Douglas Trumbull in a public portrait from the film Close encounters of the third type.
Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
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Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
Douglas Trumbull in a public portrait from the film Close encounters of the third type.
Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
Douglas Trumbull, avant-garde effects wizard, digital currency who animates utopian landscapes in 2001, A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner and Star Trek: The Motion Picture passed away at the age of 79.
The clouds roll up before the spaceship arrives Close the meeting? They are white paint shot into a mixture of fresh water and salt water. The light show brought the audience into the super space in 2001? It is illuminated artwork shot through a slot in a rotating metal plate.
In the days before digital effects, those scenes had to be physically created, and Doug Trumbull was the kid who figured out how to do it. First time hired in 20s to fill Space adventureComputer monitors with pictures (back when most people had ever seen a computer screen), his creative use of slit scans in the finale made him the right guy for the picture Hollywood sci-fi. George Lucas came to call, but Trumbull had to decline the initial announcement Star Wars because he was too busy with the effects for Close the meeting. At that time he also directed Go lightin which Bruce Dern and the robots Huey, Dewey, and Louie navigate what remains of Earth’s vegetation in geodesic domes in space.
Observers were surprised that Go light spend one-tenth of the budget of 2001. Trumbull was then saved Star Trek: The Motion Picturewhen the film’s supposedly state-of-the-art visual system was unable to produce even a few seconds of usable footage.
Tired of imagining spaceships against a starry background, Trumbull joined Blade RunnerThe city of Los Angeles is polluted, outdated and makes it look like an oil refinery. He also spent years trying to convince Hollywood to accept a surreal 70 mm process he invented that could run at about three times the speed of normal film. His 1992 virtual reality film Brainstorm should have been a showcase for innovation, but theater owners balked at paying for the equipment.
Trying to convince Hollywood to take the opportunity drained Trumbull and he almost gave up making movies. He occasionally pops up to work on a catchy amusement park ride or effects the big hit sequence in Terence Malik’s. Tree of Life. Trumbull is always happy to amaze audiences accustomed to digital effects with his realistic magic.
