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This scene is a recreation of what the northwest
block of Vine Street near
Hollywood Blvd. might have looked like on an evening in 1941.
The
film's production designer, Dennis Gassner, provided me with
some excellent vintage photos of the area, as well as a pencil
drawing layout by Joe
Griffith Jr. |
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| The action in the shot is of
Warren Beatty as Bugsy Seigel parking his car and crossing the
street. |
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After this scene was photographed, I did a
small conceptual painting around a photographic enlargement of one
of the film frames. This painting was to give director Barry Levinson
a quick preview of what the final shot might look like, before any
work was started on the actual matte painting. This shot was created
before the digital revolution broke, so the matte painting was painted
on a 4x6 foot panel, using acrylics and oil glazes. It was painted
a little larger than the usual size, to allow the camera to pan and
tilt across it.
I projected a contrast adjusted color print of the live action onto
a translucent screen roughly the size of the painting, and this was
shot as a separate camera pass to allow for better blend and matte
edge control.
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Using a motion control camera head, Cameron
Noble programmed a nice organic, meandering camera move featuring
the animated neon sign , at the beginning of the shot, then
centering on Bugsy as he parks his car. |
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