Recent Obituaries, Classic Films Only

[CBHagman]

38. Special effects innovator Petro Vlahos, 96.

I kept a copy of this gentleman's obituary handy but each day have forgotten to post the link here. if you hang out with us here, and even if you have merely wandered into a movie house or past a TV, you've seen this man's work.

[url]http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/visual-effects-innovator-petro-vlahos-421401[/url]

Vlahos had more than 35 patents for camera crane motor controls, screen brightness meters, safe squib systems, cabling designs and junction boxes, projection screens, optical sound tracks and even sonar. He created analog and digital hardware and software versions of Ultimatte.

As the original patents ran out, many other present-day digital blue- and green-screen compositing systems were derived from Ultimatte and entered the marketplace. As a result, every green- or blue-screen shot today employs variants of the Vlahos technique.

Vlahos’ achievements also include his work on sodium and color difference traveling matte systems. His version of the sodium system was used on dozens of Disney films, including Mary Poppins, The Love Bug (1969) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and was borrowed by Alfred Hitchcock for The Birds (1963) and by Warren Beatty for Dick Tracy (1990).

Vlahos developed the color difference system (the perfected blue-screen system) for Ben-Hur (1959) and such scenes as its legendary chariot race. It was used in hundreds of films, including the first Star Wars trilogy and the Indiana Jones films.