The World of Charles Dickens

Due to some server/backup issues, there are going to be a couple of repeat posts and for that I apologise, I’ll try and keep it to a minimum.

In the thirties young entrepreneur and budding movie mogul David O’Selznick produced some fine Dickens films at MGM – DAVID COPPERFIELD and the aforementioned TALE OF TWO CITIES. Among the people Selznick had around him on these two films was the highly regarded visual consultant and montage exponent Slavko Vorkapich (pictured here). Vorkapich, a Yugoslav immigrant was held in extremely high regard (and no doubt suspicion by some dyed in the wool studio heads) for his creativity in visual stylisation on many pictures of the thirties and forties – an era when the credit ‘montages by’ were commonplace in on screen credit rolls. Being European, Vorkapich had an entirely un-Hollywood approach and ideals. Seen as an intellectual who saw ‘film’ as much more than a mere commercial enterprise but as a form of high art when properly handled (what those manipulative, greedy power brokers running studios thought of him I’d love to know). Selznick himself used Vorkapich as often as possible on many films to transform the mundane into the memorable. I believe the look of those two Selznick versions illustrated here are to a large extent the result of Slavko’s input – probably as much or more so than resident chief art director Cedric Gibbons who by contractual arrangement had himself acknowleged on far more MGM pictures than he ever actually worked on…

…Read the Full Article @ Matte Shot
A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX

Please Note: Now, I am going further back into the archives of Matte Shot – A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX to feature even more articles from this great site.

This blog is intended primarily as a tribute to the inventiveness and ingenuity of the craft of the matte painter during Hollywoods’ Golden Era. 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.