Matte is a process in photography or filmmaking in which film of a live actor is mixed with an artificially created image to give the impression that the actor has a different background or surroundings.

The original technique was to shoot an actor on a small set through a hole in a sheet of transparent glass or plastic plate bearing a painted background. The camera would be carefully positioned so that the background drawn on the plate would appear to blend with the set as seen from the camera, giving the impression that the actor was in a large space without having to actually build that space. A similar effect, using models and a mirror, is called the Sch