I swung with spidey and bagged an oscar!
by David Currie

Sam Raimi is a man with a vision. The director who brought us Evil Dead, Darkman, A Simple Plan and The Gift spent every night of his youth - since his 12th birthday - staring into the pearl white eyes of Spider-man, peering down at him from his bedroom ceiling. This painted mural, a gift from his mother, became an omnipresent witness to his teenage years and a portent of things to come. Its 2001 and Raimi juggles his biggest budget ever - reportedly $100 million - to transform the last of the Primal 3 comicbook superheroes (the other two being Superman and Batman) onto movie screens in multiplexes worldwide. He's aware of how passionate the character's readers are, how locked into their own childhoods the myths that he's handling are rooted and how much potential is there for the director that gets it right. With a 40-year comics publishing history, numerous animated television shows and a state-of-the-art Theme Park ride in Florida, Spider-man's public perception quota is high. The producers of Spider-man are betting on this being a 3-movie franchise and that, I'm told, is a conservative estimate.

It's a big responsibility to ensure that Spider-man will do whatever a spider can in the summer of 2002 and big money does not always equal big power. But Raimi has one advantage that travels well alongside his uniquely-flavoured directing skills - he used to share a bedroom with Spider-man himself.

Spider-man started shooting at the beginning of 2001 following cast announcements in New York. Tobey Maguire (Cider House Rules, Pleasantville) beat out much oppostion to land the leading role, Willem Dafoe (Oscar nominee for his role in Shadow of the Vampire) replaced John Malvovitch as the Green Goblin and Kirsten Dunst (Interview with a Vampire) snatched the part of Mary Jane. The Spider costume was unveiled on the internet soonafter to hearty approval and the production began to create a considerable buzz in Hollywood as filming progressed.

The opportunity arose for me to attend five days of filming on the set of the Spider-man movie in Los Angeles as an unpaid extra. I'd be in the movie (maybe), see some cool stuff (for sure!) and witness skilled professionals recreate my favourite power fantasies (Hey, don't worry. I sell comics for a living so I can say that kind of thing. It's my job!) I took the opportunity and, as my very life was put in danger by the thoughtless actions of two super-powered freaks slugging it out around me, I said hoorah for Hollywood.

The set location

Downey is an uneventful suburb of Los Angeles , its only claim to fame is that the world's first MacDonalds was built and still remains here. I don't know about you, but I'm still impressed about that. Columbia has taken over the sprawling now-unused Boeing plant in Downey to recreate New York's Times Square during the fictional World Unity Festival. A huge open-air set comprising festival tents and stage (where Macy Gray performs), sidewalks and eaterie vendors and a facade of the Empire Grand hotel, replete with newstands, souvenir shops and restuarants. World Unity banners with the tag 'Sponsored by Oscorp' are draped from streetlights and Daily Bugle newspaper dispensers line the sidewalks. They had a small number of mock-up Daily Bugle newspapers displayed at the newsstand, the headline read: STATUE OF LIBERTY HARBORS DRUGS, and these were jealously guarded by the crew at all times from the prying eyes of extras. Around 30 paid extras sweat the day out in ethnic costumes reflecting world cultures (Japanese, Scottish, Bavarian etc) while 600-800 unpaid extras wear festival buttons and wave pennants as they try to avoid sunstroke in the bleachers,waiting until they are needed for shots. Earlier in the month, tragedy struck the set as a construction worker died during its creation.

The scene

Half of New York has turned up for the World Unity Festival, an event sponsored by Oscorp and taking place in Times Square. At the height of the festivities the Green Goblin appears, gliding high above the heads of the crowd. At first, they all think it's part of the show and applaud enthusiasticaly at the wierd creature performing air-acrobats on a high-tech flying device. The mood alters dramatically as the Goblin begins to bomb members of the Oscorp Board, huddled together on a balcony at the Empire Grand Hotel. At the top of the hotel, the Goblin has chained a helpless Mary Jane. Ruthlessly. the Goblin succeeds in murdering all board members and is oblivious to the torrent of debris heading towards the people on the sidewalks below. Peter Parker is covering the World Unity Festival for the Daily Bugle. As chaos breaks out and panic grips the crowds, he quickly runs off and changes into Spider-man.

He saves two people from being crushed by debris with his webbing, rescues a young boy and returns him to the arms of his mother, then takes to the skies to confront the Goblin. Spider-man smashes into the Goblin, dislodging him from his glider. The Goblin falls some 100 feet into a Japanese festival tent below. Three police officers pounce on the scene to make an arrest. "Give yourself up!", they shout, guns cocked and ready. From the billowing tent, the Goblin slowly emerges, arms up in supplication. "I surrender, I surrender. Media violence made me do it", he says. The Goblin strides forward, the cops close in. Suddenly he turns, throwing one cop brutally to his side and pummeling the other two unconscious with his fists. Spider-man makes the scene, somersaulting and back-flipping over rows of long tables, nimbly avoiding the festival food and stacked-up champagne glasses. He lands directly in front of the Goblin. "What do you want?", the Goblin screeches. "World peace", replies Spider-man. "But I'll settle for a piece of you!" Spider-man throws a punch but the Goblin is quicker than anticipated. He grabs the fist and kicks Spider-man full on the chest, sending him hurtling back over the tables, crashing through the glasses, and ultimately into a lampost which explodes on contact. The Goblin hops back onto his glider and pursues Spider-man, bombing the hero as he runs and somersaults through the crowd of terrified festival-goers. Suddenly Mary Jane begins to fall from the top of the Empire Grand. Spider-man swings in and catches her mid-air....

The filming

Day One: Monday, March 19 2001
Extra work is no easy picnic. The 10 hour working day is long, tiring and often tedious to the extreme. It takes hours to set up a shot, minutes to film, then an eon of repitition as you perform and repeat your terror-on-cue. Everyday is Groundhog Day in Downey, Los Angeles.

As background extras, our role was mostly to run in abject horror as the fight between Spider-man and the Green Goblin broke out. We dodged raining debris, multiple explosions, flying cops, as we ran at full speed from one side of Times Square to the other. All this in winter jackets as the scene was supposed to taking place in the Autumn. In retrospect, the experience is unique and thrilling but monotonous reality is your first bitter taste. The day began at 8:00am as the extras are herded in, fed breakfast, then escorted in groups to the closed set. On the first day, as temperatures rose violently into the 90s, there was a considerable delay in setting up for film. The shot called for half a lamppost to be hoisted by crane, then dropped some 80 feet onto the roof of a NYPD car outside the Empire Grand. The crowds in the bleachers, melting in the direct sunshine, were keen to start the day watching an authority car get trashed but the scene took so long to set up over 30 people had to be taken off the set due to sunstroke. The first attempt to shoot failed as one of the crane's cables snapped prematurely, leaving the hunk of metal dangling uselessly. Another long delay to reset lead to the bleacher crowds being told to go back to the tents. As a result, the crowds missed the second and this time successful shot. I decided to hang around, mix in with the paid extras who stayed on set, and saw the police car get royally smashed. This turned out to be a good tactic , as after chatting briefly to Sam Raimi, Willem Dafoe and sundry others - my lone British accent led the crew to assume I was part of the cast, a World Unity paid extra. This gave me much more freedom on the set over the next five days than I would have ordinarily enjoyed and I took full advantage of this.

The next scene to be shot was the first I saw Sam Raimi direct. The only guy on the set that wears a suit (he likes to direct in suits but is not adverse to getting them dirty. At one point, for a scene that required fake rocks to be thrown down on panicking crowds below, Raimi really took to scaling a stepladder and throwing down rocks just as he damned well pleased. Those fake rocks powder easily and Raimi's black suit reflected this fact.) Raimi is an exact but mild-mannered director that never uses a bullhorn to get his point across. He also smokes on set which enabled me to lead the tobacco rebellion among the ranks. Well, I'm British, what the hell do I know about clean air?

This scene called for two stunt actors (1 guy, 1 girl) to be saved by Spider-man as the debris falls. He yanks them out of danger with his webbing and as they look up to see their savior, Spider-man gestures for silence by holding a finger up to his mouth. As there was no Spider-man on set, this was all explained to the stunts by Raimi, taking the place of the wall-crawler for their POV. The stunt actors climbed into coats that had masses of Spider-man webbing attached to the back then, after shooting the just-smacked-the-ground shot, the same actors would be flung over 30 feet through the air by cables and pulleys.

It's been nine hours, but then for the final hour of LA light , Spider-man makes an appearance. Of course, I'm not sure which one it was on the first day. They have five different Spider-men. That's five different $60,000 Spider-man costumes, perfectly tailored to the individual's body. Five different guys with different abilites. One's an Olympic class acrobat, one's a martial artist, two are stunt actors and one's the star of the show (Tobey Maguire won't be seen often in costume in the film. He's only there for shots putting the mask on or off and some full-body shots).

The Spider costume looks very impressive, even in harsh daylight. The colours are muted as not to be garish and the raised webbing throws off reflections superbly. With fake musculature kept to a minimum, the all-in-one costume allows complete freedom of movement and between takes the white eyes are removed to allow better vision for its wearer. Despite it's high price tag, however, it seems that the costume would not really stand up to a real super-hero battle. One of the many PAs scuttling around the set, talking into headsets, brandishing clipboards, confided to me that the crew were precious with the raised webbing :"We shot a great scene, everyone was clapping. I went up to Spidey and gave him a high five. Suddenly, it's like 'Watch the webs. Don't touch the costume'! I think the webs are prone to fall off ." Super-villains, take note.

The next scene called for Spider-man, five-year-old Billy in arm, to swing down and, darting through the panicked crowds, hand the boy over to his mother. (Waiting by the same sidewalk lamp-post that Spider-man will eventually crash into.) This was filmed five or six times, with us extras rushing back and forth, avoiding cops, into the scene. Spider-man delivers the kid, cocks his head to the camera and leaps off. They called a wrap and filming was over for the day. My clothes, which I had to wear for the rest of the week, were draw-your-face thick with showbiz dust and obviously distressed. "You know what I'm gonna do?," said Jeff, a charming half-indian extra who thought he met me at a Grateful Dead concert in San Francisco two lifetimes ago. "I'm gonna put these dust-rags on e-bay. That's right. Original Spider-man movie costumes, man."

The drama of the day spilled over into reality as I begun the 3-mile walk from the set to my motel room. I was introduced to the Californian delights of a "Rolling Blackout". High temperatures and dysfunctional power companies equals something apparently well known to resident Californians - prolonged power outages. This meant a 3-mile walk in pitch black, with no streetlights, no traffic lights, no-one open for business, leaping across busy intersections and boulevards, avoiding streams of oncoming cars trying to avoid each other. I was running in terror for my life. By now, it felt normal.

Day Two: Tuesday, March 20 2001
The pace steps up as, first thing in the morning, Willem Dafoe appears striding around the set in the Green Goblin costume, sans facemask. This is the premiere appearance of the Goblin costume since the very beginning of filming and the set is buzzing. Dafoe's an approachable guy and easy to share a couple of pleasantries with. He stays on the set for the majority of the working day, Goblin costume flapping around his waist between takes, as he likes to do most of his own stunt work. He has an incredibly wicked look as Norman Osborn and a commitment to the role that promises to mine the darker depths of the character. The costume is not what I'd expected. Instead of rags and scales familiar to its comic counterpart, the movie Goblin is more high-tech. The body sports molded musculature similar to the Batman costumes, with armor-apparent shoulders and chest. Gold detailing spots the length of the upper arm and leg. With the two-piece head-gear snapped into place, the Goblin becomes far more sinister. Trailing off to a point at the top, the mask captures the grimace of the Goblin with its economically-designed facial sculpture. The Goblin's long ears are there, the wild mouth and fangs and the bulbous eyes will glow without CGI. (I know this because I was behind Dafoe when he put the mask on and I could see the longlife battery on the inside! Another illusion shattered!).

For the scene I'm placed as part of a small "gawping group" situated some five feet behind Dafoe. Basically, the ones you see in an action scene that are too dumb to run along with everyone else. The scene calls for the Goblin to rise out from a collapsed tent, confront New York's finest and then meet Spider-man for the first time. Dafoe rises slowly as the crew pump air into the tent to make it billow, gives his lines and moves forward. Three cops close in, all rigged up to cables that pull them violently through the air when action dictates. The stunt workers have a hard time of it even after their fall. Many times during filming, stunt actors lying in position on the ground got trampled under foot by stampeding extras. For the extras the danger lay in losing your goods. Many personal items, wallets, glasses, ID cards and even shoe (singular) got dislodged in the never-ending melee. As no-one ventured forth to claim the shoe, a PA was forced to announce: "Look down at your feet. If you only have one shoe, this is your shoe."

Suddenly there's a break for lunch but I'm in no hurry to chow down. I'm sitting on the wrecked police car watching Sam Raimi rehearse Dafoe and the acrobat Spider-man for the movie's first major fight scene. Tuna and cupcakes pale in comparison to this. Spider-man jumps in, throws a punch and the Goblin catches it. The Goblin kicks Spider-man on the chest and sends him flying. As I've signed up for the week and have already been placed into earlier establishing scenes, I'm used in the foregrounds for these shots - running alongside a wire-pulled Spider-man as he smashes through champagne glasses at speed. It's hard to surpress the urge to stand and stare when you're so close to the action but having witnessed what happened to those extras who came direct from the "oh my god this is so much fun I can't stop smiling" school of acting on the first day, I manage it. (They were escorted off camera.) A wrap is called. The lights stayed on on the way home. This was unsettling.

Day Three: Wednesday, March 21 2001
A much slower day with one stunt shot taking up the lionshare of daylight. My "gawping group" is back at the tent - now fully erect and resplendent in Japanese lanterns (the tent man, not the group!) - awaiting deflation. Stunt actors mingle in and out , marking their starting positions with chalk, and Kim, the Goblin stunt double is craned 100 feet in the air to a gantry overhanging the tent. He has to take the fall a number of times before it's right. We held our astonishment for hours.

The next scene is the first indication of how agile the 21st Century Spider-man will be. Five long tables lined with food and glasses (again!) are strategically placed and Spider-man performs a truly dazzling somersault turn to get from one end to another. And hey, the webs stayed on!

As a pleasant change, we ended the day's shooting being a crowd of happy pre-disaster festival goers. Pointing at and applauding a high overhead camera (the Goblin) in delight. Only the dust on my boots told a different story.

Day Four: Thursday, March 22 2001
After a number of smaller scenes (Spidey careening into a lamppost then leaping up and scuttling off) the main action sequence for today is set up. This involves Dafoe in full Goblin costume, held by a wire, crouched aloft the stunning-looking Goblin Glider - held by a second wire - a full 30 feet off the ground and driven forward by a truck! Small charcoal explosions are planted the length of a road, lined with extras and festival tents, and the action calls for Spider-man to run and somersault through the explosions while the Goblin bares down on him from above. This was a spectacular sequence and hey. who's that British dude dodging in front of Spider-man and ducking into a tent?

Day Five: Friday, March 23 2001
They divided all extras into one mass group and one group of 30. The mass group took the side of the set lined with festival tents and the acrobat Spider-man joined them. They got down to filming pretty quickly, with Spider-man jumping and back-flipping through a gauntlet of explosions and fireballs while background screamed and cowered in terror. It was the second POV shot to compliment yesterday's shoot. It looked like fun from my vantage point, shuffling around the front of the Empire Grand with the group of 30, waiting for our scene to be set up.

It turned out that I pulled the right group despite the long delays, for this was to be Tobey Maguire's only filmed appearance on Unit One. He'd been here all week, along with Kirsten Dunst, but on Unit Two - a smaller, indoor set elsewhere on the Boeing plant.

This scene called for Maguire to be caught in the opening round of falling debris, run off with the camera tracking him, then open his shirt to reveal the Spider costume beneath. Our group was to run around him as the shot was established (Raimi was there to direct and wanted a tight closing shot on the spider chest emblem). "Can I rip the shirt?", asks Tobey. "Try to unbutton it", replies Raimi. Perhaps an impractical suggestion given the heat of the moment, and Maguire eventually cans the scene by ripping open the shirt. Tobey's really a tiny, tiny guy. With his camera and wiry frame he looks every inch the young Peter Parker and could prove to be some very astute casting on Raimi's part. He couldn't play Spider-man as you'll see him on the screen because it takes a lifetime to train to that level of fitness.

I hug a fire hydrant then dash behind Maguire as he starts his run. I resist the urge to mug for the camera one final time and rest content with the knowledge that at least my butt is in shot. ( I know this because it had to be dusted by the costume dept inbetween takes.)

The last and most dramatic shot of the day called for a stuntgirl to freefall 150 feet with a crane-held camera falling with her. As the light began to gradually diminish it became obvious that the production was behind schedule and this shot would not happen today. They announce two extra shooting days the following week and invite us all to return.

I'm tempted , but I've seen enough to know (to use Californese) what a rockin' film this is going to be and how hard the crew are working to get the details right, so I head home to England. I feel I've done my bit, got my fear motivation down pat, ran like a demented squirrel and gave a little piece of myself to a project close to my arrested teenage heart.

At the airport, there was an Oscar for ten bucks.
Thank you and goodnight.

David Currie is the owner of American Dream Comics in Walcot Street, Bath. 01225 424881. He really does sell comics for a living.