Photos of The Shining's "Overlook Hotel."

[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...

[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.ing...wIndexPage.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.





--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.