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The Making of The Shining by Vivian Kulbrick


al mcguire

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Stanley Kubrick allowed his then-17-year-old daughter, Vivian, to make a documentary about the production of The Shining. Created originally for the BBC television show Arena, this documentary offers rare insight into the shooting process of a Kubrick film.

 

 

 

 

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Her own process was pretty interesting too. She made another film about Full Metal Jacket, but it was never release (or finished?). Much like Molly Dineen she used a one person crew approach to making these films. She attached a Nagra SN, and a mic to the side of her Aaton to create a solo rig. It's a neat approach half direct cinema, half POV.

Vivian-Kubrick.png

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I wish she had finished her FMJ film.  Her Shining film is one of the best BTS docs ever, partly because she is a talented filmmaker but also because of who she is, both as a family member and as a person.  She is in close to what she shoots, the subjects trust her (and like her) completely and so she gets very unforced, real-feeling commentary and action.  They could have sent in a professional doco crew to do this and the results would have been good but not as intimate and revealing.  In addition to a record of the interaction of a group of extremely talented people, this is also an interesting window into Kubrick's process at the time.  Huge sets with tremendous art direction, tiny shooting crew.  And yes--all current one-person-doco-makers should see this, how she worked was very unusual for the time, and the technical limitations  she had to work under were far far more onerous than what current filmmakers deal with.  (That rig of hers was HEAVY....)

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2 hours ago, CineStrega said:

Her own process was pretty interesting too. She made another film about Full Metal Jacket, but it was never release (or finished?). Much like Molly Dineen she used a one person crew approach to making these films. She attached a Nagra SN, and a mic to the side of her Aaton to create a solo rig. It's a neat approach half direct cinema, half POV.

Vivian-Kubrick.png

I worked with a director who used the very same set-up (when working alone).

 

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I worked with a very similar rig on a commercial project. Instead of an Aaton, the cameraman/director used his Arri SR but it was essentially the same rig. I don’t remember it being particularly heavy but my frame of reference would have been an Eclair NPR. I was not impressed with the quality of the audio but that was a consequence of the on-camera microphone position rather than any operational issue. This would have been about 1976. I do remember it being very cold - Timmons, Ontario in January, about 15-degrees below zero Fahrenheit - and everything worked perfectly. 

 

David

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On 3/9/2019 at 1:00 AM, al mcguire said:

Stanley Kubrick allowed his then-17-year-old daughter, Vivian, to make a documentary about the production of The Shining. Created originally for the BBC television show Arena, this documentary offers rare insight into the shooting process of a Kubrick film.

 

 

 

 

 

Which transmitter or recorder is this at 18:00? What was used at the time?

 

Remarkable:

- Crew members drinking coffee from paper cups (like today)

- Crew members wearing clothes in colours that are not black (unlike today)

 

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30 minutes ago, Mungo said:

 

Which transmitter or recorder is this at 18:00? What was used at the time?

 

Remarkable:

- Crew members drinking coffee from paper cups (like today)

- Crew members wearing clothes in colours that are not black (unlike today)

 

I think thats an older Micron transmitter.

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4 hours ago, Mungo said:

 

Which transmitter or recorder is this at 18:00? What was used at the time?

 

Remarkable:

- Crew members drinking coffee from paper cups (like today)

- Crew members wearing clothes in colours that are not black (unlike today)

 

Micron

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Mungo,

 

 That was a Micron 501. It ran on a 9V and was made out of machined aluminium. They were big (as shown in the picture) and heavy but they were also bullet proof. Made sense that they were used beccause most of the interior studio work was done in the UK. Made by Audio Engineering in London. Mine were UHF 179.21 and the antenna including connector was 16.5" long. You can see jack pull the mass of cable out of his pants.

 

Bill

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