The Hindenburg 1975

 State of the art miniature effects circa the mid 1970s on display in this film. The special visual effects were supervised by Albert Whitlock and certainly all his skills in matte painting are evident throughout. In the shots with no perspective change and at a distance the Hindenburg it is usually a matte painting but with all the closer moving shots and moving through clouds it is a very detailed miniature.

The miniature effects are integrated perfectly, photographed by Clifford Stine. 

The main dirigible model of the Hindenburg was 25 feet long, the construction supervised by Glen Robinson. It was hung on four thin wires connected to an overhead carriage that could travel along tracks the full length of the studio, 200 feet. The model motors and cabin lighting intensities were controlled from the floor along with the variable speed traveling carriage. The whole airship could be raised and lowered or just the nose raised or lowered independently from the controls on the floor of the stage. 

It was found that as the model moved so smoothly along the tracks they only needed to shoot at double normal speed, 48 frames per second and that was to slow down the miniature clouds in the studio. The miniature shots used a light fog filter in front of the lens to help with simulating atmosphere. It also helped with hiding the wires. Sometimes when a smoke cloud passed behind a wire it became a silhouette so a set of small  set of lights was used to lift the value of the wire to match with the background.

Clifford Stine operating the camera.

Scene with miniature icebergs

The clouds were made with various smoke machines and dry ice on the floor which served to cool the stage down at the floor level and keep the smoke clouds floating above the floor staying together without dissipating for much longer.

There were three huge backings painted for the production, a normal sky, a sunset and a stormy cloud scene. Night scenes just had less light on them.

To get a consistent single source light as from the sun, sometimes a key light was hung from a crane arm attached to the overhead travelling carriage. For other shots the model was stationary and a the camera would dolly past imparting apparent movement to the model.

In a few shots the foreground clouds are composited on top of the combination miniature airship and matte painted background.

For the most part the visual effects are pretty flawless and the film is a masterclass in advanced old school, brushed paint on glass, matte painting technique not to mention the expert miniature effects and their integration.

Source: American Cinematographer January 1976.