Constantine “Deno” Ganakes

Biography:

Deno Ganakes began working as a matte artist at Disney Studios during the sixties under Peter Ellenshaw supervision. He continued under Alan Maley and Harrison Ellenshaw until the early 80´S. He assisted Mat Yurich on the matte painting for “Ghost Busters ”

“The Black Hole” matte crew at Disney matte department.

From left to right: David Mattingly, Harrison Ellenshaw, Don Henry, Constantine Ganakes, and Ed Sekac.

An Ocean liner painted moving across the frame for Herbie goes Bananas(1980) One of the few Disney films for which he received screen credit.

Filmography:

- Ghostbusters(1984)(matte art assistant)

- The Ghosts of Buxley Hall (1980) (TV) (portrait)

- Midnight madness(1980) (matte artist)

- Herbie Goes Bananas (1980) (matte artist)

- The Black Hole (1979) (matte artist)

- The Love Bug rides again (1974) ( assistant matte artist)

- Island on Top of the World (1974) ( assistant matte artist)

- Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1970) ( assistant matte artist)

- The Love Bug (1968) ( assistant matte artist)

- Mary Poppins (1964) ( assistant matte artist)

Byron L. Crabbe

Biography:

Byron Linden Crabbe. Born: May 5, 1894, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Died: June 9, 1937 (age 43) in Los Angeles, California, USA

Crabbe

Byron Crabbe painting a gladiatorial arena for “The last days of Pompeii” (1935)

Filmography:

- Gone with the Wind (1939)(Selznick)

- The prisoner of Zenda(1937)(Selznick)

- The last days of Pompei (1935)(RKO)

- Kentucky Kernels (1934)(RKO)

- King Kong(1933)(RKO)

- Son of Kong(1933) (RKO)

- The Most Dangerous Game (1932) (RKO)

Caroleen "Jeet" Green

Biography:

Caroleen Green started her career on film visual effects at the matte painting department of Industrial light and magic, since 1984.  She went into digital matte paintings working for VFX companies like Matte World or ILM.

Caroleen Green working on a painting for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

 "Jett" Green working on a castle painting from the film  "Willow"

Filmography:

 - Best Fiends: Visit Minutia (2017) (Short) (matte painter) 

 - Best Fiends: Boot Camp (2017)(Short) (matte painter) 

 - Rock Dog (2016)(matte painter) 

 - Thye Book of life (2014)(senior matte painter) 

- Rise of the Guardians (2012) (senior matte painter)

- Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012) (senior matte painter)

- How to Train Your Dragon (2010) (senior matte painter)

- Monsters vs Aliens (2009) (senior matte painter)

- Kung Fu Panda (2008) (matte painter)

- Bee Movie(2007) (senior matte painter)

- Flushed Away (2006) (senior matte painter)

- Over the Hedge (2006) (senior matte painter)

- Æon Flux (2005) (matte painter: The Orphanage)

- Sin City (2005) (matte painter: The Orphanage

- The day after Tomorrow (2004) (senior matte painter)

- Hellboy (2004) (senior matte painter)

- Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) (digital matte artist: ILM)

- The Mummy Returns (2001) (digital matte artist: ILM)

- Mission to Mars (2000) (digital matte artist: ILM)

- Galaxy Quest (1999) (digital matte artist: ILM)

- Sleepy Hollow (1999) (digital matte painter: ILM)

- Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) (digital matte artist: ILM)

- The Truman Show (1998) (digital matte artist: Matte World)

- Titanic (1997) (digital matte artist: Matte World)

- A Simple Wish (1997) (digital matte artist: Matte World)

- The Evening Star (1996) (digital matte artist: Matte World)

- Star Trek: First Contact (1996) (digital matte artist: Matte World)

- The Stupids (1996) (digital matte artist: Matte World)

- Independence Day (1996) (digital matte artist: Matte World) (uncredited)

- The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996) (digital matte artist: Matte World)

- Dunston Checks In (1996) (digital matte artist)

- Operation Dumbo Drop (1995) (digital matte artist)

- The Jungle Book (1994) (digital matte artist: Matte World)

- The Shadow (1994) (matte artist)

- Yume (1990) (matte painter: ILM) Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams

- Ghostbusters II (1989) (matte artist: ILM)

- Willow (1988) (matte artist: ILM)

- Batteries not included (1987) (matte artist)

- The Golden Child (1986) (matte artist: ILM)

- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) (matte artist)

- Howard the Duck (1986) (matte artist: ILM visual effects unit)

- Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) (matte artist: ILM)

- Cocoon (1985) (matte artist)

- The Goonies (1985) (matte artist: ILM)

- Starman (1984) (matte artist)

- The Ewok Adventure (1984) (TV) (matte artist: ILM)

- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) (matte artist: ILM)

- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) (matte artist)

- Unendliche Geschichte, Die (1984) (matte artist: ILM) The NeverEnding Story (UK) (USA)

Brian Evans

Biography:

British matte artist Brian Evans worked at Shepperton matte department during the sixties. Painted mattes very often with Gerald Larn.

Brian Evans, at right working at Shepperton matte department on a painting for  "Dracula, has risen from the hell". At the bottom left is Peter Melrose.

Filmography:

- Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)

- The taming of the shrew (1967)

- Dr. Faustus (1967)

- The spy with a cold nose (1966)

- Doctor Zhivago (1965)

- Dracula has risen from the grave(1963)

Charles Stoneham

Biography:

From Martin Body:

” I can tell you that he first worked as a matte painter at Pinewood Studios – he was employed in the general stores there and painted as a hobby. Cliff Culley, the in-house matte painter at the studio saw Charles’ work and gave him a job. Cliff was a very good painter, particularly of fine detail, and he trained Charles in the finer points of matte painting.

When Pinewood closed down its optical/matte painting department in the early ’70′s, Charles got a job as a milkman and later moved to Bude, in Cornwall. It was, I think, on Dark Crystal in 1981/82 that Roy Field asked him to come back do some matte painting work. After that, he worked on other films like ”A Christmas Carol” – the version starring Edward Woodward (I think it was a TV film). On the projects involving Roy Field (who also used to work with Cliff Culley) Charles was usually employed by the production company making the film, but probably also carried out some work for Optical Film Effects and Field Films. “

Charles Stoneham painting the sky and some buildings in a view of Calcutta for “Gandhi”

 C. Stoneham working on a matte painting for Dark Crystal. 

- Filmography:

- The last days of Patton (1986) ( matte art)

- Return to OZ. (1985)(matte art)

- Superman III (1983)(matte art)

- Supergirl (1984)(matte art)

- A Christmas Carol (1984) (matte artist)

- Gandhi (1983)(matte art)

- Dark Crystal (1982)(matte art)

- Britannia Hospital (1982) (matte artist)

Two painting made for A Christmas Carol.

Three matte paintings by Stoneham made for Britannia Hospital. 

Darrell A. Anderson.

Darrell A. Anderson.
Biography:

Born in California, 1933, the son of Howard Alvin. Anderson, and brother of Howard Andrew  Anderson. His father founded Howard Anderson Special Photographic Effects Company.  Both brothers joined his father company providing opticals, titles, mattes, and miniatures. Darrell became matte artist and cinematographer.  The Howard A. Anderson Company worked extensively for TV series during the '60s and '70s

The Anderson Company’s work on Star Trek was nominated for an Emmy Award twice (both times together with other companies providing effects for Star Trek): In 1967 Darrell Anderson was nominated for Individual Achievements in Cinematography, together with Dunn and Joseph Westheimer and in 1969 the company was nominated for Special Classification Achievements together with the Westheimer Company, Van der Veer Photo Effects, and Cinema Research.

 Samples of Darrel A.  Anderson mattes.



Filmography:

1979 J-Men Forever (photographer: second unit – as Darrell Anderson)
1978 Superman (additional model photography: USA – as Darrell Anderson)
1972 The Dirt Gang (special photographic consultant)
1967-1968 The Invaders (TV Series) (special photographic effects – 40 episodes)
1966- 1969 Star Treck (TV Series) (special effects – as Darrell Anderson)
1964 Seven days of May (opticals – uncredited)
1950 Trípoli (special photographic effects)



The list of titles credited for Howard Anderson Company is huge, and I can imagine Darrell worked on most of the films especially from the '50s to '70s.

Dan Curry

Extracted from an interview with Dan Curry you can  read at:

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/community/chat/archive/transcript/1394.

While I was in grad school, an influential person in the film industry happened to see an exhibition of paintings, found me, and suggested I look into matte painting.

On that person’s recommendation, Universal Studios hired me to do matte paintings for Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie and others. When I left Universal, I went to work as art director for Modern Film Effects…. then I went on to Cinema Research Corporation…. as vice president and director of creative services. During that time, I was involved with a hundred and seventeen feature films and over 40 television productions. I left CRC to join Star Trek 12 years ago and have been concentrating on Star Trek ever since.

Another article about Dan Curry with samples of his pictorial art. http://www.cgnetworks.com/story_custom.php?story_id=2749&page=

Dan Curry with one of the paintings he made for TV Series Galactica.

Filmography:

- Enterprise: Broken Bow (2001) (TV) (visual effects producer)

- “Enterprise” (2001) TV Series (visual effects producer)

- “Star Trek: Voyager” (1995) TV Series (visual effects producer)

- Star Trek: Voyager – Caretaker (1995) (TV) (visual effects producer)

- “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” (1993) TV Series (visual effects producer) (visual effects supervisor)

- “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (1987) TV Series (visual effects coordinator) (visual effects supervisor)

- Creepshow (1982) (matte painting)

- Caveman (1981) (matte artist)

- Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie (1980) (matte artist)

- Buck Rogers  in the 25th Century  (1979)(Tv series) (matte artist)

- Battlestar galactica (1978) (tv series)(matte artist)

Chesley Bonestell

Chesley Bonestell started working on the movie business at 1938, doing some matte work for  Errol Flynn´s The Adventures of Robin Hood. He made paintings for movies like Citizen Kane(1941), The Hunchback of Notre Dame(1939), or  The Fountainhead(1949).

He also contributed painting backgrounds, like the lunar landscape for Destination Moon(1950) He is well known as a pioneer of the astronomical art.

Filmography:

- “Men Into Space” (1959) TV Series (creator: space concepts)

- Conquest of Space (1955) (astronomical art)

- Cat-Women of the Moon (1953) (moonscape paintings)

- War of the Worlds, The (1953) (space art)

- When Worlds Collide (1951) (technical advisor)

- Destination Moon (1950) (space art and technical advisor)

- Fountainhead, The (1949) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- Horn Blows at Midnight, The (1945) (matte artist)

- Rhapsody in Blue (1945) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- Adventures of Mark Twain, The (1944) (matte artist)

- Magnificent Ambersons, The (1942) (background paintings)

- Citizen Kane (1941) (background paintings)

- How Green Was My Valley (1941) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- Charley’s Aunt (1941) (matte artist)

- Swiss Family Robinson (1940) (background paintings)

- Tom Brown’s School Days (1940)

- Only Angels Have Wings (1939) (background paintings)

- Hunchback of Notre Dame, The (1939) (background paintings)

- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) (matte artist)

Bill Brace

Biography:

Bill Brace worked at the FX house Project Unlimited run by Gene Warren senior, Tim Barr, and Wah Chang. he was mainly matte artists but also made some FX design and painting miniatures.

Extracted from an interview with animator Don Sahlin.

“They had a guy in another room, Bill Brace, an artist, and he was doing all these matte paintings where the trees were blooming and the apples were growing. And he painted the future scenes, too, where you saw the topography of the land changing, and the Eloi temple being built. The whole dome of that was a painting matted in, and the stairway leading up to it was part of MGM’s old QUO VADIS set.”

To read the whole interview go to: http://www.colemanzone.com/Time_Machine_Project/don_sahlin.htm

Bill Brace with the FX staff at project Unlimited. Photo from the Book “Dinosaurs, dragons and drama” by Jim Danforth.

Two paintings for The time machine.

Filmography:

- 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)

- Jack the Giant Killer (1962)(matte artist – uncredited)

- The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)

- The Time Machine (1960) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- Atlantis the lost continent(1960) (matte artist)

Cliff Culley

Biography:

Cliff Culley,  was one of the backroom boys at Rank in Pinewood Studios on all of those shows from the Harryhausens and Carry On's to the Norman Wisdom cheapies and whatever else was being done at Pinewood.  He started at Pinewood special effects department at 1946, under Bill Warrington as head of  department. At that time it was Les Bowie chief of matte painting, and latter on,  when he left, Albert Whitlock worked from 1949 to 1953 at Pinewood matte department.

He worked under Peter Ellenshaw and Albert Whitlock for Disney films like "Sword and the rose"(1953)

Culley became a matte painting specialist and worked on loads of films over the years,  and became head of Pinewood's matte painting department in the mid-late 1960s. He also has provided many optical gags on films too, for example, the reflection of thug in the eye of the beautiful girl from the opening of Goldfinger.

Cliff Culley is best known for supervising the matte art on films such as the Brocolli's You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the latter film being one of his sole supervisory screen credits next to One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing and Spaceman in King Arthur's Court for Disney, and Hellraiser 2. During the 60´s Culley took Charles Stoneham as matte painter assistant at Pinewood matte department

Since leaving Rank  in the mid 70s Cliff Culley opened his own firm, Westbury Design and Optical  which provided overspill latent image comps and optical tricks on films such as "Hellraiser II", or "Sword of the valiant" (1984). He got Leigh Took as matte assistant at 1978 for films as "Warlords of Atlantis" or "Clash of the Titans".

Cliff Culley retired  at 1997 after working on the film Orphans (1997).

Cliff Culley and Roy Filed setting up a matte shot for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) at the Pinewood Matte Department.

Those photos (courtesy of Ed Maggiani), where taken at Pinewood Studios in February of 1996.

Cliff Culley very kindly showed some of the many glass paintings he had done, to Production designer Syd Cain and writer journalist Gary Giblin (To whom I sincerely tanks to send my those pictures)

1. From Left to right: Syd Cain, Gary Giblin and Cliff Culley in front of a painting from Nightbreed.

2. Gary Giblin with a matte painted for "You only live twice (1967)"

3. A painting from the movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)"

Filmography:

 - Orphans (1997) (matte artist)

- Saint-Ex (1996) (matte effects)

- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1996) (special photographic effects)

- A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995) (matte artist)

- Restoration (1995)(matte paintings by Westbury design and opticals)

- The hour of the pig (1993) (opticals by Westbury design and opticals)

- An Ungentlemanly Act (1992) (TV) (optical effects)

- Nightbreed (1990) (mattes and opticals by Westbury design and opticals)

- Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) (optical effects supervisor)

- Peter theGreat (1986) ( tv miniseries) (Special photographic effects)

- Return to Oz (1985) (Additional opticals by Westbury design and opticals)

- Blind date( 1984) (special photographic effects)

- Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1984) (visual effects)

- The last Days of Pompeii ( 1984) (TV miniseries) (Special photografic effects

- Sahara (1983) (matte paintings by Westbury design and opticals)

- Witness for the Prosecution (1982) (TV) (optical effects)

- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982) (TV) (optical effects)

- Clash of the Titans (1981) (special miniatures)

- The Spaceman and King Arthur (1979) (special photographic effects)

- Bear Island (1979) (Special photographic effects)

- City on Fire (1979) (matte artist)

- Arabian Adventure (1979) (matte effects)

- Warlords of Atlantis (1978) (matte effects)

- Candleshoe (1977) (Special matte efecst)

- The Pink Panther strikes again (1976)(special matte and optical effects)

- One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975) (special processes)

- "The Changes" (visual effects) (2 episodes, 1975)

- Lightning! (1975) TV Episode (visual effects)

- The Noise (1975) TV Episode (visual effects)

- The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- "Disneyland" (special effects) (3 episodes, 1974)

- Diamonds on Wheels (1974) TV Episode (special effects)

- "Play for Today" (special effects) (1 episode, 1974)

-Penda's Fen (1974) TV Episode (special effects)

- Diamonds on Wheels (1974) (special effects)

- "Moonbase 3" (1973) TV Series (visual effects designer) (unknown episodes)

- Doctor Who" (visual effects) (6 episodes, 1973) (visual effects designer) (6 episodes, 1974-1975)

- Robot  (1975) TV episode (visual effects designer) (as Clifford Culley)

- Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) TV episode (visual effects designer) (as Clifford Culley)

- Planet of the Daleks (1973) TV episode (visual effects designer) (as Clifford Culley)

- Zeppelin (1971) (matte photographer)

- The Deserter (1971) (optical effects)

- The Firechasers (1971) (special effects)

- Kidnapped (1971) (special effects)

- Carry on Henry (1971) (optical effects)

- The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971) (special effects)

- Hands of the Ripper (1971) (special effects)

- Jane Eyre (1970) (special effects)

- Toomorrow (1970) (optical effects)

- On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) (matte effects)

- You Only Live Twice (1967) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- Follow that camel (1967) (optical effects)

- Khartoum (1966) (special photographic effects)

- Thunderball (1965) (optical effects supervisor) (uncredited)

- The Early Bird (1965) (special matte effects)

- Goldfinger (1964) (optical effects supervisor) (uncredited)

- Carry on Cleo (1964) (optical effects) (uncredited)

- From Russia with Love (1963) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- The Bay of St. Michel (1963) (special effects)

- Dr. No (1962) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- The bulldog breed (1960) (special effects) (uncredited)

- Sink the Bismarck! (1960) (special effects assistant) (uncredited)

- North West Frontier (1959) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- A night to remember (1958) (special effects assistant) (uncredited)

- The One That Got Away (1957) (special processes) (uncredited)

- Across the Bridge (1957) (special processes) (uncredited)

- Tale of two cities (1958) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- The prince and the showgirl (1957) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- The one that got a way (1957)  (matte artist) (uncredited)

-The Battle of the River Plate (1956) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- Hell below zero (1954) (matte artist) (uncredited)

- Sword and the Rose (1953) (matte artist) (uncredited)

The full gallery is not available yet, but you can visit the old site:

 http://galeon.com/traditionalfx3/painters/Culleygallery.html

Bob Cuff

Biography: Provided by Bob Cuff

Shepperton Studios:

1952 After four years at the Camberwell School of Art I, (along with David Hume), was hired as trainee Matte painter by Vincent Korda. (The Matte Department was then called the Special Effects Department). Wally Veevers was Head of Department and his name appeared on most credits (usual practice at the time). George Samuels was principal painter and constructor. Albert Julion was also a brilliant painter, much loved by Vincent Korda. David Hume left Shepperton after a couple of years to become a scenic painter at ABC Studios, Teddington.

Also working as painters were:

Joseph Natanson: went to Rome

Judy Jordan: left about 1954

Ivor Beddoes: Freelance

Alan Maley: went to Hollywood

Others whose names I have forgotten.

The team worked very closely together; paintings were frequently passed from one artist to the other and there were a variety of other effects that we all worked on.

1963 I left Shepperton in 1963 to work for Les Bowie on Charlie Schneer’s ‘First Men in the Moon’ (animated modelwork by Harryhausen). Ray Caple was already working as Les Bowie’s Matte Artist and had been trained by him from an early age. He was a gifted painter and modeler and did his own camera work. Many mattes from Bowie’s were painted and put together by Ray. Unfortunately, Ray died from illness in about 1986(?). I shared all the matte work at Bowie’s with Ray. Les Bowie, a brilliant painter, had virtually stopped painting by the time I went to work for him.

John Mackey left Shepperton after about a year (1964) to join us and help with camera and optical work; John and I worked together for many years.

2001

John Mackey and myself were hired by Stanley Kubrick to make matte shots of the excavated pit on the moon and to make various travelling shots of moonscapes (paintings were not allowed by Kubrick – all the shots were compressed models).

John Mackey, Les Bowie and myself formed a company (Abacus Productions) to make T.V. commercials. (Les Bowie did not want to be involved with commercials and acted as sleeping partner, renting his premises and equipment to the offshoot company).

Whilst at Abacus:

1968 We were invited by Carl Foreman and his designer Geoffrey Drake to carry out painted mattes and other work for McKenna’s Gold. John Mackey went with the main unit to supervise the shooting of the first exposures in America. He also organized the hiring of two 65mm cameras to combine the mattes. Initially, two matte shooting positions were set up in the premises of Technicolor U.K. and later transformed to Merton Park Studios in South West London. All negative used was carefully checked to try to avoid ‘jiggle’. The painting was shared between Ray Caple, Lynette Lee, myself and Joy Seddon, who joined us as a matte artist, having previously been working with Stanley Kubrick on 2001. We also did various model shots and some pickups, employing a fair number of technicians, including Brian Loftus, John Johnson, and others, whose names I can’t remember. My son Paul Cuff worked as Matte Process cameraman and married Joy Seddon, now Joy Cuff.

Subsequently, I spent most of my time working on commercials and some T.V. series.

Freelance work after retiring from Abacus:

1987 - Painted some mattes on Princess Bride with cameraman John Grant.

1988 - The Adventures of Baron Munchausen with Joy Cuff and John Grant.

1989 - Erik the Viking – with Joy Cuff, John Grant, and Doug Ferris

Bob Cuff retired after working at Erik the Viking(1989).

Samples of Bob Cuff matte paintings. 

Filmography:

At Shepperton Studios under Wally Veevers.

1953 -  Hobson’s Choice (matte painting)

1954 -  Devil Girl from Mars (matte painting)

1955 -  Richard III (matte painting)

1956 -  Three Men in a Boat (matte painting)

1956  - A Killer in Korea (matte painting)

1957  - The Smallest Show on Earth (matte painting)

1957  - The Admiral Crichton (matte painting)

1957  - A King in New York (matte painting)

1958 - Silent Enemy (matte painting)

1958 - I was Monty’s Double (matte painting)

1958 - Carlton Brown of the F.O. (matte painting)

1958 - Room at the Top (matte painting)

1959 - I’m Alright Jack (matte painting)

1959 - Expresso Bongo (matte painting)

1960 - Too Hot to Handle (Animated Superimposition)

1961 - The Guns of Navarone (matte painting)

1961 - Mysterious Island (matte painting)

1962 - The War Lover (matte painting)

1962 - The Longest Day (matte painting)

1962 - The Day of the Triffids  (matte painting)

1962 - Summer Holiday(matte painting)

1963 - The Victors (matte painting)

1963 - Heavens Above (matte painting)

1963 - Dr. Strangelove (matte painting)

------------------------------------------

Films  at Les Bowie’s Company:

1964  - First Men in the Moon (matte painting)

1964  - Masque of Red Death (matte painting)

1965  - She (matte painting)

1965  - City under the Sea (matte painting)

1966  - One Million Years B.C. (matte painting)

1967  - Dracula has Risen from the Grave (matte painting)

--------------------------------------------

1968- 2001 Space odyssey (miniature effects)

1969 - McKenna’s Gold (matte painting)

1972 -  Young Winston (matte painting)

1979 -  Monty Python’s Life of Brian (matte painting)

1987 - Princess Bride (matte painting)

1988 - The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (matte painting)

1989 - Erik the Viking (matte painting)

Conrad Tritschler

Biography:

Born Conrad Joseph Tritschler 1867 in Carlisle, England, UK

Immigrated to the United States in 1923. Died June 9, 1939 (age 72) in London, England Tritschler was a successful scenic artist working at  British stage theatres.

Mr. Tritsçhler went to the United States of America to work for Richard Walton Tully productions on films like  Trilby (1923) and Flowing Gold (1924) where he painted sets and backdrops.

Sometime during the late twenties and early thirties, he went to work for Howard Anderson Company to make glass and matte paintings.

Working for Anderson, Conrad Tritschler was responsible for White Zombie’: glass paintings, such as the exterior and upper interior of Legendre's castle. In an interview,  director Victor Halperin once described the combined technical processes of Anderson and Tritschler: “We had sets built up to a certain height maybe 25-30 feet high, and they worked in and fited in paintings to finish the rest of the interior of the castle where much of the main action took place. You couldn't tell one part from another. It looked like all interior stone. Individuals walked in the front when they were searching for the castle, and they'd see the castle off in the distance on top of a huge rock, and that was all painted. We saw the individuals move and the waves of the sea in the foreground, so we could combine them in the same camera shot.”

Filmography:

- The Count of Monte Cristo (1934)

- White Zombie (1932)

- Don Q son of Zorro (1925)

- Flowing Gold (1924)

- Trilby (1923)

Emilio Ruiz del Rio

Biography:

Emilio Ruiz del Río, was born in Madrid, Spain in 1923.

In 1942 he started to work at Chamartin Studios in Madrid as an assistant of scenic painter  Enrique Salvá, a well-known landscape painter, who became a scenic artist and later on art director.

For the next few years, Enrique Salvá and his young assistant shared the work painting scenic backdrops and glass paintings. At the 40´s they worked at more than 10 films by year, it was an exciting, wild and crazy experience painting always under pressure, always running from one to another studio. Salvá was the fastest and most wanted background painter, and Emilio was forced to learn fast, how to paint bakings and glasses.

It was in 1955 during the filming of “La cruz de Mayo” when Emilio discovered a new system. He had just completed a painting of a cityscape on a huge sheet of glass. When Emilio arrived at the studio in the morning, he found the glass cracked. Probably caused by the extreme cold during the night. They did not have time to prepare a new glass, so Emilio asked the construction team to help him cut a wooden silhouette of the city. He then painted the required scenic effect over the masonite surface. The shot was a huge success and Emilio immediately saw the advantages of using the painted cut out rather than the old glass shot. There wasn’t the problem of unwanted reflections showing up on the sheet of glass, and it was more easily set up and lighter to handle. Emilio thought about some other material lighter than the wood and finally came up with the idea of using a thin aluminum cut out piece. From then on, depending on the requirements of the production he used both techniques, glass and aluminum cut out, the last one more often mostly because was cheaper and easy to handle one.

When the Italian producer Italo Zingarelli came to Spain to supervise the exterior shooting of his films at the late '50s, he saw one of Emilio’s on location paintings and became aware of the extremely useful he could be for his next epic projects. During a decade, Emilio Ruiz worked with him traveling for Europe, painting miniatures in Italy, Yugoslavia, Hungry, etc, for sword and sandal and war movies like “The Last Days of Pompeii” (1959), “Legions of the Nile" (1960), “The Colossus of Rhodes” (1961) or “The Invincible Seven” (1963).

These were years of fast painting and learning by doing hundreds of in-camera trick shots. He began to explore new ways to give realism and movement to some of his paintings. He started to make armies of small soldiers silhouettes glued over hidden belts, moved by a crank. For a Roman Circus shot, he included hundreds of small rubber figures in a cut-out painting, moved along with hidden wires. He also provided armies and vehicles moving through miniatures and squadrons of airplanes painted on a moving sheet of glass, for war movies.

Emilio’s filmography was full of international names like Mann, Lean, Cukor, Annakin, Vidor, Buñuel, Welles, Lester, Siodmak and Kubrick. He also worked on some of the films of Ray Harryhausen, painting backdrops on the early ones and in camera glass shots for the last Sinbad films. He collaborates at the epic films produced by Samuel Bronston in Spain.

It was during these years after the huge experience working on the cheap low budget Italian films when he began to get involved in some projects on a big or medium budget where they required his skills, and he could use foreground miniatures instead of the painting cut out, which was cheaper.

In Spain, he collaborated with Juan Piquer Simon on a series of fantasy and adventure films - generally made on a low budget. Piquer counted on with some other professionals of equal talent of Emilio, like Francisco Prosper. (Prosper, although was specialized on three-dimensional miniatures, he also made some matte paintings by himself)

In the early '80s, Emilio had another lucky encounter with an Italian producer; this time was Dino de Laurentiis who came to Spain for the shooting of the first Conan film.

Emilio Ruiz was commissioned to build the miniatures. Due to the ample budget, he used foreground model miniatures for most of the shots and only made used of glass shots for some fast solving solutions.

De Laurentiis was so satisfied with his work that he embarked him on his next futuristic epic project, Dune. Emilio Ruiz went to Mexico for almost one year to make the biggest and spectacular foreground miniatures he had made to date.

During the last two decades, he kept working with his traditional techniques providing glass paintings, cut out miniatures and foreground models for Spanish, French, Italian and American films. With the advent of the digital era, he became probably the last practitioner of the old art of glass painting in the world. When all the matte painters around the world were forced to put aside their brushes for the digital palette, Emilio kept alive the tradition of the old pioneers, like Norman Dawn or Percy Day.

Some of his last contributions were “The Bridge of San Luis Rey” (2004), or “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006)

In 2007, he was asked to collaborate on a documentary on his life and career. It was during the filming of the documentary "El ultimo truco"(2008) when he became ill and died at the age of 84, some weeks after filming his last foreground miniature and cut out painting trick.


19 years old Emilio Ruiz began at Chamartin  film Studios art department.

A young Emilio Rioz (right) with his mentor Enrique Salvá (left) in front of the sets for Alba de America.  The final painting below.

 Emilio Ruiz at 1959 painting a glass shoot for Legions of the Nile.

For the Italian War film Dirty Heroes (1967) Emilio painted several in-camera tricks.

 Samples of some of Emilio´s miniatures made for Conan (1982)

One of the last painting of Ruiz del Rio, for the film Luz de Domingo (2007)

Summarised Filmography:

1942 Goyescas

1942 Rojo y negro

1943 El abanderado

1943 Ídolos

1944 Inés de Castro

1944 El clavo

1945 Los últimos de Filipinas

1945 Espronceda

1946 El crimen de la calle Bordadores

1946 Cuando llegue la noche

1946 La pródiga

1947 Fuenteovejuna

1948 Locura de amor

1948 Don Quijote de la Mancha

1949 La Duquesa de Benamejí

1950 Agustina de Aragón

1950 Pequeñeces

1951 Alba de América

1951 La leona de Castilla

1951 Ronda española

1952 El andén

1952 Amaya

1953 El beso de Judas

1954 El indiano

1954 Aventuras del barbero de Sevilla

1955 La cruz de mayo

1955 Mister Arkadin

1955 Alexander the great

1956 Embajadores en el infierno

1957 Robinsón (Un petit coin de paradis)

1957 The pride and the passion

1957 The Sword and the Cross

1958 John Paul Jones

1958 The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

1958 The warrior and the slave girl

1959 The 3 Worlds of Gulliver

1959 Salomon and Sheba

1959 Legions of the Nile

1960 El Cid 

1960 Spartacus

1961 King of Kings

1961 The Colossus of Rhodes

1962 Medusa Against the Son of Hercules

1962 The Invincible Gladiator

1962 Cleopatra

1963 55 days in Pekín

1963 The fall of the Roman Empire

1963 Samson and the Mighty Challenge

1964 Circus World  

1965 Doctor Zhivago

1965 Battle of the Bulge

1965 Chimes at midnight

1966 Return of the seven

1966 Lost command

1967 Dirty heroes

1967 Custer of the West

1968 Villa Rides

1969 Krakatoa

1969 Patton

1969 The royal hunt of the sun

1970 The horsemen

1970 The great white hope

1970 cannon for Córdoba

1971Nicolás and Alexandra

1972 Treasure Island

1972 Marco Antonio and Cleopatra

1973 The héroes

1973 The golden voyage of Sinbad

1974 The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue

1975 Zorro

1975 The wind and the lion

1976 The Loves and Times of Scaramouche

1977 Where Time Began

1978 The inglorious bastards

1978 The Humanoid

1979 Operación Ogro

1979 Fortunata y Jacinta (tv Series)

1979 Supersonic man

1981 Conan the Barbarian

1981 Mystery on Monster Island

1982 Pieces

1982 Ironmaster

1983 The Pod People

1984 Dune

1984 Conan the destroyer

1985 Cat's eye

1985 Red Sonja

1986 Tai-Pan

1986 Maximun overdrive

1987 Space island

1987 Slugs: the movie

1987 Million dollar mystery

1989 The rift

1990 Navy Seals

1990-91 La Révolution française

1991 Requiem por Granada

1992 Acción mutante 

1992 Cristopher Columbus: The discovery

1995 S.P.Q.R.: 2,000 and a Half Years Ago

1995 Deserto di fuoco (TV series)

1997 Territorio comanche

1998 La niña de tus ojos

1999 Nadie conoce a nadie

2000 Girl from Río

2001 The Devil´s blackbone

2001 El embrujo de Shanghai

2002 Guerreros

2002 Soldados de Salamina

2003¡Buen viaje, excelencia!

2005 The bridge of San Luis rey

2006 Pan´s labyrinth

2007 Teresa, el cuerpo de Cristo

2007 Luz de domingo José Luis Garci

2008 La mujer del anarquista

2008 El ultimo truco: Emilio Ruiz.