page_title: Piper Maru
section_title: Filming and post-production
hierarchical_section_title: Piper Maru / Production / Filming and post-production
caption_attribution_description: English: A USAAF North American F-6C Mustang fighter (s/n 42-103??) from the 111th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron in World War II.
context_page_description: "Piper Maru" is the fifteenth episode of the third season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on February 9, 1996. The episode was written by executive producer Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Rob Bowman. "Piper Maru" is one of those which helped to explore the series' overarching mythology. Its introduction of the black oil became a storyline milestone for the series. The black oil would later go on to play a much larger role in the series, including a pivotal role in the 1998 X-Files movie. "Piper Maru" earned a Nielsen household rating of 10.6, being watched by 16.44 million people in its initial broadcast. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics.
  The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, a French salvage ship sends a diving crew to recover a mysterious wreckage from World War II, but the crew falls prey to a bizarre illness forcing FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully to investigate the source. Their investigation brings them face-to-face with Alex Krycek.
context_section_description: The episode's cold open was filmed in a water tank, using a replica P-51 Mustang plane which had been designed by the art director. Bowman also needed to direct a scene in which Gillian Anderson would react to a memory of playing with her sister as a child; the scene involved digitally compositing the children playing into Anderson's footage. Bowman asked Anderson to act towards a tree as though it were her sister, later telling her "I'm going to tell everybody I can that you just did that great reaction to a tree". Bowman also reshot the episode's ending, as originally Duchovny and Lea were to walk past the camera and continue off-screen. Feeling this was not effective, he replaced this with a walking shot which continued straight towards and into the camera, noting that "Nick will jump in front of a truck if he think it will make a scene better".
  The on-screen appearances of the black oil were achieved through visual effects, with the shimmering oil effect being digitally placed over the actors' corneas in post-production. The crew went through various iterations to find the two "right" types of fluids. According to physical effects crewman David Gauthier, they used a mix of oil and acetone, which he believed gave the substance a more globular look. Special effects technician Mat Beck was able to digitally bend the oil effect around the shape of the actors' eyes.
  The man in the plane in the teaser, Robert Maier, worked as a construction coordinator on the show, and felt that his part in the episode fulfilled a "life-long dream" of working as a stuntman. Nicholas Lea's name was purposely left until the ending credits in order to preserve the sense of surprise.
caption: A WWII-era P-51 Mustang. A plane of this model is the source of the black oil in "Piper Maru".
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