Euphoria location scouting notes continues! In ep 4, Lexi invites Jules to the WB lot to paint an original piece for the “LA Nights” show. She leaves Jules to work in a vast loft space, and I imagine few viewers realized they were getting a rare glimpse at true film history…
This is the legendary Scenic Arts loft at Warner Bros, where, for most of film history, massive canvases were painted with photorealistic vistas to serve as filming backdrops.
Every major studio had such a department, to produce hand-painted backdrops that typically measured 30′ tall by 100′ wide and might serve as small a purpose as a view out a window, or as grand as Dorothy’s first glimpse of Oz.
When the department was first created at WB in 1931, these massive paintings were produced in vacant sound stages, with artists relying on ladders and scaffolding to do their work.
Then, in 1937, the Scenic Arts loft was built with an innovation that changed everything…
Each wall features canvas frames that can be raised or lowered as needed, either a full 30′ up to the ceiling, or 30′ down into floor slots, thus allowing the artist to work on any section of a painting while remaining on the ground.
Countless backdrops were produced here over the decades, many of which can be seen in the recent book “The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop.”
Sadly, the world of hand-painted backdrops became largely obsolete with the advent of super-wide format printers and digital photography.
Still, the Scenic Arts loft remains as an historic vestige of old Hollywood, occasionally serving as a filming location while waiting for that rare modern production that wants to do it the old-fashioned way.
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