How to Film the Impossible 5

So ILM went back to film new live-action figures and blended them seamlessly into the painted world, aligning marks on the studio floor with brushstrokes on glass so the join vanished.

by Alpha Chromatica
Alpha Chromatica
Alpha Chromatica is a defiant VFX school built by artists, not investors, micro managers or administrators. where precision, story, and mentorship shape the next generation of world-class compositors.
November 09, 2025
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1 min read

Forty years ago, BBC Horizon released a documentary called “𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗶𝗹𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲.”

They visited Industrial Light & Magic to show how the magic was made.

In this segment, matte painting becomes more than illusion, it becomes architecture.

Artist Mike Pangrazio’s Rebel Docking Bay had the scale and light just right.
But something was missing.
The painting felt still.

So ILM went back to film new live-action figures and blended them seamlessly into the painted world, aligning marks on the studio floor with brushstrokes on glass so the join vanished.

Each test revealed new truths about perception,
how the eye hunts for movement,
how light defines depth,
how stillness can betray scale.

Three months of work for a few seconds of film,
and a corridor that never existed,
except between pigment and perspective.