Multiplane Magic!

 

There are many interesting articles that have been written by folks about the amazing camera stand at the old Disney Studios known as the "Multiplane". From reading these articles though, you may or may not know that the wonderful old Walt Disney Studio had "multiple" multiplanes and not just the of the vertical variety. And back in the day, Patty and I used both varieties!

Here I am getting ready to shoot a test exposure on the old Horizontal Multiplane at Disney Studios in 1979, the last time it was ever used on a film. I was using it for the Witches sequence and the castle meltdown during the Black Cauldron's finale. Luckily Patty, who was animating effects in these sequences and others, catalogued our experiments over a period of weeks with her trusty and ever ready at her side Nikon camera. I sculpted pieces to represent the witches sequence and the horned king's castle underground. The pieces were then "sketched" over with black lines over white paint like we had done for models since the 30s. They were attached to tiny articulated brass poles that could be moved and recorded frame by frame. The film was then sent to Bill Brazner who headed up our Xerox department in Ink & Paint and were printed on registered animation paper so we could add a few "bells and whistles". Patty animated some extra effects like debris and I did some rough character poses.

This rig's most famous shot of course was the classic Ave Maria sequence truck in for Fantasia (shot during an earthquake!) although it also handled the opening panorama for Sleeping Beauty and others. It had pretty much been forgotten though when I found it hidden under tarps in the basement of the Process Lab and put in back in use.

The black & white pencil tests scenes were run in a sweatbox for the directors and producer Joe Hale and they were VERY excited at the possibilities. It looked like stunning hand drawn three-dimensional animation harking back to the golden age! Unfortunately the experimental shots (I still have film and frame grabs of the exposure counts) were shelved when I moved over the Basil. After I left Cauldron, most of the pieces I sculpted for those scenes were collected among members of the crew or tossed, but we still have photos and of course our memories.