Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/765720
P E R S P E C T I V E | J A N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 2 0 1 7 35 in print Above: A painted backing of Hermosa Beach in Los Angeles by Scenic Artists Joe Francuz (architecture) and Donald MacDonald (sky) for MY STEPMOTHER IS AN ALIEN (1988), directed by Richard Benjamin with Production Design by Charles Rosen. An Excerpt From THE ART OF THE HOLLYWOOD BACKDROP by Richard Isackes and Karen Maness If reality is the objective of film backings, why not use photographic images? Why bother to paint them? In fact, the majority of backings used today are digitally printed photographic enlargements and these are useful to a degree. But, paradoxically, the painted image often looks more realistic than the photographic image. Scenic Artists can manipulate backings by adjusting light, color and texture, helping to support the movie camera's constructed image. Some information and details can be selectively accentuated, while others can be de-emphasized. A photograph, on the other hand, is static and has a tendency to contradict the artifice of the rest of the setting. According to Production Designer Norm Newberry, "There are tricks like having reflected light in the shadows like it would really be in a building. And [Scenic Artists] understand those things—they understand stone textures. They also understand that the caryatids that are on the top of the building should be soft and not clearly defined, as they would be recorded photographically. Painted backings have another advantage—many films are set in fantastical or period locations that cannot be photographed because they do not exist. The Production Designer, in conjunction with continued Art Directors Guild Archives/Courtesy of JC Backings/Photographer Cameron Devon