HAL 9000

(Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) is a fictional character and villain in the Space Odyssey series, the first being the novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey, written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1968. HAL is an artificial intelligence, the sentient on-board computer of the spaceship Discovery. HAL is usually represented only as his television camera "eyes" that can be seen throughout the Discovery spaceship. The voice of HAL 9000 was performed by Canadian actor Douglas Rain. HAL became operational on January 12, 1997 (1992 in the movie) [1] at the HAL Plant in Urbana, Illinois, and was created by Dr. Chandra. In the 2001 film, HAL is depicted as being capable not only of speech recognition, facial recognition, and natural language processing, but also lip reading, art appreciation, interpreting emotions, expressing emotions and reasoning. HAL's iconic camera eye.In translations from the original English, HAL might have another name: for example, in the French version of 2001: A Space Odyssey, his name is stated as being CARL, for Cerveau Analytique de Recherche et de Liaison ("Analytic Research and Communication Brain"). However, the famous camera plates still read "HAL 9000". Some versions state that the name HAL was derived by a one letter shift (see Caesar cipher) from the name IBM, although this has been denied by both Arthur C. Clarke[2] and his fictional character Dr. Chandra, who states that "by now, any idiot should know that HAL stands for Heuristic ALgorithmic" (2010).

2001: A Space Odyssey is an influential 1968 science fiction film directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay, written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, deals with themes of human evolution and technology, artificial intelligence, and extraterrestrial life. The film is notable for its scientific realism, pioneering use of special effects, and reliance upon ambiguous yet provocative imagery and sound in place of traditional techniques of narrative cinema. The film received a wide spectrum of positive and negative reviews upon release, although it is widely recognized today among critics as one of history's greatest films. It remains, however, one of the most controversial films among casual viewers, regarding its plot, ending and theories. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning one (for visual effects), and won the Kansas City Film Critics Circle awards for Best Director and Best Film of 1968.

Filming of 2001 began on December 29, 1965 at Shepperton Studios in Shepperton, England. The studio was chosen for its size, big enough for the 60-by-120-by-60-foot pit built as the set for the Tycho crater excavation scene, the first to be shot.[1] From year 1966 the filming took place at MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood, England. It was here that a "command post" was established to facilitate the filming of special effects scenes, described as a "huge throbbing nerve center... with much the same frenetic atmosphere as a Cape Kennedy blockhouse during the final stages of Countdown."[2] The film was shot in Super Panavision 70 with a 65 mm film negative format, and the 35 mm general release prints were made using the Technicolor dye transfer process. Kubrick began editing the film in March of 1968 and made his final 19-minute cut just days before the public premiere on April 6. By then the film had run $4.5 million over its initial $6 million budget and was 16 months late of its scheduled release

.[1] This film pioneered the use of retroreflective matting (later called front projection), which was used in the African scenes where apes learn to use tools. Static transparency images of landscapes, taken in Africa, were projected through a partially silvered mirror, placed diagonally in front of the camera. The projected image illuminates both the costumed characters and a retroreflective glass-bead background screen. The projected image is not visible on the characters as its intensity is well below other illumination. It is, however, reflected selectively back to the film camera by the background screen, passing through the partially silvered mirror, along with the view of the characters, and is seen as a background in the complete scene.

This technique produced much more realistic images than other methods available at the time but is now supplanted by more flexible computer-processed bluescreen techniques. Kubrick filmed a number of scenes that did not make the first cut. These include a schoolroom scene at the Clavius moon base in which Kubrick's own daughter appeared in the cast, and the purchase of a bush baby in a futuristic department store for Heywood Floyd's little girl who appeared in the visiophone scene. Additional footage includes some redundant "spacewalking" material and a scene where Bowman retrieves a spare antenna part from an octagonal corridor. MGM made a publicity still from this which was used as a lobby card. But most notable was an opening scene where scientists are shown discussing the possibility of extraterrestrial life. It has been rumoured that Arthur C. Clarke himself played one of the scientists.[3] Kubrick's final cut of the film was made after the April 1968 premiere, when he removed 10 minutes of footage.[4]