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Supersuits, Sets, and Special Effects: The Production Topic


Trini
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Encore VFX Brings the White House to Vancouver for “Supergirl”

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Episode two of “Supergirl” season four – “Fallout” – takes viewers from National City to the front steps of the White House, a feat achieved through seamless visual effects wizardry by the artists at Encore VFX. Ahead of filming, Encore VFX Supervisor Armen Kevorkian and his team set to work on creating a detailed 3D White House asset that would allow filmmakers to get as close to the building as they wanted. For the shoot in Vancouver, a practical location selected for its lawn edge and street side similarities with the actual White House served as a stand-in. Then Encore VFX artists rotoed out the live action cast, added the photoreal digital White House surrounded by gates and replaced the practically shot lawn with a CG version populated with interesting foliage. 

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Natalie Abrams, who was one of the writers for episode 4.20, posted some BTS photos and info on her Twitter (this isn't all of them):

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Armen Kevorkian shares some info about the visual effects in this article: http://vfxvoice.com/crossing-the-sprawling-dc-television-universe/

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“As far as my role goes, I’m heavily involved with Flash, Supergirl, Titans and Doom Patrol,” explains Kevorkian.

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Unique digital assets needed to be created. “Supergirl has more creature work compared to any of our other shows,” notes Kevorkian. “We can’t reuse that asset unless that character crosses over.”

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Two CG cities are worked on by Encore VFX during downtime to make them even better. “National City in Supergirl has a Los Angeles feel because our first year was in Los Angeles,” remarks Kevorkian.

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“A lot of the team have been with me since Flash started five years ago,” states Kevorkian. “For the most part they get to work on all of the shows. We definitely have 2D and 3D supervisors who are specific to a show, but our compositors may be working on Flash this week and next week help on Doom Patrol or Supergirl. It’s spread out to the point where no one gets bored working on one show.”

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The hardest aspect of crossover episodes is coordinating the schedules of the cast members. “There are certain looks that we set up, like the Reality Wave which was more prominent in Supergirl,” explains Kevorkian. “We had to send the Reality Wave to the producers on the other shows to make sure that everybody was onboard. It adds another layer to the approval process which takes more time.” Stepping behind the camera is not uncommon for Kevorkian, who has served as both second unit director and director on The Flash and Supergirl. “Season 2 of Flash was the first time that I directed an episode, which happens to be a favorite of mine. It was a great script and had some cool visuals that you could show off. Then I started doing Supergirl and Flash regularly.”

There are also a few before-and-after photos.

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2 hours ago, MarkHB said:

From Entertainment Weekly by way of Supergirl.TV, Melissa will get to direct an episode this year!  Link also features a pic of the Supergirl SDCC swag bag.

Good for her!

If they follow a similar schedule as last year, she should be filming her episode sometime in February 2020. So 5.16 and 5.18 might be light on Kara/Supergirl. I'm hoping for another 'Adventures in Midvale' episode with young Kara and Alex!

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EW has learned that Supergirl‘s leading woman will make her directorial debut with the 17th episode of season 5. According to Benoist, this has been a long time coming. 

“I’ve been wanting to direct since season 3, but couldn’t last year because of scheduling conflicts, so [star] David Harewood did it first,” Benoist, who plays the Girl of Steel, a.k.a. Kara Danvers, tells EW. “I just felt really drawn to it for a couple of seasons now, just because you know the show so well, and you get to know the character, and the world, and the tone of the show so well that you can’t help but envision certain scenes in a certain way. I want to play with that.”

Even though her episode won’t air until the spring, Benoist has already started preparing for it. So far, she has sat in on a concept meeting for the season 5 premiere while shadowing producing director Jesse Warn and plans on shadowing director Tawnia McKiernan, who helmed season 4’s “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” which introduced Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor.

“These shows are so massive that it’s not like directing any other show on TV, I would imagine, and everyone has said as much to me. I’m literally trying to be a sponge, and I will learn something new every single day I’m shadowing,” she says. “It’s just a matter of talking to actors, making sure everyone feels creative and collaborative even though we have these massive constraints with budget and special effects. It’s like a chess game, I’ve realized. You move your pawn one way, and then someone knocks your rook down because you can’t do a certain stunt you wanted to do. It’s all about compromising and trying to be as creative as you can within those boundaries, which is a cool challenge.”

https://ew.com/tv/2019/07/15/supergirl-melissa-benoist-directing-season-5/

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That new suit looks like something a Supergirl on another Earth would wear. I mean, hey, if she has a few different suits for different situations, sure, but I don't like the look of that one if it is gonna be her suit 100% of the time.

Maybe it'll look better in action, versus a production still.

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The new suit promo pic:

SUPERGIRL-New-Supersuit-683x1024.jpg

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The new suit, conceptualized by Supergirl costume designer Victoria Auth and created by Ironhead Studios and Bill Hargates Costumes, follows the evolution of supersuits in executive producer Greg Berlanti’s “Arrowverse,” which has seen redesigns of both the Arrow and Flash suits in recent years.


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Okay, so there's still an outline of the 'S' symbol, but it's metallic gold rather than yellow.

The thigh-high boots worked well with the red mini-skirt, but I don't think they work as well with the unitard. At least not how it's executed here. Now they seem too 'plain' compared to the rest of the suit which has a lot of texture.

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18 hours ago, Trini said:

The new suit promo pic:

SUPERGIRL-New-Supersuit-683x1024.jpg

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Okay, so there's still an outline of the 'S' symbol, but it's metallic gold rather than yellow.

The thigh-high boots worked well with the red mini-skirt, but I don't think they work as well with the unitard. At least not how it's executed here. Now they seem too 'plain' compared to the rest of the suit which has a lot of texture.

I guess we can forget about a Supergirl/Legends crossover ep that would be called The Adventures of Skirt and Heatwave.

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3 hours ago, AD35 said:

I guess we can forget about a Supergirl/Legends crossover ep that would be called The Adventures of Skirt and Heatwave.

Oh, I have every confidence that Mick will still call her "Skirt".

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Notes on Supergirl's new look from the costume designer:

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"The executive producers, Robert Rovner and Jessica Queller, wanted to move the whole show into a bit more of sophistication this year," Victoria Auth, "Supergirl's" costume designer, told Insider.

Since the show premiered in 2015, Melissa Benoist has worn the comic-book character's signature red skirt and tights. For the upcoming fifth season of The CW series, the actress will be wearing a "modern" suit that took almost four months to create from start to finish.

"The civilian clothes have upgraded," Auth, who joined the show as a costume designer during season four, told us. "We did a lot of armies and that kind of thing last year, but they've been on a trajectory to give a little sophistication to Melissa, which she has wanted. It sort of came hand in hand with taking her out of the cheerleading curb and moving her into something a little more action-oriented, cleaner silhouette."

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Auth went on to say that developing the outfit was a collaborative effort, with executive producer Rovner helping to select the ideal shade of blue for the redesign and Bill Hargates Costumes and Iron Heads constructing the suit.   

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They use the buzzwords 'modern' and 'sophisticated' to talk about the new suit, but to me it just looks like they refitted Superman's suit. I wish there was something about the suit that differentiated it from Superman's suit - more color, the cape attaching differently - something.

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1 hour ago, Rushmoras said:

But, seriously, I starting to get the feeling that the writers have creatively extinguished themselves for the last couple of seasons.

Since new showrunners took over in the midst of S3 (and first had to finish out the Reign storyline which wasn't theirs), maybe they were the wrong choice in the first place.

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1 hour ago, MarkHB said:

Since new showrunners took over in the midst of S3 (and first had to finish out the Reign storyline which wasn't theirs), maybe they were the wrong choice in the first place.

That explains very much, actually.

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Yeah I'm of the opinion that they (and some of the script writers and directors) need to be replaced. They seem to love Lena but most of the other plotlines feel lacking. And while this episode is the best written Alex has been in a while I feel like the writing for her hasn't been great since they took over. Though I will give them credit for Alex not raising Ruby which seemed to be the original plan. 

Edited by Oreo2234
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