SUPERMAN II/THE PRODUCTION/CREW/ROBERT PAYNTER BSC

Written by Ahem

In the late 1970s, Richard Lester replaced Richard Donner as director on Superman II, and he felt that due to the recent death of Geoffrey Unsworth, who had already photographed portions of the sequel, he did not wish to continue the film as an epic American legend. Lester admitted to not wanting to do ‘the David Lean thing’ Donner gave to Superman, but instead wanted to celebrate the character as the source material had originally made it- a comic book. He was breaking the mould, and all of the rules set up by Donner. Lester wanted the film to look and feel like a comic book, and therefore looked around for the most suited cameraman. He started by dismissing his long-time collaborator David Watkin, whom he felt was too classical in his photography, and not ‘comic book’ material.

Old school cameraman Robert Paynter had spent the last decade working with Britain’s ‘rudest’ and most controversial film director, Michael Winner. Paynter had effortlessly illustrated Winner’s passion for often mindless, ‘comic book’ style violence, which many critics found in incredibly bad taste to the point of being mindlessly gratuitous. Lester was very impressed by this, and realised he had found the perfect cinematographer for his project.

Working with his camera operator, the late Freddie Cooper [SOC], Paynter and Lester came up with the perfect framing for the film, replacing UnSworth’s gliding, epic camera with a horizontally based panning and often static framing to give the look of frames in a comic book strip. The composition had objects and people crammed into the frame much like comic book storytelling too.

Lester’s camera set-up had always been to have 3 cameras filming the action all at one time, with 2 cameras for close-ups, and one long shot. To further increase this comic book composition the director and cameraman had the action photographed from one angle, to give the desired flatness.

Paynter’s use of pastel colours also suggested the colour of comic book dot-printing. Superman II was also the first Superman film to have the hero travelling to other parts of the world, so Paynter really gave a sense of cosmopolitan beauty to the picture. The almost theatrical grey skies of Paris, the rainbows of Niagara Falls and the Caribbean colours of St. Lucia were all rendered with a comic book look. Whereas Geoffrey Unsworth had every new destination for Superman seem like an awe inspiring new discovery, for example young Clark’s arrival in the arctic, Lester and Paynter showed Superman having as easy access to far off lands as he did in the comics. One minute he’s in France, the next in Metropolis, Canada, and so on, without any second thoughts.

Easily Paynter’s most challenging photographic sequence was the theatrical street fight in central Metropolis. The scene was shot entirely in England at Pinewood studios, and had background plate photography of New York City mixed in with it by the model, process and optical units. Lots of practical light was present on the hundreds of neon street signs and lamp posts, and no matter where Lester decided to position his camera, Paynter would always have to have the scene looking completely ‘comic book’. The result was an atmospheric theme park, packed with variety and colourful visuals, which is a feeling that Geoffrey Unsworth and Richard Donner had also contributed to part 1. Unlike Donner and Unsworth however, Lester did not shoot his action scenes as a montage of thought provoking violence. instead he made his action more creative, by adding 'sight-gags' such as a roller-skater wearing a sequined jacket being blown around by gust of wind, making the violence much more creative and 'comic book'. Paynter was of course, very supportive of this dark humour.

Between 1981 and 1986, Robert Paynter was in demand as one of the world’s most popular cameramen. Continuing his theme of comic book visuals, he worked on the film ‘Omen 3’ for Graham Baker and ‘An American Werewolf In London’. This began a 5 year partnership with cinema’s leader of pop culture ‘bad taste’ and ‘comic book’ humour, John Landis. The two worked with each other on ‘Trading Places’, the Michael Jackson music video ‘Thriller’,‘Spies Like Us’ and ‘Into the Night’.

When Paynter was shooting Superman III for Richard Lester again in 1982, he was at his peak of popularity. The comic book aesthetic had become a symbol of early 80s popular culture. ‘Amercian Werewolf ‘ was one of the first films to be shown on video in ‘fast forward’, ‘rewind’ and ‘pause’ mode, so anyone could revisit there favourite moments of the film and replay them, despite however violent they were! While the masses loved it, such bad taste did not impress critics, and neither did the music video ‘Thriller’. All of this happened during Paynter’s time on Superman III, and even the fans were feeling that while the look of the film was faithful to the comic, it was just their to make them accept the idiosyncratic in-jokes the director had covered the film in.

Robert Paynter later worked with Frank Oz on ‘Muppets Take Manhattan’ and ‘Little shop of Horrors’, and Amy Heckerling on ‘National Lampoon’s European Vacation’, where more comic book humour and adult in-jokes filled the screen. By 1986 Paynter wanted to do something more tasteful, and turned down John Landis ‘Three Amigos’. He lit ‘The Secret Garden’ for cable TV and ‘When The Whales Came’ in 1989. He has since shown no participation in motion pictures.

Robert Paynter will never be remembered as a classic cameraman like Geoffrey Unsworth, but his intentions were completely different. Nowadays celluloid translations of comic books are done with shallow, plasticated bright colours (Batman & Robin, Batman Forever, Steel) or an excessive darkness (Spawn, The Crow). On Superman II and III however, Robert Paynter gave us the greatest celluloid visual translation of a comic book.