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Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

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Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#21

I highly enjoy watching these old instructional documentaries even if the tech is obsolete by now. There’s something that makes old tech a lot more graspable as a concept even if you’re not familiar with the technology.

I have mixed feelings because they're charming, but there was only a minute of actual content in there, and it didn't mention complexities like how shots were planned, painting the layers was coordinated, and getting the right focus with the camera.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#22
post #6

I wonder when and why they stopped making films like these. I've been enjoying watching Behind the Attraction and The Imagineering Story on Disney+ with my kids. They are full of these old films of Walt going over their ideas and explaining the things they are and have built. It's a shame that stopped.

They're very neat but if you think about why they were ever made at all its a bit more clear. I think a lot of these are 30s-50s style infomercials. One of my favorites explains how a differential works[1] but its more clearly a Chrysler commercial. Presumably this Disney clip was entertaining enough to have been part of a tv show but could have also been some promotional material.

These days we only get this stuff in recruiting material or SAAS ads.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#24
post #3

I never grew up with Disney as a big part of my life so it wasn’t until later that I learned about Walt, and all the folks related to the work at Disney and some of the amazing things they did. I really didn’t know of all the cool technology and etc they made.

Highly recommend reading through some of the old “E” ticket magazines. There’s some excellent pieces from some of the original masterminds at Disney. There’s creativity they had especially back then was unmatched IMO.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#25
post #23

From watching, it seems this was a clip of a larger presentation. I spent some time trying to find a longer version but had no luck. Anyone perhaps know what this was from?

Check out this comment on the YT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YIR39KeJMk&lc=Ugx8HYRxBkUrP...

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#26
post #6

I wonder when and why they stopped making films like these. I've been enjoying watching Behind the Attraction and The Imagineering Story on Disney+ with my kids. They are full of these old films of Walt going over their ideas and explaining the things they are and have built. It's a shame that stopped.

Some technologies have been lost, even though they were superior to what is available today. Take, for example, the old “green/blue screen” technique using sodium vapor lamps, used by Walt Disney in film production in the pre-digital era: https://youtu.be/UQuIVsNzqDk (12 minutes long, but totally worth it).

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#27
post #23

From watching, it seems this was a clip of a larger presentation. I spent some time trying to find a longer version but had no luck. Anyone perhaps know what this was from?

Could have been part of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_anthology_television_se...

There must be tons of stuff locked in the Disney vaults to never surface again.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#28
post #9

It's worth pointing out that Walt was one of the inventors of this camera, as well as all his other roles in making the company's art. Concepts we have today like Photoshop layers and CSS stacking contexts are direct descendants of this invention.

If the Wikipedia page[0] is correct, he's more of a refiner than the inventor, no?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplane_camera

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]

#29

Not to be confused with the yellow prism camera. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQuIVsNzqDk

I'm not a VFX person but that's mind-bendingly amazing. I really love their talk about needing high quality training date near the end of the video. AI is only as good as the data used to train the model.
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