For anyone familiar with my early blogs, as well as my contributions on the matte painting forum of stopmotionanimation.com, you’ll know I’m a huge devotee of golden era photographic effects man and master matte painter Jack Cosgrove. My earlier blogs have concentrated on a number of Cosgrove matte shows – many for wonder child David O’Selznick such as my all time number one matte exposition GONE WITH THE WIND in addition to SINCE YOU WENT AWAY, REBECCA, THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, A STAR IS BORN, SPELLBOUND, DUEL IN THE SUN as well as the many films he later worked on for Warner Brothers. Those new to this blog may want to check out these posts – although the unfamiliarity of this technology at the time meant that the layouts were all over the place and they organisation questionable at best (I was even considering deleting the first 2 or 3 blogs altogether as they are a shambles – but will leave them as a sort of shaky, amateur matter of record)
Today I will focus in on two glorious vintage Jack Cosgrove effects shows – both produced for David O’Selznick in the thirties, and notable for being among the very first 3 strip technicolour matte shot films. The first one here today, THE GARDEN OF ALLAH was made in 1936 and was to a large extent a learn as we go along exercise for the burgeoning new Selznick photographic effects department. I’ve written much about Cosgrove already so I’ll not repeat myself other than to say that with friend and associate, effects cinematographer Clarence Slifer, Cosgrove was tasked with the until then unknown world of compositing glass paintings onto the 3 strip technicolour process, a task requiring much experimentation of use of filtration, incandescent light sourse on the artwork and above all else much trial and error testing of the unforgiving precision in negative developing…
…Read the Full Article @ Matte Shot
A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX
Please Note: Now, I am going further back into the archives of Matte Shot – A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX to feature even more articles from this great site.
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.