Cover of episode 017

We chat with matte painter Jesse Silver about his work on Tron, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Labyrinth, moving from real paint to digital for Super Mario Bros., and one high-pressure effects house that had phones in the toilet stalls.

Detailed show notes below…


About The Optical

Host Mark Boszko takes you on a journey back through the annals of Cinefex magazine, talking about the movies and topics they covered 30+ years ago. We talk to people involved in the films, people who make movies, and people who love movies, and have a fun time doing it.


Revisiting:
Cinefex 12

Cover of Cinefex 12

Special thanks to Cinefex for access to these out-of-print back issues.

Even though these are out of print, you can now download and read along with Issue 12 — and every other back issue of Cinefex — in the Cinefex iPad App. Download the free iPad app now!

Special Guest:
Jesse Silver

Image of Jesse Silver

Research Materials

More Bits

Emerald City Comicon Panel:
Sarcastic Voyage: Sketch Comedy for Nerds
Room: Hall D (TCC 302)
Date: Friday, March 27th, 2015
Time: 4:30PM - 5:20PM
Moderator: Ron Watt

In the style of old-time radio, join the Sarcastic Voyage Unpaid Voice Acting Players for an hour of nerd-friendly sketch comedy.

In the dim dark days of the Pre-Digital universe when we made effects by layering various elements together using an optical printer or a matte camera we would order the elements to be shot as "full" negatives. Essentially the shots were overexposed by 1/3 of a stop. This made for a heavier negative - lighter positive = heavier negative. The purpose of this was two fold. The full negative provided more information and tonal range in the shadows, and the beefier negative contained more grains which essentially reduced the apparent graininess of the image. Since graininess increases with each generation of duping, a smoother looking negative reduced this flaw.

Musical Guest:
Digital Droo

As Ever