Making the Perfect Cloud

A Century of Atmospheric Tricks in Cinema
By Réjane Hamus-Vallée
English

Since the cinematograph was born, reproducing clouds has constantly caused filmmakers’ logistical but also aesthetic concern: how to control this cloud in order to have it participate in the story, and in the aesthetics of the view? How to add clouds absent from the set, how to remove clouds too present, and with what means can a cloud be perfectly adapted to filmmaker’s wish, both in form, texture, and the way it moves? Throughout the history of cinema, different techniques of tricks have been used to monitor clouds in the image more and more strictly. This article focuses in particular on four forms of faked clouds (the composite, painted, liquid, and digital cloud) and the particular special effects that each technique conflates. It analyzes these different ways of creating clouds at will, and their common stake: to have control, at least in the films, of the weather.

Keywords

  • cloud
  • tricks
  • special effects
  • cinema
  • movie
Go to the article on Cairn-int.info