Page 46 - Star Wars Insider #176

MATTE PAINTINGS

05

could produce better-quality 05 The picnic explains. “It had standard 35mm hold-out matte, to create a plate
results, projecting the live-action scene from and VistaVision movements, and featuring just the required area for
Attack of the
plate gave the team more control, Clones a whole set of lenses, including an live action, surrounded by black.
as they could adjust the plate’s incorporates a anamorphic [widescreen effect] They then rear-projected the plate
digital matte
size using the projector. When lens so we could photograph the for exposure with the hold-out
painting.
choosing between front and Huston: “I matte paintings for compositing matte, and then composited that
rear projection, the former was shot the with anamorphic elements.” pass with the Masonite painting,
waterfalls as
usually preferable because the The Auto Matte featured in which the area where the live-
separate
highly reflective Scotchlite screen elements at two “carriages” on which matte action element would play had in

provided a brighter source, which locations in paintings could be mounted, turn been painted black.
California and
in turn enabled faster exposures. comped them with each carriage capable of For the shot of C-3PO and
And as the postproduction together with movement in three dimensions. R2-D2 in the foreground walking
photos of
schedule ticked away, every Developed over a period of toward Jabba the Hutt’s palace in
the set.”
second counted. two years, the system had fi rst the background, Pangrazio and his
06 (Right page) been put through its paces on team turned to one of the earliest
Auto Matte And More Huston at Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra- matte painting techniques: the
work on the
For Return of the Jedi, Pangrazio miniature Terrestrial (1982), and it proved “original negative,” also known as
took the reins of the matte elements he indispensible in realizing Jedi’s the “latent image” or “held take”
built for the
painting department, overseeing picnic scene. numerous moving-camera matte- method. In this process,
the creation of approximately 45 painting shots. a glass sheet is positioned in
illustrations, for which he was While smaller mattes were front of the camera on set (in this
joined by matte painter Chris typically painted on two-and- case, on location in California’s
Evans. “Craig Barron was the a-half-feet by six-feet panes of Death Valley) as the live-action
camera supervisor, and he prepped glass, the larger mattes that were element is shot. The glass is
me to take over a lot of things,” required to accommodate camera left clear except for a small area
Huston reflects. “By that time, moves were realized on pieces of painted black, where the matte

I was pretty well embedded with Masonite hardboard measuring painting will eventually go. Both
the group, even though I wasn’t in either four feet by six feet, or four the camera and the glass are
that department. I had kind of a feet by eight feet. Rather than cut tented off to avoid unwanted
dual existence: I also had things I through the quarter-inch-thick light from hitting the glass pane.
needed to do for [ILM supervising Masonite in order to project the After filming the live action, the

modelmaker] Lorne Peterson to live-action plate, the painters unprocessed negative is sent to
keep the model shop happy.” created a “hold out” matte on the matte department, and the
This time around, the matte glass, which was entirely black detailed painting is exposed on
department was working with the except for the blank area where the same piece of fi lm.
new Auto Matte system: “a track- the live-action plate would By placing both exposures
mounted camera that was custom- appear. They then rear-projected on the same negative, thereby
built there at ILM,” as Huston the live-action footage with the eliminating any duping, this

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