Combining live-action with animation onscreen at the same time goes
back to the silent days. Max Fleischer had cartoon characters
cavorting with live-action people and locations, and Walt Disney did
the reverse with his Alice Comedies. The great leap forward came with Disney's wartime feature THE THREE
CABALLEROS. Its release was delayed until 1945 due to backlogs at
Technicolor, but when it did finally come to theatres, audiences were
mesmerized by the technical wizardry as Donald Duck, Jose Carioca and
Panchito danced and played with live performers. The much improved technique was due to the aerial image setup, The
live-action was filmed first, very carefully and exactly, leaving
space where the cartoon characters would be in the scene. The 35mm
live-action was projected upwards onto the animation camera platen. In
shooting regular animation scenes the cameraman would shoot cels one
after another placed above a painted background. In this system, the
cels were placed on top of a projected live-action image, which in
effect became the cels' background. The cameraman would advance the
film one frame at a time using a projector system under the shooting
table. So the cels and the “background” advanced every frame or so. I was told an amusing story about this system by a former Disney
manager. Word got out about a new kind of shooting at the Disney
studios where they shot cels and manipulated a projected image. This
was of particular interest to the projectionist's union. One of the
union leaders called up the studio and spoke with the manager who told
me this story. The union rep made it very clear that if there was a
projector involved, then the projectionist's union would need to send
a man to manipulate it. The manager had him out to the studio and showed how the cameraman had
to also manipulate the projector. This was exacting work, and if the
cels and projected backgrounds went out of sync, the shot, possibly
hours of work, would have to be scrapped. It was better to have one
person keep things on track, follow the complex exposure sheets and so
on. The union rep was adamant. If there was a projector involved, you
had to hire a projectionist. Resigned, the manager told him to have
someone show up the next morning at 8 AM. The next morning the manager met the projectionist and told him his
duties: “This is the cameraman. He will shoot the cels and advance the
projected images. Your job is to sit in this chair. You can't talk to
him because he needs to concentrate on the job. You can't read because
the rest of the room has to be in total darkness for the shooting. You
can't smoke because the smoke would interfere with the shot. You can't
get off that chair because that would distract the cameraman. You take
a break when the cameraman takes a break. You have the best job in
Hollywood. You do nothing and get paid for it.” The manager then told the cameraman to call him if the union fellow
got off the chair or broke any of the rules. After a couple of hours
the manager got a call: “He's gone.” The manager called the union rep
and told him to send over someone else. For the next few days every
projectionist eventually left the boring job until word got around
about this crazy job at Disney and that if you're offered the job,
don't take it. Soon everyone refused to go and jobs of this type never
did become unionized.
back to the silent days. Max Fleischer had cartoon characters
cavorting with live-action people and locations, and Walt Disney did
the reverse with his Alice Comedies. The great leap forward came with Disney's wartime feature THE THREE
CABALLEROS. Its release was delayed until 1945 due to backlogs at
Technicolor, but when it did finally come to theatres, audiences were
mesmerized by the technical wizardry as Donald Duck, Jose Carioca and
Panchito danced and played with live performers. The much improved technique was due to the aerial image setup, The
live-action was filmed first, very carefully and exactly, leaving
space where the cartoon characters would be in the scene. The 35mm
live-action was projected upwards onto the animation camera platen. In
shooting regular animation scenes the cameraman would shoot cels one
after another placed above a painted background. In this system, the
cels were placed on top of a projected live-action image, which in
effect became the cels' background. The cameraman would advance the
film one frame at a time using a projector system under the shooting
table. So the cels and the “background” advanced every frame or so. I was told an amusing story about this system by a former Disney
manager. Word got out about a new kind of shooting at the Disney
studios where they shot cels and manipulated a projected image. This
was of particular interest to the projectionist's union. One of the
union leaders called up the studio and spoke with the manager who told
me this story. The union rep made it very clear that if there was a
projector involved, then the projectionist's union would need to send
a man to manipulate it. The manager had him out to the studio and showed how the cameraman had
to also manipulate the projector. This was exacting work, and if the
cels and projected backgrounds went out of sync, the shot, possibly
hours of work, would have to be scrapped. It was better to have one
person keep things on track, follow the complex exposure sheets and so
on. The union rep was adamant. If there was a projector involved, you
had to hire a projectionist. Resigned, the manager told him to have
someone show up the next morning at 8 AM. The next morning the manager met the projectionist and told him his
duties: “This is the cameraman. He will shoot the cels and advance the
projected images. Your job is to sit in this chair. You can't talk to
him because he needs to concentrate on the job. You can't read because
the rest of the room has to be in total darkness for the shooting. You
can't smoke because the smoke would interfere with the shot. You can't
get off that chair because that would distract the cameraman. You take
a break when the cameraman takes a break. You have the best job in
Hollywood. You do nothing and get paid for it.” The manager then told the cameraman to call him if the union fellow
got off the chair or broke any of the rules. After a couple of hours
the manager got a call: “He's gone.” The manager called the union rep
and told him to send over someone else. For the next few days every
projectionist eventually left the boring job until word got around
about this crazy job at Disney and that if you're offered the job,
don't take it. Soon everyone refused to go and jobs of this type never
did become unionized.
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