Hey folks, Harry here... And today Raimi and crew shot the final scene of SPIDER-MAN, and thanks to the loyal AICN Spy Team, we have a great idea of exactly what happened, and you can either read about it, or wait for next May... So check it out... or not, here it is...
Hey Harry, Fishing With Steve here....
I got a chance to be at the Spiderman shoot this Sunday and thought you might like to know the details.
It took place in Los Angeles, but if you happened to stumble onto the set, you would have thought you were in NY city! They had a whole city block shut down and transformed it to look like a busy day in the big apple. Many NY cabs, a bus and cars with NY plates on the street. Then there were the cranes...
There were two MASSIVE cranes at each end of the street. Each one towered in at over 200 ft. high! They were both connected by a couple of wires high above the sity floor. At one end, a camera could be seen dangling from the top. We (the extras) were told this was, SPOILERS, the last shot that would be in the movie. After this shot that was being filmed, the screen would fade to he credits.
So what's the last shot in the Spiderman movie going to look like? When "Action!" was yelled, the camera swooped down and forward very fast! It continued to move forward and then came to within a couple of feet of the ground! It passed inbetween two cabs and rocketed back into the air! It must have taveled the entire length of the city block in less the 10 seconds! They shot this scene many times and it trook over 5 hours to get all the shots they needed.
We were told that Spiderman would be added in later with CGI. So it looks like the last shot is going to be of Spiderman swinging throught the streets of NY, starting really high, swooping in a bit above the passers by of NY, and then low in between two cabs and swinging back up into the sky. The shot is going to be fast and Spidey will be traveling at an incredible speed! They even asked us extras to walk slower because they were shooting with a slower frame rate to make the image move faster! Wow, Spidey is going to be hauling major ass!
I did also get a chance to talk to the man himself, Sam Raimi! He was on
set and inbetween takes you could spot him signing autographs and
chatting with fans. He seemed like a really nice guy. After the shoot, I
got to ask him one question, so I said, "How did the shot come out?" He
replied, "Good, really good. Thanks for helping!" See? What a nice
response. He thanked an extra for helping out on his film!
This last shot in the film should be great and look for me, Fishing With
Steve (I'm the guy right behind the bus in the black cap!)
Of course we have Capt. RibMan
Downtown LA became NY for one final day of filming Spiderman. There were about 300 extras on the set and they filmed many long fly-by shots. There was nothing too interesting today except for the unexpected appearance of Sam Raimi. Why was it interesting? Because today he filmed his "Hitchcock" appearance. Raimi was on a street corner (on a cell-phone drinking from a Burger King cup) as Spiderman zooms by.
--Captain RibMan
And then there is Lata
So I had the chance to participate in the last scene in the Spider-Man film. It was basically 200 extras, I mean background actors, in a scene where Spider-Man swings down over some New York cabs and then swings back up. No costumes, actors or anything like that, just two cranes that were about 100 yards apart. Four wires were attached and with each take the camera would dip down off of these four wires and then fly back up, basically a pulley system. I’m not sure if it was more a POV shot or if they are going to add a CGI Spider-Man in post. With about twenty-five different takes I am sure they will have a selection of how this scene will end up.
lata
dovermafia.com And now for Enigma Boy...
Today, I, Enigma Boy, got to experience first-hand how uneventful is it to be an extra. I wasn't really considering it to be anything extremely enthralling, but I should really get used to the down time if I want to keep doing this kind of stuff.
Today I was on Flower Street in Downtown LA between 7th and 5th being an extra in a special-effects shot for Spider-Man. Thanks, by the way, for posting the info which led me to becoming an unpaid extra. Free food, Raimi's autograph, and just being there was good. Of course, I was merely one small portion of the large group of cattle, using that word in the most Hitchcock quote sense.
Today we filmed what we were told was the final shot of Spider-Man. The street wasn't really decorated at all to look like New York, but they had the cabs, and we all had to dress up in winter coats (not a very Los Angeles thing). Our mission: be the people on the sidewalk. Simple, right? You'd think, but this was an extremely complicated shot.
It involved the use of what I guess is now probably a patent, the Spider-Cam (how do I know this is the name? There was a guy filming it with a DV camera, documenting it, and he was wearing a shirt that said "Spider-Cam"...good detective work on my part, eh?). This consists of two humungous cranes two blocks apart going at least 12 stories into the sky with a pulley system of cables between them, which allows the camera to move forward and backwards. On the cable is a pretty dang expensive camera, which is on its own cable pulley system, allowing it to be moved up and down while also going forward and backward along the first cable. The idea of this shot was for it to be following Spider-Man swinging around the streets of New York, starting up high then swooping so far down so as to be passing directly above a lane divider right between two taxis. A couple of times I feared for the camera. Spider-Man would be digitally put into the scene in post-production. So, to make Spider-Man seem extra fast and (this is their word) "supersonic," they had the film speed in the camera be slow, and they would then make it faster in post. So, to make this work, the extras and the cars had to move far slower than they would normally. Our speed: 1/4 of what we'd normally do, then 1/2 when this wasn't working. You'd be surprised at how hard this is for hundreds of people to do all at one time. Also, the shot itself (without post-production speed-up) was only about 10 seconds, so I'll be a blur.
Basically, I really liked the idea of the shot, and it was a technical marvel, but it takes so long to set up, reload, reset, etc. Sometimes the crowd wouldn't be moving right. Sometimes the camera would be a little shaky. Sometimes a "stunt driver" would have left to use the toilet, nearly causing multiple accidents, even at 10 mph. Or sometimes a car would run out of gas/break down, which happened not once, not twice, but three times! Luckily, I'm patient, although the guest I brought with me wasn't nearly as okay with the down time. We did the take about 12 times from one side, and then 6 more from the other. I think the reverse angle, personally, was merely the result of there being some extra money, or just Sam Raimi playing with his toys. It got pretty goofy. Near the end, Raimi and his right-hand man decided to get into the shot as well, pretending to hail a cab in extreeeeeme slow motion. It was funnier than it probably sounds here.
So, basically, I'm in the final shot of Spider-Man (unless they digitize my ass out of there, which would completely suck), I got some free (albeit mediocre) food, took some old goodies from the prop hotdog stand, and met Raimi. I've been a huge fan for years, and I think A SIMPLE PLAN is cinematically inspiring. It was nice having him actually talk to the unpaid extras thanking us for our help, taking the time to acknowledge the unpaid bitches we are by communicating and shaking our hands. I got his autograph and right next to it, in the silly Raimi spirit I'd expect from the guy who brought us the Evil Dead movies, a pen-scrawled version of Spider-Man's mug.
Hopefully next time I do this I'll get paid. Until then, I'll be chilling waiting for the day when I can see me up on the screen, even if it is for just a second or two.
--Enigma Boy
