Hey folks, Harry here with our very own Monarch of the Sea.... Sallah and his look behind the scenes of the SPIDER-MAN set... This is our first report detailing how they are filming some of the 'web-slinging' scenes... and man I want to be on set for that. It just sounds cool. Read on...
Harry:
Thought you'd want to know some more about the Spiderman filming going on this week, and exactly what is being shot.
As you already know the shooting has been taking place all this week on the Warner Bros. backlot on what is known as "Henessey Street" which is styled to look like parts of New York with old brown stone tenements, alley ways and such. It's the same street seen and used in the Batman movies and others. In fact it is the same street that can be seen in the currently running OnStar commercials that feature the Batmobile racing down it pursuing the Joker. (Sorry to mention another comic book character besides our friendly neighborhood wall crawler, but it's just to give you some perspective).
The art crew started dressing the street on Friday to add their own their own special Spidey styled touches to the street before moving in and starting the shooting on Monday. They added a ton of graffiti, neon, and other touches. They brought in about a dozen New York yellow taxis, the aforementioned Daily Bugle truck, and a rather beat up old black Camaro. All the shooting this week has been taking place at night, and the cranes that were reported before have been used to hoist those gigantic rain making bars high above the set, as much of the scenes have been shot through a downpour.
Now for the very cool stuff.....What is the actual content being shot?
I can tell you that several scenes were shot this week with William Dafoe, before he makes his transition to actually becoming the Green Goblin and establishing his origin.
The majority of shots this week though consisted of "stunt" shots. Yes, that's right.."stunt" shots. Shots of our favorite wall crawler doing what he does best, ...crawling and SWINGING through the city!
One of the reasons the crew has shot throughout the night this week into the early morning hours, is to try and keep looky loos from seeing what ought to be some of the coolest shots of all.
One of those cranes has raised a cage high above the 3 story Hennesy Street set...(about another whole story above the tops of the building facades) to allow a stuntman dressed as Spidey to bungee into and through the set! It has been a pretty amazing thing to see, and once the effects work is completed should be even more stunning. The interesting and very cool thing about seeing the bungee cables that they are using is the realization that once the completed film is seen is that Spidey's webs will actually stretch and not just be static "rope" looking webs!
Lastly, the crew has also moved in a huge mobile luxury screening room to watch the film dailies. The screening room, literally the back of a huge customized semi-truck, features giant cream colored leather chairs in a deep plush red carpeted interior for those lucky enough to be invited inside to watch. I'll just share this with you so far about the dailies....everyone is very, very pleased!
As a side note, I did overhear as well, that Wednesday night, there was a bit of consternation throughout the crew, because Tobey had been bothered several times by people finding his trailer and disturbing him, so security has been extremely tight.
Anyway, thought you'd would be interested in a bit more of a detailed report about what has been going on.
Take care and keep up the good work.
Blessings,
Sallah
