TO THE BATPOLES #133: Scott Sebring is here! Holy Bat-cyclopedia!

[Jimmy L. 66]

This!
Brilliant detective work Scott!
That appears to be an expensive shot, it makes sense they would have used it somewhere before.
So what about the buildings that are the backdrop for the Bat-climbs? Are they a custom job, or had they been used before?
I always enjoy the podcast, but this one is one of my favs.

[bat-rss]

Scott, great research! Glad I mentioned the convincing sunlight in that scene. I'm curious what you mean by "matte overlay." Is this something that was added post filming?

"Matte paintings" or "matte overlays" were traditionally hand painted on to sheets of glass and then placed over live-action film footage to create or adapt environments as needed.

Wow, impressive what they could do with the technology they had at the time. Thanks!

[bat-rss]

Coming back to this topic as I work on writing for the book. Something I'm a little puzzled by regarding the bridge scene.

As Scott points out above, the lightposts are part of the bridge over Olympic Blvd. If the matte painting is overlayed on the shot scene, how can the light posts be overlapping the background?

That's not to say I doubt the results of Scott's research. If the bridge were a backdrop, I'd expect to see it wavering in the breeze somewhat, completely spoiling the effect. I'm just struggling to understand how this overlay would work if there are foreground objects that overlap it.

[Jimmy L. 66]

The lamp posts are part of the matte painting covering the original posts.

[Jim Akin]

Yep. as Jimmy sez, the lampposts on the real bridge are obscured by lookalike lampposts painted on the matte.

I'm not sure how they did such things in Old Hollywood, but when arranging digital layers, it's useful to have identical anchor points like that in each layer. If you make the upper layer partially transparent and place its anchor elements over the companion anchors on the layer beneath, you can be sure the layers are in correct alignment. Most of the time I use this trick, type characters serve as my anchors, but lampposts would work, too.

[bat-rss]

I see! OK, that makes sense - everyone is standing on this side of the lampposts...

Thanks.

Yep. as Jimmy sez, the lampposts on the real bridge are obscured by lookalike lampposts painted on the matte.

I'm not sure how they did such things in Old Hollywood, but when arranging digital layers, it's useful to have identical anchor points like that in each layer. If you make the upper layer partially transparent and place its anchor elements over the companion anchors on the layer beneath, you can be sure the layers are in correct alignment. Most of the time I use this trick, type characters serve as my anchors, but lampposts would work, too.

[Ben Bentley]

I see! OK, that makes sense - everyone is standing on this side of the lampposts...

Thanks.

Yep. as Jimmy sez, the lampposts on the real bridge are obscured by lookalike lampposts painted on the matte.

I'm not sure how they did such things in Old Hollywood, but when arranging digital layers, it's useful to have identical anchor points like that in each layer. If you make the upper layer partially transparent and place its anchor elements over the companion anchors on the layer beneath, you can be sure the layers are in correct alignment. Most of the time I use this trick, type characters serve as my anchors, but lampposts would work, too.

Bingo, the two Jimmy’s nailed it.