tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post576917396821790699..comments2024-03-27T23:06:28.849+13:00Comments on Matte Shot - a tribute to Golden Era special fx: Earthquake - it really was an event.NZPetehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13863364769084676156noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-26300556089392117062018-03-15T15:41:25.562+13:002018-03-15T15:41:25.562+13:00Huge fan of Earthquake. Its a classic. It is the...Huge fan of Earthquake. Its a classic. It is the film I have to thank for igniting my appreciation for Visual Effects. I was only 8 when it came out in 74 but I immediately wanted to know how it was done. What I love so much about the FX shots is their organic-ness. Shot in real light outdoors and then cleverly combined with studio elements. The shot that always became my signature shot was the truck cartwheeling off the freeway and the over pass colapses. In 1974 nobody had seen anything like this in a movie theater. Albert Whitlocks Matte shots are amazing and give the film so much scope. I've seen the film countless times. Though it is a bit clunky in plot it is one the classics of the Disaster genre. I still quote lines from it today. Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14021017939594744831noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-46104545283967303172014-03-08T12:27:23.133+13:002014-03-08T12:27:23.133+13:00Hi there and Kamusta Ka,
I appreciate your note v...Hi there and Kamusta Ka,<br /><br />I appreciate your note very much and if you would be happy to, I'd like to chat about your grandfather via email. I really only learned of Ben through a fellow special effects friend in Spain who is more of an expert than me in Ben's particular area of expertise - those big painted backdrops used to add so much expansion to movie sets. I know my colleague would also love to chat with you about whatever you can tell us about Ben. We strive to 'tell the story' on fellows like him, who worked so tirelessly for so long, often without credit, and often with nobody even knowing of their existence.<br /><br />O Sige Ingat<br /><br />Peter<br />NZPetehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13863364769084676156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-34042624139034689392014-03-08T11:54:25.649+13:002014-03-08T11:54:25.649+13:00I would like to thank you from the bottom of my he...I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving my Grandfather, Ben Resella, credit for the beautiful work he did on Earthquake. He was an amazingly creative individual who continues to inspire our entire family to this day. I happened to purchase a Special Effects book for my 9 year old son and last night he noticed "Grandpa's painting". Sadly, no mention of his name was made. I had no idea that he was not given credit for his work for so long and it appears as if you're the only one to ever bring this point up publicly online. He passed away while residing at the MPTV Retirement Home 5 years ago next week. SkyeHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10871055246168261633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-37461873982599952592012-03-23T06:37:31.404+13:002012-03-23T06:37:31.404+13:00Really great post. I had the experience of seeing...Really great post. I had the experience of seeing a revival of this at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Blvd in Sensurround. I was so cool, and a little unsettling to be watching the Hollywood Dam collapse on film knowing it was practically on top of the theater..tmp00https://www.blogger.com/profile/07394341047945443955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-22742201987635872882012-02-16T08:45:27.807+13:002012-02-16T08:45:27.807+13:00This is really priceless. This movie has always be...This is really priceless. This movie has always been one of my favourites since I was a child and I was eaten alive by curiosity to know all about its technical gimnicks. Love this topic and the way it reveals the making of process. <br /><br />Thank you very much indeed :-)Dejavuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02798783904615086525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-10839487099273183582011-01-09T06:51:36.935+13:002011-01-09T06:51:36.935+13:00Fantastic. Thank you for this. I loved these sce...Fantastic. Thank you for this. I loved these scenes so much I started making my own versions and filmin them in super8. I even presented my own little version at my school. I Got to very high standard before hormones kicked in and found other things to play with. At 45, I plan to start again with my own earthquake special effects this coming year on video.<br /><br />Mark JosephMarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07445518701456014002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-69071587399649512262010-11-21T21:25:42.095+13:002010-11-21T21:25:42.095+13:00This blog is intended primarily as a tribute to th...This blog is intended primarily as a tribute to the inventiveness and ingenuity of the craft of the matte painter during Hollywood’s Golden Era. Earthquake really was an event.Ron Mylarhttp://www.mylarstoreonline.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-15879722894521433852010-10-20T15:39:07.357+13:002010-10-20T15:39:07.357+13:00Hi Otto,
Well I too saw this at the Cinerama thea...Hi Otto,<br /><br />Well I too saw this at the Cinerama theatre - though without question not the same one. I saw loved that CINERAMA logo on those theatres and the fact that the whole marketing, exhibition and viewing experience at the time really was a big event. Like you, i saw it several times (70mm + Sennsurround) and it really got me hooked on effects, and bringing to my attention one gentleman by the name of Albert Whitlock!NZPetehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13863364769084676156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-78427917293513990302010-10-20T10:13:50.024+13:002010-10-20T10:13:50.024+13:00I was 10 when this movie came out. The Cinerama th...I was 10 when this movie came out. The Cinerama theater in my home town was just across the river. A kid's ticket was one dollar, and my friends and i went to see it about six or seven times! Some of the older kids made fun of me because i couldn't bring myself to laugh along with them when people were falling to their deaths.<br /><br />But i certainly got a laugh out of Marjoe Gortner's character. What a great role for him.<br /><br />On another note, I have a theory that most disaster movies were merely 50s style melodramas set against a great disaster. The melodrama had gone out of fashion at the box office, but it was able to have its last gasp in the catastrophe epic!!! (Earthquake director MARK ROBSON had indeed directed two such melodramas: Peyton Place, and Valley of the Dolls!)Otto Mannixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11490313031593310650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-73203667720325400702010-09-20T13:09:10.302+12:002010-09-20T13:09:10.302+12:00Re: reflective flicker gag - here's some more ...Re: reflective flicker gag - here's some more info I missed courtesy of Bill Taylor...<br />..."In the case of Earthquake, the foreground device that modulated the painted cel was a rotating wheel with a pattern painted on it. Any kind of rotating wheel would be photographed in several passes at different speeds, so that the patterns would change as they moved, and there would be no repeats".NZPetehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13863364769084676156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-56479986189198081652010-09-19T13:17:13.700+12:002010-09-19T13:17:13.700+12:00To my frequent 'anonymous' reader - RE Ear...To my frequent 'anonymous' reader - RE Earthquake's gag device to add flickers to painted sections, well I asked Bill Taylor this and a zillion other questions and I'm pleased to say that Bill is extremely helpful and a genuinely nice guy. The technical info is extensive so for our purposes here in the comment reply I'll paste a little of Bill's explanantion:<br />"The flicker effect used one of Al's favorite techniques, the cel overlay. When he needed to isolate or create a highlight on a painting, he would tape a big cel over the dry painting and then paint the highlights he wanted to control separately onto the cel. For example, if he wanted to show cloud shadows moving over hills, he would paint the hills in shadow on the main painting and then paint the highlights on the cel. Then he would transfer the cel in register, taped to a new, unpainted glass the same size as the original. (We would shoot a hand test of the overlay and the original painting on film and develop it quickly in the darkroom, then project that negative onto the new glass to position the cel.) Then the cel would be double-exposed onto the painting through a moving foreground glass with, say, cloud shadows painted on it. The illusion of moving shadows was remarkably convincing. You would swear the shadows wrapped around the hills in three dimensions, which of course they did not".<br /><br />Now you can't ask for much more than that.<br /><br />PeterNZPetehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13863364769084676156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-28152942500670366492010-09-02T04:11:03.085+12:002010-09-02T04:11:03.085+12:00Peter,
I'm nearly certain that the DVD sent to...Peter,<br />I'm nearly certain that the DVD sent to me by Netflix (is that service down in NZ?) had either a commentary or a supplemental feature with that info. (I don't think I'm making it up...)<br /><br />BTW, while the blood splatter is cheap and awful, as a kid in the theater that day, it was great!<br /><br />Keep up the great work!<br />IvanIvanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16443946766217092846noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-12086213738165442352010-09-01T15:35:26.123+12:002010-09-01T15:35:26.123+12:00Hi Ivan,
I didn't know there was a special ed...Hi Ivan,<br /><br />I didn't know there was a special edition of EQ on disc? I must learn more.<br /><br />Peter,<br /><br />I'm putting together a little photo tribute to Syd Dutton with quite a few of his Universal and Illusion Arts mattes. I'm afraid the blogger might fill up too fast and 'cut me off in my prime'.<br /><br />Anonymous - I'll call you 'John Doe' which pertains very closely to my former career - nuff said! I don't know about the actual gizmo for that effect. My amateur guess is that Al did some sort of separate pass with some sort of animation with coloured gels - but that's just a guess on my part. I do recall seeing some sort of gels or something on one of those paintings at Universal, but it's so long ago i can't recall/NZPetehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13863364769084676156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-23590527581034649172010-09-01T04:23:17.445+12:002010-09-01T04:23:17.445+12:00Pete, would you know what the "device" w...Pete, would you know what the "device" was that allowed Al to put the fire reflections into that last matte painting shot ?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-56761791089969598682010-09-01T03:47:14.114+12:002010-09-01T03:47:14.114+12:00Great article Pete.
Filming miniatures in natural...Great article Pete.<br /><br />Filming miniatures in natural light always helps. Derek Meddings did it a lot when he went into films after the Anderson years.<br /><br />That matte with the truck and the guy (Heston?) and the hills behind him is fantastic!<br /><br />I'm more used to seeing the Earthquake shots with Cylon Raiders comped in from the first episode of Galactica 1980!<br /><br />I hope you do some more stuff on Universal VFX. The Fulton piece was exceptional too.<br /><br />Best,<br /><br />PeterPeter Noblehttp://www.tombsofkobol.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7063592677187148799.post-78253946697640231452010-09-01T03:11:29.427+12:002010-09-01T03:11:29.427+12:00NZ Pete:
Another great walk down SPFX memory lane;...NZ Pete:<br />Another great walk down SPFX memory lane; thanks!<br />BTW: According to a supplemental on the DVD for EQ, it was mentioned that the mylar/"bending skyscraper" shot was originally a test shot, specifically of The Black Tower, Universal's headquarters. Either the producers decided to leave it in as a gag, or because time and money were short and they needed filler.Ivanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16443946766217092846noreply@blogger.com