Photos of The Shining's "Overlook Hotel."

[WM. A]

While visiting Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood recently, I found some old photos in a cabinet in my room. (Rm #237) The signature says "J. Torrance" and dated "July '21." I wonder who he was? Caretaker maybe?

Have a look:
http://wmanthony.tumblr.com/post/10653659927/photos-by-j-torrance

Wm.

;)

[urs0polar]

creepy!

[Frank Petronio]

I worked at the Timberline Lodge on the side of Mount Hood as a maid. I mean housekeeper. I mean man servant... eh... I made beds and cleaned toilets is what I did.

The interiors for that movie were filmed here: http://www.broadmoor.com/.

The funny thing is that Timberline never had that garden that was at the end, somehow they married the two pre-digitally.

Where do you think the road they took to Timberline was? I don't know but it was beautiful.

[Heroique]

The signature says “J. Torrance” and dated “July '21.”


creepy!

Especially since it wasn’t built until the 1930’s.

[Cue for scary music to begin.]

[Darin Boville]

Sorry guys, only the opening shot of the exterior of the Hotel is the Timberline. The rest of the movie was shot on a set built outside of London. Even the Maze was a set, not real :) None of the interiors are real places.

The interior of much of the hotel, especially the large room where Jack typed is based on the Ahwahnee in Yosemite. When I say "based" I use that term loosely--the large lodge room in the film is an almost exact recreation of the Ahwahnee, down to small details. It is weird, weird, weird to walk through the Ahwahnee.

If you are interested I can post comparison photos. I even recreated part of the "hotel tour" footage in the film at the Ahwahnee using my kids for the actors...

--Darin

[Jim C.]

Cool pictures, but the signatures last name doesn't quite look like Torrance to me.
Tousau maybe ?

[Darin Boville]

Just for fun...

http://montarafog.smugmug.com/Other/Video-test/i-GqNb67d/0/M/Ahwahnee1-M.jpg

http://www.collativelearning.com/PICS%20FOR%20WEBSITE/SHINING%20EXPANDED%202/colorado%20wideshot%20from%201st%20floor.jpg

http://montarafog.smugmug.com/Other/Video-test/i-x45Tn9f/0/M/Ahwahnee2-M.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa110/bucket53/The%20Shining%20II/The%20Shining%20IV/TwinElivators.jpg

Edit--I forgot to mention...which are the Overlook and which are the Ahwahnee?

--Darin

[WM. A]

Darin is correct. Interiors were shot at Elstree Studios outside London. The Ahwahnee was the basis for the interior hotel set. There are actually maps made as analysis that show the interior layout is physically impossible. Corridors to nowhere. Windows that shouldn't be where they are. Lastly, only the establishing shots are from the real Timberline. A lot of the "close-up" exteriors are again facades built on an outdoor lot at Elstree.

If you're a Kubrick fan, I recommend this site:
http://coudal.com/archive.php?cat=cat_stanley_kubrick

If you're a fan of the *film* The Shining, I recommend this amazing and thorough analysis by Rob Ager:
http://collativelearning.com/the%20shining.html

Stephen King hated Kubrick's interpretation. Though, the made-for-tv re-make miniseries blessed by King was TERRIBLE.

I did this for fun. Shot it all on Fuji FP100 C45 but soaked the "neg" back in tap water for about 30 min *with* the burst gel pack. This causes it to dilute and continue a slow development that "ages" the neg. I then did the bleach strip removing the back which adds even more texture. The signatures were Photoshopped in. Super fun.

Edit: Here's a shot of the instant prints from the day: http://distillery.s3.amazonaws.com/media/2011/09/22/75bb1a2f228647ca8c5b95f6cac9e40b_7.jpg

I want to go to the Ahwahnee and do the same for the interiors as if Jack shot the inside too.

[Darin Boville]

I want to go to the Ahwahnee and do the same for the interiors as if Jack shot the inside too.

Oh, very cool. Please post when you do!

The exteriors are great...

--Darin

[WM. A]

Oh, very cool. Please post when you do!

The exteriors are great...

--Darin

Absolutely! And thank you!

[Darin Boville]

Hey William,

I've been thinking about these photos on and off all day. The more I think about them the cooler they get--damn, I wish I'd thought of this idea! I would love to see more of these, as I said. You seem to know all about the film and how it was made so I don't need to offer anything else in that regard (although I seem to recall that there is a nice hedge maze out in Virginia, near the Lurray (sp?) Caverns. No doubt there are others.

For those non-Kubrick disciples out there :) the basic idea of the images is that they were made by Jack Torrence, the lead character in The Shining. During the course of the film Jack is writing a novel and is using a old scrapbook he found in the hotel (not so overt in the film but it is there, more details in the book). So these photos are the sorts of things that Jack would have been looking at in the scrapbooks, perhaps (?). The early date and the self-referential aspect makes sense as well in the context of the film (no spoilers here) although it might be even better to move them forward to the winter of Jack's visit with his family and hint at the story and what is to come in the pictures? I don't know.

In any event an excellent idea. If you do a book I'll be your first customer. :)

--Darin

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Didn't the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park inspire the original book? They like to play up the fact, they even sell "Red Rum" in the bar.

[WM. A]

In any event an excellent idea.

Thank you Darin. Much appreciated. Though, full disclosure, the concept of Jack taking the pictures didn't arise until that night. I shot entirely in the Magic Hour and when I got back to the room to dry the negs, it came to me. So maybe it was the hotel's idea. ;)

I would love to make a small, short run book on this subject. But alas, gotta pay the bills first. If I had backing from a publisher or... <gulp> the Kubrick Estate, I'd go all in.


Didn't the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park inspire the original book?

Yes. From what I understand, Stephen King visited/stayed there and it actually inspired the book. He also shot parts of the mini-series there.

[Robert Jonathan]

Stanley Kubrick had the power to build gigantic sets for his films, most notably, the gigantic rotating sets for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Full Metal Jacket was filmed in the UK, with trees flown in and planted in the ground to make it look like Vietnam/some sort of Asian country.

Even in his last film, Eyes Wide Shut, the shots in New York or what was supposed to look like a city, were all on a set (except for establishing exterior shots, which were probably shot in New York by a separate team). It wasn't meant to look like New York city, but more like New York in a dream, or a nightmare.

[Scott --]

Just for fun...
Edit--I forgot to mention...which are the Overlook and which are the Ahwahnee?

--Darin

Okay, Darin, those elevators are uber-creepy. Gonna be a long night... :eek:

[Ari]

I saw those photos of the elevators and my eyes began to water.
What a movie!

[WM. A]

Another resource regarding Kubrick locations:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tom.ingham/WebSite/NewIndexPage.htm

As for the elevator, if you really want to be creeped out, watch this video. (preferably if you're home alone and it's dark out):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7-GKHM5HZ8

[ic-racer]

I saw the Shining yesterday thanks to this thread. It had been 20 years since I saw it. Originally I was put off by the unprofessional mis-balance of light temperature in interior scenes. Especially when I had read Kubrick had used large gels to filter the incoming window light in prior movies. Then I realized that the effect was done on purpose! I did not realize the interior scenes were all from a studio. In that case the he did the color balance mismatch on purpose to make it look like real windows to the outside.

[Darin Boville]

I saw the Shining yesterday thanks to this thread. It had been 20 years since I saw it. Originally I was put off by the unprofessional mis-balance of light temperature in interior scenes. Especially when I had read Kubrick had used large gels to filter the incoming window light in prior movies. Then I realized that the effect was done on purpose! I did not realize the interior scenes were all from a studio. In that case the he did the color balance mismatch on purpose to make it look like real windows to the outside.

He does that a lot--Eyes Wide Shut is full of "incorrectly balanced" lighting.

http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com/images/eyes_wide_shut_images.jpg

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/8364/eyeswideshutb.png

--Darin

[WM. A]

Eyes Wide shut is all about lighting. From the staircase at the penthouse party, to the fact that every indoor scene contains Christmas lights somewhere.

The more I study Kubrick the more I realize he really did deliberately use subliminal influences. He openly acknowledges his films have Easter Eggs in them. I am sure there are countless more, unspoken ones. For example, I don't buy for a moment that the monolith in the background was accidental.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4r1I-J6g0M

NOTHING is accidental in Kubrick films. I mean, the damn thing is ON FIRE in the scene that Cowboy dies. The symbolism is just too rich for coincidence.

[William Whitaker]

Eyes Wide shut is all about lighting...

I think Kubrick is all about lighting.

[WM. A]

I think Kubrick is all about lighting.

Well, I kind think that goes without saying. :) EWS especially.

Check out the book of his early still work for LOOK magazine and you're see his love affair with lighting in its infancy.

http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Kubrick-Shadows-Rainer-Crone/dp/0714844381

[William Whitaker]

Well, I kind think that goes without saying. :)

I didn't mean that facetiously. I've seen far fewer Kubrick films than I should have. But there is something distinctive about the lighting in each of them that seems to define the experience. Last night I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey with over-dubbed commentary by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood. They made several references to the amount of time required to set up each shot, especially the effort made to get the lighting right. For a film so much about deep dark space, it sure was full of light. (And I'm not simply referring to the special effects.)

In all our zeal about formats, lenses, film, developers and so forth, it's easy to forget that photography is about light. It seems an obvious enough thing to say. But the light is the photograph.

[Drew Wiley]

They took the road toward Banff in their little VW, but ended up at the lodge on Mt
Hood in Oregon, then into the movie set. And he finally froze to death not in the
snow, but in salt crystals, lying amidst the spray-painted foliage of the maze. Now they would just photoshop him. Glad they didn't.

[WM. A]

Total agreement with you Will.

What I've always admired about Kubrick is he's not just a just camera nerd. The whizbang techniques he used were never used solely as a technical exercise. It always served the story. He was equal parts cinematographer and screenwriter. Which also explains how he's one of the few in cinema history who made films that held up to artistic scrutiny but were also accessible to all types of moviegoers and not just the "festival crowd." (i.e. blockbusters)

Perhaps Private Joker (Full Metal Jacket) would call this dichotomy "The Jungian Thing/Duality of Man."

[Darin Boville]

Of course, Drew, not *everyone* has seen this 30-year-old movie yet...ahem...

--Darin