Ellenshaw Goes All Out

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For this writer, the age old ‘trek’ adventure has always held a particular attraction, with IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS easily fulfilling the prescribed expectations. As a child in the 1960’s, my friends and I would happily spend much of our weekends ‘reinventing’ such motion picture spectacle and timeless notions of discovering lost lands and so forth in the vast, densely bush clad mountain behind our house in Auckland. The fact that the mountain was in actuality a dormant volcano – one of around 30 in the Auckland region, just added credibility to our imagination fuelled ‘re-enactments’. Shows like JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH, ROBINSON CRUSOE, SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, VALLEY OF GWANGI and even Irwin Allen’s LOST IN SPACE were 100% Aces in our book, with plot-line threads, sense of danger and characters recycled endlessly. Try to tell today’s kids this and if they can tear themselves away from their Play Station 3 for a split second, they’ll stare at you blankly.

When it came to grand adventure, the Disney organization was surprisingly well equipped for a studio that didn’t have anywhere near the resourses of other, somewhat more substantial Hollywood production houses to step up to the mark and deliver big screen spectacle, albeit always within the carefully predetermined ‘safe’ framework dictated by Walt himself. Though primarily recognized as a first class producer of animated films (though I’m more of a Chuck Jones man myself), the studio had embarked on several live action projects from the early fifties with their United Kingdom production arm of the organization with films such as THE STORY OF ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MERRIE MEN, ROB ROY- THE HIGHLAND ROGUE and THE SWORD AND THE ROSE. In 1954 Walt Disney took considerable risks with bringing the grand Jules Verne adventure 20’000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA to the then new larger than life CinemaScope screen. This was to be the first live action outing to be put together at the Burbank based studios in California. The film was a hit, both commercially, and most deservedly, critically…

…Read the Full Article @ Matte Shot

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This blog is intended as a tribute to the ingenuity of the traditional matte painter where movie magic was created entirely by hand. Some of the shots will amaze in their grandeur and epic quality while others will surprise in their ‘invisibility’ to even the sophisticated viewer. I hope this collection will serve as an appreciation of the artform and both casual visitors and those with a specialist interest may benefit, enjoy and be amazed at skills largely unknown today

NZPete

I have gone further back into the archives of Matte Shot – A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX to feature even more articles from this great site, so  I hope you enjoy this wonderful journey we’re on together.

PJ Max