Kubrick Season

Wow. Hat tip: List of the Day



From The Guardian:

Channel 4 has painstakingly recreated the set of Stanley Kubrick horror film The Shining, complete with look-a-likes of the crew and cast members including Shelley Duvall, for a TV ad to promote a More 4 season of the director's films.

The 65-second promotional spot has been filmed as a one-take tracking shot through the recreation of The Shining set.

Viewers get Kubrick's point of view as he walks through the set, ending up in his director's chair as the crew prepare to shoot the famous scene of Danny Torrance, the son of Duvall and Jack Nicholson's characters, riding round and round the deserted corridors of the Overlook Hotel.

The promo, filmed as a single tracking shot with a cast of 55 actors, was meticulously researched to "remain as faithful as possible to the period in which it was shot and the culture of the British studio in the late 1970s".

Channel 4 Creative Services, the broadcaster's in-house creative resource, cast people who resembled Kubrick's own crew including his script lady, assistant director and director of production, John Alcott, who also worked on films including 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange with the director.

Look-a-likes were also found for Duvall, Danny Lloyd, who played Danny Torrance, and the twin girls who appear fleetingly in the film.

Most of the equipment that appears in the promotional clip was actually used in the filming of The Shining.

Many of the props that appear, including the tricycle and Kubrick's script, were produced for the promotional clip based on photos or sketches from the late director's archives.

The spot, which was shot over two days at London's Bray Studios, was filmed using a 25mm Cooke lens – a favourite of Kubrick's.

It promotes the season of 10 Kubrick films to be broadcast on More 4 from July 15.