2001: A Space Odyssey
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“I Wish Film Schools Would Teach Directors and Producers More About Music Rights”: Music Supervisor Lucy Bright
Early in music supervisor Lucy Bright’s career, she worked at Warner Classics and managed composer Michael Nyman. In 2020 she started Bright Notion Music, her own music publishing company, which has signed composers such as Hildur Guðnadóttir, Oliver Coates, and Anne Nikitin. She is known for critically acclaimed British films such as The Arbor and Slow West and more recently Tár, where her classical understanding and personal familiarity with the composers referenced in the script, helped create the movie that was named Best Picture by several major critics associations. Bright was also awarded the first ever prize for music supervision […]
by Arrow Peretz on Dec 19, 2023 -
Stanley Kubrick’s “Manhattan Project”: How Two Experimental Filmmakers Contributed to 2001: A Space Odyssey
It was December 1964, and Stanley Kubrick had a problem: No one wanted his new movie. The 36-year-old director had spent months writing a treatment for a science fiction film titled Journey Beyond the Stars with renowned novelist Arthur C. Clarke. When he started to pitch it, however, he found that no movie company wanted to produce it, with only MGM showing a vague interest. Considering his near legendary status nowadays, it may come as a surprise to learn that in the early 1960s, despite his growing reputation, Kubrick did not yet have movie moguls at his beck and call. […]
by Simone Odino on Oct 11, 2021 -
Christopher Nolan’s “Unrestored” 70mm 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Village East
I’d seen 2001: A Space Odyssey on 70mm twice over the years before going to see the “unrestored” print out now in limited release. Christopher Nolan premiered this new print at Cannes, and his interview from there with Eric Hynes is helpful to understanding some of the thinking behind this reissue. Still, I haven’t read anyone really breaking down what Nolan’s birthed, which is incredibly specific. Nolan’s explanation is that he’s gone back to the original camera negative to come up with a print that looks like what the very first public audience to view 2001 would have seen. This isn’t entirely accurate, […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jun 25, 2018 -
“It’s Kind of Heartbreaking Sometimes to See Actors Try So Hard”: Leon Vitali on the Acting Profession, Working with Stanley Kubrick, and Tony Zierra’s Doc, Filmworker
Filmworker, the title of Tony Zierra’s Cannes 2017-premiering portrait of Leon Vitali, is a term coined by the subject himself, probably still best known for his portrayal of Lord Bullingdon in Barry Lyndon. But the former British TV star, who set aside his rising career to spend three decades as Stanley Kubrick’s behind-the scenes right-hand man (and more), seems to have never fallen out of love with the acting craft. Indeed, chatting with Kubrick’s actors’ coach/location scout/sound engineer/marketer — and current film restorer — one gets the sense that every role Kubrick tasked Vitali with was just that, a new […]
by Lauren Wissot on May 11, 2018 -
Carol Sound Designer Leslie Shatz
It’s the middle of the week and I’m walking with sound designer Leslie Shatz from 34th Street toward Times Square. Manhattan’s mayhem is a fusion of random crowds and even more random noises. Leslie abruptly asks me to keep quiet for a few moments while he takes out his phone and starts recording the sounds of the street. I realize that he is in search of new ideas. “You can shut your eyes, but you cannot shut your ears,” he says. “Sound is always a tool you can use in interesting and different ways.” Sound designer Leslie Shatz, winner of a rare […]
by Sasha Korbut on Oct 28, 2015 -
Soderbergh Posts His 110-Minute Recut and Rethink of Kubrick’s 2001
If you noticed that Steven Soderbergh watched Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 three times in 2014, here’s the reason why: he was working on his own recut. Just as he did with Raiders of the Lost Ark, Soderbergh has worked over Kubrick’s masterpiece and he’s posted his version over at his Extension 765 website. He sets the bar high for his adaptation: i’ve been watching 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY regularly for four decades, but it wasn’t until a few years ago i started thinking about touching it, and then over the holidays i decided to make my move. why now? I don’t […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 14, 2015 -
Watch: 2001 Stars Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood Do a Q&A
In this Q&A from a recent Toronto screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, stars Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood are in fine form as they take to the stage to discuss why all the actors in the film were Canadian (Canadian actors didn’t need visas to live in the UK at the time), trade interpretations of what that ending means, and share a plethora of production anecdotes. Other highlights include Dullea’s reminiscences of how he came to be involved in the sequel 2010 and the two recalling Gene Hackman and Warren Beatty’s post-screening reaction: Beatty told the pair they were […]
by Vadim Rizov on Nov 20, 2014 -
“I’m Not Trying to Wreck Anything”: Douglas Trumbull, Kubrick and Truth at 120 Frames-Per-Second
Jean-Luc Godard said that cinema is truth at 24 frames-per-second, but Douglas Trumbull feels it should be 120, or at least 60. The director and special effects wizard behind Blade Runner, Close Encounters of The Third Kind and 2001: A Space Odyssey speculated about the future of cinema at the TIFF Bell Lightbox last weekend as part of a Stanley Kubrick retrospective. A sold-out audience of mostly male cinephiles and tech-heads listened intently to their SFX guru as he denigrated the standard 24 fps format of today’s cinema, though he admitted, “It’s a beautiful medium. I’m not trying to wreck anything.” […]
by Allan Tong on Nov 10, 2014 -
(New) Trailer Watch: Stanley Kubrick’s 2001
The match cut, “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” HAL — it’s all here, along with praise from Christopher Nolan and Alfonso Cuaron, in this brand new trailer for Stanley Kubrick’s classic 2001. Here’s the Hollywood Reporter: Ahead of the digitally restored film’s special limited U.K. release on Nov. 28 as part of the British Film Institute’s “Sci-Fi: Days of Fears and Wonder” season, a new trailer commission by the BFI and Warner Bros. has now been unveiled. Created by Ignition Creative London, the trailer is the first for this title in four decades, and uses Hal as the central figure to create […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 21, 2014 -
No Green Screen? Try the Kubrickian Front Screen Projection
A new video from Shanks FX and PBS Digital Studios illustrates the process behind front screen projection. The technique, famously used by Kubrick in the “Dawn of Man” sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey, combines foreground action with background footage to allow for substantial depth of field that cannot otherwise be achieved on location. Merely reflecting a projection off a one way mirror, and capturing the results with a camera, can produce footage that rivals most computer generated images.
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 17, 2014
