Notes by Frederick Ordway, Scientific/Technical Consultant on '2001'

[AdamSmith]

[AdamSmith]

[AdamSmith]

...the foregoing found on a tumblr titled Keir Dullea YEAH!!!

Tumblr blog dedicated to anything related to Keir Dullea! Keir Dullea is best known for playing Dave Bowman from "2001: A Space Odyssey."

http://keirdullea.tumblr.com/

[AdamSmith]

[AdamSmith]

And then this thing Clarke said after K had tried but failed to get Clarke to help him in K's ultimately failed effort to make AI:

"Well, you know -- Stanley's Stanley."

[AdamSmith]

50 years of deep space exploration
A cinematic odyssey into the future of man, unequaled in effort and execution

In the spring of 1964 Stanley Kubrick set out to make what he called “the proverbial good science fiction movie.” The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2oo1: A Space Odyssey’ marks the 50th anniversary of the moment when Stanley and his co-screen writer, noted futurist Arthur C. Clarke, first sat down to brainstorm one of the greatest landmarks in the history of cinema.

Created with the collaboration of the Kubrick family and Warner Bros., this book includes unique concept artworks and behind-the-scenes photographs, many of them never previously published. The extensive text draws, also, from direct interviews with Arthur Clarke, and the principal actors, senior production designers, and key special effects experts who helped to realize Kubrick’s futuristic vision.

Stanley’s brother-in-law Jan Harlan explains the genesis of the Kubrick family’s latest collaboration with TASCHEN. “Piers Bizony had published an essay on 2oo1 some years ago—a simple paperback— but it demonstrated that he is genuinely knowledgeable about this film and the thinking behind its creation. Other partners in the project were, of course, essential. From the start, in proposing this new book, and indeed, throughout the writing and production process, we worked very closely with Warner Bros.”

Of course the Kubrick family has worked with TASCHEN before, as Jan explains. “The Stanley Kubrick Archives project led directly to the next book, about Stanley’s great, unrealized project. TASCHEN called it Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon. The Greatest Movie Never Made and I don’t think they exaggerated. Napoleon is not just a historical figure. His genius and folly, his charisma and poor judgment, his brilliance hampered by vanity and ego, are elements relevant for our leadership today around the globe.”

In 2oo1 Kubrick suggests that intelligent machines might also become capable of expressing such Napoleonic qualities as brilliance, ego and vanity. There is very little dialogue in this epic space film.

Kubrick’s ambitious philosophical speculations are conveyed by his unforgettable imagery. The destinies of prehistoric manapes are intertwined across millions of years with those of computers, humans and alien entities whose nature and intentions are thrillingly ambiguous. So many space fiction films become dated almost as soon as they are made. In contrast, 2oo1 is just as compelling as when it was first screened, especially given the fact that NASA space probes have discovered countless new planets in our galaxy. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a very real and active science today. 2oo1’s visual effects established groundbreaking standards for excellence.

Kubrick and his crew built, from scratch, special projectors, automatic animation systems and motorized camera rigs controlled by banks of electronic switches and timers. But some of the grandest effects were also the simplest. Christiane remembers working alongside her husband on early experiments back in 1964. “Stanley was messing around with paints suspended in chemicals—and I was involved in the art department, too—sometimes it was very smelly, very uncomfortable, and your eyes would run because of the fumes. And people would say, ‘This is crazy!’ But inside these little glass containers, the laws of nature applied to the liquids just as they apply to the universe as a whole.

Stanley saw this, and some of the results from those first experiments are actually included, vastly magnified by the camera, as the exploding galaxies and swirls of cosmic dust in the final version of 2oo1.”

Kubrick was renowned as an obsessive and relentlessly hard-working director. His legendary attention to detail certainly helps explain why 2oo1 still looks so crisp and believable today. But the typical outsider’s image of her husband as a workaholic is not one that Christiane understands. “To Stanley, and I suppose to any artist, working is more like playing, because what you do is also what you enjoy. Always there is enthusiasm, an open mind to limitless possibilities, and then you narrow it down to what will actually work.”

Jan says, “This of course is what Stanley’s film is all about—limitless possibilities.” Jan and Christiane are delighted to share the story of how 2oo1: A Space Odyssey was created, both from a technical standpoint and in terms of the early scripting process. The deeper meaning of the film, however, is something that Kubrick always wanted to let his audiences explore without the guidance of mere words. As he explained in 1968, when the film was first released, 2001 was “essentially a nonverbal experience” designed “to communicate more to the subconscious than to the intellect.” This book describes, in compelling detail, how he set out to achieve this.

The rest is up to you, the audience.

http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/company/blog/53.how_stanley_kubrick_revolutionized_science_fiction_and_the_art_of_cinema.htm

[AdamSmith]

The making of magic

How Stanley Kubrick's "2OO1: A Space Odyssey" revolutionized science fiction and the art of cinema

It’s the movie that revolutionized science fiction and the art of cinema, that transformed the way we think about film with its special effects, narrative style, philosophical importance, and unusual musical choices. Now, fifty years after its conception, TASCHEN presents the most exhaustive publication ever devoted to 2oo1: A Space Odyssey. Limited to 1,500 copies, this landmark edition has been made in exclusive collaboration with both the Kubrick Estate and Warner Bros.

Get closer than ever to this movie that changed the movies. Conceived by the same designers behind our instant collectible Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made, this richly illustrated four-volume set features hundreds of previously unpublished documents and photographs, as well as personal testimony from Kubrick’s co-screenwriter Arthur C. Clarke. All hardcover volumes are presented in a sleek metal slipcase inspired by the famous monolith, and come boxed with exclusive cover art from Wayne Haag.

The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s 2oo1: A Space Odyssey
Four volumes with a metal slipcase, all designed by M/M (Paris):
Volume 1: Film stills
Volume 2: Behind the scenes (including new interviews with lead actors, senior production designers, and key special-effects experts)
Volume 3: Facsimile of original screenplay
Volume 4: Facsimile of original 1965 production notes
Plus a small comic surprise

Limited to a total of 1,500 copies, all signed by Christiane Kubrick:
Art Edition No 1-500 (Art Edition A and B, with a signed print by Brian Sanders) and Collector’s Edition No. 501-1,500

The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s '2001: A Space Odyssey' Piers Bizony, M/M (Paris)
Monolith shaped metallic box with 4 volumes, 7.8 x 17.3 in., 1386 pages

US$1500.00

Copyright © 2014 Turner Entertainment Co.
2oo1: A Space Odyssey and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © Turner Entertainment Co.
(s14)

http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/film_music/all/03109/facts.the_making_of_stanley_kubricks_2001_a_space_odyssey.htm

[AdamSmith]

The Greatest Movie Never Made

Ten books in one tell the fascinating tale of Kubrick’s unfilmed masterpiece

Tucked inside of a carved-out book, all the elements from Stanley Kubrick’s archives that readers need to imagine what his unmade film about the emperor might have been like, including a facsimile of the script. This collector’s edition is limited to 1,000 numbered copies.

For 40 years, Kubrick fans and film buffs have wondered about the director’s mysterious unmade film on Napoleon Bonaparte. Slated for production immediately following the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick’s "Napoleon" was to be at once a character study and a sweeping epic, replete with grandiose battle scenes featuring thousands of extras. To write his original screenplay, Kubrick embarked on two years of intensive research; with the help of dozens of assistants and an Oxford Napoleon specialist, he amassed an unparalleled trove of research and preproduction material, including approximately 15,000 location scouting photographs and 17,000 slides of Napoleonic imagery. No stone was left unturned in Kubrick’s nearly-obsessive quest to uncover every piece of information history had to offer about Napoleon. But alas, Kubrick’s movie was not destined to be: the film studios, first M.G.M. and then United Artists, decided such an undertaking was too risky at a time when historical epics were out of fashion.

TASCHEN’s sumptuous, limited-edition tribute to this unmade masterpiece makes Kubrick’s valiant work on "Napoleon" available to fans for the first time. Herein, readers can peruse a selection of Kubrick’s correspondence, various costume studies, location scouting photographs, research material, script drafts, and more, each category of material in its own book. Kubrick’s final draft is reproduced in facsimile while the other texts are tidily kenneled into one volume where they dare not interfere with the visual material. All of these books are tucked inside of—or shall we say hiding in?—a carved-out reproduction of a Napoleon history book.

The text book features the complete original treatment, essays examining the screenplay in historical and dramatic contexts, an essay by Jean Tulard on Napoleon in cinema, and a transcript of interviews Kubrick conducted with Oxford professor Felix Markham. The culmination of years of research and preparation, this unique publication offers readers a chance to experience the creative process of one of cinema’s greatest talents as well as a fascinating exploration of the enigmatic figure that was Napoleon Bonaparte.

Includes exclusive access to searchable/downloadable online research database: Kubrick’s complete picture file of nearly 17,000 Napoleonic images.

US$3000.00

http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/film_music/all/03844/facts.stanley_kubricks_napoleon.htm?utm_source=tas&utm_medium=nl&utm_campaign=2001

[AdamSmith]

http://www.emptykingdom.com/featured/behind-the-scenes-of-2001-a-space-odyssey/

[AdamSmith]

[AdamSmith]

[AdamSmith]

[AdamSmith]

[AdamSmith]

[AdamSmith]

Will We Ever Achieve the Vision of '2001: A Space Odyssey'? (Op-Ed)

Piers Bizony

Date: 21 September 2015 Time: 05:47 PM ET

http://m.space.com/30605-is-vision-from-2001-film-possible.html

[AdamSmith]

Building Lunar Model's Discovery By Michael J. Dentzer - images & text © 2002 Scale: 1/211 (about 30"/76cm long) Parts: 90 resin Instructions: 2 pages: Too simple for such a complex model. Decals: None MSRP: $149.95 USD available from Lunar Models Lunar Models' Discovery, to those that know about it, has brought fear and trepidation to many thinking about building it, or to those who have bought it and upon looking at the contents of the box, promptly closed it again, placing it back on the "to do" pile, hoping to tackle it one day. Well, at least that was what went through my mind after finally deciding I had to have a version of this classic spaceship to place in the display case next to my Moonbus and Orion shuttle.

So I purchased one - two years ago. You can read my initial impressions of the kit in the Preview I did here. Well, after sitting in the "to do" pile for most of the last two years, I finally gathered the courage, as well as the reference material, inspiration from others, time, and attack plan to finally build her.

The kit is a relic of the earlier days of the garage kit industry and could use a good overhaul in order to bring it up to the standards being set by todays manufacturers. I've enumerated the many flaws and few high points of the kit in my preview, so I won't go into them here. Let's just get to buildin'!

Kleenup

The first thing you want to do with this or any resin kit is to give the whole thing a good cleaning in warm water and mild dish detergent. This will remove traces of the greasy mold release agent used in casting the parts. Usually. While this did the job for most of the parts, the good people at Lunar apparently used some other release agent on the multitude of spine modules, that was not washed off with the detergent and water - something I didn't become aware of till AFTER the spine was assembled and ready for primer. More on that little hurdle below.

^ Completed model

^ The re-worked spine and scratchbuilt details

Laying the Keel

The supplied central spine that the kit is built around is an atrocious mess. It's too flimsy to support even its own weight, let alone the masses of resin it would need to support on either end. That and the large sections missing that were an artifact of poor casting and quality control. I replaced it with two sections of 3/8" diam. solid steel rods I took from an old dot matrix printer I'd taken apart. They had threaded ends on them, and I fused them together in the middle by joining two threaded ends in a small 1/2" long piece of 3/8"diam aluminum tube, and sleeving that with an overlapping piece of 1" long thin brass tube, glued in place with superglue. This center point would be hidden by the antennae assembly and surrounding modules, so total neatness wasn't necessary. More aluminum tube would be used on either end to get the correct lengths needed to go through both the engine module and rear hab sphere collar, which would be assembled onto the ends of the finished spine. The total length would be determined by the layout and assembly of the spine modules.

In order to mount the spine modules, I had to build all the mounts and couplers. I needed to have a set and consistent pattern to use to make them, so I simply drilled holes into .20 sheet styrene, and used a bolt and 1/4" hex nut as a pattern. Clamped down, cut down, and filed down even with the nut, I could easily produce hexagonal bits that I used to assemble the mounts. All 33 of them. That's 66 plastic hexagons for the mounts, and another 10 for the couplers between the clusters of modules. 76 little plastic hexagonal nuts in all. I built the couplers between each module section by sandwitching a hexagon between two cones I cut from the pointy ends of plastic mechanical pencils I picked up at Walmart cheap for a 4-pack. I needed 22 pencils altogether for the 22 cone sections, 20 complete couplers and a half coupler at either end, and that was the only expense I incurred outside of the purchase of the kit in the first place. Everything else I had laying around already. They were the right size and had appropriate detail on them, and worked out quite well. They at least looked better than the ones from the kit. I did have to drill out the insides a bit to fit them onto the steel rod, but the old dremmel and drill bit made it relatively effortless. The 3 "U" shaped connectors on each coupler are scratched from thin styrene strip.

I began at the antennae assembly, (the modules for which are mounted on three 1/4"plastic squares made in the same fashion as the hexagons, (i.e. a 1/4" square nut & bolt) filing the bases of each module flat, supergluing them to the mounts, and moved outward on either side of that towards both ends. The kit's spine actually did come in handy - as a guide to provide a consistent spacing between the module mounts and couplers. Finally, in what seemed like a lifetime, (but was only about a month) the spine was done and ready for primer.

Almost.

I had to deal with that mold release agent that unknown till now was not removed with the sudzy water. I tried again with several standard cleaning agents and still the primer beaded upon application. Well, I dug out a can of automotive carburetor & choke cleaner called Jet Spray Gumout, sprayed the entire spine, and scrubbed it down again with soapy water. That finally did it. It didn't attack the resin (yes, I tested it first) but it really does a number on styrene, melting it like butter (I tested that too, while I was at it). This time, the primer stuck. In fact, I think it adheared to the resin better than I 've ever seen. I'm going to use this stuff to preclean all my resin models in the future.

Now on to juicier, and less tedious bits.......

Command Sphere

The front end of the kit suffered from the same problem as the Hubble Space Telescope before the fix - spherical abberation. (It wasn't round) At least fixing it was a lot simpler and cheaper than our lofty eye in the sky was. A combination of hot water and a hair dryer softened up the resin, which I reshaped, and let cool. Although the part is marginally usable, with some cleanup and a descent finish it looks good enough that scratching another one isn't mandatory. Although I did make a few alterations here and there to make it a bit more similar to the one in the film - 2001, that is, and not the sequel, which it does more resemble. More on that later.

First, I cut out the thin resin covering the windows and lined the inside of the windows with a strip of reflective tape. This was a much simpler and effective method of producing a lighted effect than wiring up LEDs or light bulbs. As you can see in the photos, when the light source is directly behind you the tape reflects that light directly back to you, just like the reflectors on the side of the road light up at night from the car headlights.

Next I addressed, or rather redressed, the airlock hatch (or what's supposed to be a hatch). It's the wrong size when compared to the Discovery from 2001, although it is the right size for the 2010 version, but barely discernable as a door. So I carved out a new one and detailed it with styrene. Nice thing about polyurethane resin - it carves and cuts easily. I also added a layer of .40 sheet styrene to the back of the sphere to give it the correct fit to the rear collar.

Speaking of the rear collar, I have no idea where the detailing that appears on the back half of the kit part comes from. It's in the form of raised ridges that look terrible, so off they came, and I redetailed it with sheet styrene and bits of styrene strip. I then filed down the 4 nubs on the back and added cone shaped bits to represent the emergency escape engines. I also had to sand flat the front part that connects to the sphere as there was a bit of overpour. Well, better too much resin than not enough, yes? Finally, I drilled a hole through the center of the collar through which the steel rod from the end of the spine would pass and be mounted But before mounting the collar, I needed to build the circular platform it rests on that fits between it and the rest of the spine. The one supplied with the kit is patterned after the one on the Discovery from 2010, and I was building mine to look more like the original.

After priming, painting, and weathering, the collar was then epoxied to the spine. Now on to the back end........

Reactor Module

The real jewel in this kit, and almost worth the price af admission, is the reactor module. Hollow cast with exceptional, crisp detail, and needing minimal cleanup. It was, however, missing a section that fits between the front end and the spine. Not that it was a part missing from the kit, but it had a simplified endcap. The detail on this was nice and aparently correct, so I sawed off the disk at the front end, sanded the remaining front section down, as well as the back of the removed disk, which I would use as the front of the new section I would build. I dug out of the parts box a plastic spool from a scotch tape dispenser which I cut down, shaped and covered in sheet styrene. To the front of this part I glued the disk cut from the front of the reactor module, and through which I drilled a hole for the spine rod to pass. I'm not sure if it matches the one on the 2001 Discovery, but I doubt anyone does, as no detail shots of it appear anywhere in the film or reference photos that I'm aware of. To the front of the reactor module I glued a 1/4" section from the center of the spool of a trashed VCR tape, which plugged perfectly into the scotch tape spool. I then drilled a hole in the center of that for the spine rod to pass through. I added the extra plumbing to the module with the wire supplied with the kit and some staples.

Once this was all done, I could cut the section of aliminum tube at the end of the spine rod to the length of the reactor module, at the back of which another hole was drilled to accept the end of the rod, which was now flush with the rear end. This hole and back end of the rod would be hidden once the central engine was afixed.

Speaking of the engines.......

The Engines

One of the bad parts to this mixed bag of quality are the engines. Misshapen, soft in detail, and the wrong size - far too short. In a word, unusable. So, what to do..........scratch build new ones, of course. So that's what I did. In triplicate. Using old pen parts, styrene tubing, two different sized hex nuts (1/4" & 1/2"), sections from drinking straws (the bendy kind), staples, and sheet and strip styrene. Some details at the business ends were liberated from micromachines. Once built, painted, and weathered, I mounted them on the rear of the reactor module, also painted and weathered. I was then ready to mount the whole assembly to the back of the spine.

AE35 Unit (Antennae Assembly)

I gave a good bit of thought to completely scratchbuilding this part, as the main comm dish and two small telemetry dishes aren't really dish shaped. I was going to have to build a new mount as the one supplied was badly deformed and completely inaccurate, but I thought I'd give them a try anyway. They do have some nice scribed detail, and although it should actually be raised rays, look convincing enough at this scale with a good wash. Dressed up in the cross beam supports and a central spike made from an old wind-up wristwatch part, it really is usable. I did scratchbuild the base mount, which articulates (i.e. turns and swivels).

Finishing Touches

Before final asembly, all the major parts had been primed with gray primer, base coated with flat white, and panels highlighted with light gray and light ghost gray. A light wash was used to bring out all the detail and panel lines. I then epoxied the command sphere to the collar, alighned, and let sit till dry (30 minutes), and then realized I was done. Finished. I'd completed my Discovery! So, now what? I'll show the wife! "That's nice, dear. What's for supper?". The cat showed even less enthusiasm. So into the display case she went, next to the Orion and moonbus, and an empty stand awaiting the arrival of the Atomic City Aries 1B, also sitting in the "to do" pile.

So, how does this kit from Lunar Models compare to the one(s) seen on screen? Lets find out.......

A Question of Scale and Size - Does it Measure Up?

As is, the Lunar kit has an advertised scale of 1/211 and a built length of 30". If built as is, you arrive at an "actual" length of 527.5 feet. The small work pod that accompanies the kit (which I didn't build as one of the arms was broken) measures 9/16" in height. If scaled at the stated 1/211, the pod would be 9.8 ft tall! Clearly not what we see in either film, and known to have had an actual height of ~6 ft. Scaled at 1/144, the kit's pod comes in with a height of 6.74 ft. Still a bit tall, but close enough. So I have no idea where Lunar's stated scale comes from. In the film 2010, Dr. Floyd states clearly that the ship is 800 feet long. This would produce a pod of around 12 ft tall! Ridiculous. I don't know how or why Peter Hyams arrived at this figure, but it was his film, so there we go.

Clarke, in his novel 2010, remains somewhat consistent with the first book in stating that the Discovery is 100 meters in length which converts to about 328 ft. In his 2001 novel, Clarke gives an approximate length of "nearly 400 feet long" (the novel NEVER states a length of 700 ft. - that's an erroneous caption with the photo of the Discovery seen in early editions of the book, and NOT from Clarke, and is the only source for that length that I'm aware of. But as they say, a picture's worth a thousand words, and a picture WITH a caption, Whoo boy!) and a pressure sphere of 40 ft. in diameter. Lunar's discovery is patterned more after the rebuilt Discovery from 2010. I like the one from the first film better, so I altered the details and scale of my kit to better represent Kubrick & Clarke's Discovery from their respective film and novel.

After I'd redone the emergency airlock hatch on the command sphere, I realized it was about the same size as the one on the Aurora Orion in my display case, which is scaled at 1/144. So, let's see, if my Discovery is actually 1/144 scale, at 32" (longer engines, remember) I get an actual length of 384 ft. The command sphere measures 3.5" in diameter, which yeilds an actual diameter of 42 ft. @ 1/144 scale. These dimensions fit quite well with those stated in Clarke's novel, i.e. nearly 400 ft. As you've seen in figure 4 above, the new door I made matches pretty well the one seen on the 2001 filming model, at least in size. So I'm satisfied that my Discovery is 1/144 scale, and looks quite correct sitting next to the Orion in the display case. So that settles it, for me anyway. But how does it actually compare to the originals? Let's see........

A Comparative Review

As you see in this composite image the three versions do differ from one another in several respects. I've resized these images so that the command spheres are all the same size in order to compare overall proportions. You can see all 3 do not match up in overall length (actually, if the 2010 Discovery was shown at it's stated lenth it would be over twice as long as the other two). The reactor module on both the Lunar and 2010 versions are about the same size, in relation to the command sphere, and both are larger than their counterpart from 2001. The spine modules on the Lunar kit match better those on the 2001 model, though they are a bit larger, producing an overall lengthening of the spine once it's all together. The spine is much different on the 2010 version, with the modules spaced farther apart. (Note that the antennae is mounted backwards on the 2010 Discovery!)

Regardless, though, I'm thoroughly satisfied with the offering from Lunar, and it sure beats having to scratchbuild the entire ship, and until another/better offering comes along, or you build one from scratch, the Lunar kit is still the only game in town (unless you can afford one of Atomic City's studio scale models), and does, with a good deal of effort, build into a satisfying representation. So, If you too have one sitting on your shelf, take it down, blow off the dust, and get to buildin'!

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/2001/md_disc.htm

[MsGuy]

AS, didn't they come up with some pill that alleviates obsessions like this a decade or so back?

[AdamSmith]

AS, didn't they come up with some pill that alleviates obsessions like this a decade or so back?

That sounds deadly boring. Obsession Uber Alles!

[AdamSmith]

[AdamSmith]

The computer programmed to sing that gave Clarke the idea to have HAL do this.

[RA1]

The last thing I need to know is about annuity problems OR maybe the first.

Enjoyed both submissions and I know you like that.

Best regards,

RA1

[AdamSmith]

Typeset In The Future

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Dave Addey

2001: A Space Odyssey – Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi masterpiece – seems an appropriate place to start a blog about typography in sci-fi. Amongst other delights, it offers a zero-gravity toilet, emergency resuscitations, exploding bolts, and product placement aplenty. It’s also the Ur Example of Eurostile Bold Extended’s regular appearance in spacecraft user interfaces.

Right from the opening scene, we’re treated to Kubrick’s love of bold, clean, sans-serif typography:

This title card is set in Gill Sans, one of the all-time classic sans-serif fonts. Perhaps surprisingly, the zeroes in ‘2001’ appear to be set with the Gill Sans capital letter O (shown below on the left), rather than its zero character (shown on the right):

The film’s opening act is set during The Dawn Of Man. The dawn of man is definitely not set in the future, as indicated by its use of Albertus for the act’s title card:

After introducing us to Albertus, the Dawn Of Man turns out to be typographically unremarkable. So, let’s skip forward a little, and join Dr. Heywood R. Floyd on his Pan Am flight to Space Station 5.

In the first of several subtle inclusions of real-world American companies, we discover that the Pan Am logo hasn’t changed much between 1968 and 2001. (We’ll gloss over the fact that Pan Am went bust in 1991.) The cabin crew have, however, adopted Velcro Grip Shoes to counter the weightlessness of space:

The Pan Am spacecraft’s flight deck gives us our first sighting of Eurostile Bold Extended, in an ominous foreshadowing of the HAL 9000 interface screens we’ll see later on. Presumably the Pan Am craft are  also controlled by HAL-series computers. And why not? After all, the 9000 series has a perfect operational record.

In a subsequent close-up, we see that the craft also features the IBM logo in its pre-1972 version, set in City Medium, as designed by Paul Rand:

There’s no mistaking Eurostile Bold Extended  on the receptionist’s language buttons when the Doctor arrives on the space station. Actually, there might be some mistaking it, because it could just as easily be Eurostile’s precursor, Microgramma. It’s nigh-impossible to tell them apart. Who knows, it could be Microgramma throughout the entire film. Let’s just call it Eurostile and get on with things.

UPDATE:  In response to this article, Erik van Blokland has posted a comprehensive side-by-side comparison of Eurostile, Microgramma, and HAL interface artwork from the traveling Kubrick exhibition. His conclusion: inconclusive.

The Hilton chain of hotels has opened an outpost on Space Station 5. This logo doesn’t match any I can find from their history, but it is very reminiscent of the iconic signage for the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles:

Just like Pan Am, the Howard Johnson’s chain of restaurants doesn’t seem to have changed its logo since the sixties. This is ironic, given that it updated its classic logo in 1998, a year or so before this scene takes place:

Dr. Floyd’s video call to his daughter sees another use of Eurostile Bold Extended. There’s also another real-world company logo, this time for the American Bell Telephone Company. (Their logo was redesigned by Saul Bass the year after 2001 was released.)

Eagle-eyed viewers may spot a logo for RCA Whirlpool (now the Whirlpool Corporation) during Dr. Floyd’s subsequent flight to the Clavius moon base. This logo (and the name RCA Whirlpool) was dropped in 1966, suggesting that this scene may have been filmed earlier in the movie’s production:

The Clavius flight also features Eurostile Bold (not Extended) in the instructions for the ship’s comedy Zero Gravity Toilet. It’s probably very sensible that Passengers Are Advised To Read Instructions Before Use.

Let’s take a brief aside to find out how a Zero Gravity Toilet works. These instructions have been transcribed as best as possible from a HD source.

1. This toilet is of the standard zero-gravity type. Depending on requirements, system A and/or system B can be used, details of which are clearly marked in the toilet compartment. When operating system A, depress lever and a plastic dalkron eliminator will be dispensed through the slot immediately underneath. When you have fastened the adhesive lip, attach connection marked by the large “X” outlet hose. Twist the silver coloured ring one inch below the connection point until you feel it lock.

2. The toilet is now ready for use. The Sonovac cleanser is activated by the small switch on the lip. When securing, twist the ring back to its initial-condition, so that the two orange lines meet. Disconnect. Place the dalkron eliminator in the vacuum receptacle to the rear. Activate by pressing the blue button.

3. The controls for system B are located on the opposite wall. The red release switch places the uroliminator into position; it can be adjusted manually up or down by pressing the blue manual release button. The opening is self-adjusting. To secure after use, press the green button which simultaneously activates the evaporator and returns the uroliminator to its storage position.

4. You may leave the lavatory if the green exit light is on over the door. If the red light is illuminated, one of the lavatory facilities is not properly secured. Press the “Stewardess” call button to the right of the door. She will secure all facilities from her control panel outside. When green exit light goes on you may open the door and leave. Please close door behind you.

I don’t know why Pan Am’s toilet instructions spell ‘coloured’ with a u – or, indeed, why they call it a ‘toilet’, rather than the more typical American name of ‘bathroom’. I also dread to think what a plastic dalkron is, and I’m still not entirely clear when one might prefer systems A or B. But that’s probably for the best.

Let’s move on. Following a brief speech in a moon base, three American chaps take a spacecraft to visit a suspicious-looking monolith. What could possibly go wrong? Either way, their map makes good use of a mix of Eurostile Bold Extended, Futura Medium and something that looks like it’s probably a condensed form of Univers:

Things do, in fact, go wrong. General badness happens. Next thing we know, we’re looking at a title card for Part 3: Jupiter Mission. This title card is set in the other classic sans-serif font – Futura – but with a few idiosyncrasies. The points of the capital N characters have been softened, and the capital M appears to be borrowed from Gill Sans:

Only two of the Jupiter Mission crew of USS Discovery are awake, with the rest still in hibernation. The two crew members spend some time watching a BBC TV show on their eerily-prescient tablet devices. The channel is BBC 12, which is eight TV channels higher than the present-day BBC transmits. The corporate logo correctly uses its 1960s form of Univers in italicized outline boxes. (It was changed in 1997 to use its modern-day Gill Sans layout.)

The tablet is made by IBM, like much of the spacecraft’s hardware. It’s hard to be sure, but I think the tablet is called an IBM Tele Pro (although it could be Tele Pad, but I think that’s modern-day device naming trends influencing my eyesight):

Either way, BBC TV is clearly portrait-only in the future. (The device’s numeric buttons along the bottom portrait edge don’t make it look like it’s meant to be used in both orientations.)

The mission’s hibernation devices use Futura for their numeric and medical buttons, and Univers for their Emergency Revival Procedures:

There’s an unfortunate typo on the very first button, which refers to hypothalamus stimulation as ‘hyperthalamus stimulation’. (The spelling of this word changes throughout the instructions below.)

If you need to revive someone in an emergency, you’ll want to make sure you have several hours available. Again, my best attempt at a transcription from HD source:

1. Set level button for hyperthalamus activation in accordance with subject’s AQX chart.

2. Activate electric stimulation of the hypothalamus for 12 minutes.

3. Set blood sugar enrichment level in accordance with subject’s AQX chart (if secondary level indicated, activate primary level (step 4 below) and hold for 75 minutes, then change to secondary level for 40 minutes).

4. Activate blood sugar enrichment for 110 minutes.

[…]spiratory levels in accordance […]

7. Activate temperature B button to increase respiratory rate.

8. Activate thyroxin control at level 4 for 30 seconds, at level 6 for 30 seconds, and at level 9 for 10 seconds to reestablish normal endocrine activity.

9. When subject shivers vigorously awakening is about to take place. Disengage brain monitor, suppressant connector and [thermolator band?].

10. Immediately upon awakening activate vibrator for 2 minutes.

11. Subject may now arise and undergo normal post-hibernation rousing.

By my reckoning, that’s a minimum of four hours and ten seconds  to revive someone in an emergency. Let’s hope nothing goes wrong for the crew members who are still in the hibernation pods, eh? (I do like 2001‘s use of in-craft typography to foreshadow events later in the film.)

On that theme: I’m not sure about the typeface used for the hibernating crew members’ vital statistics, although it feels like it may be a slightly extended variant of Univers:

However, I do know that this section of the movie contains some absolutely Eurostile-tastic HAL 9000 screens:

We also get a glimpse of HAL 9000’s own logotype, which could be a manually compressed and outlined variant of Univers, but honestly, it’s hard to tell:

[AdamSmith]

During the first EVA, we see that Dr. Bowman’s space suit features yet more IBM equipment:

We also get a close-up of HAL’s telemetric displays, in a beautiful data font that appears in many of HAL’s interface displays (and which I’ve sadly not been able to identify):

You can see this telemetry in action on your own computer in the beautifully-crafted HAL 9000 interface screensaver, which is available from the HAL Project web site.

UPDATE: Heather, in the comments to this post, has correctly identified this font as Manifold from the DSG IBM Selectric Type Element Catalog. Thank you Heather – a fantastic spot!

After Dave returns from his EVA, we get a brief and blurry glimpse of the USS Discovery mission patch on his shoulder:

This warrants a brief mention of the timing of 2001‘s release. It’s easy to forget that 2001 actually hit cinemas in 1968, the year before Apollo 11 first put a man on the moon. The movie’s use of spacesuit and spacecraft typography is particularly interesting in light of the mission patches of the Apollo missions building up to Apollo 11’s historic landing. Here are the patches for Apollo 7, Apollo 9 and Apollo 10:

Does the typography remind you of anything?

Apollo 11 took a slightly different typographic tack, opting for Futura instead of Eurostile, but I don’t think Kubrick would have complained:

Much of the Apollo mission documentation and material also makes extensive use of Futura. The USS Discovery is certainly in good company.

UPDATE: Stephen Coles from Fonts In Use notes that the Apollo 11 mission patch is actually set in Spartan, an American knock-off of Futura. You can tell the difference from the flat (rather than angled) terminal on the 1.

Futura is also used to good effect to warn the Discovery crew about the pod’s Explosive Bolts:

Again, a lovely bit of foreshadowing that still ties in neatly with the overall aesthetic of the craft. (Chekhov’s Typography, if you will.)

Futura also features on the pod communications switches used to cut HAL off from the worried crew’s conversation:

Good lord, is that the time? We should have an intermission!

This time, the title card is Gill Sans all the way. Go and make yourself a cup of tea while the scary music plays.

[AdamSmith]

And we’re back. Frank heads out on another EVA to pop the comms dish gadget back in the comms dish gadget slot. Unfortunately, his pod turns evil and cuts his air supply. Frank spirals away into space. Dave follows him in a pod, attempting in vain to retrieve his body before it’s too late. While he’s doing so, there’s a dramatic…

…in the hibernation pods, which causes the life support machines of the hibernating science crew to start reporting…

…and end up with their…

…which isn’t what they wanted AT ALL.

Still: if it is going to happen, it may as well happen in what is probably Univers 67 Bold Condensed.

Now: if Dave wasn’t out in the pod trying to catch Frank, he’d’ve been able to instigate the four hours and ten seconds of Emergency Revival Procedures. Remember those? Ah well, never mind.

Worse is yet to come. Dave is locked out of the Discovery by HAL. There’s only one thing for it: open the emergency air lock, and fire the Explosive Bolts. Remember those?

Having just about made it back in, Dave triggers the Emergency Hatch Close (which is just next to the Emergency Umbilical Connect):

There sure are a lot of things labeled ‘EMERGENCY’ in Futura on this spacecraft. Perhaps the most notable example of all is the HAL 9000 Logic Memory Center:

Access to the LM Center only under emergency conditions in accordance with regulations EM 014

Dave removes HAL 9000’s memory. HAL sings a song. The typography might be Univers 67 Bold Condensed again, but I’m not convinced by those numbers:

And, as soon as you can say ‘National Council of Astronautics’, we’re in to Part 4: Jupiter And Beyond The Infinite.

Less-pointy Ns notwithstanding, this title card is Futura all the way:

This final part of the film is visually eclectic, aurally stunning and philosophically challenging. Many thousands of words have been penned over the decades to try and fathom the meaning of the monolith, and the genesis and future of the space-baby. However, none of this act contains typography, and it is therefore of no concern to us. Let’s skip to the end credits.

It’s Futura again, with an M borrowed from Gill Sans, and a W that I don’t recognize from anywhere.

Goodnight!

https://typesetinthefuture.com/2014/01/31/2001-a-space-odyssey/

[AdamSmith]

Just occurred that, modeling '2001' production on Los Alamos, Kubrick = General Groves; Clarke = Oppenheimer.