Battle of Galactica rare matte shot

Battlestar Galactica was so popular during the late 1970s that Universal Studios created a special Galactica themed “ride” or event as part of their back-lot tram tours. It was named “The Battle of Galactica” and opened in 1979 and ran to1992. 

Courtesy of Dale Long. http://byyourcommand.net

While the ride was being designed and constructed, Universal wanted to generate excitement and buzz about their new attraction. A promo / publicity film was to be shot and shown to generate excitement and attract people to the show. The major drawback was that nothing was finished enough to be photographed or to show off. Read the rest of this entry »

Another Buck Rogers matte shot

Here is another of Syd Dutton’s terrific Buck Rogers matte paintings.  Syd again used the original negative / latent image compositing technique.

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.