From Comic Strip to Matte Painted Wonderland

Now the 1990 Warren Beatty picture DICK TRACY is a film which you either love or hate. I actually liked it, as much for the phenomenal production design and dazzling matte wizardry as for the escapist pulp fun of the endeavour as a whole. I’ve had discussions with some matte pals where I seemed to be in a minority inasmuch as loving the matte effects myself, whereas some viewers seemed to be totally off put by the garish, arguably ‘unreal’ aspect of the many many painted mattes.

For my money the visual effects work, along with the cinematography and art direction in DICK TRACY is tremendous, both in it’s technical execution and it’s unique screen look – a look which went through numerous incarnations throughout pre-production, shooting and post production. Although I’m not a reader of comic books nor am I familiar with the original pulp graphic novels, I’d like to hope the cinematic rendition compliments the Chester Gould comic strip of old. The special photographic effects of DICK TRACY rank as the high water mark in my book for the in house Disney fx operation Buena Vista Visual Effects.

Initially, Disney matte painter Michael Lloyd was enlisted to oversee the mammoth effects project – a project which would encompass some 50 some matte paintings along with complex miniature set ups and a one off dusting off of the company’s tried and true sodium vapour travelling matte set ups. The scale of the project was so immense that it became all too clear to visual effects supervisor Lloyd (who in addition to overseeing the trick shots also painted a number of the many mattes himself) that the effects workload simply had to be divided with a another effects veteran in order to crank the many shots out in time for the release deadline.

…Read the Full Article @ Matte Shot

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