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Labyrinth, 1989 - Overview of the whole labyrinth.
Breathtaking detail via glass panel and backdrop mattes. Matte painting has been and continues to be integral in creating immersive fantasy environments.
Labyrinth, 1986 - Sarah in the labyrinth.
Some gorgeous matte painting for your retinal pleasure.
Before the popularization of matte and matte painting, filmmakers used the Schüfftan process to create their fantasy and sci-fi worlds. Utilizing a partial mirror and a lens with a very wide depth of field, cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan would seamlessly blend the partial model reflected in the mirror with the set (or location). This technique, a type of trompe l’oeil for the camera, is said to be the inspiration for glass panel matte painting and other matte techniques.
Though it has been almost completely replaced by more modern matte technology, the Schüfftan process is far from dead: Peter Jackson channeled the German cinematographer for scenes in his 2003 feature The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
Here’s a fantastic video from BBC’s groundbreaking documentary series Horizon. This clip focuses on the process of matte painting in films, giving examples from Indiana Jones and Star Wars. The meticulous process of creating these paintings and integrating them into the aesthetic (or AS the aesthetic) of the film is one of the most interesting aspects of pre-CGI studio filmmaking I’ve ever seen.
Forbidden Planet, 1956
By the way, my friend qwyx and I just started a small project focusing on the backgrounds in films. Before there was CGI, sci-fi, fantasy and futuristic backdrops were often painted on massive canvases hung at the back of the studio set, with other aspects of the set painstakingly edited into the film in post-production via a process called “matting”. matte-painting is an appreciation blog for the beauty of these backdrops, their artistic importance in film, and their technological significance in the evolution of creating fantasy worlds.
