Hasta La Motion!

I am in the process of trying to recreate the smallville effect seen where clark is running, but everything else around him is standing still. The effect im wanting is the thermal “contrails” that are being created forming a wake of displacement as he moves.

I was originally going to match a 3D character (in Cinema 4D) to my actors movement in the footage I shot, but that was taking forever. A few people have mentioned that this effect was probably done in post, but I am unsure as to how they do it. I believe the studio is EntityFX.

Here is some footage showing what im wanting to recreate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9UXjWDi6G0

The effects starts around 3:15. Its a reoccuring effect in the show, so im sure most of you will know what im talking about.

At first I thought there might have been green screen involved, but the directors cut of that shot doesnt show any green screen.

Anyone know how this effect was done? I e-mailed EntityFX a while back to see if they would explain it, but I never got a reply from them.

Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks