Greetings fellow matte painting and traditional special effects fans. I’m back with yet another mammoth blog post celebrating that wonderful movie magic that was created before the intrusion of the wretched ‘computer’, ‘megabytes’ and ‘binary code(!)’. The days when true craftsmen (and crafts-women) and artistes conjured up endless cinematic wonders, more often than not with the most basic and elementary of resourses and heaps of pragmatic inventiveness.
I’m a film buff of near pathological levels. I watch on average 3 or 4 films per night (never during the day) on my Samsung 55″ tv. Depending upon my mood, I can take on the most bizarre selections of triple or quadruple bill. First off is generally something my good lady wife of 42 years would enjoy with me – often old B&W pictures. Next off could be something as diverse as an Ingmar Bergman drama, Nordic Noir, Korean cop thrillers (these are fantastic!) or maybe even a Marx Brothers classic, some John Wayne or Humphrey Bogart… maybe even a schlocky 70’s Hong Kong Kung-Fu epic (who knows?)… Blaxploitation flicks are a firm fave, old Universal horror & sci-fi pictures, not to forget the terrific Hammer catalogue too, Italian Giallo’s and zombie flicks too believe it or not, as are so many incredibly good 70’s films like THE PARALLAX VIEW; THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR; ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN; ENTER THE DRAGON; THE CONVERSATION; DIRTY HARRY; THE HIRED HAND; APOCALYPSE NOW; MARATHON MAN; THE WILD BUNCH; BANANAS; ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE; PRINCE OF THE CITY – all movies I can watch at the mere drop of a hat (and oddly, not a single FX movie among them). Silent cinema is also firmly on my menu, with so much great stuff hidden away there that most folks don’t know ever existed. I often cover some amazing silent flicks in this very blog site – today being no exception.
So, what have I on the program today? Well, I’ve got some pretty amazing material from the usual (very) broad cross-section of genres, era’s and studio trick departments, some of which will really fulfill your VFX desires (and I know some readers actually do have “VFX desires”… You really should see someone about that!)…
…Read the Full Article @ 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.