Douglas Trumbull
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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 and his direction of Silent Running .
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Major projects
1960s
Trumbull's early work with NASA and the science film maker Con Pederson caught the attention of Stanley Kubrick who employed him to work on 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).
1970-1974
In 1971, Trumbull directed the film Silent Running which utilised a number of unused special effects techniques developed for 2001. 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 provided 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 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 film Blade Runner.
In 1983 Trumbull finally got to direct a second major film, Brainstorm. The film was a showcase for a new film projection system called "Showscan", but the film was overshadowed by the death of Natalie Wood during production.
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.
See also
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Silent Running
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture
- Blade Runner
- Brainstorm
- Showscan
