A few years ago the editors of Shadowlocked asked me to compile a list of what was initially to be, the ten greatest movie matte paintings of all time. A mere ten selections was too slim by a long shot, so my list stretched considerably to twenty, then thirty and finally a nice round fifty entries. Even with that number I found it wasn’t easy to narrow down a suitably wide ranging showcase of motion picture matte art that best represented the artform. So with that in mind, and due to the surprising popularity of that 2012 Shadowlocked list (which is well worth a visit, here Ed), I’ve assembled a further fifty wonderful examples of this vast, vital and more extensively utilised than you’d imagine – though now sadly ‘dead and buried’ – movie magic.
It would of course be so easy to simply concentrate on the well known, iconic,...
It would of course be so easy to simply concentrate on the well known, iconic,...
- 12/28/2015
- Shadowlocked
The art of the glass shot or matte painting is one which originated very much in the early ‘teens’ of the silent era. Pioneer film maker, director, cameraman and visual effects inventor Norman Dawn is generally acknowledged as the father of the painted matte composite, with other visionary film makers such as Ferdinand Pinney Earle, Walter Hall and Walter Percy Day being heralded as making vast contributions to the trick process in the early 1920’s.
Boiled down, the matte process is one whereby a limited film set may be extended to whatever, or wherever the director’s imagination dictates with the employment of a matte artist. In it’s most pure form, the artist would set up a large plate of clear glass in front of the motion picture camera upon which he would carefully paint in new scenery an ornate period ceiling, snow capped mountains, a Gothic castle or even an alien world.
Boiled down, the matte process is one whereby a limited film set may be extended to whatever, or wherever the director’s imagination dictates with the employment of a matte artist. In it’s most pure form, the artist would set up a large plate of clear glass in front of the motion picture camera upon which he would carefully paint in new scenery an ornate period ceiling, snow capped mountains, a Gothic castle or even an alien world.
- 5/27/2012
- Shadowlocked
My father, Bob Cuff, who has died aged 87, was a film technician who specialised in matte painting – a post-production technique used to create a background for live action scenes, providing images that would be otherwise impossible or too expensive to shoot. He contributed mattes and other effects to films including The Guns of Navarone, Dr Strangelove and The Life of Brian. His skills also earned him a commission to render Jayne Mansfield's chest more "respectable" for a TV programme in the late 1950s.
Bob was born in Ilford, Essex, and educated at St Paul's school in south-west London. During the second world war, he became a land worker. He did his national service as a psychiatric nurse. After graduating from Camberwell School of Arts in 1951, he joined the special effects department at Shepperton studios, where he formed a lifelong working partnership with the visual effects specialist John Mackey. Between...
Bob was born in Ilford, Essex, and educated at St Paul's school in south-west London. During the second world war, he became a land worker. He did his national service as a psychiatric nurse. After graduating from Camberwell School of Arts in 1951, he joined the special effects department at Shepperton studios, where he formed a lifelong working partnership with the visual effects specialist John Mackey. Between...
- 4/14/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
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