Mattes And Oscar Categories

[Big Magilla]

That makes sense. It does look like Wright's architectural masterpiece built in Fallingwater, PA, which is 39 miles south of Pittsburgh, in 1939.

https://www.amazon.com/Fallingwater-Fra ... 661&sr=8-1

[Greg]

If I remember correctly, the lecturer said Wright's famous Fallingwater house was the inspiration for the Mount Rushmore "house" in North By Northwest.

[Big Magilla]

I don't know what Frank Lloyd Wright's connection to North by Northwest was other than that the Mount Rushmore house was in his style.

Wright died in April 1959 at 91, 8 months before the release of the film.

The matte painter on North by Northwest was Matthew Yuricich whose 70 credits included Ben-Hur, The Towering Inferno, Field of Dreams, and Dances with Wolves. He was twice nominated for Oscars for Logan's Run (for which he won as part of the Visual Effects team) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

[Big Magilla]

Matte painters are part of the visual effects team. They are often uncredited and are only nominated for Oscars if they are credited as part of that team even though their work is often more responsible for the look of a film that its cinematographer or art director.

One of the most famous uses of matte paintings was the mountain scenery in Black Narcissus for which Jack Cardiff won an Oscar for cinematography and Alfred Junge won for art direction-set design. Green Dolphin Street won for Special Effects over Unconquered. Black Narcissus was not nominated in that category.

W. Percy Day was a matte painter on 63 films whose work usually went uncredited. They included 1927's Napoleon, 1935's A Tale of Two Cities, 1939's Wuthering Heights, 1941's How Green Was My Valle, 1944's Henry V, and 1950's The Third Man. He was officially credited for process shots but not for his matte painting on Black Narcissus.

Full special effects credits for Black Narcissus were:

Special Effects by
Eugene Hague ... special effects (uncredited)
Jack Higgins ... special effects (uncredited)
Sydney Pearson ... special effects (uncredited)
James Snow ... special effects (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Edit
W. Percy Day ... process shots
Ivor Beddoes ... special photographic effects (uncredited)
Arthur George Day ... matte painter (uncredited)
Thomas Sydney Day ... matte painter (uncredited)
W. Percy Day ... matte painter (uncredited)
Peter Ellenshaw ... assistant matte artist (uncredited)
Eugene Hague ... special effects camera (uncredited)
Jack Higgins ... foreground miniatures (uncredited)

[Uri]

Bringing up FLW in this board and not mentioning his greatest claim to fame – being the grandfather of an Oscar winning actress?

O.k. – it’s Anne Baxter we’re talking about, so maybe it’s not that sought after notoriety after all…

[Greg]

A couple of months ago, I attended a lecture at my local public library regarding noted architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his connection to Hollywood. Included was Wright's work involving the relation of buildings to production design, etc. The lecturer said that the Mount Rushmore home shown in Hitchcock's North By Northwest did not actually exist. The landscaping and furniture were props, but, the house itself was what is called a matte. That is, it was just a glass painting of house placed between the camera and the cast.

That made me curious if matte painters are included in Oscar nominations, and, if so, what category(ies)? I would think it could be a part of either Special Effects and/or Production Design. I would think it would not be a part of Cinematography, but, the Academy might be more impressed and likely to nominate cinematographers who had to shoot around a lot of elaborate mattes.