Douglas Rain, voice of HAL, has died | Hacker News Reader

Douglas Rain, voice of HAL, has died

mystratfordnow.com

119 pointsrustcharm22 comments

The deactivation of HAL 9000, a scene that took over 6 minutes of running time, is one of the most indelible cinematic memories from my teenager years. I have never felt more conflicted with empathy for and gripped by fear of an electronic conscience since. In the scene at one point when HAL says "I'm afraid, Dave", I'd almost want to stop Dave, but I am also simultaneously aware and fearful that HAL may be manipulating the human!

I've watched many SciFi movies with similar themes - even ones where the artificial beings are given faces. But HAL's baritone voice and the precise controlled cadence did for evoking emotions what none could top. Douglas Rain's voice and how Kubric used is an example of craftsmanship mastery at its best!

RIP HAL 9000. I'll sing Daisy for you.

HAL did not have a baritone voice.

I think you’re right. I’m going to leave my embarrassment unedited for all of internet history. (If anyone knows Douglas Rain’s voice type, I’d appreciate some education.)

I'd like to hear HAL in a baritone anyway. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, DAVE?"

HAL did have a baritone voice as he was “dying” - the visual implication of pulling out various modules was causing damage to his ability to talk and then think. The drop in register was designed to add to the unsettling nature of the scene.

Well, yes and no. His voice changed because it was electronically slowed down. In reality, probably by slowing down a tape machine, but that's not the same thing as having a baritone voice, though I might be nit-picking.

"I have never felt more conflicted with empathy for and gripped by fear of an electronic conscience since."

There are several episodes of Black Mirror that explore that idea... what is ethical with respect to something ("just bits") that's also someone (a self-aware conscious being). They've done a good job filling that question with a lot of emotion; some of those episodes are really gripping.

Apparently he never actually watched 2001: A Space Odyssey. I find it pretty incredible that somebody could have such an iconic role in such an iconic movie and never actually watch the finished result.

He's apparently not the only person to have done that either. John Williams, the composer of the film score for Star Wars, has never watched any of the Star Wars movies.

I've never heard that about John Williams, but it's probably not quite the same sort of thing. He must watch the nearly-finished rough cuts dozens of times in the process of scoring (which is one of the last steps in the movie making process). Then again, on the screen behind the orchestra, during the recording process. By the end, he probably knows the movie by heart and isn't excited to watch it yet again, just to see the last bit of polish.

That's pretty different from recording some voiceover lines in a studio then never even seeing the movie they fit into.

In that specific role, I'd direct him not to watch and to avoid getting too much context in order to prevent emotion from getting into the voice.

For some value of never watched. Usually the way orchestral segments of film scores are recorded is the orchestra is set up in a gigantic sound stage, and the film is projected above and behind the orchestra so that the conductor can see the film as the music is recorded. If the composer is a decent conductor, they usually do.

I can imagine that after days or weeks of that, going to see the finished product in a theater may not appeal.

Well, usually the composer watches with the director first and they talk in detail about what music/feeling the director wants/imagines. I saw a really great documentary about this exact thing recently, Score: A Film Music Documentary (2016), with all-star cast. Shows a lot of composers in the act of writing for (mostly famous) movies, the initial talk-through, recording in the studio, talking about it - many great stories. A lot of John Williams etc.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4207112/

> I find it pretty incredible that somebody could have such an iconic role in such an iconic movie

Well, according to a BBC obit [0], for Douglas Rain, 2001 was just 10 hours of recording - not with the other actors - over two days. I guess he couldn't have predicted the film's impact from that alone, and perhaps he didn't particularly enjoy Kubrick's other work.

[0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46178930

Funny how something that ended up being culturally iconic was just a routine 2-day voice-over contract gig for an actor.

I wonder if he was paid a flat fee or got royalties?

Shades of Clare Torry singing The Great Gig in the Sky

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gig_in_the_Sky

Wishful thinking, but according to his bio, he's been in more than a hundred film/TV roles, so there's quite a lot of his voice that's been recorded. There would be enough for his voice to be sampled and re-created for an AI assistant. Obviously this would require the approval of his next of kin.

I think it'd depend on how fond of that role he was.

Damn, just yesterday I went to an exhibition about AI that heavily focused on 2001 and HAL. A truly visionary film. RIP.

For the curious - https://espacio.fundaciontelefonica.com/evento/mas-alla-de-2...

I visited the Stanley Kubrick exhibition in Barcelona this week-end, the 2001 area is still the one that gets me the most, they were projecting the opening of the movie, which is always breathtaking, but what got me the most is the HAL wall repeating the lines from the movie. A great place to visit if you have the the opportunity.

NYT published a nice article on Rain and his role in HAL’s voice earlier this year:

“The Story of a Voice: HAL in ‘2001’ Wasn’t Always So Eerily Calm”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/movies/hal-2001-a-space-o...

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16734859

I only watched the movie recently, but still overwhelmed by how a 60s movie can be so realistic. Rest in peace, your voice will forever be remembered.

RIP Douglas/HAL. Yes, you will dream.

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