Douglas Trumbull

Douglas Trumbull (born April 8, 1942) is a film director and special effects supervisor. He was responsible for the special effects of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Blade Runner.

Major projects

1960s

Trumbull's early work at Graphic Films, (a small animation and graphic arts studio that produced a film about spaceflight for the New York World's Fair) caught the attention of director Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick hired director Con Pederson from Graphic Films, and Trumbull then cold-called Kubrick after obtaining the director's home phone number from Pederson. Kubrick hired Trumbull for the production of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Trumbull's outstanding contribution to the film was the "Star Gate" sequence which used a revolutionary camera design (see Slit-scan photography).

It was reported that when Kubrick was wrestling with how to end the movie, Trumbull suggested that Kubrick kill off all the astronauts except Dave Bowman, leaving him alone to travel through the stargate guarded by the Monolith. According to Trumbull, when he broached this idea (which ultimately became film's ending), Kubrick irritably told Trumbull that he was "ridiculously stupid."

Trumbull was one of four "special effects supervisors" who worked on "2001", the others being Tom Howard, Con Pederson, and Wally Veevers. For years thereafter, newspaper accounts and interviews credited Trumbull solely with the creation of the special effects, which usually prompted an angry call from Kubrick.

1970-1974

In 1971, Trumbull directed the film Silent Running produced by Universal on a shoestring budget of one million dollars ("2001", by comparison, cost over $10 million.) The film utilized a number of special effects techniques developed for 2001. Parts of it were shot on a mothballed aircraft carrier (which lent its name to the movie spacecraft Valley Forge.) Silent Running was a critical success, but a flop at the box office ostensibly due to poor advertising. During the rest of the early 1970s, Trumbull worked on a number of film projects that failed to get backing. Trumbull stayed busy in the meantime creating the special effects for the 1971 film The Andromeda Strain.

1975-1980

In 1975 Trumbull turned down the offer to provide the effects for George Lucas' Star Wars (later renamed Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) due to other commitments, but in 1977 contributed effects to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

1980-1990s

In 1981 Trumbull directed the special effects for the Ridley Scott film Blade Runner.

In 1983 Trumbull finally got to direct a second major film, Brainstorm. The film was to be a showcase for a new film projection system called "Showscan". The Showscan process was ultimately not used due to budgetary reasons, and the film was overshadowed by the death of Natalie Wood during production. The film was finally released after a lengthy legal battle, and Trumbull decided to redirect his career away from traditional Hollywood projects.

Since that time, Trumbull has concentrated on developing technology for the exhibition industry and theme-park rides, such as the Back to the Future Ride at Universal Studios Theme Park.

Showscan Specifications

Trumbull's Showscan system specified 70mm photography at 60 frames per second. The technology can be seen today at the Luxor Hotel.

Today

Trumbull today is held in reverence as a pioneer of the optical and digital effects industry. He has been nominated for Academy Awards on five occasions and has received a life-time achievement Oscar. The majority of the completed cinema projects that Trumbull has been associated with have come to be recognised as classics, gaining audiences over time. Brainstorm predicted the fascination of virtual reality while Silent Running reflected the emerging ecology movement of the early 1970s, and is today regarded as a science fiction classic.

External links

Douglas Trumbull at IMDb
"Total Immersion", Howard Rheingold, Wired Magazine, November 1993 - coverage of Trumbull's VR installation at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas.