He made several improvements on the matte shot to apply it to motion picture, and was the first director to use rear projection in film production.

The matte painting was then drawn to exactly match the proportion and perspective to the live action shot.

The low cost and high quality of Dawn's matte shot made it the mainstay in special effects cinema throughout the century.

The co-defendants, matte artists who included Ferdinand Pinney Earle and Walter Percy Day, counter-sued, claiming that the technique of masking images and double exposure had long been traditional in the industry, a legal battle which Dawn ultimately lost.

[3] Dawn worked in Australia for a number of years, directing a big-budget adaptation of the Marcus Clarke classic novel For the Term of His Natural Life in 1927 and a musical, Showgirl's Luck in 1931, which was the first talking sound film in Australia.