Mattes on the Move

Traditionally painted and photographed matte shots have, out of necessity, tended to be largely locked off and stationary affairs with only especially demanding film makers and bold photographic effects men tackling the artistic and technical challenges of pulling off a ‘mobile’ matte shot.

Occasionally simple tilts and pans were quite easily accomplished with the foreground glass art and a nodal head tripod mount. 20th Century Fox’s Fred Sersen utilized this method in the 20’s, as did many other practitioners. The in camera latent image composite provided immediate results and best of all by passed any secondary laboratory degredation which was in general, unavoidable in achieving pseudo camera moves on an optical printer.

Early pioneers in the field were Jack Cosgrove and Clarence Slifer who in the late thirties designed and carried out astonishingly ambitious epic pull back multi element composites for Selznick’s GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) – and in glorious 3 strip Technicolor to boot! That very same year RKO produced their own impressive pull out matte comp of Charles Laughton atop the storied Parisian cathedral for the closing shot of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME by integrating miniature rear projection into matte art under visual effects director Vernon Walker.

…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