Matte Shot - a tribute to Golden Era special fx

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.

Thursday 5 September 2024

MATTE & EFFECTS FILMS CELEBRATED: Part Seven

Welcome fans and devotees of old school mattes, models and clever trick photography. It's time once again for another giant of a blog post, and I do emphasize, giant! I never do these things by half-measures and always try to cover all possible bases when examining and illustrating these amazing hand rendered moments of movie magic.

I have a vast collection of shots here, from a very broad cross section of movies. As usual there are some very rare mattes that nobody has ever seen which should utterly delight the aficionados among you (you know who you are!). There are a few well known films - at least to those of us of a certain age - and some long forgotten celluloid entertainments, the titles of which are largely lost to the mists of time, which isn't to say they shouldn't be celebrated. There's some great work to be seen here even from quite minor and obscure pictures folks that I bet 99% of you have never heard of. Also, for those who thrive on close up details, I've got some sensational hi-rez detail images from some very rare old time mattes that I just know certain matte friends out there will love.

So, we've got a never before seen Albert Whitlock matte that's simply glorious; several very rare pieces from the family of Matthew Yuricich; a quanity of miniature and detailed matte fx shot breakdowns from an Emmy Award winning tv miniseries; several amazing before and after scenes from the celebrated Larry Butler & Donald Glouner; a truckload of mattes from a big Warners costume epic; a neglected RKO desert island classic .... and more!!!

So, with that rambling intro out of the way, let us set forth on a journey of sheer wonder and amazement.

Enjoy, and I always appreciate any feedback and comments...

Pete

***This vast and utterly exhaustive post, and all 185 previous blog posts known as 'Matte Shot', were originally created by Peter Cook for nzpetesmatteshot, with all content, layout and text originally published at http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/

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ALBERT WHITLOCK'S MAGNIFICENT MATTE THAT NEVER MADE THE FINAL CUT:

This awe inspiring full matte painting on glass was rendered in 1977 by Albert for the very misguided John Boorman sequel, EXORCIST 2 - THE HERETIC, though it's unlikely anyone ever saw the shot. Although completed and shot, I don't think it's in the film. This beautiful masterpiece was hanging in the foyer of matte cinematographer, the late Bill Taylor's home, taking pride of place, as well it should.

Bill said that the matte was in a preliminary cut of EXORCIST 2 as best he recalled it, though I've seen at least 3 different versions of the flick - which is probably 3 too many - and never managed to spot the shot. The film had a confused release back in the day, and was literally laughed off the screen. Warner suits demanded an urgent re-cut and re-jig to make it even slightly commercial (didn't help), so maybe this shot was jettisoned. In a former life I worked for the local distribution arm of Warner Bros and recall the 'carry-on', with prints being substituted with revised reels shipped in at the last minute, though I digress...

Anyway, the painting (detail above) is 100% classic Whitlock in all his technique, feeling of backlight, sillhoettes slinking awaay into the haze.... just brilliant. Al's time honoured brushmanship was as good as it gets. Breathtaking.

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TOM HIGGINSON'S LATEST ESSENTIAL YOUTUBE MATTE DOCO:

In the ever expanding catalogue of excellent online specialty video featurettes, my friend Tom Higginson has produced yet another essential documentary on the Universal and subsequent Illusion Arts matte departments, with this entry being as comprehensive a guide as one could ever need on the step by step creation of a traditional matte shot. This video may be seen here.

The essence of this documentary is the old 80's AIRWOLF tv series - a show that Tom seems to have an inexplicable affinity for - with detailed progress of some fine Syd Dutton brush skills and Bill Taylor composite photography. I've seen the pilot but I don't recall whether the actual series was ever shown here in New Zealand??

The doco is loaded with clips, not just from AIRWOLF, but various before and afters from other Universal shows like TALES OF THE GOLD MONKEY and various others, to illustrate Syd's amazing skills. There are plenty of behind the scenes snapshots of the various members of the matte crew at work, which in themselves are priceless, and a dazzling slow flyover across the entire Universal Studios lot, which I found just brilliant.

Where the doco will really leave the viewer's jaw on the floor, are the meticulous and no doubt incredibly time consuming 3D recreations that Tom has rendered, to take the viewer around the Uni matte department and into the myriad of camera booths, painting rooms, showreel storage and pretty much everything except the toilet!! This and all the other video doco's that Tom has produced may be found here.

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THE FILMUMENTARIES PODCASTS.

In another multi-media realm, I must heartily recommend the wonderful series of movie podcasts put together by Jamie Benning in the United Kingdom. Jamie has carried out 108+ interviews - often at quite some length - with many notable film industry folk, and in particular matte and effects people such as Michael Pangrazio, Craig Barron, Dennis Muren and (soon) Chris Evans, among many others. His most recent podcast was an illuminating conversation with former ILM matte artist, Caroleen 'Jett' Green. Jamie's Filmumentaries site can be found here.

Jett's honest and very open interview can be heard right here.

The effervescent Caroleen 'Jett' Green, seen here at work on a painting for GHOSTBUSTERS 2.

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A LONG LOST MATTE ARTIFACT SUDDENLY RESURFACES.

In my recent epic April blog post I covered - among other things - a grand old MGM musical extravaganza starring Esther Williams, MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID (1952). We can briefly revisit the big money shot here, and not because of any form of dementia on my part, I assure you. True!

As these tend to happen from time to time, a long lost matte painting suddenly arrives in my in-box, with the sender asking if I can identify same. Well, of bloody course I can i.d this beautiful piece... it's from MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID which I had only just published up a month or so ago!!

The matte is in the collection of another of Matthew Yuricich's family - his daughter I believe - and had been tucked away for some time. The painting (oh brother, would I love to own this one), was not the work of Matthew as he was still at 20th Century Fox at that time and hadn't made the big move over to MGM yet.

A masterpiece of matte art, with splendid perspective lines. I am most grateful to the Yuricich family for the masses of material they have shared. It's quite often that a reader or someone promises to send a particular 'amazing' matte that they own, yet the picture never shows up! This is why I am forever grateful to folks like the families Of Matthew, Jan Domela, Irmin Roberts, Wally Veevers etc, and guys like Harrison Ellenshaw (a true gentleman!), Ken Marschall (incredible generosity), Gene Warren jnr, Mark Sullivan, Gerald Larn and Jim Danforth.

Note the absent flags which were later bipacked in as live action 'fluttering' elements.

This is likely the work of Matt's friend, Howard Fisher, as Matt has several of Howard's paintings in the family collection. Matthew was fortunate in grabbing quite a number of wonderful MGM matte paintings when the studio were demolishing the old Newcombe department in the 1970's, with so much either being junked or lifted by non-studio people who just happened upon them.

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MYSTERY BEFORE & AFTERS FROM THE BUTLER/GLOUNER DEPARTMENT.

I've been most fortunate to acquire a sizable and exciting collection of, often amazing, before and after mattes as well as numerous miniature tests and out takes from Columbia Pictures, mostly dating from the 1940's, and for the most part, from the legendary effects man Lawrence W. Butler and his long time matte cinematographer Donald Glouner. Matte artists working there at the time included Juan Larrinaga and Hans Bartholowsky. What follows are a few choice examples, with other significant examples illustrated further down the current blog. I will add more great Butler/Glouner shots in subsequent blogs, so stay tuned.

Sadly, many of the reels I've got aren't titled, though some I have managed to match up. This live action plate, masked for not one but two different matte paintings, remains a mystery to me.

Matte comp #1, where almost all of the frame has been painted in quite invisibly.

Matte comp #2 from the same film. Obviously a Civil War picture, made in the 40's, but the title is a mystery. Any info forthcoming from readers would be appreciated.

Another great matte painting from Columbia - also from an unknown picture.

I always like to see the slate, or clapper in old fx shots, as we can see the matte line as well as often useful information on the slate as to director, year etc. This era remains my favourite for mattes.

Finished composite, though as with that other Civil War film, this same 'plate' with beach and ocean will be used again for a revised version of the house, buildings and trees, presumably showing the locale at a different time in the same film.

The revised painting with many changes to buildings and foliage.

Final of the revised, or secondary matte shot. Film unknown.

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NZ PETE'S HALL OF FAME MATTE SHOT - Part Two

In Part One, I illustrated one of the greatest mattes of them all, Skull Island from the original KING KONG. Here is another entry in my continuing series of all time 'Hall of Fame' mattes...

After his initial tenure at Fox, Matthew Yuricich - along with fellow matte artist Lee LeBlanc and fx cinematographer Clarence Slifer - moved across to MGM.

One of the biggest projects Yuricich would ever work on was the mammoth William Wyler epic BEN HUR (1959). Lee LeBlanc had replaced Warren Newcombe as head of the matte department and received screen credit, though Lee and Matthew split the matte load evenly between them, with this jaw dropping establishing shot being among Matthew's very best work.

As was the MGM technique, very large B&W photo enlargements of the partial set were made and shellacked onto hardboard, from whence the matte artist would paint either set extensions or in this case the entire city of Rome.

At the time, the CinemaScope optics had an unavoidable deforming artifact on the left and right edges of the frame - visible clearly when one watches old Scope films where a pan shot distorts curiously on the sides of the action. As a result, mattes for CinemaScope had to be painted specially to accomodate that undesired optical distortion, by introducing a deliberate 'squeeze' painted into the left and right sides of the matte (or sometimes even paint the entire matte 'squeezed' to begin with as latter day artist Ken Marschall would do) whereby anamorphic projection would 'unsqueeze' in near to accurate proportions.

A close up taken under raking light shows a myriad of tiny holes drilled into the Masonite to allow for simulated 'audience' movement.

The reverse side demonstrating the carefully arranged holes drilled, and sometimes covered with coloured gels, where backlight 'gags' would be introduced by Clarence Slifer when photographing the shot. It's subtle, but as the great Al Whitlock once said: "You may not notice it... but you do notice when it's not there".

Thankfully, the wonderful matte is still in fine condition, and in the care of one of Matt Yuricich's sons.

Strangely, BEN HUR won the Academy Award for Best Special Effects... but, and it's a big but.. that was only awarded in the 'mechanical effects, process shots and miniatures' category, (for the big sea battle sequence) and not for matte paintings!! FX Oscars were broken down into 5 sub-categories for many years. But don't get me started on fucken' Oscar injustices.................... Jesus!!!!

The final shot as it appears on screen.

The matte painting room at MGM in 1959. Note the other BEN HUR paintings resting against the wall.

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ANOTHER LOST YURICICH MATTE - THE STUFF FAIRY TALES ARE MADE OF.

Time for yet another mind-blowing matte from yester year - and another that had remained a total mystery to Matthew Yuricich's family... My first glance immediately put a name to the art, THE GLASS SLIPPER (1955). I almost needed a defibrilator to restart my heart when I opened the very high rez photographs they sent me! Seriously folks!!!!!

The film had several mattes, though mostly so-so photo blow ups with painted additions, though the main money shot was this terrific Cinderella castle.

A masterfully rendered Yuricich matte from THE GLASS SLIPPER that is absolutely dear to my NZ Pete matte art tastes.

Detail #1

Detail #2

Detail #3

Detail #4

Detail #5

Detail #6

Below is a wonderful letter from Dirk Yuricich, that I feel matte shot fans will really appreciate:

Hello Peter.

So nice to hear from you.

I am so glad you got the images as well as the fact that they seem to have exceeded your expectations!

Thank you for your kind words of appreciation, and thank you for championing my father's art.

Your promotion of this special art form and the individuals who created it, is such a gift to all of us.

I grew up around all these images, which I assumed to be a quite natural thing for a child.

Every night, I would fall asleep, looking at one of dad's paintings from "Forbidden Planet", showing the "Krell" graveyard and the surrreal topography of that distant planet.

This was never frightening to me as a boy, rather it was a window into another world to explore. A window my father opened for me.

We learned to spot (decipher) matte shots in all the films (not just dad's) at the tender age of 8.

We were taught to understand the logical positioning or need for a matte in a particular scene, as well as, understood its limitations.

We knew that cathedral upper interiors couldn't be lit properly with the movie company lights, for a scene, so a matte was usually required to fill the pillars, and vaulting ceilings.

Dad often didn't have the time to go see other films, and check out his colleague's work.

He would send us to see the movie and then ask us to report how the mattes looked.

Even as teenage boys, we knew the familiar names of Whitlock, Ellenshaw, etc...

Such a part of my life.

Sincerely,

Dirk

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A GRAND CINEMASCOPE EPIC FROM WARNER BROS.

Great poster ad-art of the type never seen any longer. I still have thousands of old classic one-sheets and lobby cards, though a chunk were lost in the flood last year. Fucking rain!

Evocative ad campaign, plus the magnificent French actress Brigitte Bardot, who though not the star, damned well should have been 'cause I've always had a thing for Miss Bardot... though I digress.

Warner's big Scope epic - one of many they made at the time when it was all the rage. HELEN OF TROY (1955) was okay but not the best of the genre. It might have been if Miss Bardot had been given more screen time, or even the title role. Oh, Brigette.... we love 'ya baby!

Matte supervisor was Louis Litchtenfield, with the highly talented Robert Wise helming the show. Bob Wise started off cutting classics such as CITIZEN KANE at RKO and went on to direct a couple of my faves such as THE SAND PEBBLES and especially the still excellent THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN.

Top left pic shows matte artist & photographic effects supervisor Lou Litchtenfield (left) discussing an effects shot with the head of production at Warners. Other pix show various sets and unmatted scenes.

Before and after of one of the many sets built at Cinecetta in Rome.

Helen, as played by Rosanna Podesta, with her love interest Jacques Sernas. The delightful Brigette Bardot is shown at lower left, and on reflection is probably just too damned cute to play a conceited bitch like Helen of Troy... or is it just me?

The film is packed with matte and effects shots, with some variable results, probably due to many different hands involved with the brushwork.

Lou Litchtenfield had an extensive background, starting off in the late 1930's on GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) at Selznick International as a lowly assistant to Jack Cosgrove and would go on to flip-flop between as many studios on films such as THE FOUNTAINHEAD (1949) and AN AMERICAN IN PARIS as he could to pick up new techniques from other artists such as Mario Larrinaga, Howard Fisher, Chesley Bonestell, Lee LeBlanc and Paul Detlefsen.

It's possible that some matte or glass shots may have been carried out directly at Cinecitta during or after production, but I'm not sure. There is a possibility that Polish born matte painter Joseph Natanson may have worked on the film? He had trained in Britain under the legendary Poppa Day and moved to Italy in the mid fifties to work at Cinecitta. There are certainly many different styles evident in the painted mattes.

Live foreground and painted in distant scenery and sky.

At the time this was made, old timer Paul Detlefsen - who had been with Warners since the early 1930's - had retired to follow his passion of model trains and calendar art. Lou had been with the studio for a few years now and worked on many of their films.

Other artists active in the Warners matte department included Vern Taylor and Jack Shaw - both of whom had done significant work alongside Lou on the Academy Award winning MIGHTY JOE YOUNG. There were also Clyde Scott and Cliff Silsby.

I do wonder whether some shots may have been foreground glasses as opposed to post production mattes?

The film has yet to see any form of HD or BluRay release.

Travelling matte comp of the massive invading armada, presumably all, or mostly, models, possibly supplemented by matte art.

The invaders storm ashore. Split screen with live lower frame and painted upper half.

A closer view, with parts of the army passing under the matte line, but who ever notices apart from me?

The quality of the trick shots varies greatly, presumably due to dupe process used for matte composites which in cases like this, bring out lousy contrast and hues all out of whack.

Probably extended with artwork?

Quite an effective scene with thousands of warrior hordes, almost all of whom were matte painted and augmented with small slot gags and such.

It was probably the biggest effects show for Robert Wise until he made THE HINDENBURG in 1975.

The film had several censor excisions made here in New Zealand back in the day, with this arrow through the neck and a few other shots being removed. The orgy too proved problematic ... but don't they always?? ;)

Peculiar colour scheme here where the city has taken on a whole different hue for some unknown fx reason. The fire effects were well done, and entirely simulated as vfx elements in the mate dept, with smoke added separately.

Slightly modified matte art used in two different scenes.

Probably the best matte in the show, with wonderful light and a terrific sky beyond. Nice.

The mythical horse of the title finally makes an appearence... and the fools fell for it, hook, line and sinker!!

The orgy at the climax.... or should that read as the climax at the orgy? I dunno?? Anyway, much shameless decadence occurs, and according to our then NZ chief censor of films, a little too much, with the ecstatic gal carried forth on a platter scene apparently deemed a little too much for Kiwi audiences in 1955, so out it came.

I may not have mentioned it, but the utterly divine Miss Brigitte Bardot was in HELEN OF TROY ... elle est magnifique!

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INVISIBLE MATTE TRICKERY FROM A MINOR COLUMBIA 'B' PICTURE.

A minor little 'B' movie from Columbia, THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN (1946) featured a very interesting matte shot from Larry Butler and Donald Glouner which is well worth inclusion here.

More wonderful footage I've acquired from the Butler-Glouner collection, with this being especially fascinating as it's a rejected take due to severe camera jiggle. Click on it and toggle through the frames to see the screw up. The matte eventually did get corrected and made it into the finished film, and it's a really nice shot that nobody would spot.

Far more painted in than one might expect, and very accomplished it was too.

A very talented artist was employed at Columbia throughout the 1940's, Mexico born Juan Larrinaga - the brother of Mario Larrinaga - and this work may be his or maybe Hans Bartolowsky who was also there.

Seriously misaligned matte jiggle evident, with the actual take bouncing all over the place.

The final as seen in the movie where the negative weave has been corrected, likely using an alternate take.

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MATTES EXPAND THE CANVAS FOR MGM MUSICAL DRAMA

A very good and at times quite powerful drama set amid the musical world, LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME (1955) had a great headline cast, as unlikely as it may seem, perfectly paired.

These old hand painted lettered-titles are also a lost artform.

More old school MGM mattes from the Yuricich family, with this particular painting being a Howard Fisher rendering on masonite, that Matthew saved from destruction at MGM.

The composite shot, assembled by matte cameraman Mark Davis.

Close up of Howard's matte.

More detail. Howard was Warren Newcombe's senior painter and worked on hundreds of mattes, dating as far back as the early thirties and forties on Oscar winning shows like the huge effects films GREEN DOLPHIN STREET and 30 SECONDS OVER TOKYO - with one of his notable works being for FORBIDDEN PLANET with that incredible Krell power plant tilt down shot - and much later worked for Linwood Dunn on IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD in the early sixties.

The Newcombe department prided themselves with shots just like this, with beautiful theatre frontages and gliterring bulbs and neons. MGM were top of the game with this stuff, and Matt Yuricich was often tasked with drilling out the tiny holes and afixing the coloured gels at the back.

These wonderful neon theatre signs are a genre all unto themselves, and one in which I'm very fond of. I own a lovely old 1940's Newcombe 'theatre' matte painting, and it's always a source of enjoyment to admire it and even to back-light the still coloured gel 'holes' behind the 'light bulbs'.

A wonderful daytime exterior theatre matte painting by Matthew Yuricich for LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME. Superb and complicated perspective drawing on the differently positioned lettering, especially at far right.

Final comp of the Yuricich matte art.

Close up

Love that skilled lettering work so much.

Alternate night view with flickering neons and such.

Click and toggle between the 2 frames to see the neon animation.

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HUGE EMMY AWARD WINNING VISUAL EFFECTS MINISERIES.

THE WINDS OF WAR (1983) was a mammoth tv miniseries, or really a maxi-series as it totalled around 15 hours as I recall. A bit of an endurance test, but pretty good as I recall.

The series featured a ton of effects, from the standard full scale physical effects, through to complex miniature combat in the skies and the seas, as well as a number of excellent matte paintings. The small company Matte Effects, operated by artist Ken Marschall (left) and cameraman/producer Bruce Block (middle) was situated within the vfx facility Fantasy II, run by Gene Warren jnr (right).

A large tank was constructed on the Paramount backlot, exactly where a similar tank had been built in 1955 for the epic parting of the Red Seas sequence for Cecil B. DeMille's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. The miniatures were built under the supervision of old timer Lee Vasque, who was enticed out of retirement for this assignment. Jack Cooperman was in charge of miniature photography.

The miniature photography was mostly completed in a mere three weeks apparently.

Model cameraman Jack Cooperman and assistant Eric Anderson plus two grips, prep a ship for a sequence in the tank.

All round effects and production artist, Mike Minor, was vfx art director on the show. Mike's career went back to things like FLESH GORDON and a number of low budget pictures.

A battery of fans and hoses supply a mother of a storm sequence.

Miniature air base shot in forced perspective against an actual location, and in natural light - always a bonus.

Excellent aerial sequences all carried out in miniature. Some aircraft travel on wires - probably via a Lydecker system - while some shots used remote controlled models.

Leading man Robert Mitchum and various fx shots including a matte augmented view of London with barrage balloons above.

VFX sequence by Gene Warren jnr at Fantasy II. Partial miniature with substantial pyro matted into an actual location.

Matte Effects was a small two-staff boutique fx operation in Los Angeles, founded and run by matte painter Ken Marschall and cinematographer-producer Bruce Block. The company consisted of pretty much just one room in the Fantasy II effects facility where Bruce had a camera set up and solid, welded matte camera stand. Ken, on the other hand, did the majority of his incredible matte paintings at his home, often on the kitchen table. Practically all of Ken's mattes were painted on a special art card stock (top left), imported from Germany. The bottom left pic shows one of the extremely rare occasions that Ken painted on another surface, in this case it's glass (which he was never happy working with), for a special 'display' glass matte for a vfx exhibit.

Plate for a Matte Effects shot: The original scene shot at the Paramount Studios tank in 1982, with large miniatures of US and British cruisers depicting the naval rendezvous in Ship Harbour at Argentia, Newfoundland for the meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill on Aug 10th 1941.

The plate with an optical matte where the edges have formed an unexpected fringe that was difficult to deal with.

Ken's painting with airbrushed in fog banks. More 'fog' was later added over the original photography to help disguise the matte line and add atmosphere to the scene.

Close up of Ken's matte art. All acrylics though Ken would occasionally resort to lead pencil, coloured pencils, Sharpie markers for super rich blacks, and often an acrylic gloss medium over certain areas to increase saturation and darken slightly when needed.

The finished shot with blends successful.

Gene Warren jnr wrote me a detailed piece on Ken and Bruce in 2015 which I included in the extensive three-parter on Matte Effects. Interestingly, they first met by way of a shot brought to Gene by Larry Butler, around 1980 or so. Butler was also instrumental in bringing WINDS OF WAR to Fantasy II. Gene told me that a tiny and rather basic 12 x 12 foot room was built in the Fantasy II facility just for Ken and Bruce, and that was about all they needed to make amazing mattes. The matte camera had both 4-perf and 8-perf capabilities, with the matte stand illuminated with just two baby spots (1000 watt quartz) with polarizer filters. Gene's own Fantasy II optical department processed all the tests and did any optical reductions or other printer work.

A different view of Argentia, this time an evening shot.

For another scene in WINDS OF WAR Ken and Bruce had to create a wide view of Moscow in long shot. Ken told me that director Dan Curtis wanted the Kremlin, which was many miles away, to look more red. Curtis proclaimed "It's the Red Square...the Red Army...it just has to look red". Curtis was in charge and made it known. Ken: "So I had to adjust it, despite protests until he was satisfied, but of course Bruce and I knew that it reduced the credibility of the scene."

The concept sketch made by a member of the art department, and Ken's final painting propped up against his car. The matte was donated to director Dan Curtis at the end of production. The reader can appreciate just how small Ken painted his mattes, as his finely detailed brush work was quite the opposite of other matte artists who would block in and use time saving methods and a more loose approach.

From the final scene as a broad pan across.

Miniature trees were placed in front of the painting to lend a nice perspective shift, and Gene Warren added a nice lens flare as the pan crosses over.

A rough concept sketch over a frame blow up, done by a production member, formed the basis for a major action sequence taking place at Cavite, in The Philippines.

For the initial element of a row of burning buildings, a fairly basic miniature table-top set was set alight in the Fantasy II parking lot. Ken described to me the Fantasy II facility. "It wasn't huge, on an obscure side street in Burbank. You could drive past it and not even know it. I don't even remember a sign outside. But they accomplished a lot there. It was a family, really. The majority of the employees hung in there with Gene and his partner Lesley Huntley for years and years, through thick and thin. Dedication and loyalty. Real team work. Gene was always scurrying around, full of energy and enthusiasm. Gene was a second generation effects man, His father was an old time vfx man and a partner in the company Project Unlimited from the 1950's and 60's."

The live action plate matted off.

The burning miniature was optically moved to the appropriate area of the frame and split screened into the live action plate.

A new matte was then created to cover the bad match between the miniature and the foreground. Into this opaque matte Ken and Bruce would make what they termed as an 'orange base matte'.

Ken's bridging matte painting - one of many patch jobs matte artists have had to contend with. The 'orange base process' used here for this shot is by painting in odd low contrast greenish-yellowish hued IP colours and photographing on IP stock, which would 'read' as normal colours once the footage came back from the lab. This peculiar matte process was the one preferred by fx people such as Douglas Trumbull and Matthew's brother Richard, where on films like BLADERUNNER Matt Yuricich was forced to paint in wierd colour schemes, which drove him crazy, to suit the chosen intermediate duplicating film stock.

Ken's 'orange base matte' ties the model and the live action but still needed final adjustments to conceal the matte line. Ken said he wished he could have worked with a soft matte but as this was an entirely optical printer job, that wasn't possible. Bruce and Ken preferred to work whenever possible with latent image o/neg matte shots.

The final shot once carefully blended. Ken said this minor matte was quite a challenge, and has shown me examples of some of the seemingly smallest or simple mattes he'd worked on over the years which proved to be so incredibly problematic.

The Red Square sequence was a close call as well. Here's a vivid pre-production concept painting and at right is Ken's almost final drawing which had more buildings in it than would be in the eventual painting. Note the remarks for changes and alterations, presumably from the director.

The shot would be a three part composite, with two separate pieces of live action combined and a matte painting filling out the Red Square. The archway (left) was one live element and some of the lower portion of the other building shot elsewhere (right) were carefully matted as one.

Ken's matte art, quite different from his initial layout drawing.

Close up detail. Note Ken's rendering of light.

According to Ken the whole shot was completed on Feb 8th 1983, just days before the television premier. He said there must have been some last minute changes to the scene, thus the close call.

For the big Pearl Harbour sequence Matte Effects were asked to create a master shot. Here is the original plate shoot of the miniatures in the Paramount tank.

The black matte in place.

Ken Marschall's matte painting.

Final composite with airbrushed smoke

A frame from the miniature shoot in the tank, with a large painted backing. The fleet will be extended considerably through matte art.

A quick paint onto a photographic print guided Ken as to the requirements of the shot.

Tank footage masked off.

Matte painting. Note the painted in 'wakes' which will marry up when double exposed in with the miniature ships.

Detail

The finished shot, sans the lightning elements.

Close ups of the two lightning elements employed as part of the above matte composite. These were backlit and DX'd in during a second and third pass through the matte camera.

*For a very detailed history of just how Matte Effects got up and running, and an in depth discussion with Ken and Bruce on their methods, films and hundreds of effects shots, go here, here and here.

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AN IMPRESSIVE WARTIME DRAMA SET DURING THE BLITZ

An enjoyable and at times quite moving drama set in London during the bombing blitz of WWII, TONIGHT AND EVERY NIGHT (1946) featured a surprising amount of visual effects work by Lawrence Butler, Doanld Glouner and Ray Cory.

Almost all matte art here, with this theatre being central to the story, as The Music Box was a venue that literally would never miss a single show, despite all the mayhem going on around. It was a symbol to keep up the morale of the Londoner's during the war. I think it was based on an actual event.

Entirely painted signage.

Although it appears to be nothing much, this is actually a rather ingenious trick shot sequence. The audience are watching a movie on a cinema screen. Performers on screen do a musical bit and then march across in black & white and come off screen in full Technicolor. Sounds a bit naff, but it's very well pulled off, presumably with carefully timed pre-shot rear projection and the same actors appearing on stage on cue in a continuous pan across.

Rita Hayworth watches the scene in disbelief. A beautifully photographed and lit film by the way, with exquisite use of Technicolor. Rudolph Mate was D.O.P.

Another matte painted street in London.

Before and after from the Butler/Glouner collection. I don't think this shot made the final cut.

All painted from just above the doorway.

More of London, courtesy of Columbia's matte department.

An elaborate effects set up for a blitz sequence.

A multi part fx shot with matte painting, explosions, searchlights, and tracer fire.

It all looks great in Butler's showreels, but sadly far less so in the finished film where much of this complicated vfx work is obscured and difficult to see clearly.

As a stand alone stock shot, this was routinely recycled in other films such as George Pal's THE TIME MACHINE and others (Pal was a real cheapskate and stole so many shots from other films to flesh out his own shows!) *Note the additional foreground miniatures or cut-outs here that have been employed to augment the matte vista and add another layer.

Longtime Columbia effects cameraman Ray Cory shot these explosion elements which would be optically combined with the big matte painting of London at night.

At left is the tracer fire element shot by Ray Cory which will also be added to several effects shots. The tracer looked excellent, so whether it was straight cel animation, I don't know. It looked too smooth.

As it appears in the final film, partly obscured by rooftop foreground structures, and as far as the BluRay goes, printed so bloody dark I had to lighten many night shots here just to illustrate them. Why are so many BluRays mastered so fucking dark?? The old DVD was much easier to see.

All hell breaks loose, but the British still manage to somehow 'keep calm and carry on'.

Rear projected carnage over London.

Bomb devastation. See below...

Butler/Glouner matte shot where almost everything above the actors has been painted in.

From the Butler showreel, these are far easier on the eye than the extremely dark BluRay edition.

Multi-element shot with live action foreground, matte painted set extension, searchlight animation and various explosions in the night sky. BluRay frame lightened here considerably.

It's all supposed to be strictly 'blackout' time, but there's always some damned streetlights all lit up!

Nice matte comp from Butler's reel. Matte extends just above the shop doorway.

Much destruction after the bombing.

Interestingly, it wasn't a full matte painting as it could well have been, with a curious patch for live action visible in the middle of the frame here, even though no 'action' or movement actually occurs there.

Nicely rendered post bombing wreckage.

The pub across the street is destroyed, and so is one of our beloved main characters.

Once again, a multi-element fx shot.

I've written a great amount in past blogs about Butler, in particular his work at Warner Bros in the early 1940's on some incredible effects shows.

I've no idea why these Larry Butler showreels are monochrome for the several colour productions included, but they are incredibly fascinating.

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MATTES ENHANCE PERIOD COMING-OF-AGE PICTURE.

A very typical 'soft & soapy' MGM picture, THE HAPPY YEARS (1950) was a sort of coming of age show set at the turn of the century.

There are just a few mattes in the film but I decided to include it as I have a couple of nice original mattes from the family of Matthew Yuricich. Matthew wouldn't have worked on it as it was way before his tenure at MGM, so Matt would have picked them up when they were junking the old matte department. I believe this one is the work of Howard Fisher, as Matthew described it when interviewed for my oral history back in 2012.

The shot as it appears in the film, where, oddly, the virtually full frame painting has just had actual foliage added beyond where the painted section ends.

Detail

Probable matte extension here.

What a wonderful painted sky.

Although I cannot confirm it, I suspect this matte may well have been rendered for THE HAPPY YEARS and not used in the final cut. The town and buildings look very similar. This is another matte from the Yuricich family collection.

Some detail.

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THE ORIGINAL 1940 VERSION OF A TIMELESS FAMILY ADVENTURE

Very few realise that long before Walt Disney made his version in 1960, RKO had made their one way back in 1940.

The timeless Johann Wyss book has always made for grand adventure, and I still vividly remember seeing the Disney version at the cinema (The Civic, I think?) back in the 60's as a kid. This old rendition is quite good, with Thomas Mitchell always a treat to watch.

Vernon Walker was head of special photographic effects at RKO until his untimely death in 1948. Vernon worked on such classics as the original silent LOST WORLD, KING KONG and importantly, CITIZEN KANE among many others. Vern specialised as an effects cameraman and opticals man. He was nominated for an Oscar a few times, including SWISS FAMILY for Best Special Effects in 1941 - with this film being just one of 14 pictures nominated in the category that year.

This is s largely forgotten film worthy of rediscovery and certainly remastering onto some HD format. It's very hard to find except crappy YouTubes, though the special edition 2 disc DVD of the Disney film actually has this old version included as an 'extra'.

There are a number of excellent matte shots in the film, with veteran old time matte artist Albert Maxwell Simpson providing the shots. Simpson was one of the very first cohort of matte painters, having worked with D.W Griffith on BIRTH OF A NATION in 1914, and DeMille's original TEN COMMANDMENTS in 1923. Simpson also worked uncredited on scores of films such as KING KONG (1933), THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937), REBECCA (1940) and the epic GONE WITH THE WIND (1939). For years Albert was president of the Matte Artists & Illustrators Union.

Effective process with miniature.

Split screen with painted foreground rocks above actor's heads. Distant island likely part of the same painting with ocean a separate plate possibly projected into matte art as RKO did quite alot of complex rear projected elements into painted mattes around that time on things like THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and CITIZEN KANE.