2010 HAL 9000 (Take a stress pill and think things over...)

I've been considering this build for a bit and on seeing some cheap-ish desktop magnifiers with decent proportions and a built in chrome bezel, I thought I'd give it a go. I'm building the 2010: The Year We Made Contact version for three reasons:

- It's a bit cheaper, as you can more easily fake the lens
- you sidestep trying to get the grille right on the speaker
- the logo is illuminated, which looks aces

Oh, and this is in here as it's slightly smaller than life size - about 3/4 size which will make a better desk ornament. It's going to be USB powered with lights and sound. Of course! Why would you make HAL without those?

Here's the desktop magnifier. It's got a nice curve to it. It's about 91mm across – not a bad size for the 2001 version but small for the 2010 version. The glass itself would be good for a 2001 version at about 77mm across. The bezel of course isn't screen accurate but has the right feel.

Here are the constituent parts of the lens:
- Desktop magnifier - only the top part and bezel will get used
- The lid from a loupe
- An clip-on phone fisheye lens that's been in the drawer for ages
- Several rings and adapter discs from a knock-off Cokin-style filter set that I never use
- I'm waiting for a 42-49mm step up filter to arrive. That will make a snug fit around the loupe

I nearly made the surround out of styrene but saw sanity and got some 2mm aluminium flat bar. It sawed very easily on a mitre saw (I taped it to strip wood to make it easier to handle). I have one last piece to cut. The frame is taped at the minute and will be epoxied together with the help of corner braces. The eye is test assembled too (the proportions are OK - it's sitting a bit proud in the pic).

The electronics will be a couple of LEDS behind the logo, the red eye, a small MP3 player board and a 40mm speaker. Lights and sound will be on separate circuits. I'm using silver speaker cloth for the speaker rather than the solid facing from the film and I'll inset actual glass in front of the logo. Hopefully, the mix of materials should give it the vibe of a real piece of equipment and although not 100% screen accurate, somewhat of an authentic feel.

Test-fit of all the eye parts and LED test (not the back parts are a little off center). The problem with getting the classic HAL "look" is that the light bloom in 2001 was, as far as I can tell, a post production effect. This seems to me a good approximation of other HAL replicas and the 2010 prop. Not bad for a frankenstein's fisheye!

Oh, and other news! I am gathering parts for a 1:1 2001 wall mounted panel that's close to screen accurate (shout out to AP 333 for the inspiration on both of these HAL 9000 Panel (2001:A Space Odyssey) - pg.5 final Update). That's going to be inset into larger acrylic sheet with laser engraving. I *might* try and incorporate a console screen in there... The question is whether to do a double build log here or start a separate thread for that in the props forum.

If I remember correctly, HAL’s eyeI was a very high quality (Zeiss?) lens. I’ve seen no evidence to suggest that the reflection was anything other than an artifact of the lens...i need to do some homework on that!

Britcinescribe said:

If I remember correctly, HAL’s eyeI was a very high quality (Zeiss?) lens. I’ve seen no evidence to suggest that the reflection was anything other than an artifact of the lens...i need to do some homework on that!

Click to expand...

The lens was a Nikkor 8mm f/8, which I think may have been tracked down by the good folks here and confirmed as the f/8 version by AP 333. The reflections are indeed what you'd get from decent optics, but the hazy glow isn't. If you look at those scenes, there's a soft focus over the whole frame and I suspect there's a matte of the middle of the eye at a softer focus superimposed on top. The smear of the reflections backs this up. See the clip below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARJ8cAGm6JE

I actually unboxed the Taschen box that I’d had sitting in shrink wrap for 18 months in the hope there might be an answer, but it’s haphazardly set out. There’s a new book out I got a month ago that I similarly haven’t read. I’ll go check that.

Are you talking about shots of HAL, or his POV?

Are you talking about shots of HAL, or his POV?

Britcinescribe said:

Are you talking about shots of HAL, or his POV?

Click to expand...

The shots of HAL. His POV, it seems, was shot on a Fairchild Curtis lens that was shown in a Kubrick exhibition a few years ago. http://fastfilm1.blogspot.com/2013/01/stanley-kubrick-exhibit.html

Yep, that was the reason I asked!

A quick mock-up using some scrap bits and a lot of masking tape. I bought the grey plastic as an experiment and it's a bit hard to cut holes in cleanly so I'll redo the face plate. The speaker cloth works well, although I think the real prop was just a painted piece of board. I'm going to laser cut some pieces for the 1:1 1968/2001 HAL but this will all be made by hand. It's such a simple design, any and all inaccuracies are really starting to stand out to me!

You know, If I'm making a 1:1 HAL, maybe this should be a SAL 9000...