Here comes another remake!

My son, Nathan, sent this to me with the following comment:

“Not sure how I feel about this yet…”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsZelpXj-CE

Well, here comes another remake!  Before the new “V” gets here I thought I would put up a few pix from the original.

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More Buck Rogers matte shots

"Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" by Syd Dutton

This is again the fine work of Syd Dutton.  Syd told me that he ran the matte split through the guard at the left side of the walk.  The guard is partially painted and partially real.

This location is the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.

Matte painting masters

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century by Syd Dutton

Matte painting has been a love of mine for years. As a high school student I would look at the California skies and fantasize what steps I would have to take to render them out in paint.  My early dinosaur stop motion experiments often had painted back grounds or elements in the shot.  Over the years I have gathered a few fun matte shots that I can share. 

This is a painting by Syd Dutton for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979). It was shot at an existing demolition site and employed the “original negative” compositing technique.  This means that the live action was photographed with a masked off (the matte), unexposed section of the frame. This film was not developed immediately, but was returned to the studio where Syd painted the ruins and sky to fit into the unexposed section of the scene.  The negative was run through the camera again and the painting was finally exposed onto the original negative of the live action then developed.

This provided first generation quality matte painting composites.

A new adventure

Blogging is a new adventure for me. With many urgings by my friends and the universe, I can no longer sit on my tush and talk about writing again. Now I have to produce something on a regular basis. Several categories of articles are drawing my interest. Maybe some of you will respond to them as well … or you may give me some suggestions.

Some considerations; film and effects history, my experiences with Cascade Pictures and CPC Associates, Universal Hartland and, of course, David Stipes Productions.

Star Trek stories and behind the scenes on some of my favorite shots will be covered.

Since I am now more involved in education, I may visit that topic as well.

I hope former colleagues will contribute their information and recollections to these topics. It would be nice to document our history and techniques before they are lost. Since I have been teaching, I have seen how much information is slipping away. Many of my students rely on their computer as their only tool to solve visual problems.  I want to remind my students of the old tried & true techniques, and maybe keep them alive a while longer.

So, it seems I have several topics to write about. I hope you will return, read along and add to the commentary and conversation.

David