info on stargate sequence
chuck clark
looking
for info regarding the making of those sequences, not really reading
about the
artist. I think Jordan Belson was some inspiration and I have seen some
of
his work, Samadhi from '67, but I really don't see a strong
connection. I believe
several scenes were pure animation but others are distinctively not,
such as the
smoke looking shots. Any help is appreciated, books are fine but I am
looking
for web based info.
chuck
Pistol33
> I am
>looking
>for info regarding the making of those sequences, not really reading
>about the
>artist. Any help is appreciated, books are fine but I am
>looking
>for web based info.
Sorry, it's a book, but...there is very detailed info about the slit-screen
process (which gives the impression that Bowman is rushing past walls of
colored light) that Douglas Trumbull invented for 2001 on pp. 115-117 of "2001:
Filming the Future" by Piers Bizony (Aurum Press Ltd., London, 1995). Bet it's
at the UT library.
Rod Munday
>
> > I am
> >looking
> >for info regarding the making of those sequences, not really reading
> >about the
> >artist. Any help is appreciated, books are fine but I am
> >looking
> >for web based info.
This sequence was produced by the young Douglas Trumbull with a
technique called slit-scan.
He described it as: “a streak photography process, in which the shutter
of the camera is open for a long period of time while some image is
being accumulated on the film. The [Stargate] in ‘2001’ was really
planes of light that come from infinity and moves up very close during
the exposure of a singles frame, with the camera keeping it continually
in focus. At the same time the light is being modulated in a very
complex pattern so that it scans the light onto the film in a
dimensional effect. It’s like photographing car headlights at night
with the shutter open - you get streaks of light. If you had the cars
blink their lights on and off you’d get streaky dots. And if they all
drove in a certain pattern you’d get a pattern of streaky dots. My
slit-scan device takes the concept to a very complicated extreme.”
Trumbull built a rostrum camera (automatic 65mm camera) with a
back-projection unit. Both the camera and the projector could
zoom/pan/rotate and could be run up and down on tracks, opening and
closing its shutters and cycling its optical mattes, all automatically.
It a similar idea to what we know today as a motion control rig.
Trumbull 'slit-scan‘ machine could produce two seemingly infinite plains
of exposure while holding depth of field from a distance of 15 feet to
one and a half inches from the lens at an aperture of F/1.8 - with
exposures of approximately one minute per frame.
Abstract art work was prepared and photographed on thousands of high
contrast film negatives approximately 8 inches by 6 inches in size.
Images such as - op art paintings, architectural drawings, moiré
patterns, printed circuits and electron microscope photographs of
molecular and crystal structures where used for the slides.
On the projection screen Trumbull placed black masks that only allowed a
small slit of what was being projected to be visible. When the shutter
opens and both projector and camera move in total sync the slit movement
creates kind of the original projection image on the camera gate. The
black mask was then re-positioned so that the slit was in a different
place and the whole process was repeated. The repetition was
painstaking, the few seconds of Stargate sequence, that appear in the
film, is said to have taken 288 hours to shoot.
Later Douglas Trumbull
- focused on 65mm VFX,
- Directed Silent Running and Brainstorm
- Was the effects supervisor on Close Encounters, Blade Runner and many
other features ...
- founded Omnimax (70/65 mm)
- merged with IMAX
------------------------
Information for this post comes from a message posted to
alt.movies.visual-effects by Thomas Kumlehn of PIXEL PARTNER (R) -
Digital Film Services http://www.PixelPartner.de
Movie Magic by John Brosnan.
And the Making of Kubrick’s 2001” by Jerome Agel.
Regards Rod Munday
Jeff Cook
> place and the whole process was repeated. The repetition was
> painstaking, the few seconds of Stargate sequence, that appear in the
> film, is said to have taken 288 hours to shoot.
Few seconds? Go watch the movie again. Thanks much for the detailed
explanation, though.
--
Jeff Cook
jc...@his.com
http://www.cookstudios.com
Washington DC area