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How are superhero flying scenes created for movies and television?

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How did actor George Reeves fly in the 1950s-era Adventures of Superman television show? How did the effects improve when actor Christopher Reeve flew through the air as the same superhero in 1978? And how do Maleficent, Spiderman, Peter Pan, and other characters from fantasy and science fiction take to the sky?

This article was created thanks to a topic request by a TKSST Member.

If you’ve ever watched a movie or tv show and wondered how those acrobatic flight scenes are created, this clip-filled Insider video shares behind-the-scenes examples that cover the last seven decades.

Maleficent flying effects
Today, a variety of tools and technological options are available: strategically placed wires, stunt rigs, blue and green screens, twisting tuning forks, precisely programmed robotic arms, gravity-defying digital doubles, highly-trained stunt teams, and more. But the trick to making flights believable is to use these techniques in scene-specific combinations.

Stunt performer C.C. Ice (actor Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff stunt double in the Marvel universe) explains many of these tricks and effects throughout the video.

fight in the sky
flight rigging
The video is one in the Movies Insider video series that shares how movies are made.

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β€’Β How they made Fred Astaire’s famous dance scene in Royal Wedding (1951).
β€’Β The roller skating scene from Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936)
β€’Β Buster Keaton – The Art of the Gag
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β€’Β Stop-motion animation goes high tech at Laika

Bonus: Madeline the Robot Tamer.

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