Like so many filmmakers, Trumbulls interest in science fiction began when he was a youth.
Heres what he had to say.
I wondered if you could talk about how you got started in filmmaking.
When I was a young man in school, I used to read science fiction and really liked it.
Thats the short version of the story.
Your father was a pioneering filmmaker himself.
Did he inspire you to get into film as well?
He actually left the film industry before I was born.
Yes, we had a really great relationship.
I was kind of central to that work.
So that was a real proving ground for you as young filmmaker.
Yeah, it was film school for me.
Was there anything you created on2001that you wish had gone into the final cut?
I remember you saying that for every shot used there was a ratio of 200 shots that werent.
They werent shots that didnt make it.
They were versions of shots.
Its not like there were many shots that were completely different that arent in the movie.
Yeah, that was in the original story.
And nobody could make that look good.
So it was as if the slot was a kind of time-space gate.
Thats just something that comes naturally to me.
Im fearless when it comes to engineering and motors and gears and pulleys and glass and artwork.
It was quite a large machine about 30 feet by 30 feet.
It took up a whole room.
Or like a photo finish camera youd have at a race track or something.
I knew about that, and Id seen things like that photographed.
Salvador Dali experimented with things like that he experimented with strobe lights and time lapse.
All kinds of interesting stuff that Id studied.
It all worked perfectly, and it solved a problem for Kubrick.
Every movie presents unusual challenges, and I like solving the problems with a combination of artwork and engineering.
Which is pretty unusual, because today the movie industry is almost entirely computer graphics.
Is it right that after 2001 you worked with Antonioni onZabriskie Point?
I worked on it, but I didnt finish working on it.
Antonioni didnt like what I was doing, and I got fired.
He didnt understand the process of photographic effects being a very orderly, optical printing process.
He just wanted to shoot live action; he didnt feel comfortable with any of it.
So he just decided to blow up a house with high-speed photography.
So you madeSilent Runningin 1971.
How did you arrive at that project?
Was it the theme that appealed to you, specifically, in that story?
I think its interesting that it has an environmental theme, especially at that time.
Was that in your original treatment, and was that why you wanted to make the movie?
No, the original treatment didnt have an environmental theme at all.
It was about alien contact.
It transformed during the production.
What was your experience of directing that like, especially with Bruce Dern in the lead?
So I volunteered to direct.
I didnt know anything about directing when I madeSilent Running.I kind of learned on the job.
I looked at a lot of actors, and I was just drawn to him.
It worked really well for him.
Its a wonderful performance as well.
I learned a lot on2001.
For instance, the front projection technique we used on2001I thought was really excellent.
In2001, it was the first time anyone had done that, on that kind of scale.
We shot the whole movie in 32 days.
It was all very low budget.
Yet the end result looked spectacular.
And also, under Paramount, you had all kinds of ideas that you couldnt quite get going.
There were many years of frustration in Hollywood.
They were in the business of just hiring actors and directors and just shooting live-action movies.
So doing something unusual, and breaking the mould or standards in Hollywood was really, really hard.
Its always been hard, and its still very hard.
Thats why I dont live there anymore, I dont work there anymore.
Im happy at my little studio at Massachusetts doing my own thing.
Films likeClose EncountersandStar TrekandBlade Runner,the effects that you produced, they had such a huge cultural impact.
You still see other filmmakers reference them.
Do you see that as a vindication of what you wanted to do?
I dont really see it as a vindication.
They knew I was a director myself, and they would let me do whole sequences myself.
Id pretty much take control of whole sequences of their movies.
Some of them still exist, some of them dont.
So it becomes difficult to get an individuals creative perspective in that environment.
It becomes a production line.
Occasionally, you do see films that still use miniature effects.
I wonder if there isnt a happy medium between miniature effects and digital, where the two are integrated.
Yes, and its been done very successfully.
Weta Studios is really a most amazing place to be able to do that kind of work.
I like more organic and miniature parts and only a small percentage to be computer generated.
What was working with Terence Malick like?
Are there any parallels between Malick and Kubrick?
No, it wasnt the same at all.
But Ive been a lifelong friend of Terry Malick, and were both interested in astronomy.
Were both amateur astronomers.
That could be quite inexpensive to do.
And it was fun, because it led to things that Ive been doing here on my own projects.
Theyve been very helpful to know how to do.
That was way back in 1975.
So how do you feel now that all thats come round now?
Do you feel as though the industrys caught up with you a little bit?
I dont think anyones caught up with me yet.
What Im doing now is a huge leap forward, I think.
Its a completely transformational movie experience its kind of not even a movie, its something else.
Almost like a live event.
Theyre very interested in unusual photographic processes and special projection akin to IMAX in a way.
Its a very viable alternative business.
Do you think thats something audiences will come around to in time?
So Im very familiar with high frame rates and how its possible to inappropriately use high frame rates.
Because it takes away from the suspension of disbelief that you need for a film like that.
And even higher frame rates.
And almost all digital cameras will go at least 60 frames and some will go even faster.
Ill see if anybody bites.
But youre saying that your process could work with a long, narrative film like that?
Its just that you have to tell your story differently.
You have to choose your subject matter appropriately, and you direct it differently.
Because youre creating a whole new relationship between the screen and the audience.
Its actually a whole new medium.
And the result, Im really happy with.
I feel like Ive achieved something Ive been after all my life.
Youll have to see it to understand what Im talking about.
Do you think thats the future of cinema, where its less passive?
Alfonso [Cuaron] really wanted to make audiences feel as though they were in space with those people.
Are you looking to make a new feature film of your own soon?
Yes, I am.
Because I just dont think the movie industrys ready for what Im trying to do yet.
Do you know when youre going to start production on that?
Probably within the next six months.
Im really eager to do it.
I just want to do it my own way.
Im not averse to dealing with the movie industry.
And its a science fiction film?
I was interested to see yourUfotogproject, where you used high resolution cameras to take pictures of unidentified objects.
Is that something youll still be doing?
I hope to be doing it.
And I took that story, theUfotogstory, and used it in the demonstration film I was talking about.
Yes, I saw it on your site.
Its about a guy, like myself, who seriously thinks he can photograph UFOs.
And of course the government gets pissed off and dont want him to go public with it.
So thats a really interesting, dramatic story I can tell with it in 10 minutes.
And I havent been interfered with, but I have been contacted by the CIA.
But then they pulled out.
They changed their minds, and I lost contact with the CIA.
They dont seem to know what Im doing or care.
Is that perhaps something you could fund through Kickstarter?
Yes, its possible.
Yep, Ive thought about it.
Were still working on it.
Douglas Trumbull, thank you very much.
you’re able to find out more about Douglas Trumbulls work at his website,www.douglastrumbull.com
