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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!
