Superman III - The cop car transformation
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2021
- Superman III gets ridiculed for a lot of things, but the effects shouldn't be one of them. There was one scene in particular that had us stumped on the podcast.
Early in the movie, Clark Kent needs to transform into Superman to assist with a fire. Clark jumps in one door, and Superman leaps out the other.
Can anyone explain how they achieved this?
From Best of the Rest Episode 11: Superman III. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
bestoftherest.buzzsprout.com/
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It's not a double. The front of the car is a frozen frame. The windshield footage is superimposed and overlayed onto actual footage of him moving thru the car. The front frozen hood portions of the car are masked onto the back portion.
Notice how Superman's shadow doesn't go passed toward the front portion of the car. As he moves to the front of the car, he's rotoscoped over the frozen hood. The front of the car is literally just a picture. No movement. Look at his cape as he's rotoscoped over the car. So this scene is just a bunch of clever masking and rotoscoping. Super well done for it's time. Hope I explained that well.
Superman's many abilities enabled him to do unexplainable things.
Wow, the detail of no-shadow on the passenger side of the car is not easy to pick up! Well done!
Not sure why they would need to do all that. Why not just use a simple traditional split-screen? The car and camera are clearly locked and absolutely nothing moves. Why do you need to overlay car parts over an already static car?
I’m noticing the car doesn’t shake/wobble at all when 225lb Clark enters through the back seat. I’m wondering if they secured it down to prevent shaking? (This might also indicate that the car is a composite image where they overlayed portions of left & right side and filled in the middle with a matte painting?)
Also when superman runs alone side of the car you no longer see his shadow beyond the rear door of the car.
Because he really is superman
The car except the lights was super imposed into the scene 😊
As a VFX guy I'll try and breakdown the process how the effect was done... Notice how the car barely moves when he steps in the car? The car is stabilized and is deliberate to allow the match up of the splicing of footage in the final shot.
If you pay close attention to the front passenger door of the police car, look between the L and I, you will notice a slight colour mismatch from the back of the car and the front. This is where the sun light changed between the filming of both Reeve in and out of costume. This is where the splicing comes in, from the line between the passenger door and back door, the shot is cut out or masked out, which runs all the way down to the front tyre. If you watch it on the higher definition, version 4K. Though still noticeable here, you'll see a very thin white edge around the tyre. This where the mask ends. Those with eagle eyes, if you watch this scene close up, you can actually see the wobble between both shot plates. When Chris Reeve exits as Superman, pay close attention that only his shadow appears on the back door but not on the front passenger door. This is because when he exited originally, they had to carefully mask Reeve frame by frame. As the sky behind would have changed dramatically earlier compared to the filming shot of him in costume later. So technically in this scene, Reeve dressed as Clark is still ducked down inside the police car whilst he exits as Superman. The reflection is an overlay shot on the window to add effect.
Fantastic breakdown, thank you. So the weird overlay on the windshield is just to help smooth everything over basically?
Potentially, yes and dramatic effect :)
@@botrcast I think they also wanted to make sure the audience could see the fire was raging, to keep the excitement, urgency and suspense of the scene up. I would guess they originally would've wanted the car to be parked so that the fire was raging in the background of the actual shot, but the scene was complicated enough already. So someone probably tossed out the idea to project a reflection of the fire on the window instead.
@@botrcast As someone else pointed out, when Reeve exits the car, he should've been visible in the back seat behind the windshield. Since they knew he wouldn't be, because that part of the footage came from the Clark Kent shot, the reflection on the window convinces the audience they only can't see Superman in the back seat as he exits because the reflection is so strong that it's obscuring him.
Yes! Thanks for getting it right! (There are some silly ideas in these comments about how it was done.) I was surprised you think Superman was masked/rotoed. I wouldn't have thought the sky wouldn't change too much and you could just feather it above the policecar?
I was told it was a split screen. The guy who manages the Christopher Reeve Superman movie websites explained it to me in detail, and what you said about the windshield was accurate. I’ll see if I can get him to explain it again, and I’ll repost it.
The fact that a VFX shot from 1983 is even queried today is kinda awesome! I've watched this scene quite a few times (meaning A LOT!), and could never work out how the shot was done.
I did, however find it quite hilarious the fact when both Clark and Jimmy were crouched down in a restricted area, the police officer is just blatantly staring at them, he then just watches Jimmy just run into the danger zone! 😂
@@dannyr2976 and the state trooper appearing to be ok with the two of them getting off the bus considering the danger
@@dannyr2976this is part of the genius comedy of this film. I might make S3 the subject of my next video. I have always found the cop watching Jimmy run by hilarious.
@MMAfighter38113 and what about their luggage, still on the bus?
Looks like a split screen with a still cutout of the car to cover the join. I think the right hand edge (as we’re looking at it) is where the line is.
I am more surprised that the cop didn’t notice the change! 🤦🏼♂️
If you watch closely Superman is green screen or comped in. You can see the edges around him are a little fuzzy. So Reeve gets into the car as Clark. Maybe he opens the door while staying down and out of the shot, then they green screen in Superman’s exit. On the 4K you can freeze frame and see that even his cape gets a little lost in the effect.
If he was bluescreened they did a hell of a job adding in his shadow at a time when CGI was non existent. I think the entire car was on a soundstage because it does not appear to be lit by direct sunlight like the rest of the scene.
No, no, no. Firstly there's no evidence of greenscreen. But why would they even need to do this? It's just a simple old-fashioned split-screen composite. I don't see what's confusing about this effect? We've seen this effect for decades when one actor "meets himself" in a show, and they do a split screen. No other technique is necessary.
There was No CGI in 1983... first computer generated images were used in The Abyss, 1986. You can't use green screen in a Real Location.
@@vitoguttilla2926wrong. First use of CGI in film actually dates all the way back to 1953 and Hitchcock’s Vertigo. The opening credits use computer graphics to create the abstract images in the opening scene. Then you had Westworld in 73, the first Star Wars film in 77, wrath of khan, the search for spock, the last Starfighter and finally You g Sherlock Holmes which used CGi to create a walking Knight out of a stained glass window. All predate The Abyss.
This isn’t computer generated. It’s quite simple. It’s two similar looking scenes stitched together. Look at how it’s laid out- the camera is fixed, no movement. There action on one side (the people on the right moving) but in a clearly defined area. They shoot the shot with Clark climbing into the car and everything that happens on the right hand of the car as one. Then they shoot the scene again, only this time with Reeve in the car in his Supes outfit where he then gets out. Then you simply physically cut the two halves together. It’s why the car is rock steady, no suspension movement despite the beefy Chris Reeves climbing in and then out of the vehicle. If it moved it would be a nightmare to physically cut together. With it being nice and fixed like that it’s a lot easier to cut the two halves together into one shot.
That's Reeve for sure; both entering and exiting .
Imagine if Clark was in the middle of the desert with nowhere to duck into to change into Superman.
nobody else would be there anyway because its s desert
@@jesseandrews2303 Not willingly anyway.
You can see that sups coming out is compt in over the front of the car as well. The car doors are real, but the front end is a graphical element.
All of the theories here seem a lot more plausible than my "It was done using magic" idea.
Quick change is a super common magicians trick. It could be done the same way.
It’s a dissolve with a matte painting of the car. Reeve is playing both Clark and Superman.
The giveaway is that the car suspension doesnt move when he gets in or out - suggesting the car is either a still photo or a composite image
He goes behind a screen. Look closely he’s behind the cop behind the car
Notice the police man behind the car you can see through the window. Clark appears to disappear behind this person, which isn’t possible.
trust me.... its very possible to get low down in a backseat of a car
The fact that the car does not move one bit suggests this is a lock-off shot. They attached the car to the ground to prevent it's movement, they locked the camera in place, and then they cut the two shots together. When Superman gets out of the car, you can't see his cape fluttering inside it. Christopher Reeve was a big, tall, heavy man. There's no way he can get into a 1970s car without it rocking. It's a lock-off shot.
True, plus the background/right is a plate, then superman exiting out the left is composited on the left, then a matte painting of the cop car on top of all of that to mask the compositing
But it’s Superman as Clark Kent getting into the car and exiting as Superman. Not Christopher Reeve. Superman can fly. He can defy gravity while in the car. Why would it drop?
@@finch2213 You know it's just a movie, right? 🤣
@@Chris-lk3fq he’s not wrong though
@@realAdultProdigy fair enough.
I think the front half and rear half of the cop car are seperate
There's definitely some rotoscoping on the cape as if flaps over the door.
I think it’s just a simple split screen. They would have to rig the car to not move at all, since the two sides of the car wouldn’t match up if the shocks leaned the car one way and then the other. You can see the car doesn’t move at all, and neither does the camera. There are lots of reflections and shadows that would be a nightmare to do any other way. It’s not a double, they’re both Christopher Reeve.
Superman is rotoscoped behind the door. There are a few giveaway frames right before he starts to close the door. Also the door is wonky as it opens but that looks like compression artifacts.
Cop: "Some guy left his clothes in the backseat of my squad car."
It's a split between the police man and another guy at the front seats.
It's an age old technique of cutting and pasting reels
Its not seamless, its a composite shot, you can see the car is matted around
Not to mention the cop lights on top keep moving
Superman doesn't cast a shadow on the car even though scene lit from left, so my money is on car replacement.
I like ❤❤Christopher Reeve Superman😊
It’s spliced on the right edge of the car.
the true answer is he's superman!
I think they used green screen. The Superman seems being cut from right when he exit the car. We don’t see Superman rising inside the car, he just comes out of the door like teleported.
Some performers I know have clothes they can take of in seconds because they look normal but the sides are tied by Velcro. So it comes out immediately.
That's a way you could do with a practical effectif he goes in, the clothes are an easy out and he comes out as Superman. Then you add the screen window to cover anything you don't want people to see in the transition.
Watch the making of to find out.
Note that Superman IV did it the "easy way," with an apparent double. Look up the scene Superman IV (5/10) Movie CLIP - Superman & Clark Kent (1987) HD on CZcams. Clark Kent is seen running into the back of a car from the back only. And Superman is seen exiting only from a distance, without a direct shot of his face. So that scene could've been using one or two doubles. The car shakes in that one as he gets in, consistently through his exit, so that definitely wasn't a case of splicing an image.
Simple split screen. The car was locked down to keep it from moving and giving away the split. Maybe.
It's the same Christopher Reeves in different shots. There's like 3 different layers here. Only the back half of the car is real, where the front half of the cop car and windshield are a still matte. The people are a different pre-recorded layer. He opens door, dips behind matte. Cut. Change costume. Get behind photo. Action. Exit other door. That's a wrap.
No, there are no stills involved. It's just a simple split-screen. The front of the cop car is from the shot of Clark getting in the car, and it changes over time, with many reflections.
@@Scripture-Man LOL not even close. No way you are that fooled by 1983 movie magic. That car is motionless like a stone because it's a matte. The windshield is an animated overlay. Add everything else I previously said and that is how this scene was shot. This isn't a theoretical discussion, I'm telling you how it was done. Period.
I always thought it was two performers, Reeve and the double - the double opens the door and jumps in the back of the car/behind the car, but… the trunk part is cut off. Reeve as Super jumps out? Man I don’t know.
It's an optically printed process shot. So processed that it has an overall 'unworldly' look to it.
Remember, Clark Kent can fly in the car while he changes into his Superman outfit to avoid shaking the car too much. He did not ever have to touch any part of the car except for when he opened and closed the doors.
Ive always hated how Superman changes.
Even as a kid it made no sense.
He would have to have the suit and cape tucked in under his clothes.
He can fly around the world in under a second, so fast no one would see him.
Why not walk out of sight, fly home, get changed and fly back in under a second.
Thought this was well known how they did it?!
The car is split into 2 sections merged together. Him entering the car was filmed and him exiting the car was filmed separately. It’s a very common old trick used for film. The background clouds are composited hence the line above the buildings on the right, with them missing on the left. As well as an overly on the windscreen. Done quite well for its time!
its 2 shots spliced together, look at where on the blue light that movement stops, you'll see everything left of that nothing moves, and it's perfectly in line with the right most part of the door that moves.
simply, draw a vertical line at the left most edge of the part of the blue light that has movement. everything right of that is one take, everything left of it is another and they just cut them together.
Suspension isn't moving, I can feel green screen tbh, it's much older tech than you think.....
When he exits the car, it isnt Christopher Reeves. Look at this face. As soon as he exits the camera pans to the cop in the car, this gives them time to have Reeves in the next scene as superman.
Its spliced at the windshield...hood back is green screen?
goodness,that car is modified so two supes could fit in ,car's backsit is detachable all the way into trunk
One thing I noticed is that the car's suspension is not moving at all despite a 200 pound man climbing into the back and rustling around. The car remains perfectly stationary without the slightest up and down motion of the rear springs. It is impossible for this to happen. This may be a clue on how they did this shot. Also, the reflection of the Deputy in the windshield moves differently than the live action around the car, almost as if it is a projection.
Jim Halpert knows the trick
It's a split screen. The split is cut along the passenger side door and window. When Superman exits, his cape crosses the split, which is why it is rotoscoped (a close look shows the hard edge of the cape for split second, just a few frames.) The reflection on the windshield is matted in to help disguise the split - its slightly see-through on the right, so we see Clark get in, but more opaque on the left, which is why we don't see Superman until he gets out. It was a time when effects had to be clever - they were truly "special" effects. The downside of today's seamless effects is that they no longer have much of an impact on us.
It's not so much that it's see-through and opaque. It's that the entire windshield is from the Clark Kent footage. So it has no Superman footage in it. As you suggest, the idea of overlaying the reflection onto the window was so the audience wasn't sitting there staring at an empty back seat as Superman comes out and saying it was fake because they couldn't see him through the window. They would've seen from shooting that Reeve couldn't get low enough when exiting to be below the window line entirely. They could have TRIED to split the image down the middle of the car, but generally they try to match footage along a seam line on an object, so that it obscures any possibly visible seam where the footage is joined together.
@@jedijones Yes I think you're right, its entirely form the Clark Kent footage - but the reflection of the fire is matted onto it, and it looks like you can't see the hills in the background behind the police car through the left hand side of the windshield, along the right shoulder of the cop in the reflection. I've never looked at this scene so closely before!
@@matthewwade920 Yeah, but that's basically because some of the matte representing the reflection had to be cut out on the right so that you could see Clark Kent entering the backseat. The part on the left had to be left in for just the opposite reason, to obscure the fact that "Superman" would not actually be in the car in that shot, even as he was exiting through the door. it would be a visual error if you could see clear through to the back seat on the left as Superman exits, and he was not visible in the car. On another note, if you pause it just right during 1:34, you can see a messed up shot where it looks like the bottom of Superman's cape has been cut to ribbons, as if a kid with scissors went to town on it.
I think the overlaid reflection on the windscreen is right. At 1:18 some part of Superman's body should be visible through the windscreen but it can only be seen through the side windows.
His cape at 1:58 looks strange against the car door. Looks like a blue screen affect/glitch to me. Still, it was a great effect given the age of the movie
I agree with those who say the car isn't actually there. If you notice the moment he slides into the back seat the car itself doesn't move around, nor does the suspension react to any weight shifting as it would when any normal person gets in or out of a car.
The car is locked in place because the effect merges two shots together and wobbling would make it hard for them to match.
I'd have to look at my blu-ray to see higher definition, but to me the car looks like it might have been on a bluescreen set and comped in to the background, but I'm not for sure. All I know is something looks fake about the car in the shot, especially the windshield reflection.
All that said, most of the effects shots from Superman III (and especially IV, don't get me started) look really bad. Take a look at the first Superman for quality effects. The end of the balcony/flying scene (where Superman flies off and the camera immediately pans to Clark Kent at the door of Lois' apartment) has got to be the BEST, most convincing use of rear projection I've ever seen. Usually rear projection looks awful and obviously fake (just look at practically any episode of The Dukes of Hazzard after the first few Season One episodes!), but it was well done at least for that balcony scene in the first Superman (later flying scenes with the missiles a different story).
III is underrated.
I wanted to know that myself but more of that superman vs Clark Kent fight in the junk yard Lol. How they do that?
That’s just using Vic Armstrong, Reeve’s body/stunt double. Anytime evil Superman or Clark’s back is to the camera, it’s Armstrong. There’s only a couple of shots where Reeve is on camera as both characters and that’s just compositing work.
@@peterp2153 The compositing breaks down at certain points. As Clark is choking Superman and Superman fades away, the position of his hands completely shifts, because the hands on Superman's neck were (obviously, LOL) not Reeve's hands.
Back left of car is not there? He dives behind car?
Bro! He’s SUPERMAN! Duh! 🙄 Long Live the Last Son of Krypton!
The front of the car seems to be post. You can see Superman doesn't cast any shadows on the front of the car, but he does cast a shadow on the door. I'm sure that's not all, but that's one of them.
Yeah, the car seems to be preternaturally still, it doesn't move in the slightest when Clark gets in.
Surprised this effect confuses you. It's such a simple old-school effect. Just a split screen, that's all. We know it's a visual effect because both the car and camera are 100% locked in place. They film him getting in one side and film him getting out the other, and merge them together. The reflection is super-imposed.
It almost looks to me like the first guy actually dives behind the car. Not get into it
Duh he is Superman. He is faster then a speeding bullet.
The car doesn’t move, i think it’s a fake car.you see the front right to the rear left only. He also probably;y did it twice once in the suit and then not.
Look are the fire you can see it go up buy not above the car roof.
What do yoi mena hoa he do it ? He is Superman
I wondered for years how this was done, especially considering the reflection of fire doesn't alter. I only noticed recently the black outline round Superman's head as he exits the car. So it's some kind of composited effect. But still incredible.
I only found out the other day that in the first film, when he flies off after taking Lois flying, it's actually a screen that Lois is saying goodbye to, and Chris is, of course, knocking on the door.
Is a cop car not rigged not to open from the inside.
Split screen
It's from Superman 3.
Who cares?
I suspect green screen to some extent,.
It's clearly a "green screen"... You need your eyes checked.
He did it at super speed,but us humans cant see it
In the pan and scan version (or if you zoom in) you can see a halo around superman, much like old-school blue screen. I suspect they had a double for superman, then superimposed his face
They're two separate shots put together. Kinda like the way they put the girl in the same shot as kong in the original king kong.
0:22 When Chris climbs in maybe the director told him he has to stay down for a couple of seconds, maybe he counted to 10.
0:25 If you look at the door where he pops out of as Superman, everything on the left side of that is a separate shot.
If I could highlight the border where the 2 shots meat with a marker I would.
yes these are two different scenes and it is not so difficult to shoot, I don't know why these people are thinking too much?
Great execution on the effects, but boneheaded writing. Cops aren’t going to notice? And it’s not easy changing clothes in a backseat. And the back seat of cop cars don’t have exit handles for obvious reasons.
It looks like a composite shot. It’s 100% Christopher Reeve as both Clark and Superman but when he gets out of the car, he has a fuzz or halo around him. So they either merged two shots of him getting in and getting out, keeping the car the same and of course adding those dodgy looking reflections of flame on the windshield, or the split is in the middle of the car, which could also explain the cgi flame in the windshield.
Star Wars and Empire came out in 77 and 80 respectively, and both had a lot of blue screen so it’s not a huge stretch to imagine something similar for S3 which came out in 1983. Now the trick of Superman flying off and Clark showing up at Lois’ apartment in S1 was genius.
I found out only the other day that it was a screen with film of Superman flying off that Lois was saying goodbye to.
This is what people still want to see in this modern day Superman and I laugh... Things like this will not aged well as time goes on because they look too dumb for the average people to believe...
No doubt, Christopher Reeve was a perfect Superman, but truth is many things in those Superman movies were just outrightly f*cking dumb to the core...
Superman and the superhero medium always has to advance and modernize. If it doesn't, it will die out like the western genre. Superman 1978 was advancing a lot from what the George Reeves TV show was. And Man of Steel advanced beyond Superman 1978. You can't make a "retro" superhero movie that mimics one from decades ago. They tried that with Batman & Robin, and audiences balked.
@@jedijones yes, but my point is: people are still pushing for Christopher Reeve type of Superman in this contemporary period and they're not willing to accept any other way that refuse to do things like; changing to Superman from Clark by running into phone booth (despite we don't get to see phone booth on streets anymore}, being sluggish as Clark and also rotating (spinning) fastly to transform to Superman....
They tried it with WW84 and we all saw how that movie looked so bad for modern audience...
the car doesn't move when he get in and out, so it's fake. super imposed car.
No, that only means the car is rigged to be motionless. For the optical. Yes, there’s a split screen. It’s an optical.
@roddmatsui3554 I don't think so, if you look maybe he's not getting in the car, the split is the one side. but the car doesn't move at all, you would see some movement.
G'day it's Steven from Down Under
As a teenager I watched this on VHS wondering how it was done, actually it's quite good for 1983, I always wondered why there was a superimposed fire on the windscreen, was it to disguise this SPX process, or to set the scene location, or both.
Loved Mr.Christopher Reeve, he made me believe in the good of humanity and that a man could fly.
RIP
The double stuntman got out of the car ..reeves had to get in
Way to go Clark/superman!!!!!!
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