Stanley Kubrick is Awesomesauce

So for my Humanities class we had to do a presentation on an artist, architect, filmmaker, or musician. We drew names out of a hat and I almost jumped for joy when I drew Stanley Kubrick. The assignment was to post 5 links relevant to the person and their work and write a few sentences describing the relevance of each link.

I had so much fun with the project that I'm going to share it with you guys.

Bio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick

This Wikipedia article describes Kubrick’s life and family information and his transition from photographer to filmmaker. A chronological description of his films and how he made them follows. Description of his trademark film techniques are also given along with some fun trivia. In the end you realize this man was a true master of his craft.

Demonstration of Kubrick’s use of one point perspective

This video demonstrates Kubrick’s use of the one point perspective (shown above) in all of his films. One point is more often used in paintings and photography, but Kubrick made it into an art in his movies. As you watch, notice how effective such a perspective is in capturing the importance of scene. Classical music plays throughout because Kubrick liked to feature that type of music in his films.

Film psychology: THE SHINING spatial awareness and set design.

This video describes how someone designing a video game level based on the movie stumbled upon the fact that the layout of The Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING was flat out impossible. Further research was done and more impossible doorways, corridors and windows are discovered and shown. It is then revealed that Kubrick did this on purpose to cultivate the horror vibe by messing with the viewer’s perception and spatial awareness.

On the youtube screen you should also find plenty of links to other videos showing hidden stuff in THE SHINING. There are so many crazy conspiracy theories about the details in this film that a documentary was made called “Room 237” I want to see it!   

Extreme details in 2001, A SPACE ODYSSEY

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0075.html

This was a fascinating article which describes the insane detail that Kubrick put into his film, 2001, A SPACE ODYSSEY. Not only do we learn how many of the special effects were pulled off in a time BEFORE CGI was invented, but we also learn about how deeply Kubrick and his team were involved with research for the project. They visited NASA space stations MANY times. Kubrick wanted the set equipment to actually be able to work on the Moon!

Visions of Stanley Kubrick

This is part 2 of a video because the first half they mostly talk about THE SHINING…which is cool, but I already shared a link about that film. Anyway, directors and other film people discuss how Kubrick’s skills as a photographer influenced and improved his movies. Different innovations in camera technology and the unique ways Kubrick applied them are shown.

Kubrick’s thing with bathrooms

http://www.cracked.com/article_19137_6-artists-whose-weird-fetishes-defined-pop-culture.html

I added this as a bonus link because it likely won’t count. Cracked.com does a bunch of lists of articles with interesting trivia. However, the section on Kubrick I believe is more a technique than mere trivia. I also don’t think he had a “fetish” with bathrooms. I think he set all of his pivotal scenes in bathrooms for more psychological impact because one is more vulnerable in the bathroom. Just my 3 cents. Anyway, all of the Cracked features on Stanley Kubrick are entertaining as well as educational. J