In the old days, did they not have a way to give the images more or less contrast to match each other? I can always tell rotoscoping because the images always have a different contrast
Rotoscoping the when they draw over film. It’s a way to add special effects to live action, or the make animation.
This is a different technique, chroma-key compositing (blue screen back then, green screen now). One of the downsides of the technique is that it does much better when you really light up the foreground object to create contrast with the blue screen. And that tends to cause weird effects compared to the background (because you have to light them from the side). And you obviously can’t light up the background film like that because it’s 1967 and you’d have to borrow a dozen aircraft spotlights to do it.
They could adjust relative brightness, but that could raise the black level. Adjustments were crude, and the color correction had to be planned based on the film stock and lighting.
I always find behind the scenes stuff really cool, but I think my brain isn’t creative enough to understand how this works. Can anyone smarter at cinematography explain to me what’s going on here?
For what it’s worth, Fisher Stevens says he regrets playing the role in brownface and has apologized for it. Personally, I enjoyed him in the show Early Edition.
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