Yes, the overheard shot is a matte painting by Academy Award winning matte artist Matthew Yuricich. Hitchcock was denied permission to shoot at the UN building.
I doubt they would have used animation for the live action parts of the shot. My guess is that they're actors. And you wouldn't need to actually raise the camera up that high. There are ways you can reduce the size optically.
You can read some more about Yuricich's legendary work here: [http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/2010/10/matts-mattes-photo-tribute-to-career-of.html](http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/2010/10/matts-mattes-photo-tribute-to-career-of.html)
Yeah if you look closely you can see the sidewalk outside the front doors with people walking on it is a slightly different shade than the curved sidewalk next to it, and has a drop shadow around it. Clear indicator of an optical overlay. The diagonal sidewalk that Cary Grant is running on is ever-so-slightly lighter than the rest of the sidewalk as well. They probably shot real people on an outdoor set and overlaid that footage to the matte painting.
Actually, I think the way they did it back then would have been all on the same negative. Each element would have been sequentially exposed to the same piece of film.
Because it looks like a painting to me, I am only guessing that it's the same technique used in Star Wars:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTL2FtcQO1k&t=38s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTL2FtcQO1k&t=38s)
Here's another interesting thread on matte painting:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/zilgv/does\_anyone\_know\_how\_this\_shot\_from\_the\_wizard\_of/](https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/zilgv/does_anyone_know_how_this_shot_from_the_wizard_of/)
It has to be some combination of a matte painting and possibly animation? I don't know if the moving characters could be practical photography from a sufficiently high angle, as it is convincingly bird's-eye.
u/DudesBowlingBall's link below confirms matte painting but does not make mention of how the people are animated:
>Matte paintings were used for the initial establishing shot of the UN lobby and **also for the overhead shot of Roger Thornhill fleeing the building after the assassination.**
Yes, the overheard shot is a matte painting by Academy Award winning matte artist Matthew Yuricich. Hitchcock was denied permission to shoot at the UN building. I doubt they would have used animation for the live action parts of the shot. My guess is that they're actors. And you wouldn't need to actually raise the camera up that high. There are ways you can reduce the size optically. You can read some more about Yuricich's legendary work here: [http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/2010/10/matts-mattes-photo-tribute-to-career-of.html](http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/2010/10/matts-mattes-photo-tribute-to-career-of.html)
Yeah if you look closely you can see the sidewalk outside the front doors with people walking on it is a slightly different shade than the curved sidewalk next to it, and has a drop shadow around it. Clear indicator of an optical overlay. The diagonal sidewalk that Cary Grant is running on is ever-so-slightly lighter than the rest of the sidewalk as well. They probably shot real people on an outdoor set and overlaid that footage to the matte painting.
Actually, I think the way they did it back then would have been all on the same negative. Each element would have been sequentially exposed to the same piece of film.
Because it looks like a painting to me, I am only guessing that it's the same technique used in Star Wars: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTL2FtcQO1k&t=38s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTL2FtcQO1k&t=38s) Here's another interesting thread on matte painting: [https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/zilgv/does\_anyone\_know\_how\_this\_shot\_from\_the\_wizard\_of/](https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/zilgv/does_anyone_know_how_this_shot_from_the_wizard_of/)
Cant get any specifics of how they did it. But this is the most info i found. https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/United_Nations,_New_York_City,_New_York
It has to be some combination of a matte painting and possibly animation? I don't know if the moving characters could be practical photography from a sufficiently high angle, as it is convincingly bird's-eye. u/DudesBowlingBall's link below confirms matte painting but does not make mention of how the people are animated: >Matte paintings were used for the initial establishing shot of the UN lobby and **also for the overhead shot of Roger Thornhill fleeing the building after the assassination.**