Film psychology THE SHINING spatial awareness and set design 1of2

[@builderdex]

The architectural consistency is actually pretty solid when you place it in the context of an actual nightmare.

[@mysterious144]

Absolutely spot on.

[@Dopefish1337]

I’ve had nightmares where the layout of my home was totally different, yet the interior had a similar look. Eerily fascinating

[@MrTurbowhitey]

I've had many dreams about buildings with impossible floor plans

[@tonypeppermint5329]

Oh yeah.

[@dintadoba4808]

Space too narrorw for hotel suites! Hong konger: hold my 30 square feet cage apartment

[@DTM-Books]

The hotel designs were confirmed by the movie's production team as deliberate. It is meant to disorient the viewer and heighten the sense of unease. It also adds to the otherworldly sense of the hotel. It's a very unsettling, surreal place, like something from a dream. Is it a haunted house? Is much of what we see based on characters' POV, which are unreliable?

[@dniceo7]

It really is unsettling. Just watching this breakdown of it is giving me the chills.

[@alexandrebeaudry8377]

It's a leitmotiv of the outside maze. Representating both an idea of being lost/trap outside or inside.

[@eddiegalon3714]

+Alexandre Beaudry exactly

[@miiks...5...3...9...]

"yeah, we totally planned that all along!" sounds more like an excuse

[@eddiegalon3714]

+Miiks you know nothing about film making ir Kubrick's work ethic. No excuses.

[@TeslaKuhn8]

This hotel reminds me of how dreams operate.

[@MrMalicious5]

Things just not making sense?

[@TeslaKuhn8]

@therandom3591 I said the hotel. Grow up.

[@BlueElitefromHaloCE]

therandom3591 someone’s projecting

[@mk-ultramags1107]

The way we view films feels surreal and dreamlike as it is. Kubrick enhanced this feeling IMO.

[@eidsongregory5795]

@@TeslaKuhn8 I'm trying!

[@weirdshibainu]

What's amazing about films like the shining, is that the average movie goer will say that it was a great movie. It's greatness is that it so well filmed that the subtext conveys the meaning without being obvious, but still leaving a subconscious, durable impression.

[@boiledelephant]

"You might not've noticed it - but your brain did." - Plinkett

[@WEIRDED_BEARDO]

What's more amazing than the movie is everyone's obsession with trying to understand it.

[@Wallyworld30]

I agree, The Shining is a Great Movie because even if you only absorbed it surface level story what makes it's special is the closer you look the more high concept idea's tucked into every corner makes it great for even the biggest movie nerd. Many directors can make a movie that is good at surface level and many directors can make good high concept films but only the very best directors can make a movie that is great at surface level and great in it's sub context. David Lynch makes great High Concept movies but they are massive failures at surface level. Stanley Kubrick made massive blockbuster movies at the beggining he sold as Surface Level Propaganda and even then packed every corner full of high concept art. Stanley Kubrick is the Greatest Movie Director of all time!

[@savageBB]

It seems like Kubrick used cinematography and set design to recreate the confusion of walking through a hedge maze. Because of this lack of spatial awareness, it also creates the feeling as if the Overlook Hotel occupies another dimension.

[@nancyhey1012]

In fact I believe it does occupy another dimension.

[@GenericInternetter]

0:31 Ironically, one unique aspect about the Duke Nukem 3D game engine is that it specifically allows "impossible" architecture, having multiple 3D spaces overlap within the same volume, provided multiple overlaps are not visible from any one point. If there was any one game engine that should be used to accurately replicate "impossible" architecture, it's the Duke Nukem 3D engine - Why did the designer not use this fantastic power? Was he not aware of this capability? That's a hugely missed opportunity.

[@markon1g]

For real?? Man, that could have been amazing!

[@freduardo7499]

Source engine can pull off spacial anomaly tricks as well. In the Portal 2 level editor, there is a special type of portal entity (different from those fired by the Portal Gun) that can be used to seamlessly connect two disparate portions of the map together. This is used to great effect in the Stanley Parable, which features a number of 'impossible' hallways criss-crossing over each other. In one sequence, you travel down a hallway which loops back in on itself into a dead-end, and upon retracing your steps, you find the door you entered through now leads to a completely different room altogether.

[@richardgates7479]

He probably didn't do it that way because it's a real pain in the ass. There were lots of bugs in the original maps where sectors overlap and can even cause your player to die, of which those ones were removed in the next version.

[@usmh]

Most likely just some misguided impulse about it to be "correct." Btw, this conversation makes me think of Antichamber. Mmmm, Antichamber...

[@alanmoss3603]

I worked in TV production for years - the set designer had to be very careful of continuity errors - just in a bland TV drama, let alone a Kubrick movie! No, the errors described in this video would never pass in a show I worked on. This had to be deliberately set up by Kubrick to keep his audience off-balance without really knowing why?

[@edanmendelson3274]

why would he do this though?

[@cakegod2159]

"This had to be deliberately set up by Kubrick to keep his audience off-balance without really knowing why?" Did you not read the whole comment?????

[@jofall91]

edan mendelson Kubrick was a master of detail so he would know about these errors. So he definitely had them designed that way on purpose to add to the eeriness, that is if you as a viewer notices those errors

[@Kalleesto]

Mate - this was 1980 Continuity was and has always been a 'thing' but nowhere near as important precision-wise as it is today. Check all other movies from 1980.

[@illostr8]

Kalleesto it was filmed thru 1978 -1979

[@ln-zshirokitsuneva2141]

Honestly, even as the explaining occurs, just seeing the impossible layout of the hotel gives me the creeps! Like the hotel purposely changed itself so that certain things can't be avoided...like Room 237 or the Store Room.

[@andrewbrendan1579]

This video had me thinking about the Crain mansion in Shirley Jackson's classic novel "The Haunting of Hill House". Things were "off in Hill House---and in more ways than one!

[@ElpSmith]

I wonder if the hotel is sentient

[@majortom5433]

The subconscious mind picks up on these details and this is all done to aid the wry, unsettling feeling as well as make the viewer expect travel to and fro different dimensions.

[@norman5927]

Yep, it works too.

[@nickmattio3397]

My whole take on The Shining is that every questioned color/continuity error was very intentional. Kubrick said it himself-my favorite part is the editing process. The Overlook Hotel basically becomes a superimposed metaphor of Jack's thoughts, past sexual trauma/abuses , fantasies and inner desires. I mean who the hell reads a Playgirl magazine In public with an Incest article on the cover let alone right there in front of ur potential employer? Sort of a surreal, out of body Fantasy that Jack can get away with-OVERLOOKED within Jack's realm, like his own tailored Matrix his controlled chaos for his becoming the true Jack Torrance. All windows reflect image also just to a lesser degree Jack Is not enjoying the scenic beauty of the Overlook we don't even know if he himself went outside to sabotage the snowcat he could of just used his Telekinesis let alone any other time outside there besides chasing Danny at the end

[@AndysShed]

I've been lucky enough to visit the sound stages at Elstree used for The Shining many times and even met some of the crew who worked in the movie. The reason the hotel is impossible is because the sets needed to be big enough to ride around, being followed by a steadicam. This was a previously unheard of technique and none of the Elstree stages were apparently big enough to fit the whole set inside. So what they did was to consctuct the hotel in a number of adjacent stages (the studios were twice the size then that they are today) and they lined the corridors and firelanes between the stages with fake walls and ceilings to make it all look like hotel corridors. So the 'hotel' is actually in a number of big stages, plus sections in narrow studio corridors, which is why some of the doors go nowhere. Incidentally, the hotel exterior in the credits is real, but much of the exterior was was also built on the Elstree back lot, next to where the Big Brother house now stands.

[@lawrence_lek]

Amazing insight !

[@giantcockroach]

So the impossible layout was the result of practical limitations, not the mind-blowing technique of a genius director to disorient us with spacial impossibilities. As a viewer I didn't notice anything wrong. People read too much into these cult classics. Thank you Andy's Shed 👍

[@AwesomepianoTURTLES]

Andy's Shed I honestly don’t believe that someone as genius as Kubrick could have done this on accident, but I also don’t believe that Kubrick originally intended this. Probably what happened was they were designing the set and had trouble due to limitations. Kubrick probably thought “wow this really fucks with your head let’s make it 10 times more confusing to make the hotel seem unnatural and confuse the viewer”

[@eddiegalon3714]

+giantcockroach how bout it being both? The way Kubrick worked was to allow new ideas either from his mind or the mind of actors and crew. Once realizing the limitations he most likely took advantage of the mind fuck he could employ visually. Not a big stretch. This man made 2001. The Shinning was childs play in comparison for him.

[@dintadoba4808]

Door lead to a 3 feet wide gap room? Others: that's nowhere! Room impossible! Hong Konger: Hold my 50 square feet cage apartment and my 3 roomates

[@collativelearning]

"The set was very deliberately built to be offbeat and off the track so that the huge ballroom would never actually fit inside. The audience is deliberately made to not know where they're going." - Jan Harlan (Kubrick's brother-in-law and exec-producer on The Shining) interviewed for The Guardian newspaper 18th Oct 2012 (more than one year after this video was posted) ... google it

[@MrJambot]

Thank you - why on earth people think Kubrick made errors in his set design is beyond me. He was a perfectionist.

[@hyakugame]

@@MrJambot because not everyone puts anyone on a pedestal so readily without knowing about them "beyond you" lol ok snob ass

[@MrJambot]

@@hyakugame sick burn bro

[@demovidtest]

I'm sure this was true as a general principle, but I'm also sure the limitations of set space, budget, and artistic license necessitated practical decisions like placing doors in impossible locations to give the set the illusion of being bigger and more visually interesting than reality would have been. Image if the entire wall of "impossible rooms" was just a blank wall with no doorways... that would have looked boring on camera, or maintaining continuity with the freezer knowing that your next angle was going to be ANOTHER long steadicam shot. In short, the end result is not hard to direct and would have been simply "ignore continuity and make it look interesting and maze-like" - but I doubt every corner and element was designed for a more specific purpose than that, it just lent itself well to the subject matter of the film.

[@lesleyrussell8200]

@@MrJambot and a thief of another,s work,..Burnt Offerings 1976

[@tcrine1]

"Hi, I got an appointment with Mr Ulman, my name's Jack Torrence." "His office is the first door on the left". "Thanks". But his office is to the right.

[@qqqfuzion2582]

@That Movie Nerd bruh. The comment was 6 years ago there is no point.

[@Firebolt68]

@@qqqfuzion2582 Hmmm

[@qqqfuzion2582]

@@Firebolt68 hmmm what

[@onyxsavior7179]

@Quantum Stop Motions hmmm

[@bottlewaddle6677]

@@onyxsavior7179 hmmmmm

[@JudelovesRiver12]

I honestly thought it was only disorienting to me because I’m bad with direction and first watched this as a kid. Finding out this stuff is all deliberate is so nuts. Like with the illumination video, I thought I was just overthinking how there are so many lamps in such small rooms. I figured maybe it was a style preference from that era. This stuff is so intriguing and I am obsessed!

[@ErenJaegerDidNothingWrong]

If I’ve learned anything from Kubrick, it’s that he didn’t make mistakes. Everything is deliberately done and has meaning

[@georgekosko5124]

Exactly. Kubrick for example shot a scene over a hundred times to get just as he wanted, are we to believe that he misplaced some doors and halways? I don't think so.

[@jakethesnake1503]

@@georgekosko5124 the editor did

[@chriiiiis]

​@@jakethesnake1503 You think Kubrick wasn't breathing down their necks?

[@MF_YOUTUBE]

I believe there is one tiny little one. In Strangelove, Mandrake is holding a chair in front of him during a shot of him from the front. The screen cuts to behind him and the chair is gone.

[@toddaulner5393]

Or it is an advantage to being a genius. Like, " he could never have made a mistake" but here is a mind blower , the only person's left alone with Danny when they arrive are Holleran snd hid mother. The only person murdered in the movie is Holleran and the porn in the boiler room matches with his apartment decorations. Note: the interview when Jack is told people lose it that take on the job. Maybe they are chosen for the " Shining new target"plus he looks at Danny and ....says something to him in his psychology. Not out loud and he did not have a Van or an ice cream truck but still...... ice cream.

[@KitKat_293]

I think this is a brilliant move to create a very subconscious level of unease and unreality, similar to a dream. However I have very poor spacial relations and I tend to disregard layouts that "don't add up" and chalk it up to my own error. I definitely had trouble following even your very slow and mapped out explanations here. I've always felt like something in this movie's atmosphere and the creepiness that people described in the hotel was lost on me and I think this must be why! With flipping camera angles Kubrick essentially made it too difficult for my spatially-disabled subconscious brain to keep up lol. You have to have a more solid grasp on how things are supposed to lay out to experience the subconscious unease when you're brain picks up impossibilities, while you're more focused on the scene at hand. I felt that unease intensely during the blood scene because the humanoid shape in the blood also sparks a subconscious fear of the "not right". My brain had no trouble picking up on that image while not consciously "noticing" it so I did feel very frightened even though im not usually troubled by blood. Cool! Another really great video.

[@ElpSmith]

I didn’t notice it either but I don’t think the viewer is supposed to analyze it like this. It’s subconscious. You think you didn’t notice it but maybe subconsciously you did.

[@KitKat_293]

@@ElpSmith tbh, i think i agree with you! at least i do now, more so than i agree with what i said then lol

[@TheCluelessOne022]

Another thing I think should be addressed is that we say quite a lot of walking and tricycling around the various hallways while the camera follows throughout the movie. It feels like Kubrick is doing this intentionally to bring our attention to the set design and therefore it must be meaningful in regards to the story. That's visual storytelling for you.

[@TeemuSintonen]

This

[@eddiegalon3714]

+Rbo SMF a bit of visual foreshadowing. Also the confusing maze of the hotel mimics the confused state of mind each of the characters have throughout the course of events in the film. They are all emotionally "lost".

[@josephjohnson1794]

at 5:36, the door to the right of the vending machine...couldn't that doorway lead to a small linen closet rather than a full apartment?

[@manuelkong10]

agreed

[@rsmrichy00]

I felt uneasy watching The Shining for the first time. My second go, I realized that it was because of the way the hotel felt like it was in another dimension or something. Constantly having doors that would lead to nowhere is a bit uneasy I guess

[@fent4nyl]

It happened for me too. I watch a lot of horror movies, with lots of gore and I'm not bothered by it. However, watching the Shining was really unsettling. What I find unsettling is that the long interior shots with Jack just going around the hotel or Danny tricycling through the hotel and just utter silence was really uneasy.

[@georgekosko5124]

@@fent4nyl I had basically the same experience word by word. Gory horror films are scary,ok, but the shining is true horror for very different, much more well thought out reasons

[@jasonanderson_PA]

I worked at a major hotel and resort company in Vegas for years. Lots of hotel hallways had false doors that didn't actually open into a hotel room. For architectural or design reasons they wanted a regular pattern of doors down the hallway (maybe to make the place look bigger, more popular, I don't know why just speculating). These false rooms were usually closets for housekeeping or very small utility rooms for mechanical or electrical equipment.

[@thislady987]

I guess they just decided to "overlook" those mistakes. GET IT???!

[@frankjackson655]

No you have to explain it to me

[@lifeconfirmed5486]

+Frank Jackson He is talking about how they are trying to focus on what is in the horizon, the unsettling mystery of our post consumerist post technologic post meaning based society, and that we need to accept the magical.

[@frankjackson655]

Life Confirmed Ah yes that seems right!

[@anastasiabananastasia]

lulz

[@4GU5GA6]

Life Confirmed R/WOOOOSH

[@mopardan65]

Time for an architect to chime in: This is amazing! I've probably watched this movie 25 times (as it's one of my favorites) and just wrote off a lot of it as the set not matching the exterior perfectly. I can see now that it was intentional. Kubrick's tricks worked and worked well! The inconsistencies are just subtle enough that if you aren't looking for them... you won't find them. Your unconscience, however, is screaming out saying... "wait, that's not right!" It creates un-ease for sure!

[@collativelearning]

That's why I checked the set blueprints in the Stanley Kubrick archives. They show that the hall leading around to where the huge windows were disappears and even partially overlaps another part of the set. There was nothing there.

[@collativelearning]

@Dyegoh Tried it with Exorcist and Psycho. Their sets all matched up. On the other hand Hellraiser, Labyrinth Dr Who and Poltergeist all use deliberate spatial inconsistencies for thematic effect. The difference with The Shining is that it's subtle enough to bypass conscious attention.

[@dgwaters]

When I first saw The Shining years ago, I thought they filmed at a real hotel. The sheer size of the Colorado lounge and the Gold ballroom, not to mention the kitchen that Hallorann shows Wendy and Danny, made me think they couldn’t possibly duplicate this on a soundstage.

[@Nick-GR]

The Shining is the best proof of how much of a cinematic genious Kubrick was.

[@lesleyrussell8200]

and the proof of hes a thief of another,s work......Burnt Offerings 1976

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

@@lesleyrussell8200 Oh trash you again

[@celestialscripture]

Genius set design by Kubrick. The setting is as much a character as the actors themselves, something not lost on Kubrick. The amount of time and detail involved is mind boggling.

[@collativelearning]

Don't forget the deliberate spatial impossibilities theme was admitted by the exec-producer a year after I posted this video. See caption near start of video.

[@MrStephenRGilman]

Also, at the beginning when there's an overhead helicopter shot of the entire hotel, there is no hedge maze. Instead, it's a cliff falling off the mountain. I always used to thing this was simply a continuity error, but after watching this video I wonder if it was intentional, and the hedge maze isn't really there at all in a physical sense.

[@KitKat_293]

omg. of course I like a morbid twist ending so now I like the idea that they hallucinated the maze and all fell off the cliff.

[@phucdatbich1990]

Well, the maze was built at Elstree studios in London as were the interiors and snow exteriors. Only that helicopter shot and a couple of cutaways were shot on location and none of those were done by Kubrick.

[@Omnicient.]

I think the maze is supposed to be at the rear of the hotel.

[@juanausensi499]

Something to think about: Jack Torrance is locked in a refrigerator, then he miraculosly escapes, but he still dies by cold in the end in a non-existant maze. So, did he really escape?

[@Anwelei]

@@juanausensi499ohh I like that

[@collativelearning]

Kubrick was big on challenging his audience intellectually, demanding that we refine our observation and research skills. Not everyone is interested in doing that and so I make these videos for the benefit of people who would otherwise miss out on these themes. Paranoia has nothing to do with it. It's only an obsession if a person does nothing else with their life. I do plenty of other things including making my own fiction films so naturally I'm out to understand the masters work better.

[@Indubitably14]

This is WAY better than "Room 237"

[@jackburns6403]

I hated that documentary about 5 minutes in. The fact that they thought a book at the hotel managers waist was a dirty joke? Seriously?

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

@@jackburns6403 Except the freak-faces all through the hotel are correct. The elevator 'face' is exactly the same as the face on Danny's teddy bear.

[@collativelearning]

Did you read the caption near the start of the vid about Kubrick's brother in law and exec producre of The Shining confirming in a Guardian interview, a year after I posted this video, that the sets were designed to spatially disorientate the audience?

[@holdencaulfield8933]

That awkward moment when you realize that Jack used to be a teacher.

[@hyakugame]

read the book

[@holdencaulfield8933]

@@hyakugame well if it’s anything Ike the TV movie from 1997 then it probably sucks.

[@mesmer3780]

The point is to subconsciously disturb the viewer. You don't notice these spacial inconsistencies, but your subconscious does. The illogical and impossibility of the space gives the feeling of being in a nightmare, and increases the tension and fear even when nothing overtly dangerous is happening on screen.

[@timsopinion]

This is still one of my favourite of your analyses - I like the austere tone of your older narration because I think (at least with Kubrick) it adds a certain deadpan creepiness to what you're talking about.

[@dragonesswings]

This is fascinating! God bless Kubrik and his obsessively detailed heart

[@VirreFriberg]

2:59 No, that's not impossible. There may be a door to the hotel exterior in that corridor

[@TheFuneralPyre]

EXACTLY!!

[@dniceo7]

I thought that, too, but the more I watch that part the more I think it's not bright enough. There doesn't seem to be any natural light spilling through, and all of the exterior doors that guests use seem to have a lot of glass. But, the one guest looks like he has a bag in his hand, so that could suggest an exterior door. Who knows?

[@roachdoggjr5647]

The door may be solid wood like the door Wendy pushes open to get outside in the movies climax.

[@Gamesforus1]

Or a stairway going down, and those people were just coming up them

[@mahojohodge5395]

Looks like an elevator to me.

[@AlexReynard]

My jaw dropped at a few places in this. Especially the apartments that would have to be a meter thick, or hovering over a balcony. Makes me wonder if Kubrick, without even meaning to, pioneered the kind of liminal space horror that's so popular now in the form of the backrooms.

[@KarlLind]

As usual, Kubrick is far more intelligent than his viewers.

[@georgie3593]

Karl Lind Films what are you implying?

[@wetalkinb0utpractice]

Georgia_ Tolson that most people are morons and that Kubrick was a genius.

[@americareal3]

What part of that statement contained ANY .. ambiguity?

[@eddiegalon3714]

+SavageArfad based on the 2016 Presidential election. All the proof you need.

[@Kalleesto]

How do you know?

[@collativelearning]

@Dtrollmancan Spatial awareness is an aspect of film psychology and its role in disorientating the viewer is psychological. Just like your lack of grammar and punctuation, word emphasis and hostility are revealing of your psychology. However, if it's different aspects of the film's psychology you're interested in then I have other videos on here about those too.

[@velocityJE]

it's a living building. remedy's control uses this to beautiful effect. great video

[@collativelearning]

@PleaseLookAtMyCock What's the evidence that brought you to the Freudian & Transactional Analysis interpretation?

[@collativelearning]

Yes, the video shows the locations of each door being opposite each other and shows the office with the glass. I'm not sure how you think that conflicts with the video content.

[@collativelearning]

Lots of my vids were blocked for a few weeks. Part two is back up now :)

[@collativelearning]

Lol, people who use the "way too much time on your hands" comment are way too unoriginal in their choice of words. ... Oh, whatever, whatever, ... whatever ... whatever, whatever ... whatever infinity!!!

[@jphugo305]

Im glad I found your channel again. It's been a couple of years that I lost track of you but it is time to catch up! Thanks for your work!

[@larseirikfodnes4361]

Kubrick: Hippity hoppity, your sanity's my property

[@jessehenderson2967]

I remember watching these on my crappy phone, waaaaay back in the day. You've aways done solid work!

[@peppermint23]

Your analysis videos are A+

[@hanthonyc]

This film is before my time, I was born in the early 2000s. Seeing the genuineness and pure artistry of practical effects has made me LOVE films now as an adult, since I've been disillusioned by the varied quality of CGI over the years. The realization that stood out to me, is how high the industry standard was for impossible architecture, to where this would be clearly intentional. The current state of media in 2023 is rapidly pumping out shows and movies for streaming profit, with so little attention to the importance of "smaller" industry roles (lighting, gaffers, hell, the WRITERS strike has been huge this year)... So much that it feels shocking to me, genuinely.

[@jonathanpcampbell]

I have an explanation for the discrepancies that is much less fascinating than Kubrick's intentional design. What really reveals the impossibilities is the steady cam shots. Film sets have traditionally featured impossible doors and such to cut down on cost of building materials and cope with limited space. It would be very difficult to fit a full-scale hotel set on a sound stage, so they cheated here and there, figuring they would shoot traditionally, i.e. no steady cam. The Steadycam had only come out a few years before The Shining was released. It is possible that the sets were designed and built before Kubrick mapped out the steady cam shots.

[@Scott93205]

I've always assumed that the set, even the entire film, was designed to make maximum use of the steadicam. I can't imagine the hedge maze without the cam gliding through it, the same way it glides down the hallways. It's true, the steadicam had only been around a couple years before The Shining was made.

[@jonathanpcampbell]

Scott S. Steadycam is usually used on location shoots where dollies aren't practical. On sets, dollies are usually used for tracking shots. Steadycam is used more and more for indoor shots since the 90's, but back when The Shining was shot, it had previously been used for shots that were difficult to get, like the Rocky stairs sequence. The maze could have been shot using a traditional dolly, but it wouldn't have been nearly as effective. Kubrick's use of a dolly in the trenches of Paths of Glory is similar to how it would have been shot without steady cam. The maze set could have been a set designed for traditional shooting, and later switched to steady cam, without the noticeable irregularities found in the hotel set. I love Kubrick and his films, and his attention to detail. But too often, people chalk up genuine errors in his films to intention. For example, continuity errors in The Shining. We know that Kubrick liked to shoot tens if not hundreds of takes. He liked to return and reshoot shots days or weeks later to edit against previously shot footage. When you shoot that way, chairs will be out of place, things will move around. Film productions have people who's job is continuity. For them, Kubrick's shooting style would have been a nightmare of a job, reassembling the props on a set to match footage shot weeks earlier. An example is the level of Jack's drink at the bar. So many shots were filmed the ice melt. If the prop department had planned better they'd have used plastic ice cubes! Filmmaking is a collaborative process, even on Kubrick films.

[@Marth8880]

nonlinearmind Wow, that's really interesting regarding Stanley's *use* of continuity (or lack thereof, lel). :O

[@Scott93205]

It seems more likely that the set was designed FOR the steadicam than that Kubrick either hadn't heard of the steadicam (not too likely) or had no interest in using it. The hotel, and more especially the maze, could not be better suited to the steadicam, and it's hard to imagine the film without the camera gliding constantly down hallways, through the kitchen, into Room 237, etc. I doubt that he ever planned it to be shot in static shots. I imagine his love of the steadicam came before his love of the book or its plot.

[@jonathanpcampbell]

Scott S. Watch Paths of Glory sometime, and you'll see how he would've shot the scenes in the maze effectively. But let's say that he did plan to use steady cam and did intentionally design sets for it. There just was not the room in the studio for a full-size hotel set. There is nothing unusual about Kubrick's set compared to other Hollywood sets (besides the size). All sets on sound stages have false doors and, often, false perspective.

[@KatsPurr]

2:23 I'm currently recreating the Overlook hotel in a game called "7 days to die" and I've had to analyze each and every shot closely to figure out the floorplan. Wow, I never noticed before that people come out from the far right corner and always assumed it was solid! Now seeing that though, one possibility is that there is some kind of stairwell behind the white section which technically could fit as that large chunk of wall could accommodate such a thing I think.

[@collativelearning]

"Da point" is stated outright at the start of the video. Kubrick used intentionally impossible set design arrangements to subconsciously disorientate many of the film's viewers - to give the hotel a physical sense of something being not quite right.

[@ethanmorse7286]

I love things like this, where they make the viewer think for a while and make conclusions based on information given, it's fun watching it with friends or family then having discussions about what we thought.Great Video, keep making more.

[@collativelearning]

I've read reports that Kubrick would hang around on set for hours on his own. I don't think he was sleeping. A Kubrick ghost lol

[@HavetheLambsStoppedScreaming]

In the last two days, I've seen two separate videos that make reference to this video/Collative Learning. One was the channel Dead Meat in his "The Shining" Kill Count video, and the other a guy named Max Derrat "How A Book Could Change Everything". I'm really happy to see you're getting the recognition and credit you deserve, Rob. You're content is amazing and extremely well-thought out and I love seeing your channel getting some attention.

[@globalcombattv]

They gave dude a beeper.

[@collativelearning]

@zidownage It's always possible I'm over-analysing, which is why I provide lots of sourced information. Kubrick talks about the "huge labyrinthine layout" in interviews, which I quoted in the video. So it's not grasping at straws at all. As for spatial inconsistencies in other films ... watch Psycho and The Exorcist - interiors done on sets that match the exteriors. Then watch Hellraiser, Labyrinth and Poltergeist. they use deliberate spatial impossibilities as part of a horror / fantasy theme.

[@jimaco0312]

The architect must’ve been super drunk when creating his plans 😂

[@КонстантинМатвеев-д8ц]

I have absolutely loved this analysis! This unnoticed illusion goes right over the head straight into subconscious. At some situations I talk to the different people expecting them not to listen, only to flap their ears. At the end of the day, they end up thinking the same way, it is even better than having them argue with me.

[@izryangaming1322]

9:56 I NEVER NOTICED THIS LINE BUT HE WAS THERE BEFORE THE INTERVIEW HE IS GRADY GUYS HOLY CRAP

[@ellamun-lai9676]

izryan Gaming well yes you can infer that from the evidence we’re given from the butler and the picture at the end of the film. the butler says “you’ve always been the caretaker here” and in the picture we see a man that looks identical to jack attending a party in 1921. jack is simply a reincarnation of every caretaker the overlook has ever had. he essentially lives the same life over and over again, always ending with the overlook

[@collativelearning]

@maxpin17 Where are you getting your info from? Everything was filmed at constructed sets in England - even the exteriors in which they used salt and polystyrene as snow. With one exception, the opening helicopter shot of the Overlook. That one was the timberline Lodge in America.

[@nukegunrack]

Just thought you'd find this interesting, Rob. I was reading an article on cracked and there was one article that talks about how the Toy Story series has many references to The Shining. Have you heard of this?

[@PerfectTheCircle]

Wow. Actually hearing you point these things out is bizarrely terrifying - the sheer wrongness of the layout is something I find scarier than the actual events of the film itself. An excellent analysis of an excellent film.

[@gamerN77]

You take the principal of CinemaSins to a whole other level!

[@collativelearning]

Watch video and pay attention to the update captions :)

[@michaeldiekmann6494]

If Kubrick used Hotel rooms that are impossible it makes he Hotel far more scary and haunted. No need for dirty walls and darkness. This is genius and might affect the viewer and stress him out without him noticing.

[@dzod]

Impossible room 237. 6:46 mirrors on the doors. Kubrick used mirrors in mysterious ways. Perhaps the bedroom and bathroom don't actually exist through those doors. The room layout is actually a projection of the hotel to trap Danny and Jack. The actual bedroom and bathroom could be to the right of the room door.

[@joshuajoyce7890]

Some of the doors that the video's author claims are "impossible" can be easily explained when you remember that hotels have supply closets...

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

They seem impossibly small, though. Where would you put a utility cart, much less a few of them..?

[@collativelearning]

@commradefyedka How can the hedge maze map be a continuity error? In one angle we see Jack lean over it and it matches the map shown outside the actual maze entrance. Then we cut to a top down view and it's a completely different and much larger maze. It's so utterly blatant, visually jarring and unnecessary. To end up with this "error" would require two separate map models created to different specifications.

[@collativelearning]

Yes, they're so busy they have time to watch and leave silly comments on videos made by people who apparently have too much free time :)

[@leandean100]

Can you explain this......if a ghost (Grady) freed jack from the locked storage room in the kitchen, wouldn't it be possible a ghost (lady in 237) could've strangled danny.

[@felix8898]

what was The purpose of the tour guides name been spoken in that one scene? Could there be important symbolism in his name? his name sounds a lot like mr. Omen. what could he be an omen of in this movie?

[@collativelearning]

@kittykatro Which films have the same set design problems? Exorcist and Psycho don't, but in Labyrinth, Poltergeist, Hellraiser and the tardis of Dr Who there are deliberate spatial errors used as part of a fantasy / horror narrative. It's not that unusual. The difference is that in The Shining it's more subtle.

[@collativelearning]

Way too few brain cells in your head, Darren. The deliberate spatial anomalies themes has since been confirmed by the film's exec producer. Did you not notice it in the opening captions? Plus I'm a film maker so I study films like anyone else studies their field.

[@seancannon3960]

I tend not to listen to producers and directors saying “I meant to do that” when things happen to work out. This is because I have heard George Lucas say things. At all.

[@mattgilbert7347]

@@seancannon3960 Agreed. A lot of trolling going on as well.

[@ryannarby4519]

This is absolutely fucking genius. To imagine how much work must have gone into creating this. Then the amount of work to create these layouts exploring it. Wow

[@Elhardt]

All these years I thought the Shining was filmed in a real hotel. Interesting.

[@WatchMyMadness]

It was, it's in Colorado. I've been there several times. Parts of it were filmed on sets others were filmed in the actual hotel.

[@silvertuna6270]

WatchMyMadness Interior shots were almost entirely done on sets in England, exterior shots are of the Timberline Lodge in Oregon...

[@WatchMyMadness]

Silver Tuna I have been to the stanley hotel several times, while I was there I was informed by the staff that there was, indeed, shots filmed at the hotel. There also photos hanging on the walls of the film crew and actors at what looks to be the Stanly hotel.

[@Elhardt]

WatchMyMadness Well maybe there was a mixture of real vs built sets in some of the interior scenes. I was just surprised that so much of the interior was fabricated for the movie.

[@DiverseLA]

WatchMyMadness Only the exterior shots of the hotel were filmed of a real hotel (Timberline Lodge). All interior shots were on a set in England. It was never filmed at the Stanley. The interior was inspired by the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. The Stanley was where Stephen King stayed and got his inspiration for the book.

[@KnocturneKnightmare]

I'm loving these videos, very detailed, clear and informative and they bring back memories of my English Studies class from high school. I could honestly watch them all day. Keep up the good work!

[@EnchaladaSanchez]

Me trying to make it in minecraft:😡

[@collativelearning]

Kubrick is dead, but I've got the next best thing. His brother-in-law (also exec-producer of The Shining) confirmed in a Guardian newspaper interview a year after I released this video that the sets were designed to disorientate the viewer by being spatially impossible - see caption near beginning of video :)

[@thom_wye]

everytime I watch or read an analysis trying to explain inconsistencies in basically anything, I wonder if the original inconsistency was possibly caused simply by someone failing at his job

[@fuckenps3]

The trouble is, some of these are too obvious to not be intentional from someone as meticulous as Kubrick.

[@lifeconfirmed5486]

right o! can we be friends?

[@thom_wye]

Life Confirmed no

[@AnarchyAUS]

+I don't wanna be your friend Kubrick was obsessed with detail there is no way all of this went unnoticed

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

TheIcebeardilemma agree. How do you miss a backwards US flag, for example (game room, start of film)

[@drjohnson98]

I suppose others have noticed this. But here is another possible spatial anomaly that I never noticed before despite have watched The Shining many times since its original release. When Danny sees the twins while riding his trike, he is seen going through the kitchen corridor, and making a right. At the next cut, which seems to imply it is what he sees as soon as he turns, he is shown to have turned into the carpeted and wall papered living quarters where he turns one more corner and sees the twins. But in the later climactic chase scene, also shown in this video, Wendy is shown walking through the same kitchen corridor and turning right and is seen peering from the kitchen corridor into the ground floor lobby, establishing that the kitchen is on the ground floor. In earlier scenes, when the Torrences arrive at the Overlook, they are shown climbing stairs with the hotel manager up to the living quarters, establishing that the wall papered twin hallway in the living quarters is on the second floor or above. Either the scene where Danny appears to turn from the kitchen corridor into the twin hallway is another intentional spatial anomaly or the implication is simply that he has biked all over the overlook, including taking his trike to the upper floors to ride around and the interval between the kitchen hallway and the twin hallway is not shown. But the way it is edited doesn't feel like that was the intention. Maybe the implication is that not only are there fixed spatial anomalies in the Overlook (the impossible window in the hotel manager's office), but also shifting ones, in other words, paths in the Minotaur's maze can change.

[@ClareBearBunny]

"There is a level of psychosis that psychologists simply refer to as 'Stanley Kubrick.'" -Cracked.com

[@lucribault90]

What if the shining of the overlook is effecting the appearance of the hotel showing rooms that were built or renovated in different times making the storerooms and other oddities make sense if they appeared as they were in a different time like the hedge could have had a different entrance, the hotel changes it’s time a few times like the ballroom in the 20s and then when Wendy finds the Colorado room old.

[@PeteSkylakos]

Could the Hotel Overlook be a T.A.R.D.I.S.?

[@The_Ninja_Tree]

Pete Skylakos I wish though whos skeletons are those if that's the case? that makes it way more creepy lol

[@ghostfires]

great analysis, I've seen this movie ten times and never noticed any of the discontinuities.

[@Testiculon]

Red rum

[@fluxfotos22]

The layout of the hotel filmed by kubrick is a deliberate attempt to replicate the feeling of a maze, the inner maze of the mind.

[@Scott93205]

To Collative Learning.... Regarding that caption: It's long been known that the set was designed to disorient the viewer. But nothing you've said has been "publicly confirmed" by Jan Harlan, and I doubt that he's aware of you at all. You've done a great job of finding continuity glitches throughout the film, and you have some real imagination. But to quote the article in question, "When a hack director makes a continuity error, it's taken as proof of incompetence. When a revered genius does the same, we wonder what they meant." Rather than stop at wondering, or even sharing your sense of wonder with the rest of us, you've attached a hodgepodge of intents to every glitch, and now you're calling people names for failing to humor you. While some of us are satisfied to marvel at Kubrick's work, you won't be satisfied until you're acknowledged as An Authority. Well, don't count on it happening, even on KZbin. Your feet are way off the ground, which is often the case with imaginative people, though the truly creative ones temper imagination with common sense, and develop perspective. You need some perspective. Learn to laugh at yourself, and that may save your mind.

[@Marth8880]

Meh...even if it was true error on Kubrick's part, it still stands as disorienting the audience. :)

[@fuckenps3]

Um... you didn't read the entire article did you? That's not the part he was referring to...

[@collativelearning]

@mratomic7 Do you think the same when you watch Labyrinth, Dr Who, Hellraiser and Poltergeist. Those films all usally thematically deliberate spatial anomolies - the difference is they're much more obvious than The Shining.

[@DiverseLA]

Personally I think these are just continuity errors and set-design errors. They didn't consider that there would be people over-analyzing these scenes.

[@collativelearning]

There's a caption near the start of the video citing an admission made by the film's exec procuder that the set design errors were intentional. you're under-analysing.

[@yourworstfan]

It's a Kubrick film. I find it highly unlikely that they didn't consider that.

[@DiverseLA]

***** In 1979 there wasn't the conspiracy buzz about Kubrick's films. This thing is relatively recent.

[@yourworstfan]

DiverseLA Doesn't mean that Kubrick wasn't taking himself (too?) seriously at the time.

[@TickleMeElmo55]

YES THEY DID INTENTIONALLY MEAN IT! THIS IS A KUBRICK FILM - PURE CREATIVITY THAT'S TOO MUCH FOR YOUR TINY MIND TO EITHER APPRECIATE OR TO COMPREHEND! THIS IS THE ART OF MOVIE MAKING--TRUE ART!

[@ln-zshirokitsuneva2141]

Based on some of the analysis about the closeness of some doors throughout the hotel makes me think that it was designed that way. So that individuals had more than one way to enter or exit a room. Would make sense in the case of the Overlook's questionable and often deadly history. Murders, mob hits, and just outright tomfoolery would convince me to have hidden spaces and extra entrance/exit ways for hiding or escapes. But that's just a theory that came to mind and could explain away certain "supernatural" causes.

[@christopherhoyt7195]

Great observational skills and documentation. Less difficult to detect but equally maddening is the impossible layout of Blanch Deveraux's Miami house in the still a riot, decade defining TV sitcom, "The Golden Girls."

[@collativelearning]

@boostbeetle Yep, an error in my narration :)

[@DragONheart27X]

Regardless of which of these "errors" are intentional it did add to the vibe and I applaud how he used something that is familiar (a "traditional" hotel) and add subtleties of something unrealistic that is some fine horror craftsmanship that I didn't even realize my first time watching the film.

[@blakiecakes419]

Can't help but think about House of Leaves when watching this video.

[@nikolasincorporated]

I just realized that Wendy pushes that cart up to the room, and she would have had to lift the whole cart of food to get it into the apartment to bring it in to Jack for the breakfast scene.

[@collativelearning]

Only the distant shots (with no maze visible) were filmed at a real hotel. The other exteriors were constructed in England, loosely based on the one in US. You should watch the vid before commenting. The basic premise has since been admited by the exec-producer - see caption near beginning.

[@crowbringer]

Watching the film is like dreaming. You don't necessary realise all the off bits, you just accept them as a part of the reality you are in. If you entered any of the doors going nowhere you would most likely find yourself in an impossible room just like the office. Overlapping hallways and what not from the outside, it's brilliantly eerie.

[@chrisevans5259]

The shining is a psychological/ horror masterpiece, that takes your emotions on an helter skelter , rollercoaster of a journey. You can almost taste the isolated madness growing within jack as the sadistic quietness sends his mind spiraling. Its the most horrifying nightmare scenario imaginable , as he sets out to slaughter the ones most loved and dearest to him, and its the ultimate betrayal of trust. Its a film thats frightening and disturbing, but the unsettling subject makes it the ultimate horror, and a true classic , that few horrors come anywhere near to matching.

[@Archetype77]

I remember shortly after this video came out and people were shitting on Rob saying it was just mistakes and all bullshit, despite how obvious it was. Now that it's confirmed, people moved on to shitting on Rob for other things. It's amazing how so many people will never believe that they've OVERLOOKed stuff unless it's outright told to them by the creators.

[@zippeduniform3]

You well deserve all the likes for its obvious that youve put a great amount of time and research to the video!!