By Ahem

WIRE REMOVAL

Below are complete explanations of how each of the three ‘wire-removal’ techniques were used in the Superman series.

HIDDEN WIRES

In the business of magic, one of the oldest tricks in the book is to display a pack of cards before the audience, and the magician then guesses the card they are looking at. Of course, the secret of this ‘magic’ is to show ONE card that can attract the attention amongst a vast number of similar looking cards. To do this the magician must reveal more of this ‘attention card’ than the rest of the pack, which will be skimmed through, not allowing the audiences memory or attention to rest on them. When making the Superman films in the optical era, the same principles of magic were applied, giving an optical illusion of visible wires appearing invisible on-screen. As with it’s card-trick counterpart, in the medium of film it’s also the oldest trick in the book. James Cameron also had this approach used in his film ‘Aliens’, where all of the wires were hidden.

‘It’s a continuous guessing game of overthrowing audience expectations,’ said the director in 1986, ‘positioning wires exactly where the audience WON’T be looking’.

To achieve the illusion of hidden wires in special effects filmmaking, numerous ways of attracting audience attention away from the wires are employed, including lightning fast editing, composition and overall arrangement of scenery on-screen as well as actors, and overall balance of colour and even camera movement. Editing can be seen in ‘Superman The Movie’, where Superman hurtles off into the air after delivering officer Mooney a cat-burglar. The Manhattan buildings in the background featured vertical art deco architecture, and by aligning the wires against the background, the wires appear to be non existent. This is further enhanced by the fact that the shot features a colour saturated Superman in bold reds and blues that divert audience attention well away from the wires. In ‘Supergirl’ the title character is seen testing her flying powers out in a country park, and when filming this it was crucial that no opticals were used, as they would effect the picture quality. However, as Supergirl banks off of a rock and begins to turn up to the trees, a slight bright reflection beings to develop on actress Helen Slater’s braded wire flying rig. If this was to become obviously evident to the audience the illusion of flight would be broken. To prevent this, less than half a second after the reflection begins the editors then cut to a closer shot of her flying with less than a seam showing. The illusion of hidden wires has been achieved.

In ‘Superman II’ for the street fight finale, an Aerial battle with our hero and villains Ursa and Non also uses highly seamless hidden wires. Non Grabs Superman from behind, lunging down to grab him. In reality the actors were in front of a giant front projection still, but wires are not removed. However, as with an ‘attention card’, other principal areas within the frame have captured the audience’s attention. Colourful Superman is held against a very pale faced all-in-black villain against a dark blue sky. The red and blue costume and Non’s white face act as the ‘attention card’, while the wires are the same colour as the villain’s costume and the surrounding skyline. Added to this is the split second editing and the ‘whoosh’ sound editing, that describes to the audience member exactly when they are to believe the characters are flying.

COLOUR PROCESSING

A wire hiding scheme used many times before in numerous film productions was also employed in ‘Superman The Movie’ and its sequels. By colour processing the filmstock and over-exposing those scenes with wires, seamless removal can be achieved. This is best shown in the live action portions of Superman flying to a mountain to roll boulders down a cliff side, and for when he zooms over a canyon to find Lois. The grey skies are saturated in printing and photographically the wires against these disappear. The trick was used extensively in all Superman films, though most extensively and effectively in ‘Supergirl’ for her discovery of flight sequence. The bold blue skies coupled with saturated foreground decoration prevents the camera from picking up the wires. It was also used to great effect in the moon and Niagara falls sequences of ‘Superman II’ and the opening of ‘Superman III’, as well as the scene where Gus Gorman falls from Webscoe.

For ‘Superman IV’ the trick was twisted to cater for the low budget of the production. By bleaching all of the photography featuring wires, the skies would turn the same white as the wires and therefore enable them to be less visible. Not only did this disastrously eliminate any form of visual style in the film, in scenes where the sky is not visible, such as when a SWAT van is heaved into the air, the wires appear fluorescent and paradoxically work as the ‘attention card’. This is most evident when Lois and Superman return to Clark’s apartment after they fly together, and when Nuclearman flies through the centre of the Metropolis tower, tunnelling through each storey.

PAINTING WIRES OUT

Perhaps the most famous form of wire removal, where optical effects are used to add cels of painted mattes to a printer combined with live action, to erase the wires. The technique has now transferred to digital technology. In the Superman films, this technique was also used more than any other technique, excluding ‘Superman IV’ due to budget and equipment capabilities. It can be seen when Superman first appears in his  Fortress of Solitude, when he banks off after rescuing a small girls cat, coming and going from Lois’ balcony, Taking off in the Daily Planet alleyway, confronting General Zod on the Planet’s flag pole, twirling Zod at street level, flying around the fortress, saving the power plant, etc.

In ‘Supergirl’ it was elaborately used to show young Kara existing Argo city via the travellater. Evidence of painted wire cels can be (rarely) made out by only the keenest of eyes, due to the shades of colour they’re painted in. Digital wire removal has the advantage of finding the exact colour of the background the wire is against, but as shown in ‘Superman IV’ for example, when Superman flies down to address the UN, painting wires leave a ‘shade’ behind. If you were to look at the exact window panels of the building behind our hero, you would notice that directly above him in a horizontal line are different shades of black to the rest of those in the frame. As mentioned before however, these are only visible to those thoroughly aware of the technique.