Flooded with light, it gave the illusion of infinite space and was the perfect means of simulating spectacular sky and background effects.
There have been a small number of attempts to resurrect the Restoration spectacular as a background to modern cinema: Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen features at its start perhaps the most accurate reconstruction, with painted scenery, mechanisms and lighting effects typical of the period.
Manhattan, magic and miracles It is this intimacy he chases, the knocking down of the fourth wall by setting spectacular events against a regular background: New York, the constant in his life, the string to his balloon.
I also wanted enough manual controls to take pictures like the pros: crisp close-ups of flowers with blurry backgrounds, spectacular frozen-action sports photos and those cool nighttime shots in which car taillights make colorful tracks.
Paintings depicted railroads cutting through the wilderness, spectacular mountains in the background, stumps of trees in the foreground.
Not the least remarkable aspect of Italy's success is that it was achieved against a background of spectacular footballing strife back home.
Instead of a smooth-skinned baby, Mr. Vener's model was positively bristling with detail: curly hair, textured clothing, a vividly patterned background and a spectacular multicolored tattoo on a hairy arm.
That program would close out with an image of various atheletes including one skier having a spectacular crash and in the background, the famous phrase "The thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat".
There's an interesting story to the making of Shaolin Style: it's essentially a reskin of a cancelled title called Thrill Kill, but not even its background and some spectacular-for-the-time executions could curry favour with a fighting crowd focused on Mortal Kombat 4 and Street Fighter III.
