00:02When director Stanley Kubrick started pre-production on 2001,
00:06he envisioned the monolith as a transparent tetrahedron.
00:10In other words, just a clear pyramid.
00:13And fans of the movie know that's far from what made it into the final picture.
00:17Production manager Tony Masters began his search
00:20by visiting an actual plexiglass convention in London.
00:23Yes, apparently that's a real thing.
00:25Well, Tony found a gentleman capable of building a gigantic plexiglass prop.
00:31But he assures Tony not in the shape of the pyramid for engineering concerns.
00:35So, for overall simplicity, the two agree on the object taking the shape of an,
00:40wait for it, ordinary pack of cigarettes.
00:44Kubrick hates it.
00:46Tony thinks fast and asks,
00:48What if we paint it all black? Maybe no one will know what it is.
00:53Kubrick thinks it over, and Kubrick agrees.
00:58So, Tony Masters starts a massive assembly line of monoliths,
01:02trying different types of woods until they found a winner.
01:05Then they experimented with mixing graphite and matte black paint,
01:08and after many, many, many coats,
01:11they finally achieved that distinctive luster
01:13that we all know and love from the movie today.
