Ray Caple may not be a name readily recognisable to many film goers, nor even to alot of special effects afficienados, but he is one who deserves a tribute and recognition for so much matte painting work in the British film industry. For any industry people ‘in the know’ who can tell us more about Ray, I would very much like to learn more about the man and his career. My apologies for any inaccuracies that will undoubtedly crop up here – I’m pretty much winging it with so little back up material available.
The British matte painting industry is severely lacking in appreciation and biographical data, which, as those practitioners of the art form pass away we interested parties are only ever able to piece together an often ill fitting jigsaw puzzle of who did what, where and when. Spanish visual effects historian Domingo Lizcano has made amazing in roads in putting together timelines and case studies of international matte operations, and has assembled a marvellous British time line on his essential site http://galeon.com/artinmovies/indexFX.html so much of what I know of Caple and others in the UK side of things has come about by way of Domingo’s conversations with Bob Cuff and Martin Body, supplemented by my recent discussions with Brian Johnson and Dennis Lowe who provided wonderful background information…
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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.