Expanding a multi-decade archival endeavor to create historically accurate virtual recreations of the milestone cultural works, OTOY releases new documentary and concept videos bringing audiences into the universe of 2001: A Space Odyssey, to explore the film’s singular impact on visual effects and modern culture.
LOS ANGELES, CA – July 23rd, 2024
OTOY Inc is thrilled to unveil an all new non-commercial documentary that explores the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey and its lasting impact in the history of space exploration, artificial intelligence, and visual effects. Directed by acclaimed documentarian Roger Lay, Jr., “2001: Creating Kubrick’s Space Odyssey” immerses viewers into the making of the visual universe in Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke’s cinematic masterpiece with stunning recreations of iconic scenes from the film.
Accompanying the documentary, OTOY has released a new concept film, Odysseys, directed by filmmaker Carlos Baena, that explores the world of 2001 through digital recreations of the film’s iconic scenes – transporting audiences like never before into Kubrick and Clarke’s sweeping vision of humanity’s past, present, and future.
Led by new interview testimony from actor Keir Dullea, who played Dave Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the documentary provides a behind-the-scenes look at the technical and visual effects ingenuity of the groundbreaking film, featuring a wide ranging discussion of the film’s cultural significance from experts in visual effects, film history, science, and technology.
Iconic sequences and sets like the The Dawn of Man, monolith, the Discovery centrifuge, HAL 9000 superintelligence, stargate, and starchild sequences are discussed by film and technology luminaries like Erin McDonald, astrophysicist; Craig Barron, Academy-award winning visual effects supervisor for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Brian Johnson, special effects assistant for 2001: A Space Odyssey; Bill Hunt, film critic at The Digital Bits; and Michael Benson, author of Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece.
The interviews with Dullea and with Dan Richter, choreographer for 2001: A Space Odyssey, who played Moonwatcher, the lead proto-human for the enigmatic Dawn of Man sequence, provide rare first-hand glimpses into his work with director Stanley Kubrick during the film’s production. Meanwhile, film historian Michael Benson shares unique research detailing the groundbreaking creative process between Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke and their collaboration during the production of the film with visionaries like Carl Sagan and NASA technical advisors, Harry Lange and Frederick Ordway III.
Cutting edge, historically-accurate recreations created by The Archive team visualize Douglas Trumbull’s revolutionary visual effects and Tony Masters’ renowned set design techniques, as analyzed by Daren Dochterman, visual effects supervisor for the Director’s Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Michael Okuda, technical advisor, For All Mankind discussing the ingenious artistry of the brilliant filmmakers responsible for the remarkable motion picture.
Under the direction of noted filmmaker Roger Lay, Jr., 2001: Creating Kubrick’s Space Odyssey provides vivid detail on Trumbull’s visual effects innovations during the making of 2001, including the use of slit scan techniques in the Stargate sequence; the revolutionary miniature effects and latent image photography used to achieve expansive views of space; front-projection techniques used to create the African plain in the Dawn of Man sequence; and finally groundbreaking large-scale gimbal set design and suspension techniques used to simulate weightlessness in the Centrifuge.
Dullea’s testimony adds vivid first hand detail about his personal recollections performing for Kubrick on sets like the Centrifuge, which required enormous technical innovation, artistry and personal risk to create some of the most iconic sequences in cinematic history.
The first hand testimony of Dullea’s performance on the Centrifuge is complemented by a discussion of Masters’ iconic set design techniques in the creation of the Dawn of Man sequence, which is led by Dan Richter’s first hand recollections of his collaboration with Kubrick in developing the performance style for the proto-humans in the film’s iconic opening scene.
Synthesizing the behind-the-scenes visual effects innovations of 2001: A Space Odyssey with discussion of the defining technological transformations of the 20th and 21st centuries, 2001: Creating Kubrick’s Space Odyssey sheds light into how Kubrick and Clarke’s collaboration was shaped by the NASA’s Space Age and its salience for the modern era of artificial intelligence.
Featuring Jules Urbach, CEO of OTOY, astrophysicist Erin McDonald, film historian, Michael Benson, and science fiction author, Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Creating Kubrick’s Space Odyssey captures the enduring significance of one of the most groundbreaking cultural works of the 20th century.
Complementing the in-depth testimony and research presented in 2001: Creating Kubrick’s Space Odyssey, Baena’s Odysseys immerses viewers on a cinematic tour journeying through the enigmatic worlds Kubrick, Clarke, Masters, and Trumbull created.
Production was done in house at OTOY by the visual effects artists on The Archive team. The virtual recreations and renderings were rendered in Octane and processed on thousands of decentralized GPUs on the Render Network.
Director: Carlos Baena
Executive Producer: Jules Urbach
VFX Artists:
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J.J. Palomo
Aaron Westwood
Geoff Holman
Neil Smith
Daren Dochterman
HAL graphics recreations: Jody Mackenzie
Editing & DI: Carlos Baena
Sound Design & Mix: Carlos Baena
Sound Foley: Mayte Cabrera
Special Thanks: Apryl Krakovsky & Alicia Richards
About OTOY Inc.
OTOY Inc. is the definitive cloud graphics company, pioneering technology that is redefining content creation and delivery for media and entertainment organizations around the world. OTOY’s Academy Award®-winning technology is used by leading visual effects studios, artists, animators, designers, architects, and engineers, providing unprecedented creative freedom, new levels of realism, and new economics in content creation and distribution powered by the cloud. For more information, visit www.otoy.com.
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