The 1930s introduced the traveling matte and blue screening to produce unprecedented special effects during that time. In these methods, background footage is shot first and the actor or model is filmed against a blue screen while carrying out their actions. A ghostly image over a blue-tinged background is created with the simple placement of the foreground shot over the background thus a specially made “hole” in the background footage provides the ideal space for said actor or model.

The main drawback of the traditional traveling matte was the difficulty of synchronization of the cameras shooting the images to be composited. Computer-timed motion control cameras eventually alleviated the problem and allowed both foreground and the background to be filmed with the same camera moves. Traveling matte is known to be the precursor of blue screen compositing.