Supergirl1984 - Scene Analysis #1

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Abductorenmadrid
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I could maybe also title this …

Supergirl's Mystery Window Shopping Adventure!

or

How the Arty Shot caused Maureen’s Agent to create an Interdimensional Wormhole!



In another thread you may have seen I have been resequencing the 1984 Supergirl movie for a story. During the making of the story I tried to see what I could do to re-shape scenes to my liking, and along the way learned, or at least think I learned, some of the movie magic that was applied during production.

This analysis looks at the issues of filming the “Popeye’s” scenes in “Midvale” and transitioning into the start of the tractor rescue with Supergirl, Lucy and Ethan. We will see that these shots needed more thought than you might imagine in order to achieve the goals of the filming, the story and maybe the directors desires.

THE SETUP

Firstly we must remember it is the early 1980s and blue/green screening on a big scale and CGI to an adequate degree didn’t really exist yet. And so the “town” of Midvale was a physical set built on the ever increasingly busy Pinewood Studio grounds. The set appears to be centered on a tarmac road layout with a junction which is not at right angles.

Below I have marked up some of the key areas of “Midvale”, there are more but geographically this gives you an idea of the lay of the land. There is the gas station with its tyre on the roof, Popeye’s, and the Little Chapel of The Roses. There is the building site where Supergirl encountered the Truckers (a whole different story!) and by the water tower is the Ice – Water Free sign. As this set photo was taken mid shoot the digger has already emerged and part way into its rampage.

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BUT WHY ARE WE HERE?

The tractor rescue scene seems to be the main reason for needing a controlled set environment especially with the ensuing fire near a petrol station a giant tyre running amok and live electrical cables fizzing away on the streets! All of this of course is needed so Supergirl can demonstrate her powers and be heroic in public.

BUT, the scene is also about getting people together. With Jimmy and Linda meeting it symbolically links the Superman and Supergirl franchises in the flesh, something not possible with Christopher Reeve taking a rain check from the movie. And of course Supergirl meeting Ethan builds the start of a potential love interest.

So, throw in Popeye’s where the cool kids hang out, put it where poor Ethan and the mechanical digger can be seen and then let SG do her bit … objectives achieved! Simple, right?! Well, they should have been, but then someone needed an Arty Shot … which caused Maureen’s Agent to create an Interdimensional Wormhole!

CREATING THE WORMHOLE!

Let us begin with Supergirl’s arrival and transformation into Linda Lee. There is a crane camera side of Popeye’s and a boom arm which extends left to the edge of the shot. My drawn on SOLID BLUE LINE crudely marks the line of Supergirl’s flight into town, no doubt facilitated by that crane boom for the wire work.

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SG’s angle is high before she swoops down – you can see two ad signs behind the construction site and compare with the set foto. We can see that if the camera panned lower we would see the road ends abruptly, marking the edge of the set. So, the camera points as high as it can until SG descends in front of the construction site.

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It is this area where the infamous “Trucker Scene” partially got shot (like I said, a different story!) but there are metal pipes here now. This area also gives the illusion of being quiet and secluded, a perfect spot for our heroine to land unseen.

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After landing Linda turns to her left, advancing towards the camera following the BLUE DOTTED LINE on the set photo. Of note is the “Lobster” sign which also appears in the “Trucker” scene. You can compare the film shot and the set foto. The camera couldn’t aim much further left in this moment because you would again see the end of the street and the more mundane parts of Pinewood Studios!

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Unfortunately it is now that things go awry for the director. Geographically you can see where Linda/SG was on the set photo marked by my blue circle. But, unfortunately her route is the same as Ethan’s when he arrives into the scene in a similar timeframe. His path is marked by the pink dotted line below. Realistically if Linda had seen Ethan groggily walking in the road she would have helped him with no one else to dissuade her. Then he wouldn’t need rescuing and so on and so forth!

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Below are shots from the movie. Here we see Ethan first passing “Hunt’s Hairstyling” and on past a bank towards the junction. Across the diagonal you can see the “ICE - WATER FREE” sign and the TAS petrol station so it firmly places Ethan’s location on the set photo.

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So, why wasn’t Linda helping him? How is it she is with Lucy Lane instead? Well, the first part of the answer is what I am jokingly calling the “Maureen’s Agent Field Effect”

You see, Linda gets cut off by Lucy Lane before she can accidentally meet Ethan prior to him needing rescuing. But how? Below are shots from the film. Lucy is sat with her back to the bank, it’s where Ethan will pass by and in theory where Linda should be too. But with her back to the bank, Lucy won’t see either of them.

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So, WHY do they put Lucy, (Maureen Teefy) there where she can’t see Linda or Ethan? Well, I think it it’s all about getting “The Arty Shot”. See, to be able to look up the street and see the digger machine eventually carry Ethan towards them they had to have the gang sat at a table at the far corner of Popeye’s. But now they are at that end of the eating area there is a problem. You can film one person over the shoulder of the other, but getting the crew in behind to shoot the reverse shot is a little tight. It may even be that as Popeye’s is only a set (albeit a very convincing one) it may not be complete and so a reverse shot would reveal its true nature!

Either Jimmy or Lucy has to sit with their back to the camera while the other is in shot. Lucy ends up being the one who gets facetime and you get an “over the shoulder” shot of Jimmy with no reverse shots of him talking to her. So, a table has been chosen where you can eventually get the “Arty Shot” once it comes and “Maureen’s Agent” is happy that her star gets camera time while Jimmy and friends are mere backs-of-heads or waists!

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Now the next problems …. how to advance the scene where Lucy has to intercept Linda who should be walking BEHIND her, out of sight? And … how to prevent Linda dealing with poor drugged Ethan when she would no doubt be aware of him, being so close by!?

Enter the “Interdimensional Wormhole”.

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At best it could be super-speed-window-shopping on SG/Linda’s part I guess but what happens next is from the tortured imagination of someone trying to circumvent continuity. We know Lucy’s character has the huge window to her right through which she sees her friend Linda Lee walking by.

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Err, what? How can Linda be there? The worm hole of course!. Worse, Linda is walking from left to right, opposite of if she had run at a human jog to get there from where we last saw her which would have been between Popeye’s and the bank.


We can position Linda’s and Lucy’s meeting spot thanks to the lot photo and shots from the movie but fair play, while the location of Linda does not make sense it really is what would be visible from the window where Lucy is sat.

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So, Lucy goes out to meet Linda as we know and as they return to Popeye’s they see Ethan in the very area where Linda Lee should have actually been if she had been casually walking after arriving in Midvale. The wormhole however had put Linda somewhere else so now she is in Lucy and Jimmy’s company and they discourage our heroine from helping Ethan.

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Now, the stage is set, Lucy, Jimmy, Linda and friends sit at their chosen table, justifying the side on camera position, ready for the “Arty Shot” which we saw caused the “Maureen’s Agent Field Effect” … which in turn caused the “Transdimensional Wormhole” to happen! And here it is … the “Arty Shot”. Framed by Supergirl, Lucy and Jimmy the bucket of the digger appears, leading us into the rescue!

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While I love films I am not into film making but I found this little investigation interesting as I tried to pick scenes apart to re-sequence them. It certainly made me think about the planning that had to go into the scenes and the compromises they had to make in order to have them work. It was also interesting how sometimes, for convenience, shots are geographically faithful to reality and then severely tortured in others, just to get the story to work.

Thank you for your time, I hope you found this post a little interesting if you have a soft spot for the movie!
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My current story is Supergirl V Bane


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Maskripper
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Wow, that's quite an analysis with a lot of work behind! Love that kind of passion/enthusiasm for something :thumbup:
Guess I should watch the movie again to refresh my memory.
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Abductorenmadrid
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Maskripper wrote:
3 years ago
Wow, that's quite an analysis with a lot of work behind! Love that kind of passion/enthusiasms for something :thumbup:
Guess I should watch the movie again to refresh my memory.
Thanks for that - I hope you enjoyed the wormhole!

Some of the work was just from looking at opportunities to expand or re-sequence this section from the movie for my story in the dungeon section (i.e it was already done anyway) - it was just a case of putting words and some pictures into the analysis. There are a couple of other scenes I also want to put out an analysis for but in general it's not something I would nomally do, it's just small and possibly interesting discoveries (to some who love the movie) I made while making the comic story. I guess now we are in a world of CGI and green screens this isn't a theme I will need to come back to!
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My current story is Supergirl V Bane


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Bert

Impressive analysis. I enjoy that scene too, but from a more simplistic perspective. For some reason I just love the sequence where Supergirl tangles with the huge loader. Her look of concentration, and the fact that the loader doesn't just stop as soon as she latches onto it but keeps rolling forward. She has to try hard. Somehow that really works for me.

Supergirl has grabbed the bucket of the massive loader, but it's still powering forward.
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Her exquisite blonde hair hides her face as she struggles to slow the loader.
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The viewpoint shifts as the struggle continues.
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A gust of wind leads to a brief reveal!
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Helen Slater was so great in this movie. It's a shame it wasn't a better film that might have led to sequels.
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