HAL 9000 from 2001: a space odyssey

Wow, never knew that trivia. :confused Sounds too good to be a coincidence, though... Either way, it's a cool story to tell when we'll all eventually show ours off. :D

Next week I should free up to finish my 3D CAD of the panel and wall mount (I always have a wall mount for my projects, don't I? :angel ) and will post pics. After that it should only be a matter of fine-tuning the dimensions now that the Kenko will give us a precise scale reference.

- Gabe
 
The HAL/IBM letter thing is awfully cute, and must have occurred to the filmmakers at the time. IBM was involved in "2001" to some extent, providing some consultation on the future of computers no doubt.

IBM logos appear on the spacecraft consoles and also on Bowman's spacesuit arm controls. (but not in relation to HAL interestingly enough - HAL does not appear to be an IBM product)

bowman-suitcontrols.jpg


Considering that HAL ultimately murders most of the crew, it is probably not a product IBM would want to be associated with. :lol

Arthur C Clarke denies that HAL was a humorous play on IBM. (Clarke claims HAL comes from abbreviating "Heuristically progrmmed ALgorithmic computer", but that is so forced it sounds more like one of Clarke's bad jokes and is hardly believable on the face of it).

I think I recall seeing a note or memo from Kubrick in a book somewhere, written during production, that says "Is IBM aware of this and are they offended?" or some such, but I can't find it right now and may have imagined it.

- k
 
Outstanding screen cap as usual, phase pistol. :)

The following is excerpted from 2001: filming the future, by Piers Bizony (Aurum Press Limited, 2000):

Not surprisingly, a good number of brand-name logos appear scattered around the 2001 sets. (Nowadays the film industry regards 'product placement' as a valuable source of revenue.) For the contractors, as indeed for an already politically-defensive NASA, Kubrick's 2001 looked well on the way to becoming a wonderful advertisement for space technology.

Most of the companies were happy enough with the way things turned out. Except for IBM. They spent many months contributing data to the film, and were less than pleased when HAL 9000 turned out to be such a wrong 'un. The whole mess was exacerbated when the press later noticed that the letters HAL were just one notch along the alphabet from IBM. Undoubtedly this was a genuine coincidence. Even so, the world's biggest computer company didn't welcome their association with 2001's maverick mainframe, which was portrayed hijacking its own ship and then ruthlessly 'disconnecting' its human end-users. (IBM logos were removed from much of the Discovery's hardware, though they can still clearly be seen in the Orion spaceplane cockpit.)

I believe I also read that Clarke not only denied an intentional alphabetical connection between HAL and IBM, but also that he found the coincidence regrettable from his perspective as a writer.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. :p



{EDIT} Added a second "t" to "Outstanding." :$
 
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Ah yes. Both the original and second edition of "Filming the Future" are great resources (a few different photos between the two editions).

Those, plus the new gigantic "Stanley Kubrick Archives" from Taschen, and you got yourself the complete 2001 visual reference available to date. :)

- k
 
Progressing nicdely. Can't wait to see what you can do with it Gabe. As an aside, here's the "new" HAL for 2006:

hal9000.jpg
 
Hey Karl,
Don't forget, Cinefex came out with a pretty nice anniversary issue - it's probably still available on back issue.
-RAJ

Originally posted by phase pistol@Feb 18 2006, 07:18 AM
Ah yes. Both the original and second edition of "Filming the Future" are great resources (a few different photos between the two editions).

Those, plus the new gigantic "Stanley Kubrick Archives" from Taschen, and you got yourself the complete 2001 visual reference available to date. :)

- k
[snapback]1187582[/snapback]​
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by SurferGeek@Feb 25 2006, 03:33 AM
As an aside, here's the "new" HAL for 2006
Click to expand...

One thing's for sure: the "brain room" scene is gonna be a lot shorter. :p
 
Originally posted by Jeeves@Feb 24 2006, 02:17 PM
Hey Karl,
Don't forget, Cinefex came out with a pretty nice anniversary issue
[snapback]1192512[/snapback]​
Click to expand...


Ah yes, got that one too - Cinefex no 85, April 2001. :)

Illustrated mostly with frames from the film... a few behind-the-scenes, nothing earth shattering. Good interviews tho.

- k
 
Hey guys, I don't have much time to write, but the lens came in. :thumbsup

It looks like we're going to need a fairly bright red light... I shined a maglite into it, and while the light that comes through is very intense, it extremely small. I'll try again tomorrow with a dull, colored light and see what happens.

But man, looking through the lens like binoculars really makes you feel like you're looking through HAL's eye. :D
 
David, congrats again on your score - mine is due within days as well. :D

Let's remember that a replica lens won't have all the elements of the original, only the front fish-eye. I'll have to create a facade that reproduces the stepped concentric rings seen from the front, while allowing more light to shine through from the rear. It would probably be black anodized machined aluminum. And instead of an intense focused light source, I'd recommend a regular LED or diffused incandescent bulb.

- Gabe
 
Don't want this thread to fall too far off the map...

I managed to score a Kenko off of the Yahoo. Japan auction site. I thought it would be relatively cheap here (I'm in Tokyo), and still think it would have been, had I not found myself in a bidding war with a guy who apparently collects lenses. :cry


Originally posted by synasp@Feb 26 2006, 06:43 PM
But man, looking through the lens like binoculars really makes you feel like you're looking through HAL's eye. :D
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's pretty weird to stand normally, looking straight ahead through the lens, and be able to see the front of your body at the bottom of your field of vision. No wonder fish are so jumpy. :p

Here's a POV shot through the Kenko, looking at my computer screen. Sorry about the quality of this shot; I had to use my hand as an "adapter."

[attachmentid=7022]

How is the progress coming on HAL, guys? Any news?




{EDIT} The actual fisheye distortion is much more pronounced than it appears to be in the shot above. In order to shoot down the length of the Kenko without the correct adapter, I had to use a long focal length on my digital camera, and this seems to have counteracted the fisheye distortion at the edges of the frame.
 
Yay. Congrats on joining the Kenko club. I like walking around with it up to my eye. It makes my house look so much larger, and I can see around corners. :p

So I tried taking pictures of a red light shining through, and wow was it hard. The light was fine--it looked really nice (a big, dull red light works better than a sharp, bright LED)--but I couldn't get one decent shot of it without a terrible reflection (of the camera/room)... I never thought about it before, but it must've been hell for the film crew to not be reflected off of HAL's eye.

But where are we on the panel dimensions? Is anyone on this?
 
I got my Kenko too, but I'm not convinced it's the right lens. If Karl's dimensions are correct, then the lens should be 7-8 cm in diameter, and the Kenko is no greater than 6...

Still, I'll be posting my 3D CAD model of the panel assembly in a few days for a peer review.

Wait for it. :)

- Gabe
 
My dimensions are based off of that guy Gilliam's replica.

Wouldn't there be a variety of different lenses, at slightly different diameters? That's the way it is with 35mm SLR cameras. Could the "real" Kenko be just a little bit bigger than Gabe's?

I suppose we could deliberately scale down the replica plaque to match the diameter of Gabe's Kenko...

OR we could scale up the "replica Kenko" to fit the known dimensions of Gilliam's plaque. B)

- k
 
damn... now i dont know if i should be happy or sad that i also snagged a kenko this morning... i guess happy will do for now :)

-Jeff
 
Here's the new BSG skin from HAL's POV:

[attachmentid=7056]

Jeff, if you don't want it, I'll take it off your hands. ;)
 
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