In flat contradiction of what I have written elsewhere (that I rather like the mystery of not always knowing how clever effects are achieved), requests for explanations of some of the wholly convincing yet baffling scenes from "2001: A Space Odyssey" finally compel me to reveal a few secrets (with due respect to all those already in the know, who probably knew long before I did). If you think it will spoil your own enjoyment of the film, perhaps you should give this page a miss. I am alright, I kept my eyes closed while I wrote it.

The genius of Stanley Kubrick is such that he and his visual effects specialists took such well- worn techniques as strings and mirrors to achieve the effects they wanted, but moved them to a whole new level of realisation (and you may be surprised at some of the people who laid the groundwork for such effects - see my "Extras" page); and if those methods were inadequate, they simply devised concepts all of their own. In principle these were often disarmingly simple, but executed with such style that even after multiple viewings it is impossible not to accept that what we are seeing is the way it really happened.

Below, you will find answers to how:

	Heywood Floyd's pen came to be floating in mid-air		weightless motion was represented in an earthbound studio		the hostess managed to turn upside down without falling in a heap		Frank was able to jog vertically through a full circle
	Dave managed to come down a ladder while Frank was sitting calmly above his head		Dave and Frank managed to appear in the same scene despite being positioned at right angles to each other		Dave and Frank succeeded in climbing feet first through a rotating hatch		Dave made it back in through the emergency airlock and was then able to float unsupported while disconnecting Hal

Take one futuristically- designed pen. Glue it lightly to a sheet of transparent acrylic. Point the camera through the sheet at the rest of the scene, and have someone off camera gently wiggle the sheet around. Clever touch: have the hostess pluck the pen "out of thin air" by simply detaching it from the sheet. Difficulty factor: achieving complete transparency - not a smear, fingerprint or reflection to be seen, even when the hostess is right next to it.

How was weightless motion represented in an earthbound studio?

Provide hostess with special "grip shoes" - soft Velcro- soled footwear. Give her a matching Velcro strip to walk along. Something like pulling your feet out of a bog with each step - hence rather faltering and uncertain progress. Think of it: trying to move yourself forward, with effectively (in real weightlessness) no body mass to provide impetus or leverage - all done with muscle tension and balance. No wonder it looked rather odd! Irreverent thoughts: I bet that Velcro floor covering was a dog to vacuum clean; if that was done in real life, hearing the hostesses moving around would be like sitting next to someone ripping up sheets of calico..

How did the hostess manage to turn upside down without falling in a heap?

Fix the camera to a tubular frame, large enough to contain the entire galley set. Hostess wanders in on her Velcro- encased feet, gets lunch for the guys and ambles away from camera. At the appropriate point, the tubular structure with the camera starts to slowly rotate, while the hostess walks on one spot in her own special Velcro way. Once the open "exit" comes round, all she need do is duck into it. Yet, after thirty years, it is still impossible not to perceive the scene as a static camera filming a lady doing the impossible. Thought: as if weightlessness was not enough, the tube was at the centrepoint of the rotation, so her head and feet were on opposite sides of the axis. Wonder how that might feel?

How could Frank jog vertically through a full circle?

Stanley Kubrick was making the most of the huge, studio- filling vertical centrifuge that he had built for the interior Discovery scenes, and which used up a not- inconsiderable chunk of that $10.5 million budget. Not a centrifuge in the rapidly whirling astronaut- cracking- machine sense (do they still use those things?), but motorized so that it could be set in motion and revolve at a rate fast enough to be interesting without dashing everything to pieces. The outside was like a scaffolder's worst nightmare (though probably built to the highest standards, as was all the 2001 furniture), but the interior housed the immaculate Discovery set. Clever bit (or rather, even cleverer bit): the centrifuge was built with a channel running all the way round the centre of the "floor". An ingenious arrangement of flaps was used to cover up the channel so it was not visible in camera shot - the flaps were made to remain closed throughout the complete rotation. Next step: sit the camera on a mount which pokes up through the channel, but is not actually fixed to the centrifuge. The centrifuge can then be set in motion and as it revolves past the stationary camera each part of it gradually wafts majestically past while the flaps quietly (or perhaps rather clankily) part to make way for the camera mount and / or Stanley Kubrick and close again right after they have been passed.

Stanley Kubrick (bottom left) examines the centrifuge

Oh, and all Frank has to do to "jog" is stand in one spot right in front of the camera doing his exercises - all he was really doing was moving enough to keep pace in the opposite direction from the rotation of the centrifuge.

For variation, in other shots Kubrick had the camera fixed to the centrifuge, making it seem as though things were swimming around us. It is the same illusion as the rotating hostess - even when we tell ourselves how it was really done, we cannot rid ourselves of the perception that our viewpoint has to be fixed, therefore it is the other things that are moving.

How did Dave manage to come down a ladder while Frank was sitting calmly above his head?

"Calmly" is probably not a good way to describe how Frank must have been feeling at the time. He had the tough part. All Dave had to do was appear out of the hatch and climb normally down the ladder to the bottom - the angle at which the camera was set made it look as though it was a semi- sideways movement. Once on the "floor" (these words take on a new meaning in the context of this movie), the centrifuge is set in motion and Dave has an easy stroll on the spot until Frank comes round to meet him. And what of Frank? Before Dave appeared, Frank had literally been strapped to the set and rotated complete with the centrifuge until he was suspended upside down thirty- odd feet in the air, hanging on like grim death while looking wholly relaxed and unconcerned.

Clever: no sign of Frank shifting out of or in to position while he effectively does, for real, what we thought the hostess did. Interesting: not so much as a grunt of greeting between Dave and Frank to start the "day" off.

Worth reflecting on: for the shot to work, it had to be Frank (Gary Lockwood) hanging on for dear life (as an alternative to grim death) and not a stunt double, as would more usually be the case (and was the case, in the scenes of the spacepod recovering Frank's body, which involved some extremely strenuous and demanding physical exertions - if you have not seen the "true" angle on those scenes, that is one secret I will keep to myself for now).

How did Dave and Frank manage to appear in the same scene despite being positioned at right angles to each other?

For me, always one of the most entertaining shots of the movie. Frank in foreground sits at the Discovery control panel while Dave behind, taking notes, appears to be standing at right angles to Frank. So simple! Have them at opposite ends of an L- shaped set with a mirror set at the angle (and at the correct angle).

How did Dave and Frank succeed in climbing feet first through a rotating hatch?

Arguably, the single most intriguing effect of them all. We see the two of them making their way along a tubular tunnel to a rotating hatch. As if by magic, the moment Dave and Frank reach the hatch they start rotating with it and have the apparently near- impossible task of threading their way into the hatch, feet first. Of course, it is the rotating set effect again, but with the added intricacy of being in two parts. While in the tunnel part, Dave and Frank are simply clambering their way towards the hatch which is really rotating. But at the point where they move from one part to the other, the rotation is transferred from the hatch section to the tunnel. The camera starts moving, while Dave and Frank simply climb down into the now- stationary opening. Difficulty factor: achieving a stop- start rotation without a trace of jerkiness. Fiendish, Stanley, fiendish.

How did Dave make it back in through the emergency airlock and then float unsupported while disconnecting Hal?

Dave dangles

The strings had to come in to it somewhere! For reentry, the camera was pointed directly upwards into a vertical set. Dave was trussed to a point in the "ceiling" and lowered towards the camera and wiggled around a bit. Illusion time again - once more, we cannot accept the shot as being anything other than horizontal, with Dave apparently shooting backwards and forwards as if by levitation. Of course, Dave's own body hid any sign of the "strings", but as with Frank being hoisted aloft the shot demanded that Dave (Keir Dullea) was trussed up for real instead of taking a break while a stunt double filled in for him. And so it was in Hal's brain room. Dave was harnessed in such a way, with his own body between the camera and the tethering rig, that he appeared to move effortlessly into unnatural positions with no apparent support. Incidentally, the brain room was the scene of the only really serious accident reported to have occurred on the 2001 set, when a studio technician fell the full considerable height and broke his back - I do hope he recovered.

This page: Copyright © 1998 by Underman

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