How did they film the Centrifuge in 2001?

[SpaceMouse]

Was watching a clip earlier and was curious if anyone knows offhand how they filmed some of the centrifuge scenes in 2001. There's at least one clip where two guys are moving in it at very different angles. It just struck me as a rather convincing illusion.

 

Edited November 6, 2017 by SpaceMouse

[TheSaint]

They built a centrifuge.

When they fimed they simply rotated the set around so that the actors were standing on the bottom of it. In the scenes when the actors were on opposite sides of the centrifuge, one actor is always seated. That actor was strapped into the seat and was literally hanging upside-down in the air.

[Nuke]

i wonder what it would take to launch the original set into space and use it as an actual (rather nausiating) centrifuge. 

[Bill Phil]

12 minutes ago, Nuke said:

i wonder what it would take to launch the original set into space and use it as an actual (rather nausiating) centrifuge. 

Potentially. Although much of the literature regarding how disorienting high RPMs are is not complete. 

In the book the centrifuge only generates 1 lunar gravity. It may not be nearly as nauseating if that were to be the case.

[TheSaint]

11 minutes ago, Nuke said:

i wonder what it would take to launch the original set into space and use it as an actual (rather nausiating) centrifuge. 

You would have to build your own. Kubrick was worried that the sets and models would be reused for other, lower-quality films, as he had seen done with a lot of other science fiction film props in the past. So when filming was complete he had everything destroyed, including all of the design drawings and plans. When they went to film 2010 in 1982 they had to recreate everything from scratch with nothing to go off of except the film itself and the production stills.

[SpaceMouse]

40 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

They built a centrifuge.

When they fimed they simply rotated the set around so that the actors were standing on the bottom of it. In the scenes when the actors were on opposite sides of the centrifuge, one actor is always seated. That actor was strapped into the seat and was literally hanging upside-down in the air.

That's kind of what I thought, although it looked like there were items there that weren't sitting upside down.

 

Shame they destroyed the set.

Edited November 6, 2017 by SpaceMouse

[TheSaint]

Just now, SpaceMouse said:

That's kind of what I thought, although it looked like there were items there that weren't sitting upside down.

If there weren't, I would be shocked. Kubrick was a master filmmaker, probably one of the best who has ever lived. His attention to detail was legendary.

[Nuke]

6 hours ago, TheSaint said:

You would have to build your own. Kubrick was worried that the sets and models would be reused for other, lower-quality films, as he had seen done with a lot of other science fiction film props in the past. So when filming was complete he had everything destroyed, including all of the design drawings and plans. When they went to film 2010 in 1982 they had to recreate everything from scratch with nothing to go off of except the film itself and the production stills.

doesn't surprise me at all. huge sets like this are hard to store and its usually cheaper just to take it apart and recycle the materials (usually into another set).

7 hours ago, Bill Phil said:

Potentially. Although much of the literature regarding how disorienting high RPMs are is not complete. 

In the book the centrifuge only generates 1 lunar gravity. It may not be nearly as nauseating if that were to be the case.

all the more reason to do it. for science! we really dont know how much gravity is necessary to maintain bone density and muscle mass. we do know that coriolis effects can be problematic and that motion sickness is a major concern. but we wont know anything until we actually do it. when i was younger i did see a guy do the humpty hump on the gravitron, it was rather impressive feat considering the gs that thing pulls. 

[NSEP]

There is an entire YouTube mini-series on how the movie was made.

 Here is the episode with the centrifuge scene:

 

[The Raging Sandwich]

On 11/7/2017 at 6:57 AM, NSEP said:

There is an entire YouTube mini-series on how the movie was made.

 Here is the episode with the centrifuge scene:

 

I was about to link that but you beat me to it

[Nuke]

man that was a good series. i couldnt stop watching it, then i had to watch 2001 again.

[tater]

1 hour ago, Nuke said:

man that was a good series. i couldnt stop watching it, then i had to watch 2001 again.

Ditto.