Two of my favourite visual effects films of all time happen to both be the work of one of the industry’s all time greats in the sphere of photographic effects, the legendary Fred Sersen. IN OLD CHICAGO (1937) and THE RAINS CAME (1939) were monumental achievements for their day and still stand up to scrutiny 70 plus years down the track. Born in Czechoslovakia, Fred started out as an art director at 20th Century Fox in the early twenties and ventured out into title design and production illustration before finding his niche in matte painting.
His contributions to the art and technology of matte shots was well acknowledged throughout the industry and some excellent articles were penned by Fred himself, including the 1931 American Cinematographer article Making Modern Matte Shots in which Fred describes new developements for the process of the day…
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A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX
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