15 June 07 WETA BUG REPORTS: Ever wondered what goes into the making of the Visual Effects of a film? I chatted to Superman Returns' VFX Supervisor Mark Stetson...

What's not to love about flying superheroes in tight red undies with special powers, I ask you. Yes the additional bonuses of flying in outer space, saving the earth from certain death and bullet proof skills are cool, but what I really wanted to know is ... how the heck did the crew do the Visual Effects?

I decided to bug Superman Returns VFX Supervisor, Mark Stetson, about the making of the film, and how his team got Supie to look so darned cool whilst flying.

WETA BUG: Briefly, what were you responsible for as the Visual Effects Supervisor on Superman Returns?

MARK STETSON "I had primary creative responsibility for the design and execution of the visual effects for the film, assuring that the visual effects fulfilled and extended the vision of our director, Bryan Singer."

The Superman story has such a history; what were some of the considerations you and your team took on board during the planning stages of this project?

"All the creative contributors to the film ? the writers, the production designer and his art department, the costume designer, the cinematographer and my visual effects team worked to fulfill the legacy of Superman. Bryan told us specifically to imagine Superman Returns as a continuation of the Christopher Reeve Superman stories directed by his friend Richard Donner.

Above, Bryan talking about the Weta Collectibles range based on Superman Returns from the Official Superman Returns promotional DVD.

"Likewise, the visual effects sequences were often inspired by the first two Superman movies with Christopher Reeve. I saw my job as taking the Superman story into the modern age of visual effects ? we made him fly the way past filmmakers always wished they could before."

I read that you and your team managed more that 500 shots out of the country you were working in. What are some of the benefits of working like this? What technology was used to manage this? Approximately how many countries do you think were working on this film simultaneously?

"Of more than 1400 shots that made it into Superman Returns, there were closer to seven hundred shots completed by VFX studios based outside of the United States. We had ten visual effects companies working to complete shots around the world. They were based in London, Winnipeg, Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Sydney. That makes four countries reaching across 19 hours of time zones. We joked that the sun never set on Superman Returns visual effects!"

Could you name a particular sequence that you were involved in, that you are particularly proud of and why?

"The Shuttle Disaster sequence was the most complex sequence in the movie, requiring the most number of digital Superman elements. Rich Hoover, Diana Ibanez, Alberto Menache, Andy Jones and their teams at Sony Pictures Imageworks executed that work. We shot a lot of green screen elements of Superman flying.

Above: the Shuttle Disaster sequence from Superman Returns.

The sequence is an amazing mix of greenscreen elements, greenscreens with capes, digital elements with photographic heads, and just about every other combination of greenscreen and digital Superman. The exteriors of the aircraft were all created digitally. The cloudscapes and high altitude views were particularly beautiful, and executing these digitally rather than shooting aerial plates gave us the freedom to move the camera to give us the dynamic shots that the sequence required."

One cool visual effect was when Superman used his X-ray vision. How did you achieve this effect on screen?

"The X-ray vision effect was developed and executed by Rising Sun Pictures in Sydney, Australia. RSP VFX Supe Tim Crosbie and RSP VFX Art Director David Scott (both LOTR alumni) were the key contributors. The concept was that Superman has selective control over what he includes and what he excludes in his field of vision. We shot multiple plates, sometimes with motion control and sometimes without, with objects or set pieces progressively removed.

In the shot of Lois in the elevator, for instance, we shot plates in the Daily Planet newsroom with and without the lobby doors and the elevator doors. Then we shot Lois in the elevator cab without a front wall, in such a way as to simulate the elevator cab ascending (actually the camera was descending and the elevator cab was rigged to the ceiling of the stage). All the rest of the framework of the building, the HVAC ducts, the lighting panels, the clockwork mechanism, etc, were modelled and executed in CG by Rising Sun and composited with the photographic elements."

What references to the old series / films did you use in this project?

"There were a number ? Marlon Brando?s performance as Jor-El was re-created by Derek Spears and his team at Rhythm and Hues, the designs of Norman Reynolds were used as an inspiration for the heavily extended production design by Guy Dyas, the John Williams musical compositions were woven into John Ottman?s score, and many of the themes and scenes were worked into the script by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris.

There were other references as well ? the pose of Superman rescuing Kitty Kowalski in her Mustang was posed deliberately like the cover of Action Comics Number 1. Even the kryptonite meteorite stolen by Lex from the museum was identified as being from Addis Ababa as a direct reference to Superman, The Movie."

What was it like working with Bryan Singer?

"Bryan has a really strong sense of story, and when he is working on a film, he puts that before everything. I quickly learned that Bryan judged every nuance of every effects shot by how well it served his story. I really liked that ? it gave me a very solid foundation to build shots and sequences on.

Bryan has a very critical eye, and he is always looking for synergy in his approach to shooting his movies ? thinking beyond the basic requirements of filming a scene to find something more. On top of that ? he gave me the freedom to do my job. He focused on the story and judged the effects by how well they served the story and how believable they were."

Working in a team of Visual Effect specialists must be exciting. How did you get to be where you are today?

"There are many different paths into visual effects. I was studying industrial design and was trained in industrial model making when I discovered this occupation. I started working in the film industry as a model maker in 1978 on Star Trek, The Motion Picture. I had my first opportunity to supervise miniatures on Blade Runner, at Entertainment Effects Group for Douglas Trumbull.

I earned my first Academy Award nomination for my miniature effects work at Boss Film Corp on 2010: The Year We Make Contact. In the early 1990?s I ran my own miniature effects studio with my partner Robert Spurlock. I started overall supervision of visual effects projects in 1995 at Digital Domain ? my first assignment was Luc Besson?s The Fifth Element, for which I won a BAFTA Award in 1997. I later won another BAFTA and an Academy Award while working for Peter Jackson on LOTR. I earned my third Academy Award and BAFTA nominations in 2007 for my work supervising the visual effects for Superman Returns."

What advice would you give to people wanting to work in your industry?

"Go to film school to better understand the relationship of visual effects to the other aspects of filmmaking, and to become aware of the other opportunities in film. Be ready to work very long hours and willing to devote all of your attention to a project for a very long time!"

Weta Collectibles created the official statues from the film. Check out our interview with Concept Artist Christian Pearce, who designed the pieces, here.

Tell us what you thought of Mark's interview at our Superman Returns thread in the Weta Forums.