et, including painted sunligh t reflected dramatically on the painted walls. • Robert tromberg of Illu ion Arts created the last traditional matte painting in 1993 for Martin cor e e' The Age of Innocence and continued creati ng digital painting for such film a Castaway (2000) and more. • Yu ei Ue ugi updated the landing platform from The Empire Strikes Back Access amazon .com thru www.soc .org to buy these books and money will go to Ch ildrens Hospital Eye Care Clinic.
for The Phantom Menace. Pioneering digital matte painter Ue ugi point out "making a movie will always be an act of illu ion ... Everything on a computer is a simulation. Tt will never truly imulate nature. If done well, it' cheating wisely." The final compo ite from The Great Train Robbery (1903) has one of the first in-camera matte effects ever used. orne example from Robin Hood (1922) plu many patented technique are shown.
And who wouldn't appreciate Chesley Bonestell' establi hin g matte painting of Xanadu for Citizen Kane, Percy Day' matte-painting magic fo r The Thief of Bagdad, Jack Co grove' painting for Gone With the Wind, Warren ewcombe's matte department for The Wizard of Oz, Syd Dutton's Giedi Prim e for Dune, or Bill Mather's Gotham City for Batman Returns. You can follow along with the technological advan ce in the movie and leap forward into the age of digital creation. Faces from behind the camera (and in the studio) are connected to a mall portion of their work, fro m Albert Whitlock' concept painting for The Lost World to two staffer fro m Whitlock' hi toric matte department yd Dutton & Bill Taylor who went on to fo rm Illusion Art . Kodak opened Cine ite in 1992, a digital scanning and recording ervice who e first project was to create a pristine digital negative of the Technicolor RGB rna ter from Di ney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. An incredible bonus is tl1e
accompanying CD-ROM which follow the book's historical overview and allow you to play out sample matte painted cene in Quick Tin1e movie clips a they transform into the final moving picture image. So don't let "the end" credit fool you! This magical tour will keep you enjoying the art for a long time to come. Author Craig Barron began a a matte painting photographer. He i an alumnu of George Lucas' Industrial Light+ Magic, a camera operator, visual effect supervi or and co-founder of Matte World Digital. Recently he joined tl1e Academy of Motion Picture Arts & cience 'Board repre enting Vi ua1 Effects; he i a fine arti t. Mark Cotta Vaz has authored 14 books, is a senior contributor to Cinefex magazine and ha recently fini hed hi ftr t novel. Chronicle Books, an Franci co © 2002 hardback. ow available in paperback.
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THE OPERATING CAMERAMAN: BOOK REVIEWS
From the beg inn ing, the art has allowed filmmakers to mag ically transport their audiences to other times and other places. Matte pa intings g ive us the visual means to travel back into history, to voyage into futuristic worlds: to experience previously unimag ined places of fanta sy .. . Matte pa inting is pure cinema magic . There is no better way to show worlds that existed long ago or galaxies that exist far away. -George Lucas, forward The most prim itive films were shot against a painted backcloth . Nobody minded even when the backcloth flapped in the w ind . Aud iences suspended their disbelief, as they were accustomed to do in the theatre . -Kevin Brownlow, preface The beauty of a motte shot is that you can become God. - Alfred Hitchcock Young people at the Inner City Arts classroom gave their own review of the CD-ROM: "Coolness!"