Supergirl (1984) : Scene Analysis #2

[Abductorenmadrid]

Hi all and welcome to another scene analysis from the Supergirl (1984) movie.

This one could be called ...

"So good they shot it twice!"

or

"Popeye's Spatial Distortion Vortex"

Again I am looking at the strange goings on at the heart of the sleepy town of Midvale. In my first analysis we discovered a wormhole which I jokingly suggested had been caused by Maureen Teefy's agent. Well, today we see that there were other forces in play, my latest discovery being Popeye's Spatial Distortion Vortex which we can observe bending light to such a degree that Popeye's itself becomes invisible to the naked eye.

Let's remind ourselves of the lay of the land in Midvale. There is a road running more or less North/South and a central junction with a road leading off North East / South West. At this meeting point there is Popeye's (South West), the TAS gas station (NE), a stone built building (NW) and the Bank (SE) but while Poeye's seems central to this mystery we aren't going to be seeing it all during this analysis.



So, what happens? Well, it's nighttime in Midvale and all the good folk are sleeping apparently and our heroine, new in from her distant world arrives in pursuit of the Omegahedron. So there she lands, just to the North of our central junction. We can place her there by comparing the set and movie still. The blue circle and lines represent roughly where the camera may have been and its line of sight. The yellow circle is approximately where Supergirl is stood.




The camera position shifts but our heroine initially doesn't. She checks her surroundings before slowly advancing up the street in the general direction of the camera.




By comparing the background with our set we see Supergirl reaches the general area of the junction itself, more or less central to it in fact. The stone faced building in the NW corner of the junction is very distinctive, especially the doorway and you can easily see it in the set photo. Supergirl turns in a circle before her she is aware of the approaching truck from the East and faces it.




The truck approaches and comes to rest somewhere in front of the TAS gas station. The ICE - WATER FREE sign and a distant sign that I thought might say OLYMPIC 1500 (correct me if I am wrong!) helps us align the shot on the set image.




Our fiends approach, a low shot making them seem more threatening the closer they come, especially as they are emerging from the glare of the lights. Out of view, to the right you would be able to see the large 007 stage of the Pinewood Studio's grounds.




And it's now our vortex takes hold of our heroine and villains. We had been viewing most of the action from the area marked A but now we discover that we've been moved to different ground! The previous shots were left over to the right of Supergirl as we look and then suddenly we are looking from the right over to the left of Supergirl. It's an unsettling change of views ... but ... it is necessary.



Initially we think we are in a big wide open and street lit space. And, it is kind of true ,we are, except, that doesn't work well with the sinister narrative we need! We have to make things look sinister and "wrong side of the tracks". And so ... we find out we are in some seedy looking side street. In reality, we've moved from one side of Popeye's to the other putting us by the construction area.

We talked a little about the construction site in anaylsis #1 - basically during the build up to Supergirl rescuing Ethan she first arrives at the construction site before moving on (and into the wormhole!). In the next picture you see the Trucker scene and the daytime arrival of Supergirl for comparison. A is a narrow and darker coloured fence board. B is a red light. C is a post supporting the board.





Now our bad boys approach, passing the corner of the construction site. The advertising board announces the project under construction by the looks of it, we see the same spot in the daytime scene too.




Just for comparison we also see the Diner sign illuminated. The canopy of a store front is just visible in the night shot and it appears to be an "Interflora". In the daytime scene you can see a storefront, a flowery border at the bottom of the glass shop front confirming that the locations likely do match.





In the next shot we see the board fence. The metal tubing either has been removed or has not been placed yet, depending on what the shooting sequence is. Also, while I could see things like the red lights aligning between day and night shoots the posters and some of the hazard signs did not. I don't know if the posters were meant to help just dress the shot as "seedy" looking but the daytime and nighttime dressing for the border fence seems different. Also note the scale of Linda Lee to the board wall compared to how she appears as SG. If Linda Lee stood against the boards you'd think she is quite short in comparison. But, SG and her ... friends, they seem taller in the night shot. I suspect it's just angles, and camera placemement that has this effect ... what do you think?







The next night shot is of our bad guy with the daytime shot for comparison. Yep, we sure are at the construction site, and some way off from the junction where the scene began.





Now we are about to see the shot reverse again. The badguy has drawn his knife and then had it zapped off him by our heroine. As they want to kick him into the building site, along side his fellow pest he has to have his back to the building site. That in turn means they have to once again have Supergirl with her back to the stone corner building on the junction.




With that camera position they are probably on the other side of Popeye's looking North once more. Behind us would be the fast food joint, not the construction site.

One last shot now. We have reversed the shot one last time, looking at the aftermath of SG's kick leaving our badguy in the building site. We can see that this gap in the boards was also present in the daytime shot, albeit part hidden by the tubes.



So, why the gyrations? Why the vortex? Well, I suspect the building site was a good way to ditch our badguys once SG had beaten them off and the setting gave a sense of hemmed in danger. The junction, while being useful for introducing the truck and the truckers was way too open for us to think it sinister. Or maybe Popeye's wasn't ready to be filmed yet? Who knows - but I hope you enjoyed the little trip around the vortex. If you know anything about the shooting order, or have a theory on what was going on, let the other members know in the forum below!

[Supergirllegend]

Brilliant analysis sir. I have also contemplated these inaccuracies from having “studied” the scene so much. They clearly moved from the junction to the construction zone for when the truckers come within a few feet from Supergirl. If it was accurate I think you would have seen Popeyes chicken in there scene. They had to film on either sides of the Popeyes in order for the shots to match up but within the context of this scene it simply doesn’t exist.
In the making of you can hear the director ask Helen “how long does it take you to get out and in” meaning how long does it take to change from the flying Supergirl costume to the walking one.
“I’d say nine minutes tops” she says.
Meaning they would have had to change costumes when she enters from the sky and then at the end of the scene when she exits. You make the point they might have shot the scene twice. That’s a possibility for sure. I also think they used different camera lenses to make the construction yard scenes more tight and closed in compared to when the truck enters. Also they must have filmed this scene early in the shooting schedule because later they destroy most of the buildings we see here, namely the little chapel of roses. It was a nice inclusion of that building in the shot of the truckers approaching, as if to say it could have been a possibility they could of have had a shotgun wedding to make the “good time” more official. One of my many fantasies.

[Mr. X]

So then who was the shooter in the grassy knoll?

[Abductorenmadrid]

So then who was the shooter in the grassy knoll?

LOL - errrr, thanks for the feedback, I guess!

As for the shooter - as you seem to think there was one, and only one, maybe you have a better idea than me!

[Supergirllegend]

I have gone over the angles of this scene so many times. It just doesn't make sense. Maybe Popeye's wasn't constructed at this stage in the shooting schedule or they had to shoot around it (even if that means moving the actors numerous times so the backgrounds match up. They definitely move from when Supergirl is caught like a deer in the headlights to then that dingy little construction area.

Another baffling thing that just came to me the other day was these idiots park their truck in the middle of an intersection. Lucky there seems to be a curfew in this town as not another soul can be found.

[Abductorenmadrid]

I have gone over the angles of this scene so many times. It just doesn't make sense. Maybe Popeye's wasn't constructed at this stage in the shooting schedule or they had to shoot around it (even if that means moving the actors numerous times so the backgrounds match up. They definitely move from when Supergirl is caught like a deer in the headlights to then that dingy little construction area.

Another baffling thing that just came to me the other day was these idiots park their truck in the middle of an intersection. Lucky there seems to be a curfew in this town as not another soul can be found.

Yes, there are many reasons that it could have been they moved the scene. For me, I am sure the open nature of the junction reduced the sense of danger and that's why they changed to the building site. I would have thought that Popeye's would have been worked on the most, maybe even built first as it was a central location and internally at least had to be functional with chairs and tables and serving counters etc....

[Supergirllegend]

I have gone over the angles of this scene so many times. It just doesn't make sense. Maybe Popeye's wasn't constructed at this stage in the shooting schedule or they had to shoot around it (even if that means moving the actors numerous times so the backgrounds match up. They definitely move from when Supergirl is caught like a deer in the headlights to then that dingy little construction area.

Another baffling thing that just came to me the other day was these idiots park their truck in the middle of an intersection. Lucky there seems to be a curfew in this town as not another soul can be found.

Yes, there are many reasons that it could have been they moved the scene. For me, I am sure the open nature of the junction reduced the sense of danger and that's why they changed to the building site. I would have thought that Popeye's would have been worked on the most, maybe even built first as it was a central location and internally at least had to be functional with chairs and tables and serving counters etc....

Hey I guess you're right there. It was like a fully functioning restaurant. At least we can all agree on the fact that this scene definitely jumps around. In the scene where Supergirl looks at Billy and then flies away, Popeye's technically should have been in the background of that shot.
It would be great if we knew someone who worked on that scene. There seemed to be heaps of crew in the background doing next to nothing. I know they had a guy taking still shots for continuity. He must have rolls of unseen footage just waiting to be unearthed.

[Supergirllegend]

Screenshot (926).png (1.33 MiB) Viewed 1668 times

Going through my screen caps I noticed this pic and the bank type building can be seen behind her. This must be right before they moved shots, or as you said at the beginning, filmed this scene twice. It's a possibility.

[Abductorenmadrid]

Yes, this must have been right before they moved from what I marked as zone A in my analysis to zone B. The fact you have those stills of HS at the gas station playing out being startled by the truck(ers') arrival seems to hint they experimented with the scene there too.

Interestingly the movie camera in your image is positioned behind HS's left shoulder, looking towards the men who have approached from the truck which is consistent with the shots we see in the movie. From that side a "low from the left up to the right" angle would have made the shot to the chapel at SG's boot height which I showed above.

The building behind HS is the corner building on the set, opposite Popeye's (There is a building designated as a Bank, but that is diagonally opposite from the corner building). I think the corner building was symmetrical with five segments of windows then a corner entrance doorway and then another five segments of windows. This would mean that the cast and crew are more or less level with the entrance area which is consistent with the area we see Supergirl turn around in when she first sees the truck arriving - I have the image above where I also mention an "Olympic" sign etc...

I don't think the orange car below the drugstore sign moved much during filming as it is there for the night shot and seems to be in the same location in the overhead camera shots of the set taken during the tractor sequence during the daytime.