American Cinematographer - July 1992 - 52

should be

Camera
assistant
Drummond

photographed
separately and

Stone (left) and
motion-control
camera

then compos¬
ited on the opti¬
cal printer. "The

operator

Joel Hladecek
test the wiring
control Bat

advantage of
our
technique,"

Signal reflector.

Chris

for the motion-

Evans

opines, "is

we
look

can

through

the

viewfinder of
the camera and
see if it's work¬

ing, rather than
try to force-fit
these elements

| later in optical.
| We don't photograph these
| environments
£ in any sort of
| real-time camera speed; we
make repeat passes over the set for
lighting using a motion-control sys¬
tem. It's a whole different approach
*

^

stages at Warner Bros. Mather's
paintings had a unique perspective.
"They had a slightly surreal, M.C.
Escher quality," Barron says. "The
matte artists here in particular en¬
joy using latent image techniques,
where a black matte is placed in
front of camera to hold out the area

that the matte painting will occupy.
The
undeveloped film is

backwound, the live-action
masked off and the matte
area
can

area

is

painting

is re-exposed. That way, we
do soft edge blends without

little faster, and everything
little more stylized. The clouds
were made of fiberfill, a material
similar to cotton that's used for
move a

is

a

stuffing pillows. Cameraman
Childress projected the Bat Symbol
onto the sculpted clouds to create
the Bat Signal. This allowed it to
change shape as the clouds moved,
giving it an interesting, realistic
quality. Then we added the funnelshaped beam of the Bat Signal over
the original exposure of the Bat
Symbol to complete the shot."
There

opticals, so the quality is better."
On the other extreme,
Mike

Pangrazio's

matte

cameraman

crew, including
Wade Childress,

motion-control operator Joel
Hladecek and assistant Drum¬
mond Stone, created several shots
of the Bat Signal moving over the
clouds above the grounds of

Wayne Manor using miniatures
only. "Howie Weed and John
Goodson built the 1 /24-scale min¬

iature," Barron says. "It was de¬

signed to be seen through some
trees at the edge of the estate; as you
look up a snowy hill toward Wayne

Manor, the clouds

move

in the

background. Pangrazio's shots

are

times when

a

painting alone
just isn't dynamic enough, as in the
case

or

matte

of the dramatic final shot of
as Bruce
Wayne's

Batman Returns:

Rolls

the

Royce drives under

camera cranes

camera,

off the car, up

through fire escapes, pipes and fall¬
ing snow, then up into Gotham
City's stormy skyline as the Bat Sig¬
nal

holistic illusionism!"

Indeed, such 3-D matte

paintings are the backbone of Matte
World's effects for Batman Returns,
and this final shot is one of the more
difficult ones they've worked on.
"Mike Fink and I shot the
VistaVision plate of a Rolls Royce

driving down the street," Barron
explains. "We then we projected it
into a matte painting that was part
of our miniature environment,
which also included projections
onto white pieces of foam-core in
certain areas of the set. The model
is self-matting, so

Like the German expres¬
sionists whose work so influenced
the look of Batman Returns, the art¬
ists at Matte World both paint their

The Matte World
team achieved the proper perspec¬
tive change by combining matte

sets with light and light their sets
with paint. "It's extremely impor¬

paintings and miniatures. Barron's
team, which brought this final im¬
age to life, consisted of motion-con¬
trol operator Cameron Noble, as¬
sistant Rich McKay and matte art¬

the miniatures in their scenes, be¬

comes on.

tant that our matte artists also

they really are just very large
paintings which use both
paint and models as a medium,"
Barron says. Evans notes, "I've es¬
matte

sentially painted

The clouds are a little brighter, they

tional wisdom that each element

flat

American

July 1992

Cinematographer

paint

cause

ist Chris Evans. The shot was done
live in-camera, defying the conven¬

out and

the snow appears

to fall behind it."

than just going
photographing a mansion.

look more dynamic

50

miniature

-

every

surface in

this final shot. Of course, there's a

painting around the plate, but
American Cinematographer - July 1992

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