Douglas Trumbull

“Every movie presents unusual challenges, and I like solving the problems with a combination of artwork and engineering.”

“When I was a young man in school, I used to read science fiction and really liked it. And as I became a young artist, I was filling up my portfolio with alien planets and spacecraft and things like that.”

“I took IMAX public back in the early '90s.”

“I'd rather have fewer spectacular theaters than tons of cheap little multiplexes.”

“I got hooked on immersive cinema when I worked on '2001,' which was initially shown on these Cinerama screens, which were all 90 feet wide and deeply curved.”

“There's been a bit of confusion about Showscan. The basic problem was, it was film and it was 70 mm and it was a lot of it, so the negative cost was very high, the print costs were very high, and it also required conversion of the projectors and theaters and a lot of costs. I just couldn't get any traction in the theatrical movie industry to do it.”

“I think miniatures are still superior to a lot of computer graphics.”

“There's a consistency in my work that pops up independent of the limitations of the technology.”

“I meet astrophysicists almost every week who say that they went into their line of work because of '2001.'”

“I'm fearless when it comes to engineering and motors and gears and pulleys and glass and artwork.”

“IBM was the original contractor for much of the computer interface design on the film.”

“But as far as the concept of HAL, who HAL was, his character - I had no role in creating him.”

“The technology of the time dictated the way things looked.”

“Movies used to be called the 'flicks' because they flickered badly: because 16 or 18 frames a second - which was those hand cranked movies on a single-bladed shutter - was really badly flickering.”

“There was every reason to honestly say that 3D was a gimmick. And it's largely true. And it's largely pretty bad. When you put a filter in front of the projector, and you put on your glasses and cut the light in half again, the movies are dim as hell, and they give you headaches and eye strain, and it's terrible.”

“Clearly, if we'd had the kind of computer graphics capability then that we have now, the Star Gate sequence would be much more complex than flat planes of light and color.”

“When I worked on 2001 - which was my first feature film - I was deeply and permanently affected by the notion that a movie could be like a first-person experience.”

“I honestly believe that the next big leap in immersive technology will be very much like Brainstorm.”

“I wouldn't apply high frame rates to a love story or a thriller or a film noir or a mystery.”

“I learned a lot on '2001.'”