Greetings friends and myriad enthusiasts of 'old time' traditional special photographic effects, mattes, miniatures, trick shots and all such 'lost' art forms of days gone by.  It is time for yet another journey down that ever fascinating path of wonderful motion picture magic, that we all love so much. Today, I've assembled a very broad cross section of films, from across the cinematic spectrum - from science fiction, western, swashbuckler, jungle adventure and epic desert romance genres - all here in the one packed blog post.  As usual, I've included a few worthy titles that f ..read more

Hi there friends and followers of the sublime, lost art form of traditionally rendered matte painted shots and miscellaneous motion picture wizardry. It is indeed that time again, Delays in getting this up and running have been due to near apocalyptic weather conditions, with the worst cyclone descending upon New Zealand from the tropics ever recorded, with floods and destruction the likes unseen here since records began.  Whole communities wiped off the map.  My home was partially flooded, though luckily just a spare bedroom and annexes in the basement, though, unfortunately, that ..read more

'Tis the season to be jolly, or so they say, so here we are back again with yet another blog that's absolutely jam packed with cinematic wonderment.  My previous blog on low cost film effects proved most popular, with much feedback and comment (and a couple of corrections).  I still plan to do a follow up Low Budget blog at some point, as I missed a bunch of great little films with really nifty trick work such as the sci-fi cult item FIEND WITHOUT A FACE among others.  Stay tuned, as they say. Today we will be embarking on the first of a large two-parter on mattes and trick ef ..read more

  Hi there friends, followers and fellow film fanatics.  It is, without question, well and truly time to examine more of that utterly magical lost art form of the traditional, hand painted and photo-chemically assembled matte shot.  I have an epic (truly!) rundown here today, as the continuation of the mammoth tribute piece to Industrial Light & Magic's matte painting department and the personalities therein. As with the first part of this extensive overview, I've attempted to cover all of the ILM traditional mattes as best I can, and in chronological order.  There a ..read more

  Hi there fellow enthusiasts of that marvellous, magical and utterly beguiling lost artform of traditional matte painting and old school trick photography.  It's that time once again for NZ Pete to unwrap another parcel of ingenious and often amazing hand painted motion picture processes from the photo-chemical era, or as my friend Mark Wolf would say, "B.C - before computers". In this, the final article for 2021 (and maybe for good given the state of the world as it stands at present) I want to delve into an exciting treasure chest of never before seen goodies that I'm quite c ..read more

  Hi there friends... and welcome to another edition of NZ Pete's Matte Shot; your veritable 'one stop shop' for all things 'traditional' as far as painted mattes go, as well as other forms of old school hand made motion picture trick shots.  I've got some wonderful material assembled here, a great deal of which hasn't been seen before. The title banner on todays edition, Scaling The Heights of Excellence, was most deliberate.  It actually encompasses not just a very spectacular effects filled Alpine motion picture from the late fifties, but also doubles as a personal tribute ..read more

  Pete's Editorial: Welcome once again to another installment of Matte Shot, the venue for devotees of 'old school' movie magic, where we celebrate the practitioners of traditional special visual effects, and dissect their methods and pioneering achievements from the pre-computerised era - which as we know, constituted the majority of the motion picture production splendidly for near on ninety years. Today, I have some exciting bits of news and updates, which bookend the single film being examined in this issue of Matte Shot.  I say 'single film' as the production I've chosen has su ..read more

  Hi there fellow devotees of the magical trick shot world from days gone by, where movie miracles were created by the most modest of mediums by a highly specialised and select assembly of talented artists and cameramen.  All who follow my blog will easily appreciate and value the consumate skills and imaginative innovation applied therein, rendering so many memorable moments, not to mention the enormous cost effectiveness.  Todays blog post is a departure of sorts from the usual clinical examination of matte painted shows of old as I wish to bring to my readers attention a fo ..read more

 ***This post, and all 169 previous blogs known as 'Matte Shot', were originally created by Peter Cook for nzpetesmatteshot with all content, layout and text originally published at http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/ Hello again friends, film freaks and fellow fans of frequently fantastic, finely finessed and more often than not fairly phenomenal, if not fabulously formidable (unbelievably, I just plain ran out of "F" words...) old school special photographic effects.  It's well overdue for another utterly jaw dropping rollercoaster ride into the mysteries, m ..read more

  Hi there fellow fans of traditional hand made special visual effects.  It's time for another retrospective journey deep into the cinematic vault of marvellous matte painted and miniature magic, exclusively of the variety most die-hard followers of NZPete's MatteShot blog will eagerly devour and appreciate. But first........ Pete's Editorial: I have several important announcements to make before we explore todays lineup.  It's been brought to my attention a few times of another online site, going by the label of 'matte96', who have been busy little beavers by way of lifting ..read more