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Whatever a Spider Can By Pauline Rogers • Photos By Zade Rosenthal Bitten by a genetically altered spider, young student Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) gains superhuman strength and the spider-like ability to cling to surfaces in the latest “comic book hero comes to the big screen” adventure, Spider-Man. In this live-action/CGI version of the Marvel Comic story, Peter Parker takes on the deadly Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) to save thousands of lives in New York City.
“He made me realize that Spider-Man is that character – a misunderstood hero. He is also a misunderstood adolescent. He is always trying to do the right thing, but it is seen in the wrong light. No pun intended,” Burgess laughs. Raimi and Burgess agreed that the story might be about a kid from across the bridge who becomes a super hero, but it had to be done from the young man’s point-of-view and stay grounded in reality. “We needed to keep the color palette simple and not push the primaries as you would in the comic book,” he explains. “The mood stems more from contrast than from color. “I read a few of the Spider-Man comic books and acquired a sense of the dark Spider-Man world,” he says. “The film stays true to the comic book. We didn’t look at films, but spent a lot of time talking about Peter’s world. We scouted New York several times, just looking at rooftops, streets, and architecture from old to new to find the right look for this film. The older buildings, like the famous Flat Iron Building (used in Godzilla), became the style we liked the best and gave us the starting point to build upon.” Testing was a big part of pre-production. “We spent a lot of time in pre-production testing the Spider-Man costumes designed by Jim Acheson. He did a fabulous job constructing a variety of outfits. We photographed, then tested the color and texture and how the materials would respond to light.” First tests on the costumes were controlled Tungsten lighting on stage – basic 3200K units like 10ks, KinoFlos, and large 12 by 12 muslin sources to check reflective surfaces. “We then moved outside to see what daylight and HMI light would look like on the costumes,” he explains. “We found that the colors and textures that worked best on the stage and night lighting situations were too vibrant in the daylight situations. The colors were too saturated and jumped off the screen. They looked like they were matted into the shot. “Jim desaturated the colors for the exteriors and they blended into the shots better and looked like they belonged – or as much as Spider-Man could belong in natural life looking situations. “We also tested our costumes against blue screens and green screens with the Kodak SFX 200 film stock and made sure Sony Imageworks was happy with what we had. “Whenever possible, we shot Spider-Man against green screen and the Green Goblin against blue screen for the best results,” Burgess explains. “Sony Imageworks and John Dykstra preferred the SFX 200 film stock for the separation of subject and background, so all the blue and green screen shots were exposed on that stock.”
“These days, directors often like to use the computer to change a shot in post,” he adds. “We, as cinematographers, have to protect ourselves and our negatives for these changes that haven’t even been thought of while we were shooting.” One of the most important “looks” Burgess needed to test was to see how Kirsten Dunst (as Mary Jane) played. “Sam felt that, since the comic book version of the character had red hair, that we should try to make that work in the movie,” he explains. “We had to find a red that wasn’t too bright during the day nor too dark at night, so we tested her on 5274 with a 1/8th Promist. “The contrast of the film tended to darken the color red and we had to go a few shades brighter to achieve the look of red that appeared to the eye. We also increased the amount of back light to one stop over key to get the hair to separate from the dark backgrounds. Kirsten has a pale complexion, so lighting the hair and giving it highlights helped reduce the contrast, which is more pleasing to the eye and also looks more like it’s her real hair. “It’s important to test with the film stock and light sources you are planning to use to see how they will respond to the colors you choose,” he says. “I always use gray scales and ask the timer to print for the best skin tone in these situations, then keep changing the color of the hair to work with the skin tones. Highlights colored into the hair are also important to give the hair life on film.” Burgess’s final decision was to go with 5274 with the 1/8th and 1/4th Promist filters for most of the shots. When he needed to manipulate the cold light on the streets of New York and warm the back lights, he added the Warm Promist filters. Burgess also did a lot of testing on the movement of Spider-Man. “How do we show his super powers? His strength is the ability to climb the face of buildings and so forth. We decided to build sets sideways and turn the camera on its side so it would appear as if he were climbing the face. And we decided to use really wide lenses and change camera speeds to distort speed and distance. We also decided to design body movements to appear more like a spider than a man climbing up the sheer face.” The format issue was one that Raimi and Burgess debated. Burgess felt that the picture needed to be shot anamorphic wide screen. Raimi was more comfortable with the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, so the film went with 1.85. “I feel that, in a visually energized film about a comic book super hero you have a better opportunity to create more powerful dynamic images and take the audience into this magical world and the willing suspension of disbelief, which means it’s just more fun. “The camera system we used was primarily Panavision cameras with Primo prime lenses,” says Burgess. “I like to use the Platinum as the A-camera and the Millennium XL as the B-camera. I used the XL in the Libra remote head to reduce weight, and for better performance. I will also use the XL on the Steadicam and for hand held. The XL is a very versatile and reliable camera. “In some cases, we also used the Beaumont VistaVision camera for the more complex Visual Effects shots, which gave Sony ImageWworks a bigger negative. This allowed them to reposition the image in post and reduce any grain problems when the image was enlarged,” he explains. “I like the Beaumont for large format work, because these cameras are small and light and I can put them onto the Libra head, which we did on several shots. “All of our aerial plates were shot on cable suspended rigs mounted on the Libra and operated on a remote frequency, which is difficult in the city. Nick Phillips, of Libra Head, developed a new head just for Spider-Man – to deal with all this remote head work above New York City. Finding a frequency that won’t get jammed from all the broadcasting going on in the city is extremely difficult and it took a lot of testing to find the right one.”
“Of course, we went to the real locations to get the feel for the areas,” he adds. “We then got together with production designer Neil Spisak, visual effects supervisor John Dykstra, and producers Ian Bryce and Laura Zisken to put all the pieces together. The important thing was to find a thorough line that delineated what would be real and what would be composite. “We were constantly asking ourselves questions,” Burgess explains. “Can we shoot on the Queensboro Bridge? Is it possible to get a crew on top of the bridge? What about our actors? Is it safe? Can they perform in the middle of winter at night on top of the bridge? How about the traffic? Can we stop the traffic? Where do we light it from? How big is it? How much would it cost to light? “This is just the beginning of all the questions you have to answer before you can figure out how to shoot a scene,” he says patiently. “All of the scenes are broken down into shots and all shots are broken down into elements; foreground, middle ground, and background. They can all be real, digital, or a composite of both. The difficult part is figuring out all of your shots three months before you shoot the scene!” For Burgess, the most difficult sequences to shoot in the film are the scenes that take place in Times Square, where a festival is taking place and the Green Goblin decides to attack on his jet propelled glider. “We have this aerial battle taking place between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin above thousands of people. “‘Oh, and by the way, you can’t shoot the sequence in Times Square,’ we were told,” he adds. “We ended up building the street in a huge parking lot in Downey and a balcony of a high-rise New York building on stage at Sony Studios. We shot plates in New York City and downtown Los Angeles, to tile together on the computer for the backgrounds. “The lighting concept took me a long time to come up with,” he admits. “I eventually had a light study shot of Times Square every 30 minutes of the day, from the perspective of the balcony. This allowed me to pick the best time of day for the event, which turned out to be 4:30 PM – just before the sun goes down in the winter. This would give us a strong warm key of sunlight and cold shadows of the city at the base of the buildings. “This also gave me my color palette to light both sets and to make the lighting match from sound stage to exterior location,” Burgess explains. “On location, we used two 60 foot by 100 foot silks, hanging from construction cranes to diffuse the direct sunlight and create the shade that you find at the base of the buildings in New York. Then we used Tungsten fire-starter PARs as our warm back light sun. We could recreate this on stage to keep our lighting continuity. This helped us connect the two separate locations and make it feel like the same place.” Don Burgess takes a deep breath and back tracks for a moment. “The balcony where the battle begins, by the way, is supposed to be 120 feet high above Times Square. Mary Jane and Peter’s best friend Harry (James Franco) are watching the festivities when the Green Goblin shows up on his jet powered glider and bombs the balcony. This puts the two in harm’s way and Spider-Man has to come to the rescue. “Neil Spisak built the balcony as a set piece on Stage 29 at Sony Studios. The balcony ended up 30 feet in the air. And, most of the camera angles needed to be shot from a crane. “To get that much height, Michael Cool (key grip) used the Phoenix Crane with the Libra head remote,” he explains. “This gave us 50 feet of reach and flexibility to position the camera anywhere possible around the balcony and off the edge in mid-air. “We also made moving point-of-view shots from the Green Goblin’s POV, swinging like a flight path toward the balcony. “In addition, we used very wide lenses – the 14mm and the 10mm to exaggerate the size and speed of the aerial battle between Spider-Man and Green Goblin.” Burgess also shot green screen and Translight for the sequence, to fill in the backgrounds of Times Square. “The green and blue screens were primarily lit with KinoFlo lights,” he explains. “However, they were so large that we couldn’t reach the centers with the KinoFlo lights so we augmented this with 20ks with green gels on the green screens and HMIs with blue gel on the blue screens. “While shooting the green screen shot, I utilized the Panavision Digital still camera to shoot the foreground against the green screen and then composited the background into the photo right on the set,” he adds. “Then I could check my lighting and also show the actors what the actual location looked like. They could then understand their physical position better. “I use it between departments and units,” he adds. “We had a second unit and an insert unit shooting all the time. The digital shots were handed back and forth between units and it really helped to keep all the units shooting the same movie.” For Burgess, there is another challenging sequence that takes place on the Queensboro Bridge, where the Green Goblin is standing on top while holding Mary Jane in one hand and a cable holding a tram full of people (mostly children) in the other. “He drops them both at the same time and makes Spider-Mandecide who to save,” Burgess explains. “Once again, here’s a scene that we can’t shoot at the actual location. “We decided to build a set piece of bridge girder that was 20 feet high by 40 feet long for several shots in the sequence,” he adds. “Two of the shots would utilize the forced-perspective painted backing. “We figured out the angle of the camera from story boards and tests and decided frame sizes in advance. Once we had this information, the backings were painted. “During the shooting, gaffer Steve McGee lit the backing and the bridge with yellow light and we filled the stage with a thin layer of smoke to soften the edges, which gave the screen a feeling of night time moisture in the air. “Splashing the backing and the set piece with yellow light helped to blend the two together and create the illusion of the rest of the bridge. “This is the part of filmmaking that I really enjoy,” Burgess comments. “It is creating the illusion of something. In this case it was a bridge that we couldn’t shoot on. Every shot in the scene had to be thought out in advance. That way, we could prepare what we had to build in the foreground and what you will see in the background (i.e. a Translight, a painted backing, or a green screen with a plate of the actual location that needs to be, or a three dimensional structure built to scale to create the illusion of something). “The idea of a sequence transformed into reality this way – shooting and having it work – is very rewarding. Neil was the driving force behind creating the sets that would keep us in Peter Parker’s world.” For Don Burgess, shooting a picture with so many visual effects shots was difficult, yet interesting. “It is all about controlling the picture,” he says. “You have to have a close relationship with the visual effects supervisor and trust his instincts and feel comfortable with his ability to understand the lighting and visual concept. “In this case, it was John Dykstra. And we instantly connected on those levels. “In the evolvement of the Spider-Man character, John did extensive tests on a CG “Spidey.” Whenever possible, we used that character over the live action. “I was amazed and relieved at what he was able to do,” says Burgess. “There is an old saying that there are things that can’t be imagined, but everything can happen. Well, that’s the state of Visual Effects. And, it’s only our imagination that is holding us back. John pushed the envelope on what is possible today in Visual Effects to make this picture work. I am really excited about seeing the final product – the blending of both our technologies to bring the world of young Peter Parker and his alter-ego Spider-Man to a new audience.” • |
“When
I first heard about the project, I wasn’t that interested,” says cinematographer
Don Burgess, ASC (Cast Away, What Lies Beneath, Contact, Forrest
Gump) candidly. Burgess admits he wasn’t a comic book fan, but the
encouragement of his agent, David Gersh, and a meeting with director
Sam Raimi changed his mind. “It was Sam’s passion for the underlying
story of a boy who has to grow up and face the fact that ‘with great
powers comes great responsibility,’ that sold me,” he says. 
For
Burgess, choosing film stocks is always a trade out from ASA to grain
and contrast. “We knew we were going to cut together scenes shot on
location exteriors and stage interiors,” he continues. “We found that
Kodak’s 200 ASA (5274) gave us the best of both worlds. The stock can
shoot day exterior with an 85 filter and interior stage Tungsten with
it’s 200 ASA. It is also a good stock for visual effects. 
Although
the story takes place in New York and was shot, for the most part, in
New York City, Burgess and Raimi were well aware of the challenges of
this particular location. “It’s logistically impossible to make this
kind of film there,” he admits. “So, we started by figuring out what
we could shoot there and then what we needed to be built on the stage
or in the computer. Then, we found locations that appeared to be New
York City, but weren’t fraught with the problems of the real areas.