Matte Art and the Feminine Touch

Well here’s another blog, although a fairly small one again, though on this topic it’s really down to sheer lack of available material more than anything else. Today I’m presenting a little tribute to one of the lesser known matte painters of the late 70’s through to early 90’s, Jena Holman – possibly the first female matte artist (at least the first I’m aware of) in the US until Michelle Moen and Caroleen Green came along in the 80’s.

The little I have on Jena came to me largely from her frequent collaborator and visual effects cinematographer David Stipes who had nothing but kind words for Jena as both a skilled matte painter and as a person. According to David, Jena was active in matte work from around 1977 or thereabouts through to her untimely death as a result of a brain tumour in the early 1990’s. David and Jena worked together at David’s VFX house, David Stipes Productions, on a number of projects, many illustrated here, including the 1979 tv series BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR (1986) to name a few.

Among her other matte jobs were the Jeff Bridges courtroom drama JAGGED EDGE (1985), the unfinished David Allen stop motion adventure THE PRIMEVALS (1977), Phil Kauffman’s THE RIGHT STUFF (1983), the controversial nuclear strike film THE DAY AFTER (1983) and John Carpenter’s ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) as well as various television commercials…

…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