''Universe'' is a black-and-white animated documentary short film made in 1960 by the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary fi ...

. It "creates on the screen a vast, awe-inspiring picture of the universe as it would appear to a voyager through space. Realistic animation takes you into far regions of space, beyond the reach of the strongest telescope, past Moon, Sun, and Milky Way into galaxies yet unfathomed." This visualization is grounded in the nightly work of Dr. Donald MacRae, an

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

at the

David Dunlap Observatory The David Dunlap Observatory (DDO) is an astronomical observatory site in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. Established in 1935, it was owned and operated by the University of Toronto until 2008. It was then acquired by the city of Richmond Hill, ...

in Richmond Hill, Ontario, a facility formerly owned and operated by

Toronto University The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

and now operated by the

Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, ...

. Using the technology of his era, MacRae prepares his largely manually operated equipment and then photographs, by long exposure, one star. He actually strikes an arc between iron electrodes and makes a simultaneous exposure, which he can compare to the star's spectrum to determine its movement relative to Earth. The film was a nominee at the 33rd Academy Awards in the category of

Best Documentary Short Subject This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are annou ...

in 1961.The Opening of the Academy Awards in 1961-Oscars on YouTube
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Douglas Rain Douglas James Rain (March 13, 1928 – November 11, 2018) was a Canadian actor and narrator. Although primarily a stage actor, he is perhaps best known for his voicing of the HAL 9000 computer in the film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968) and i ...

did the narration for the English version; the French version was titled ''Notre univers'' with narration by

Gilles Pelletier Gilles Pelletier, OC (March 22, 1925 – September 5, 2018) was a Canadian actor. Career Pelletier appeared in over 50 film and television productions between 1951 and 2016. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Corporal Jacques Gagnier ...

Eldon Rathburn Eldon Davis Rathburn (21 April 1916 – 31 August 2008) was a Canadian film composer who scored over 250 films during his thirty-year tenure as a staff composer at the National Film Board of Canada. Known as "the dean of Canadian film composers",< ...

composed the musical score.

Production

Roman Kroitor Roman Kroitor (December 12, 1926 – September 17, 2012) was a Canadian filmmaker who was known as an early practitioner of ''cinéma vérité'', as co-founder of IMAX, and as creator of the Sandde hand-drawn stereoscopic animation system. ...

and Colin Low considered making a film about the universe five years before the launch of

Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for ...

. A budget of $60,000 was requested. Donald Mulholland, the Director of Production, wanted the film divided into three parts in order to justify its cost.

Commissioner Albert Trueman gave the film $20,000 per year, with them putting the film on hold once they used up their money for that year. The film was not done after three years so more money was given with the requirement that it be completed within the next year. The film was completed on 31 March 1960. The film had a budget of $105,146.

Influence on ''2001: A Space Odyssey''

After this work, co-director Colin Low worked with

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

on '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. Kubrick chose narrator Douglas Rain as the voice of the

HAL 9000 HAL 9000 is a fictional artificial intelligence character and the main antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's ''Space Odyssey'' series. First appearing in the 1968 film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', HAL ( Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer ...

computer and hired Wally Gentleman, who did optical effects for the NFB documentary, to work on ''2001''. According to Kubrick biographer Vincent Lobrutto:

Release

300 prints of the film were ordered by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

and the NFB sold over 3,100 copies by 1976. It was one of the more widely distributed educational films ever made.

Awards

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

– nomination *

Canadian Film Awards The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually, except in 1974 when a number of Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation. In the 1970s ...

– Film of the Year, Theatrical Short * BAFTA – Animated Short *

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

– Jury Prize for Animation *

Yorkton Film Festival Yorkton Film Festival (YFF) is an annual film festival held in late May in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1947, the Yorkton Film Council (YFC) was founded and in 1950 the first international documentary film festival officially opened in we ...

– Golden Sheaf Award Best of Festival

References

Works cited

* *

External links

Watch ''Universe'' at the NFB website
(requires Adobe Flash) *
Trailer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Universe (1960 Film) 1960 animated films 1960 short films 1960s English-language films National Film Board of Canada documentaries BAFTA winners (films) Films directed by Colin Low (filmmaker) Canadian animated documentary films Documentary films about outer space Black-and-white documentary films Canadian short documentary films Astronomy education works 1960 documentary films Films scored by Eldon Rathburn Films produced by Tom Daly National Film Board of Canada animated short films Films directed by Roman Kroitor 1960s short documentary films English-language Canadian films National Film Board of Canada short films 1960s Canadian films Short Film Palme d'Or winners