Visual Essay II

2001: Star Gate as a Commentary on Special Effects
By: Dave Myszewski

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick, Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, England) (1), in addition to its brilliant narrative, is known for its groundbreaking innovation and advancement into filmmaking and special effects technology. It was the first film to extensively utilize retroflective matting, or front screen projection, as a means to produce realistic backdrops and sceneries, and was widely used in cinema until the rise in green-screen technology in the 1990’s. Another innovation would be the camera treatment used to shoot “in-flight” spacecraft in which model ships were filmed in multiple shots while moving on tracks to simulate movement and environment. These techniques were used and built upon for George Lucas’ 1977 film, Star Wars. Perhaps 2001’s most memorable effects occur during the Star Gate sequence which utilized slit-scan photography to enhance the realism and believability of intense movement through time and space.

The Star Gate sequence in 2001 occurs as main protagonist Dave Bowman abandons the ship Discovery and ventures into the mysterious giant black monolith which orbits Jupiter. Though presented more abstract in the film, the companion novel explains that Bowman travels through a time warp which quickly leads him through alternate dimensions and alien worlds. Kubrick chose to represent this using fast moving abstract shapes and colors generated through slit-scan photography, which special effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull and his effects team generated. As author Patricia Mellencamp suggests in her analysis of the 1999 film The Matrix, technology in film can be seen as a "hybrid, mutable object-simultaneously old and new, physical and emphemeral, real and virtual, analog and digital" (3). This can be applied to the Star Gate sequence in so much as it appears to bridge the gap between the natural and the technological in the known universe.

The time consuming procedure is essentially a more complex version of leaving your still camera shutter open to track light or motion. It involves placing a transparency underneath a small screen onto which a small slit has been cut. One frame is exposed as the camera shutter is left open. Moving the transparency and the height of the camera provides the effect of motion, as shown in the Star Gate sequence.

For the audience, 2001 provides an accessible vision for the future through it’s technologies, as suggested by author John Belton as referred to by Scott Bukatman (2). Though the Star Gate sequence is a far departure from anything presented earlier in the film, the visuals are so mysterious and impressive that it is also believable. The quick and intense transition of light patterns generated by slit-scan photography could be interpreted as the narrative commenting on human arrogance and inferiority because we do not possess as much universal or technological knowledge as we think we might. At times the visuals appear to dance playfully around Bowman as he travels through the vortex, almost as if to say, “You’ve come this far, but you’ve got a long way to go.” It enhances the realism of the overall narrative by expanding the consciousness of Dave Bowman and thus the viewer. After being presented with over two hours of impressive and realistic special effects with limited narrative dialogue, the idea of the Star Gate sequence is much more palatable, and its intensity puts the viewer at its mercy.

2001 provides many awe inspiring and mysterious moments that captivate the viewer and drive the narrative, though the Star Gate sequence stands above the others. The film itself transcends traditional science fiction film do to its accessible narrative, and together with the special effects it serves as a timeless art piece that will continue to inspire viewers, filmmakers, and artists in continued history.

Works Cited
(1) 2001: A Space Odyssey. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Perf Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood.
1968. DVD. Warner Brothers, 2007.

(2) Bukatman, Scott. “Zooming Out: The End of Offscreen Space.” The New American
Cinema. Ed. Jon Lewis. Durham and London: Duke University Press. 248- 272. (CR 233-245)

(3) Mellencamp, Pat. “The Zen of Masculinity – Rituals of Heroism in The Matrix. The
End of Cinema as We Know It: American Cinema in the Nineties. Ed. Jon Lewis. New York: New York University Press, 2001. 83-94. (CR 266-272)