2001 space odyssey

The first space scene we see is of an American, russian and chinese satellite’s these were stills and they were photograph using a horizontal lens, the satellites were only 2 feet long and were created using wood, fiberglass, steel, brass and aluminum to add detail they use heat forming plastic padding, flexible metal foils (that were different textures and thickness) and wire tubing. The use of these techniques allowed the camera to get very close without losing any detail or realism, Kubrick also brought in two NASA scientist that specializes in space vehicles to make sure that the movies vehicles and technology had a base of realism. The light used to mimic the sun was over exposed, they had to guess what earth would look like as nobody had photographed it from space before an artist would cover a sheet of glass with white paint then scrape the paint with a razor blade after this it was lit from behind and placed on an animation stand. After man had photographed the earth Kubrick was said to be really pleased with his version of earth altho he said that the color was little too bright.

The floating pen effect is one of the most simplest shot in the film as it was just a pen stuck on a plane of glass that was then rotated for the camera, for the long shot the pen was just hanging from a nylon string. The space station scene was very complicated as they had to shoot everything separately, earth was shot at a 6 inch colour transparency animation stand, stars were shot separately then matted to match, space station model was 6 feet long whilst the ship was photographed from a still from a tail view camera tracking away, to get the rotation they had try several different speeds until one looked right. The shot of the two pilots with their command module included raid grid, vertical/ horizontal coordinates and a real docking simulator. Kubrick insisted that all the buttons have a purpose and they use a projector to lighten the buttons on the pods. The moon was created by taking the original photo that was taken on a telescopic lens and then reprised for the movie, Ares shuttle was a model that was photographed with a honzitoal camera in order to achieve the tracking shot, these background shot proved to be a challenge as several start (Stars were made using the pinhole technique) would appear over the model during the animation.

In the scene were the Aries lands on the moon, Aries was a still photograph and the earth in the background was a reflection of the moon with stars in the background. The moon was a model and in order to make a landscape they would pour plaster and taking a brush to flick water as the plaster set. The scene were the scientist are standing over the lunar base use the same teachings as the dawn of man, they use a project for the background and a still for the lunar base.To film the space walk scene they shot in a sound studio, they build a platform and had the stunt man on a wire, they attached the wire to his back so when he's spinning around the cameras can't see it. To give the look of weightlessness they had the stunt man move his limbs very slowly and he had to “crash” into the pod several times at high speeds so they could slow it down in post. The scene where dave gets back in the ship was done by building the set upside down and tying the actor to a rope that would be pulled so when he's shot out of the pod he's free falling, when he hits the other side they pulled the rope and that's what gave him that weightlessness bouncing motion. The stargate sequences was done by Douglas trumbull who put the slit outside the camera, then the camera was placed on a rig that allowed it to go forwards and backwards it was aimed at a 4 foot slit behind this there was a patented gel-layer that would move left to right, when the shutter was released the camera would move in slowly and the gel would move as well after each 60 second exposure they would gel was moved slight giving the us the illusion of a stargate flying past us.

2001 was the first big budget space film of its time it took space travel seriously by dealing with the origin of man and his evolution it also show the conflict of man vs machine at a time ordinary people had access to technology in their homes, not only this but the film took place during the space race some people view the film as space propaganda to get people interested in the possibility of space travel and what it could bring, Although 2001 was a critical success some people found the lack of dialog and long emotionless scenes boring but most had to agree that Kubrick was light years ahead technology wise as it showed examples of tablets and skype, at the time NSA looked into the possibility of nuclear powered spaceships and hyper-sleep. 2001 also had a major impact on space film that followed such as Star wars the scene were the spaceship are introduced both film use the long shot of the ship coming into frame giving us a real look at space and the ship , The fact that both films use models to create their spaceships, they did this in order to be able to add real detail and charter. George lucas made use of matte painting to create the star and some backdrops but mainly used photograph project to project a background in order to get the space and planet landscape scenes altho george lucas used new technology the techniques were the same kubrick. 2001 opens with dawn of man sequences the man behind these ape costumes was Stuart freeborn who later went on to design yoda and other creature in star wars.