Back in the days ...Arthur Widmer, 90, was recently honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an Award of Commendation, recognizing his three decades as a film tech. Widmer, began his professional life at Eastman Kodak Co.'s research laboratories, heading to Hollywood with the introduction of Kodak's color film processing in the late 1940s. He then worked for Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) ., and Universal where he pioneered advances in special effects special effects, in motion pictures, cinematographic techniques that create illusions in the audience's minds as well as the illusions created using these techniques. . He retired in 1979. Question: You received the commendation from the Academy a generation after you retired. How does it feel? Answer: It is very unusual. All of a sudden, it is a deluge of recognition that I hadn't expected. It's a funny story. The Academy had decided that they ought to interview the old timers before they are all gone. They sent around an interviewer to reminisce rem·i·nisce intr.v. rem·i·nisced, rem·i·nisc·ing, rem·i·nisc·es To recollect and tell of past experiences or events. [Back-formation from reminiscence. . Talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to him brought back into my mind the Ultra Violet Traveling Matte process. Q: What's a Traveling Matte? A: The Traveling Matte is a process whereby two pictures shot at different times and different places can be combined into one picture. If you want to have a couple sitting at a cafe in Paris, you could send the couple to Paris and hire a crew and get all the lights and stop the traffic and shoot it, but that would be very expensive. Instead, you get a little mock-up mock·up also mock-up n. 1. A usually full-sized scale model of a structure, used for demonstration, study, or testing. 2. A layout of printed matter. on the stage of the table and chairs and set the couple there and shoot them against the blue screen in the background. You take a shot of the couple and the chairs, you go to the library and take a background shot of a Paris street scene and combine the two. If it is properly done, you can't tell the difference. Q: What interaction did you have with the studio executives? A: My boss at Warner Bros. jealously guarded his relationship with Jack Warner
Jack "J.L. , who was the head of the studio. I worked on the assumption that, if they don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. my name, they can't fire me. In those days, people were fired on a whim. If Jack Warner had a bad breakfast that day, he would arrive in a foul mood. Somebody would do something, you were fired. So, he didn't know my name, and he couldn't fire me. I was perfectly happy to leave it that way. Q: What was the last movie you saw? A: I can't remember, to tell you the truth--probably it was Hitchcock's last one, "Family Plot." I didn't watch it in the theaters. I worked on the pre-production of the picture, so I would have seen the final result in the studio. Q: But that came out nearly 30 years ago. A: Well, the neighborhood theater is not that much fun. Your feet stick to the floor with all the Coke. The screen has rips in it. The projectionists get the picture out of focus. After seeing things Seeing Things may refer to:
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion