Matte Painting Magic and Bad Backgrounds: Some of My Favorites
I remember watching the Raiders of the Lost Ark as a kid, and seeing that giant government crate room and sighing in amazement. Talk about a big room. (Go on, talk about it.) Imagine my surprise when a few years later I learned that it was only a special background painting called a "matte painting". Due to digital technology, this art form is limping along. It's not dead exactly, but it's slowly being replaced.
These are just some of my favorite movie matte paintings, what are some of yours?
1.) The Raiders or the Lost Ark - The Crate Room
2.) Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid - The Cliff Jump
3.) Lord of the Rings - The Paths of the Dead
4.) The Mummy - Recreation of Ancient Egypt, opening scenes
5.) Pirates of the Caribbean - The View from Elizabeth's Window
6.) Return of the Jedi - Jabba's Palace, exterior view
And while we're on the subject, I just have to tell you that I also love phony background sets. Two of the all time best, done cheesily on purpose for comedic effect would have to be the desert sets on The Three Amigos during "Blue Shadows" and the desert scene from "Spaceballs" at nighttime. One of the places that best captures this nostalgia would be Disney Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. (Formerly known as Disney's MGM Studios) Ride lines such as the Tower of Terror have been lovingly crafted to make you feel like you are on a location shoot.
There's something about the slickness of new movies that irks me, they continue to lose the old hollywood set feel. We can only hope that physical recreations of sets and backgrounds become a trend that some filmmakers learn to prefer and use intentionally. Admittedly, as a child of 80's movies, that has a sway on my opinion on the subject. My husband and I watched Jurassic Park this week, and we found ourselves impressed by Spielberg's constant desire to make his films "believable". This is a quality that Walt Disney also had, always talking about wanting things to be "believable" no matter how broad the cartoon. I'd like to see some whimsy back in my films, I like to see some of the reality knocked back.
What do you think?
Published by Audrey Brown
Magazine Writer and Journalist, NPR Correspondent, Voice Over Artist, Professional Theme Park Enthusiast, and last but not least, Lady Geek Extraordinaire. View profile
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5 Comments
Post a CommentOh yes! That was an AWESOME one. Good call!
I've always wanted to do a magazine article on matt painting and all that. An old documentary series, Movie Magic, did an episode on matt painting and focused on the storage room where the Ark goes in the last frame, the single story house inserted into a matt painting of the drive, lawn and upper story of Tara in Gone With the Wind, and the matt painting of the cliff in Temple of Doom where Indy comes out of the tunnel and the camera shows the whole cliff with a little insert of Harrison Ford in a pocket of the painting. I wonder if the treasure room in National Treasure was a matt painting or computerized. And there was all that beautiful matt work of alien landscapes and cityscapes in Babylon Five and Star Trek...even the original Star Trek series had some great stuff.
Good points. It's a toss up. Sometimes new media enhances a film. On the other hand, I too, love the old Hollywood feel, including real sets and props. You always get us thinking.
I do think there is something to be said about real cinematography though. These are great picks.
P.S. I forgot to tell you all to check out DrewStruzan.com. He is the very embodiment of movie magic. Trust me, you'll love it!