La multiplane camera di Disney
La rivoluzionaria multiplane camera inventata nei Walt Disney Studio, la macchina da ripresa verticale a piani multipli che permetteva di posizionare animazioni e scenografie su diversi livelli muovendosi a velocità differenti attraverso di essi per creare un effetto ottico di profondità nelle animazioni, raccontata dalla voce dello stesso Walt Disney in un filmato andato in onda sulla ABC 60 anni fa e spiegata in un articolo di Popular Science, datato gennaio 1938, sulla realizzazione di Bianca Neve e i sette nani.
Disney wanted to increase the eye value of the many paintings making up a picture by achieving a soft-focus effect on the backgrounds, illuminating the various levels of each scene individually, and separating” background from foreground, thus keeping background objects to their proper relative size.
His production crew labored for three years to perfect the novel picture-taking device to achieve these results. It consists of four vertical steel posts, each carrying a rack along which as many as eight carriages may be shifted both horizontally and vertically. On each carriage rides a frame containing a sheet of celluloid, on which is painted part of the action or background.
Resembling a printing press, the camera stands eleven feet tall and is six feet square. Made with almost micrometer precision, it permits the photographing of foreground and background cels accurately, even when the first is held firmly in place two feet from the lens and the lowest rests in its frame nine feet away. Where the script calls for the camera to “truck up” for a close-up, the lens actually remains stationary, while the various cels are moved upward. By this means, houses, trees, the moon, and any other background features, retain their relative sizes.
