Effect & Cause (In Conversation with Douglas Trumbull)

Oscar nominated visual effects wizard Douglas Trumbull has worked his magic on such iconic films as STAR TREK, BLADE RUNNER, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. He was gracious enough to take a few moments to talk with me about 2001, larger than life cinema, and a particularly exciting upcoming project...

Douglas Trumbull doesn't consider himself a film historian. In fact he readily admits that there are a whole bunch of classic films that he has never seen. This may seem odd, considering the fact that he has worked on films that themselves are classics. However, the reason for it makes complete sense:

"I don't like having thoughts in my head that are derived from other movies."

While he tips his cap to men he's worked with - specifically Lucas and Spielberg - who are able to transpose material from John Ford movies into the science fiction genre, he prefers to start from scratch. "I like to have ideas myself," he tells me, "whether someone has had them before or not."

Trumbull is in Toronto to kick off a special run of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. For the next four weeks, the cerebral science fiction classic can be seen in a medium few get to experience anymore: 70mm. When I mentioned to Trumbull that 2001 is sometimes an answer to my "unseen classic or essential question", he points out that it needs to be an immersive experience.

He notes that the film was designed and created for Cinerama, back in the days where there were deeply curved screens that were 90 feet wide. This created an experience that, in certain aspects, was even more immersive than IMAX. When reduced to tv, the immersive experience is lost. So one could look at 2001 without knowing that they’re supposed to be in the movie, not looking at the movie.

"The cinematic language of 2001 is largely dependant on the giant screen and the engulfment of it. If you really want to understand the potential of the film, you need to see it that way". So in other words, where 2001 is concerned, watch it big and watch it loud.

Trumbull understands that not everybody has a 70mm cinema in their neighbourhood. He also understands the plight of the modern moviegoer's time and money. For these he says there's options. "I recently watched 2001 using a very high end digital projector and a blu-ray disc – which is of extraordinary quality. I had a screen at home that was about 20 feet wide, and I could sit 10 feet back. It was like watching a 70mm print!" So while a drive to The Lightbox might not be feasible in one's schedule, they can still get a healthy taste of the experience. "The quality can be absolutely stunning. Sometimes the quality can be even better than a theatre because the image is much brighter, and the colour saturation & contrast are much better. You can have a rather excellent blu-ray home experience these days."

The main advantage to seeing particular films in a cinema is preserving a sense of scope. Trumbull cites another film coming up in the 70mm Series as an example: David Lean's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.

"Lean filmed shots that are so huge, you almost require a 70mm screen to notice that there are a whole trail of camels down there on the edge of a sand dune. On TV that would be completely invisible and you would wonder ‘why am I looking at this shot?’ In 70mm it makes perfectly good sense and adds to the epic poportion of the movie." He muses that the medium today just doesn’t handle that kind of immensity, though he hopes it will in the near future.

With Trumbull being an effects wizard, though not actively offering up his talents anymore, I wondered his take on the state of effects in Hollywood. It feels like seldom a day goes by where I don't hear someone grumble about a movie's special effects seeming "So CGI". Could this be a sign that effects designers are pulling up short, or perhaps that we as an audience are becoming more cynical?

Trumbull notes that often the issue is a financial one. Filmmakers can make photo-realistic CGI environments, buildings, and even creatures. If they want to make it super-realistic, incredibly lit and incredibly detailed, the computer rendering time gets to be extraordinarily high and expensive. Most filmmakers have to back off from that and admit that they can’t have a render farm churning for two days to get one frame of film. Thus, they have to reduce the quality of the CGI in order to get it within a realizable budget. This leaves the audience with a product that has a layer of artificiality to it.

So perhaps, what leave audiences dissatisfied isn't short-selling the CGI, but instead placing the entire bet on one style of effect. "One of the most successful series of films is Peter Jackson’s LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy. Those films were a blend of GCI, synthetic characters, real characters, some real locations, and tons of miniatures." He then reminds me that audiences can fall for a film that is completely CGI, noting Pixar's run of success with computer animated stories.

"The sweet spot is somewhere between the two. I think that when filmmakers decide that they’re so in love with the graphics they’re not gonna go any other way, that's when it looks somewhat synthetic". It's then, Trumbull believes, that audiences become discontent with the quality of the effects.

Reflecting on cinema's past is wonderful, but I feel I'd have wasted an opportunity if I didn't ask Trumbull about something in the near future. After almost 30 years away from Hollywood, Trumbull has recently returned to the game to help a good friend of his with a much-anticipated project.

The friend is Terrence Malick, and the project is TREE OF LIFE.

"It was a lot of fun working with him. Terry said he had certain issues that he wanted help on, so went and helped him on a number of shoots. I'll be very interested to see what the completed film is going to be like and how it will be received." Trumbull goes on to tease, offering cinematic sugerplums to dance in my head. He alludes to a painterly, impressionistic film: much more like an art film of the 60’s. What he's seen suggests that TREE OF LIFE will have an editorial and a photographic style and mood that is totally different than the structured tones of films today. "Gonna be interesting to see if the audience can get it." he muses. His voice at this moment has a tone that suggests something involving cats and canaries.

Mallick has instructed Trumbull not to discuss details of the film before its release. However, I am able to get a little bit more when I ask about the film's place within Mallick's canon. "It's very much in the mood of THE THIN RED LINE and A NEW WORLD, but I would say even farther out...more amazing...more unusual. From what I’ve seen so far , I can tell you that if you felt that THE NEW WORLD was a departure from THE THIN RED LINE, this new film will be a like departure from THE NEW WORLD."

I'd suggest that until TREE OF LIFE hits theatres, that we will just have to make do with 2001. That said, I believe suggesting anybody is only "making do" with a 70mm presentation of 2001 qualifies as cinematic blasphemy.

Douglas Trumbull will be at TIFF Bell Lightbox tonight to introduce BLADE RUNNER at 8pm. The 70mm presentation of 2001: A SPACE ODESSY will be showing at The Lightbox daily until January 5th.