I see what you mean now. Yes, that was an option that I was going to consider for that establishing shot of the Treadwell scene. It would certainly save a lot of time. The trick, of course, would be to add very subtle animated noise so that the matte wouldn't appear flat and fake.

Forgive me for discussing subjects like this that have probably been discussed many times before on this forum. I'm new here. Over the next few weeks I'll read old threads to see how other people did their work.