Craig Barron

Industrial Light & Magic

Barron began working at ILM in 1979 at age 18—then the youngest person at the studio—assisting with the matte-effects photography for George Lucas' The Empire Strikes Back. At ILM Barron would continue to composite matte-painting scenes on such landmark productions as Raiders of the Lost Ark (including the last shot of the secret government warehouse) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. From 1984 to 1988 he was supervisor of photography at ILM’s matte department.

Matte World Digital

In 1988, Barron co-founded Matte World with matte painter Michael Pangrazio and executive producer Krystyna Demkowicz. The company provided realistic matte-painting effects to clients in the entertainment industry. In 1990, Barron and members of the MWD crew won an Emmy for Outstanding Visual Effects for the HBO production By Dawn’s Early Light. Barron renamed the company Matte World Digital in 1992 to reflect the new technological tools available to matte painters. MWD created digital-matte environments for feature films, television, electronic games, and IMAX large-format productions.

Matte World Digital served the visions of directors including Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, and David Fincher. Its feature-film work ranged from the traditional painted-on-glass matte work of Batman Returns, to the digital effects of Hugo, Captain America: The First Avenger, Zodiac, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

During MWD's nearly 25-year run, Barron contributed to the visual effects of more than 100 films. Some of these VFX scenes include the Gotham City skyline of Batman Returns, the 1970s-era Las Vegas strip in Casino, the Carpathia rescue ship at the end of Titanic, and 1970s-era San Francisco in Zodiac. In 2009, Barron won Academy and BAFTA Awards for achievement in visual effects for his work on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

In 2012, MWD closed after 24 years of service. The company's last project was a series of shots for Martin Scorsese's Hugo.

Director and producer

Barron co-produced and directed the science-fiction short, The Utilizer and a companion "making of" documentary, both of which were broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel in 1996. The Utilizer won best special effects at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Author

While working at ILM, Barron's interest in traditional matte-painting techniques led him to interview retired matte painters and technicians, who for the first time in their careers revealed the secrets of their visual-effects shots in studio films. Barron's interviews focused on the art and craft of this hidden technology in such classic films as Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, and The Wizard of Oz. His oral history of movie-making, along with a growing collection of visual-effects film clips, movie stills, and behind-the-scenes photographs, led Barron to co-write with Mark Cotta Vaz the first comprehensive film history book of matte painting, The Invisible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Painting, published by Chronicle Books in 2002. A New York Times' review said the book eye-opening and "increases our wonder at this heretofore 'invisible art.'"

Lectures and presentations

Barron is a presenter for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Theater Programs. Since 2006, he's lectured at public screenings, often partnering with sound designer Ben Burtt, demonstrating the art of matte painting and VFX techniques of classic films such as Modern Times, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and Gunga Din. For the Gunga Din presentation, they went to Lone Pine, California, and found set pieces buried in the Alabama Hills location where the film was shot in 1939.

In the 2010 Academy screening of "Me Tarzan, You Technology," Barron demonstrated how the MGM visual effects crews of the 1930s Tarzan films used rear-projection and matte paintings to create what film critic Leonard Maltin describes as "a vivid atmosphere with majestic settings."

Barron and Burtt teamed up again in 2011 in Los Angeles for an Academy screening of Forbidden Planet, the 1956 science-fiction film known for its groundbreaking visual effects and sound design. Barron and Burtt rediscovered and presented rare miniatures, production designs, props and analog source tapes from the electronic soundtrack of the film. This collection was included in an exhibit entitled, "Mysteries of the Krell" in conjunction with the movie presentation. Artifacts in the gallery show included the original Robby the Robot.

Aviation enthusiasts Barron and Burtt (Barron has done acrobatic flying) spent three years unearthing airplane miniatures, soundtracks and rare 1920s flight-footage compiled by stunt flier and "crack-up artist" Dick Grace for "Hollywood Takes to the Air," a four-day Academy presentation in August, 2014. The first recorded flight by the Wright Brothers coincided with Edwin S. Porter's 1903 film, The Great Train Robbery, making flight-action sequences popular in film ever since. The rarely screened 1928 World War I film, Lilac Time, with Colleen Moore and Gary Cooper, was screened, featuring Grace's stunt work, crashing the plane on cue and on mark for the camera.

The duo also host "Academy Conversation" presentations for the TCM Network. The 2016 TCM Classic Film Festival featured a Barron and Burtt presentation on the Oscar-winning visual effects produced by George Pal in the 1953 film The War of the Worlds.

Barron teaches "The World of VFX" course at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Documentary work

Barron is featured in interviews demonstrating 3D effects in a number of Criterion's Blu-ray documentary supplements for classic films. In A Bucket of Water and a Glass Matte, on the 2010 release of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, he and Ben Burtt demonstrate Chaplin's use of miniatures and sound effects in the film's factory and roller-skating scenes. The 2013 release of Chaplin's City Lights features an interview with Barron, who talks about Chaplin's studio and the large sets he created to give the illusion of outdoor locations.

In Locations and Effects on the 2013 release of Harold Lloyd's Safety Last!, Barron and film writer John Bengtson examine the illusion of height in Lloyd's famous "building climb" scene. They visit the location of the original film-shoot and Barron demonstrates the effect with computer-animation.

The 2014 Criterion Blu-ray release of Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent, features Barron in a supplemental film illustrating the techniques used for the Oscar-nominated visual effects by Paul Eagler and Thomas T. Moulton. Several scenes are explored including the climactic airplane-over-the-sea sequence.

Creative director

In 2013, Barron worked at Tippett Studio, developing digital matte painting environments for film and commercial productions, alongside his former co-worker on earlier Star Wars films, Phil Tippett.

Starting in 2014, Barron became the creative director at Magnopus, a visual research and development company based in downtown Los Angeles. The company name is a consolidation of "Magnum Opus" ("Great Work" in Latin).

Affiliations

Barron is co-chair of the AMPAS Science & Technology Council. and a founding member of the Visual Effects Society (VES), formed in 1997 to represent VFX producers in film, television and video games. In 2013, he received the VES Founders Award. He served on the VES Board for 2014/15.

Innovations

Matte World Digital was the first in the industry to apply radiosity rendering to film in Martin Scorsese’s Casino. Barron's VFX crew collaborated with software company, LightScape, to simulate the indirect bounce-light effect of millions of neon lights of the 1970s-era Las Vegas strip. Significantly, radiosity rendering provided a true simulation of bounce-light in a computer-generated environment.

To recreate 1970s-era San Francisco in David Fincher's Zodiac, MWD shot digital images of existing city-building textures, then added painted period details for establishing shots. One such shot includes the Embarcadero Freeway alongside the Ferry Building and San Francisco Bay. The freeway had been demolished after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake but was digitally "rebuilt" to visually set the time-frame for the film. To show time passing within the era, CG lighting techniques were applied for an animated sequence showing the Transamerica Pyramid being built. Barron researched archival photographs and architectural drawings for the shot.

Barron worked with Fincher again, creating several digital matte-painting environments at MWD for the 2008 film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The interior of the film's New Orleans train station would change and deteriorate throughout 29 shots representing different eras. MWD built one 3D station model and aged it using Next Limit's Maxwell rendering software. The software is generally an architectural visualization and product-design tool. MWD revamped the software to mimic real-world lighting as seen from multiple angles and light sources.

Awards and honors

Film and television awards

Publications

Honors

Publications