery, spacesuits hang from the wall and the crew sit
| at the table to perform the antenna-module diagnostic.
|
| The toilet instructions are a static print on plastic with a
| backlight. The joke about the length of the instructions is now
| lost to absurdity of the display.
|
| On the moon, the excavation of the monolith is surrounded with
| floodlights that reveal a distinct atmospheric haze.
|
| The camera used at the excavation site is beautifully retro. That
| it's used to take a group photo is quaint, especially when you
| consider more modern ideas like the survey "pups" deployed to map
| the site of the Engineers' spacecraft in the movie Prometheus.
|
| While 2001 has been one of the most affecting movie experiences
| of my life-- I first saw it by myself in a nearly empty large
| auditorium in 1972 at the age of 10 and have seen it maybe 10
| more times since 2001's effects seem more prosaic with every
| viewing and my mind wanders into disbelief about the entire mis-
| en-scene. Eroding amazement is replaced by a fascination with how
| quickly a fantasy about an amazing future has become retro in its
| fashion.
|
| The Stargate crossing seemed like one of the weaker elements in
| the movies heyday, but to me it's holding up better than most
| other design elements. The ape costumes are holding up uncannily
| well, as do the intro landscapes. Other elements are quirky: the
| mule painted like a zebra, the vastly over-complicated landing
| pad on the moon with the pizza-slices retractable dome, the
| clouds of dust swirling at the landing, and the absurdly ornate
| elevator than descends beneath the moon surface. Hal's memory
| closet with arrays of keyed optical modules that slowly eject to
| inconsistent extents. The oddly opaque schematics and diagnostics
| for the Discovey's "malfunctioning" antenna unit. The external
| air supply hose for the space suit. The extendable pads for the
| pods. The chain of blocks design for the Discovery, with the
| large off-axis mass of the antenna. Why is a pod needed to reach
| the antenna? Etc, on and on.
|
| The ultimate movie about the future of mankind is now a beautiful
| relic.
|
| With every viewing of 2001 I recall with more appreciation Andrei
| Tarkovsky's lament about what he might have been able to achieve
| with his Solaris if he had access to the kind of wealth available
| to Kubrick.
| hulitu wrote:
| > With every viewing of 2001 I recall with more appreciation
| Andrei Tarkovsky's lament about what he might have been able to
| achieve with his Solaris if he had access to the kind of wealth
| available to Kubrick.
|
| He might have achieved the Steven Soderbergh version. /s
| nsxwolf wrote:
| I wonder if they are on the CED version.
| jl6 wrote:
| Wow, it hadn't even occurred to me to think that in 1965 they
| wouldn't have had computer monitors capable of displaying those
| images, and would have had to fake it by projecting the image
| from behind.
| m463 wrote:
| Is this article out-of-date?
|
| There is a (wonderful) 2001 4k uhd disk that has come out that is
| unmentioned.
|
| EDIT: December, 2018
|
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KH8W76F
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-10-20 23:00 UTC)