2003 Archive 
Arthur Provis leaves AP films
Around this time Gerry Anderson and Arthur Provis parted company. Provis would go on to produce a puppet series called "Space Patrol" with Roberta Leigh. AP Productions underwent a name change to AP Films or APF for short.
Four Feather Falls put nearly all the elements of what would later become known as Supermarionation into practice. The production was much more sophisticated than anything done before and more space was required than that available in the ballroom of the mansion at Maidenhead. APF moved out of the Maidenhead mansion and leased a large warehouse on the Slough Trading Estate a few miles away. This warehouse was about four times larger than the mansion and the spaces proved much more accommodating to the Four Feather Falls production crew as it had been previously occupied by Les Bowie and had been set up as a proper film studio.
The puppets used in Four Feather Falls were an order of magnitude more sophisticated than the ones that came before. They had carefully formed and balanced bodies that were carved from a close grained patternmaker's wood called Juletong. The heads were finely featured and made from fiberglass castings. Wigs were made from human hair and fine mohair. Naturally, each puppet used the new lip-synch mechanisms to simulate speech and they were strung with the nearly invisible black steel wires.
All of the main character heads were carefully sculpted in plasticine clay from which a plaster mold was taken after the character's appearance had been approved. Hollow fiberglass heads were then made from these molds in two parts which were glued together. A removable hatch which was secured by a hidden magnet and a piece of steel was cut into the back of each puppet head to permit access to the eye and lip mechanisms.
Several blank, featureless fiberglass head shells were made up which consisted of a smooth egg shaped head with eyes, mouth, and lip synch mechanism installed. These blank heads were used to make minor "extra" characters who would only be used once or twice. When an extra character was required, a blank head would have temporary plasticine facial features built upon it. These plasticine features, when painted, looked just like any regular member of the puppet cast. Because these features were made of soft plasticine clay, the extra heads could be scraped clean after filming and resculpted for use as a different character later on. Unfortunately, this clever feature made the extra heads rather delicate and great care had to be exercised when filming them. Common problems experienced with these extra heads included clay features which melted under the heat of the bright stage lights and noses or ears which got sliced off by control wires.
The technology evolves
By now carpet thread had been replaced by fine black colored steel wires which not only controlled body movement but also carried the electrical lip synch control signals. Strings were always the most critical part of these puppet productions as their appearance automatically destroyed all illusion of reality. Although the blackened steel control wires proved nearly invisible under most filming conditions, under certain circumstances individual wires were actually painted to better blend them into whatever background the puppets were being filmed against. This was done by coating the wires with a clear flat lacquer spray paint and then puffing powdered paint colors on to the wire before the sticky lacquer dried.
Small television cameras were mounted on the film cameras used on the sets. The video output from these television cameras was routed to small television monitors that were placed on the puppeteer's bridges for the puppeteer's to watch while they manipulated their puppets. Among other things, these cameras permitted the puppeteers to get a camera-eye view of the action below and revealed any control wires that needed to be painted out as described above.
Although a few simple fireworks effects had been accomplished in The Adventures of Twizzle and in Torchy the Battery Boy, Four Feather Falls required a much greater sophistication of pyrotechnics. One particular innovation developed for Four Feather Falls that would see greater application in the many Supermarionation television programs to follow were miniature gas guns that would fire by means of a command activated electrical spark.
Four Feather Falls also introduced an extremely high standard of realism in the design and construction of miniature sets and props. No longer mere cut outs, the sets used in Four Feather Falls were truly miniature film stages with realistic buildings, terrain, and foliage. Lumps of coal were used to make rocks, broken glass would be used to make chunks of ice, and real plant cuttings (particularly Juniper) were often used to make miniature trees. Realistic model props were constructed, as in the case of guns, trains, and wagons, or bought from toy stores, as in the case of dollhouse utensils and various furnishings.
A scale of about 1/6th life size was adopted for the puppets and their puppet sized environment. The scale adopted for Four Feather Falls was retained throughout the Supermarionation years. Although the puppets and their props were built to a common scale, the puppets themselves were caricatured with large heads and undersized bodies. Although this scheme appealed to the cartoonish tastes of children, the real reason for the strange proportions of these puppets was that the larger size of the head was dictated by the size of the lip-synch solenoid that had to fit in the head to actuate the movable lower lip.
A very successful visual trick that was introduced in Four Feather Falls and later carried through all the other Supermarionation programs was the practice of filming actual human hands in close up to represent the puppet character turning a knob or otherwise manipulating objects. Such scenes were called "live inserts". Usually, the hands filmed in a live insert were covered with a tight fitting rubber glove and painted to more closely match the rigid carved appearance of the puppets! Although these live inserts were very effective, the practice caused APF some trouble with the actor's union as the people who's hands were captured on film were ordinary workers available on the set instead of properly accredited actors and actresses.
Four Feather Falls was sold to Granada Television in 1960 and proved to be a great success. As the APF team considered their next move one thing was certain, for better or worse they were now firmly locked into producing children's puppet television programs. Unfortunately, Granada decided that one puppet series was enough for them and they turned down all offers from APF to produce additional programs. Just as APF was about to go out of business again for lack of work, Lord Lew Grade of ITC came to their rescue.
Lord Grade had been most impressed by Four Feather Falls and he wanted to know what APF had in mind for their next series. Gerry Anderson told Grade about a concept he had developed concerning a team of researchers who worked with a prototype flying car called Supercar. Sylvia Thamm was in the process of developing this concept into an illustrated children's book. Lew Grade told Gerry Anderson that he thought the Supercar concept would make an excellent puppet television series. He then promised to arrange full financial backing from ITC under the condition that Supercar be produced with an eye towards the US market. Thus, the new puppet series was set in the American southwest and APF went to work on Supercar.