Art professor Karen Maness appreciates every brushstroke. "The backdrop is part of extending the world of the set," she said. "Often times it was just seen outside windows. But sometimes it even included the entire world of a set on a sound stage and creating that environment."
2 comments:
This. Is. AWESOME!!! When I was reading the title I was thinking about the drop used to illustrate the entire initial view of Oz in the Wizard of Oz, then I scrolled down the page just a bit and there it was! I’m an old soul when it comes to things like this—I find so much value in a handmade, tangible thing, so naturally I am obsessed with painted drops and the effect that they have on an environment. Drops are so special in that they created some of the classic worlds that our beloved stories were set in, and I absolutely agree that they should be displayed and out in the world, instead of rolled up in a basement or storage space somewhere. They are marvelous works of art, by people who deserve recognition for what they poured into the enormous pieces. It’s absolutely incredible to me that Lynne Coakley’s entire family were scenic artists for Hollywood—how cool is that?! The drops that were created were so magnificent, because they especially capture atmospheric perspective and effectively create an emotional mood about them. The Backdrop Recovery project is really interesting and such a good way to promote education on the history of Hollywood’s Golden Age. I can’t help but desperately want to get my hands on one of their drops (per the 60 still looking for homes as noted in this article. Ha)!
While I have always known that Hollywood used to uses, and sometimes still uses, painted backdrops, I never really thought of them in the way that the woman in the video does. I never thought of them as pieces of art, they were always just backdrops. I think this is because of how I've grown up in the theater industry. Like here at CMU, other places I've worked have had a similar system. You often build and install a show and then a week or two later...that set is getting ripped up and mostly thrown away. For this reason, it is hard to think of the set as art, even though, in reality, it basically is temporary art. In the same vein, that is how I always thought about movies. I never thought about the fact that there are warehouses full of old backdrops waiting to be reused. I think having all or a piece of an old movie set backdrop would make a very interesting piece for a house.
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