Matte Paintings part 1

Often movies take us on incredible journeys to prehistoric time, distant planets, underwater worlds and to many other fantastic places. Have you ever wondered how filmmakers made shots of those places? Of course they didn't travel in time or to another planet, that would be just silly. Often traveling to some location can be physically unreachable with all the filming gear or is simply too expensive. In these situations very talented painters come to help filmmakers. In earlier days painters were using oil paint to paint photo-realistic paintings on sheet of glass, leaving out blank parts where live action is going to take place. This sheet of glass then was put in front of the camera and through blank spots it was possible to see actual actors and anything else needed for scene. Using this technique it was possible to make very believable scenes which otherwise wouldn't be possible. Over the years this technique has evolved along with technical possibilities. Nowadays digital matte paintings are used. Thanks to them everything imaginable can be created and movie audiences simply cannot believe their eyes.

Matte painting created by Yanick Dusseault for the film “The Lord of the Rings”.

     Brief history of matte painting.

It all started with photographer named Norman O. Dawn who was the first to put glass sheets with painted objects in front of the camera. He made his debut moving picture "'California Missions" in 1907.  The film he documented old religious buildings, many of which had fallen into a state of disrepair. By placing a sheet of glass in front of the camera on which columns, roofs and bell-towers were painted to align with the real buildings that were visible through the glass, Dawn was able to restore the crumbling cloisters to their former glory.
This technique was used in movie "Cleopatra" where partially built life-size sets were built at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars while the impressive tops of buildings were painted and added for just a few thousand more.

These simple glass shots are very rarely used today because of the inconvenience of preparing and painting a shot on location while all the film crew waits for the results. Not to mention weather conditions, especially wind. While filming there has to be no movement of camera or glass sheet otherwise it would make the background scenery and foreground painting appear to shift, destroying the illusion that the two elements are one.
This was only the first technique which triggered creation of original negative matte painting, bi-pack contact matte printing and rear projection, front projection and optical painting.

     Rear projection

This probably is the simplest and most popular method of combining moving images and paintings. Once filmed and developed, the live-action footage is threaded into a projector and projected on to a sheet of glass from behind. Working on the other side of the glass, the matte artist delineates, sketches and then paints the required image in the appropriate areas.

When the painting is complete, a frosted glass screen is attached to the back of the unpainted areas of the glass. The frosted glass allows the rear-projected live action to be seen on the surface of the glass. A camera looking at the front of the painting then films the combination of painting and rear-projected live action.

Rear projection is particularly useful for matte paintings that need more than one small areas of live action. By using several projectors, live action elements can be projected on number of different areas of the glass at the same time. 

Rear projection method is used in movie "Cliffhanger". Where actor Sylvester Stallone is placed on a vast matte painting using rear projection technique.

So keep your eyes open and try to notice matte paintings in movies. But remember the better matte painter is, the harder to notice that the painting is actually there.

With this I'll conclude the first part about matte paintings. Hope you enjoyed! Next time we will talk about digital matte painting.

Here is possibly the most amazing matte painting ever made. It's from the "Raiders of the Lost Ark". It took about 3 months to paint because of all the small details.