“My single conversation with the late Stanley Kubrick, about six months before he commenced filming his version of The Shining, suggested that it was this quality about the story that appealed to him: What, exactly is impelling Jack Torrance toward murder in the winter-isolated rooms and hallways of the Overlook Hotel? It is undead people, or undead memories? Mr. Kubrick and I came to different conclusions (I always thought there were malevolent ghosts in the Overlook, driving Jack to the precipice), but perhaps those different conclusions are, in fact, the same. For aren’t memories the true ghosts of our lives? Do they not drive all of us to words and acts we regret from time to time?”- Stephen King
I treated this film (and this project) as an in-depth look into what happens when creative-meets-brief.
The source novel is the brief, what is being provided to the creative, Stanley Kubrick.
The changes made (I assumed) were mostly intentional and in that intentionality creates different messaging. The translations of words into concepts expressed visually, verbally, and structurally are all what design is about.
Having Wendy be a completely different visual character than what’s described in the book IS A CHOICE.
Having a character who’s 6’ instead of 5’5 is again, a choice! It changes the message, and in doing so, creates new and different meaning.
In this image · No.5
This scene is a clear shift from the novel and shows how Kubrick made the story his own.