Superman in Flight: Henry Braham, BSC Captures Aerial Action

To create dynamism for the flying sequences in James Gunn’s Superman, director of photography Henry Braham, BSC often flew with the titular superhero (played by David Corenswet) himself. "The flying scenes are feats of engineering, and they involved throwing me around as much as throwing the actors — mainly David, but also Isabela Merced and Edi Gathegi — around," he says. "For most of those sequences, I would be moving, be it on a wire, ride on crane systems or a high-speed tracking system built by our key grip, Scott Howell, and tracking vehicles that I could step on and off."

High-Flying Handheld

The filmmakers found these methods added a sense of humanity to the action. Braham describes an example: "There’s a shot in which Superman says, ‘Hey, buddy, look up here!’ [that] we initially in a more conventional way on a crane. The shot called for us to counter David, who would fly up as the camera flew down. We got the shot, and it was fine. Then we said, ‘Okay, let’s do it handheld on a wire and see whether there’s a difference.’ It became an entirely different shot — a hundred times more interesting and exciting — because the handheld camera is intuitive and participates in the shot rather than observes. It connects the audience with the action."

Braham, who has enjoyed multiple collaborations with Gunn, typically operated the camera himself and was often handheld. "What James is interested in, and what I’m interested in doing for him, is getting the camera to connect with what’s happening. I shoot handheld a lot because it allows instinct to be in play. And the reason I ended up doing this more and more was because the choices I made in split seconds were informed by months of discussion."

Braham notes that the filmmakers’ first rule — even for flying sequences — was that "everything should feel grounded — based in truth. We all know Superman can fly, so our first question was, ‘What is the logic and physics of how a person might behave in flight?’ Our approach was to respect how objects fly and how gravity sets the rules."

Plate Photography in the Arctic

That, in turn, led to how they would shoot it. Early in his career, Braham shot a lot of aerial photography from helicopters and fixed planes; the technology at hand on Superman included FPV drones, conventional drones and process photography. Most flying sequences were created using classic techniques for pre-shot background plates. "For the first shot that shows Superman flying, I spent two days on a Ski-Doo [snowmobile] and must have driven 600 miles in Svalbard to get those plates," Braham recalls.

To capture the icy landscape around Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, he took minimal equipment, 1st AC Dermot Hickey and a small drone team led by Davis DiLillo to the Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean by land. "Traveling light is critical to photographing landscape," the cinematographer says. "Being able to respond quickly to changing weather, light and conditions is important." His experience in aerial photography allowed him to construct specifically choreographed shots for the drone team. From there, "James [chose] the shots that would work for him, and then we shot the 'foreground' plates, which in this case required that David be rigged with a tuning fork [to perform aerial choreography]," Braham notes.

Though Gunn works with detailed storyboards and shot descriptions, Superman used surprisingly little previs. "There are actually relatively few previs sequences, [and] the majority of them are ‘stuntvis,’ whereby the stunt team took a detailed brief from James, using the rules of engagement with the way I can move the camera, and then determined where they could put me as well as the actor,” Braham explains. After Gunn refined the stuntvis, Braham, Howell and the wire-rigging department would break it down, and Howell would then build any custom solutions required.

Camera, Lenses, Interactive Lighting

Braham’s main camera, a Red V-Raptor [X], facilitated agility. "The physicality of the camera is so small, yet it’s a large-format camera, an [8K] VistaVision sensor," he says. "Although for a movie like this, we have to shoot for [digital] Imax [1.90:1] as well as conventional exhibition, this camera is the size of a Hasselblad, which means you can use it in a much more immersive way."

Working handheld, Braham likes to use a bespoke Stabileye system. "It’s very precise and responds very precisely to whatever I do with it,” he says. “There’s a language to the camera being handheld, and audiences are very well versed in when that’s appropriate and why it works. Handheld in Imax is a big statement. Not everything is suited to that, which is why we developed the stabilized system."

The large format of the Raptor enabled the use of wider lenses closer to the actors, which also contributes to the flying scenes’ unique look. "Wide lenses for flying material isn’t necessarily new, but it gives dynamism and compresses the distances the camera has to move to change angle in a short space of time," Braham says. His lenses of choice, he notes, "were a combination of Leica M series, adapted Leica R series and some bespoke Panavision large-format lenses."

Realistic lighting was also crucial for the flying sequences, in which "it’s critical to have a clear understanding of where you are in relation to the sun at all times," says Braham. Interactive light was created with large LED walls or from a volume stage; no shots were made using the volume screen. Says Braham, "I use video panels for interactive lighting. It’s important to me that the refraction on the skin and all those sorts of things are truthful."

Tying It Together

Braham stresses that Superman‘s visual-effects work — be it classic techniques used to pull together the elements of process photography, or more complex animation — served as the “cohesive glue” that tied together the final composition of the film's flying scenes. “These sequences are the result of a huge collaboration and execution between all the filmmakers involved,” he says, “but they rely on traditional filmmaking techniques.”

All images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.