"- You like Huey Lewis in The News."
These are moments we will never forget.
"- I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse."
Images and sounds that have infused themselves into our cultural DNA.
"- I'm the king of the world!"
How does this happen?
"- You're gonna need a bigger boat."
In this video,
we're going to look at one of the most memorable sequences ever captured.
The Dawn of Man prologue in "2001: A Space Odyssey".
How did Kubrick take a silent 15-minute sequence
and turn it into something truly remarkable?
♪ Calling The Shots - Intro ♪
By "Calling The Shots".
We're going to use StudioBinder's pre-production software
to put us in the shoes of Stanley Kubrick.
And how any filmmaker can think like Stanley
using today's tools.
From script
to break down,
to shot list.
"- I feel much better now."
Let's get to it.
The task of every filmmaker
is to start with a script
and end up with fully realized images.
But what does that process actually look like?
We've isolated three main areas
that will help you produce outstanding moments.
By making these decisions in advance
your vision for the entire project can fall into place.
Obviously, we don't know exactly why Kubrick made these specific decisions.
We can only guess.
And that's the fun part.
The ultimate goal of this exercise
is to reverse engineer these moments
that can make us all better filmmakers.
And by looking at the scene through Kubrick's eyes,
perhaps we gain a new perspective on how to approach our own projects.
Let's start with a screenplay.
What are the most important moments in your story?
Creating memorable moments
shouldn't just be about dynamic visuals.
They should also be tied to key story beats.
In 2001, the scope of the story
is as wide as it gets.
Time.
Space.
And our place in the universe.
But the story really begins 3 million years ago.
We imported the script by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke into StudioBinder.
So let's take a look.
We begin with the hominids living in harmony with their surroundings.
But the appearance of the Monolith changes that.
It inspires an idea.
A way for these proto-humans to take control of their environment
and evolve.
It is the inciting incident for the entire human race.
This is a critical moment in the story of 2001,
and Kubrick knew it.
Now that we have the story beat isolated,
what creative decisions were made to bring this moment to life?
The process starts with a breakdown.
Everyone knows Kubrick is meticulous.
And we can only guess how many decisions were made in this sequence.
From the costumes and makeup.
To the shrubs and plants.
Or even using tapirs
instead of wart-hogs.
Instead, we're going to focus on the most important elements in this sequence.
Let's start with the first appearance of the Monolith.
In the film, it is a solid black rectangle.
But that's not how it was described in the script.
It is a cube about 15 feet on a side,
and it is made of some completely transparent material.
A crystal cube would have obviously had a different effect.
Again, we can only speculate why Kubrick went with the solid black design.
It's certainly more imposing.
And the nondescript form adds to the mystery.
Merely a shape and a color
the monolith leaves everything else up to the imagination.
In the film, the monolith emits a truly unsettling wall of sound.
But the script describes this "simple, maddeningly repetitious rhythm"
as "drumming".
Ligeti's "Requiem" is not just an effective piece.
It's also completely unexpected and foreign to Moonwatcher's world.
Suddenly, the monolith is even more threatening and mysterious.
We've isolated our key moment
and we'd broken scene down by its elements.
So now we can start building our shot list.
Let's put ourselves into Kubrick's shoes
as he might've designed the scene.
To make Moonwatcher's big moment really pop
let's completely change up the visual palette.
And to amplify the impact,
all of the shots leading up to this moment
should be as plain and neutral as possible.
After his encounter with a monolith,
Moonwatcher will sit amongst the pile of bones.
We want to differentiates slightly from what we've seen previously,
but not too much.
To compromise, let's use a wide angle shot,
but we'll use shallow depth of field.
The entire sequence before this
has almost zero symmetry.
Which makes this shot stand out even further.
We'll repeat an insert of the monolith
for a glimpse into Moonwatcher's thought process.
And we're layering in some epic music by Strauss.
♪ Richard Strauss - "Also sprach Zarathustra" ♪
We can stay on this wide shot for a bit.
The music will come in and start to build.
♪ Richard Strauss - "Also sprach Zarathustra" ♪
But then, we should really change things up.
The script describes the sequences
happening with "incredible slowness".
♪ Richard Strauss - "Also sprach Zarathustra" ♪
Let's have Moonwatcher's arm rise into the frame,
holding the leg bone.
Shooting these shots in slow motion
will really add impact to the moment.
The subjective angle, framing,
slow motion, and music
will really elevate this moment.
The next setup is a low angle wide shot with Moonwatcher triumphantly
bashing away the bones.
♪ Richard Strauss - "Also sprach Zarathustra" ♪
After that, we could use a series of inserts and close-ups.
A montage of bones smashing.
♪ Richard Strauss - "Also sprach Zarathustra" ♪
And we present the consequences of Moodwatcher's newfound power.
The framing, camera angles, and editing of this sequence
elevated these concepts to mythic heights.
As enigmatic and masterful as Kubrick was,
he approached directing like we all do.
One moment and one shot at a time.
Want more Kubrick?
We have videos on how he use his color
to create mood and tone.
How he uses mise-en scene to draw us in.
And how he uses blocking and staging in "A Clockwork Orange".
Or head over to our blog,
where we discuss how he used POV shots in "The Shining"
and more.
If you're ready to design your next project,
StudioBinder can get you started.
We've given you the tools.
So it's up to you, to use them.
♪ He's a writer ♪ ♪ He directs ♪
♪ He produces his projects ♪
♪ He's the man behind the lens ♪
♪ And Stanley always wins ♪
♪ He's the man who looks ahead ♪
♪ Can make you think he raised the dead ♪
♪ He's a genius with his tricks ♪
♪ He does it all ♪