Painted Skies celebrates fake backgrounds of all kinds, with eclectic Japanese auteur NOBUHIKO ŌBAYASHI innovating chroma-keys and green screens, including in his cult hit HOUSE (1977)
HOUSE is a marvel of special effects, which Ōbayashi personally oversaw. It giddily throws everything into its “haunted house” plot which strives to be deliberately unrealistic. Actresses were even dipped in blue paint to project the new effects onto their bodies.
Marina Vuotto explains in her MUBI article that HOUSE’s effects are inspired by “children’s logic”, using the imaginative potential of the young women featured for startling and unique sequences.
Ōbayashi continued experimenting with artificial special effects through his career, especially in late works like HANAGATAMI (2017) and LABYRINTH OF CINEMA (2019), where the clearly fake backgrounds lend these epics a surreal edge.
Ōbayashi use of green screen was also due to his 2016 cancer diagnosis, allowing his boundless, free-association filmmaking to flourish without the limitations of real sets. For him, green screen was a “tool of the future” that he never stopped pushing.
Plus, as Vuotto says, the joyful freedom of fake backgrounds can be found in music videos like Phoebe Bridger's "Kyoto".
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