From The Photographers Perspective: The Fight For Man of Steel Set Photos

Article is from vancouverisawesome.com

Someone tweeted that she'd spotted AF signs (Autumn Frost is the production codename for Man of Steel) on lower Lonsdale and that was the first indication of the green screen helicopter pad being built east of Vancouver Drydocks on Vancouver Ports private property. On October 19th, ace photographer John Biehler put up a photo of the under-construction set on his Flickr page. I checked it out two days later in the rain and put up the photo below on my Flickr page, later damaging my Blackberry by trying to force it in the downpour.

So I was without a working Blackberry on Tuesday morning when a friend told me that someone had tweeted about a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter flying at the Man of Steel green screen set. Filming had begun. I headed for the seabus not expecting to find more than the usual green screen stunts with no cast. When I got there late morning I spotted two paps below me on the Lower Level Road arguing with RCMP about their right to be there. Man of Steel had hoped they could keep photographers back up where I was by citing safety concerns, but the paps won because the roadway is public property.

I soon understood why the paps had fought for that vantage when a shirtless man appeared on set. I photographed the Henry Cavill rescue scene as best I could for about twenty minutes, maxing out at 48 x digital zoom on my Canon compact, until Cavill retreated to his trailer next to the railroad tracks.