Have you ever stopped to wonder what exactly goes on in there making of a film? When it’s a big project like Superman, the preparation is on the scale of a military operation or a multimillion dollar business. Every bit is poured over down to the most minute of details that the average person wouldn’t even begin to consider. But for director Richard Donner, the general in charge of the production, the head of the multimillion dollar corporation, no detail went unnoticed. Indeed, he lived and directed the two Superman films according to the familiar saying, “Before you construct a building, be sure to count the cost.”

Take today, for example. What exactly happened on January 24th? There are some key things that happened on this date where production on Superman are concerned.

First, a step outline was prepared for the events that would occur in Superman II. For those who are not familiar with the process, a step outline is like a road map. It lays out the direction for how the story will proceed and breaks down some of the events that will occur in the story. It’s not the final word, but only a guide to get there. Here are some of the events that were listed in the step outline for Superman II:

– Superman saving an airline from disaster

– Lois Lane jumping from the window of the Daily Planet and into a garbage truck

– the villains from the Phantom Zone kill two Russian cosmonauts (changed to one in the final film

– Lex Luthor escaping from prison by car

– Superman cooking the soufflé for Lois in the Fortress (this would be rewritten and shot by Richard Lester in October 1979)

– Zod, Non, and Ursa confronting a group of Texas Rangers (modified to a sheriff and deputy outside East Houston, Idaho)

– Ursa using her heat vision to alter Mount Rushmore (the Mount Rushmore model was filmed during Donner’s tenure)

– the villains arrested at the Fortress of Solitude toward the end of the film

– a final montage of scenes involving Lois and Clark, Lex and Miss Teschmacher, and Superman rescuing someone from danger

Granted, this was only a guide to what would be shot for the sequel and later in all four versions of the film – the 1990-81 theatrical release, the 1984 extended TV cut, the 2006 Richard Donner Cut, and the Vudu version of the Donner Cut. But it would serve as a good starting point for the development of the final script, first by Tom Mankiewicz in 1977, and then by David and Leslie Newman in 1979.

A year later, on January 24, 1978, filming occurred on the opening parts of Superman arriving at the balcony of Lois Lane’s apartment. Filming on the lengthy sequence had begun months earlier, as early as October 18, 1977, on M Stage at Pinewood Studios, continuing through November 1977 (along with the balcony scene for Superman II) before taking a break at Christmas and resuming in the middle of January 1978.

At one point in between filming, Christopher Reeve had said during filming of The Making of Superman: The Movie, “We changed the whole tone of that scene because I felt the time had come where Superman would be open enough to say that he’s there because he really likes her.” That meant all of the rigidity of the scene, from the screen tests to earlier shoots, were downplayed to reveal a natural chemistry between the characters.

In addition, filming on this scene led up to the point of Superman using his x-ray vision to check for any possible carcinogens in Lois’ lungs from smoking, to which he replies, “Not yet, thank goodness.”

There are many days like this during the production of all four Superman films, and these are but two small parts of the overall big picture, all separated by a single year.

(Some of the screenshots in this blog are courtesy of CapedWonder.com.)