11 Facts About Arthur Widmer

Arthur Widmer was an American film special effects pioneer.

Arthur Widmer invented the "Ultra Violet Traveling matte process", an early version of what would become known as bluescreen.

Arthur Widmer began his career at Kodak in 1935, as a researcher in Rochester, New York.

Arthur Widmer learned much, and being seen as a creative thinker was attached on a three-year stint in 1943 as one of the Kodak researchers assigned to the Manhattan Project in Berkeley, California and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as an analytical chemist developing methods of uranium analysis, which led to the development of the atomic bomb.

Arthur Widmer helped introduce the new Eastman Color Negative and Positive Film, a multilayered color motion picture film that changed the dynamics of power in the movie industry.

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Arthur Widmer left Kodak in 1951 and joined Warner Brothers to design and build the first Eastman color film professional processing machine in the country and began his work with the Ultra Violet Traveling matte process.

Arthur Widmer developed and refined technologies for other motion picture processes including 3D and widescreen.

In 1960 Arthur Widmer joined the Marquardt Corporation Van Nuys Plant as the lead research group investigating photographic methods of data storage and retrieval.

In 1964, Arthur Widmer joined Universal Studios to design and build the optical department, where he continued his work on the blue screen technique and other visual effects until his retirement in 1979.

The Academy's Science and Technology committee honored Arthur Widmer for helping develop methods for advancing the art of storytelling on film: Most notable: processes that make it seem as if actors are in faraway locations when in fact they are working on sound stages in Hollywood or elsewhere.

Arthur Widmer's sister Babara Dinwoodie was a local artist in Chester County, Pennsylvania.