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The latest Marvel feature Madame Web offers a new spin on the familiar world of Spider-Man, with a stand-alone tale based on a character that first appeared 44 years ago in The Amazing Spider-Man, issue No. 210. Created by Denny O’Neil and John Romita Jr., the plot centers on a superheroine with clairvoyant powers. The February release is directed by TV veteran S.J. Clarkson and serves up an origin story in which New York City paramedic Cassandra Webb (portrayed by Dakota Johnson) uses her powers to protect three young women with various types of spider-like abilities. Digital Domain, beloFX, One of Us, Outpost VFX and Territory Studio created 1,400 visual effects shots overseen by VFX supervisors Mike Brazelton and Charlotta Forssman.
“It’s almost going to be two years from start to finish for me,” says Brazelton. “The first Spider-Man with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire was one of the first films that I ever did. This is a much more grounded story. It’s not relying so heavily on big visual effects pieces as some of those other Spider-Man films did. There is a different visual language.”
An Eye on the Future
Defining the visual language is also a particular superpower of Madame Web’s (Johnson). “She is able to see into the future and across all of the different metaverses; trying to find a way to show that visually and connect to her character has been cool,” he notes. “The spiderweb in general is intriguing to simulate because each one is different like a snowflake. It’s an interesting thing to use as visual storytelling vehicle.”
Part of the team’s research was to find out how the characters and their powers were portrayed in the comic books. “It’s cool to take something that you’ve seen as a kid and bring it into a three-dimensional space and amplify that storytelling,” Brazelton adds. You can do those things because of where visual effects is right now in the world.”
‘The problem with a stunt rig is you are assisting someone’s physical strength, so you’re trying to find a balance between using those real stunt performances and taking them over.’
— VFX supervisor Mike Brazelton
The VFX supe says avoiding the feeling of weightlessness is hard to achieve when you have characters with the ability to defy physics. “Besides the web-slinging, Ezekiel Sims [Tahar Rahim] has a lot of the same superpowers as Spider-Man — like superstrength and the ability to jump and leap,” says Brazelton.
“One of the hardest things is showing somebody as [a] human jumping from point A to B — which is a totally unrealistic thing to do — but [also] to give it the characteristics that it takes effort and strength to do it. I can think back to some Captain America shots where there is an unbelievability to the trajectory and weight that he uses to fly. That weightlessness is a constant battle. When you use stunts and stunt rigs, which we did often, it’s a great starting point, but you can never get the full thing, so you end up taking over. The problem with a stunt rig is you are assisting someone’s physical strength, so you’re trying to find a balance between using those real stunt performances and taking them over.”
Astral projection was also given a unique Madame Web spin. “It’s interesting to try to build up that storytelling aspect of it,” observes Brazelton. “This film starts off with Cassandra Webb/Madame Web as an [Emergency Medical Technician] discovering her connection to the Web of Life, how she fits into it and can control it. We definitely referenced Doctor Strange but didn’t want to copy it. Like anything that you’re discovering and developing with the work that we do, you reference, try and test. We had tons and tons of different ideas with various levels of success, and you eventually come to [a] place where it all comes together.”
Madame Web befriends a trio of women with their own unique superpowers. “Mattie Franklin [Celeste O’Connor] has legs coming out of her back, and we wanted to do something different,” Brazelton says. “There are definitely moments in some of those Spider-Man films where the legs almost seem to be working in their own accord, whereas Mattie is physically moving her body to motivate and justify what these legs are doing. What’s interesting about her legs too is it’s a mutant power rather than Iron Man tech.”
Julia Cornwall/Carpenter (Sydney Sweeney) stuns her adversaries into submission with electroshock psychic spiderwebs. “Frans Weterrings III, the gaffer, helped to design these double-sided LED strips that were placed on the gloves of Sydney Sweeney, which we would trigger remotely,” reveals Brazelton. “There is a scene later on in the film where one of the stunt performers had LEDs wrapped around where the webs were going to hit him, so we had the interactive light source. We would paint that stuff out and put our effect over the top of it. We definitely took aspects of Tesla coils, lightning bolts and plasma balls. It took us a solid year of concepting and development to get to a place where we felt that we were doing something unique and new.”
Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced) has had various iterations of her character depicted in the comic books. “There are some earlier ones where you have this disc on top of a spiderweb with these spikes that come out of it and that’s what we referenced there,” explains the supervisor. We created this disc that starts off flat with a glow in the center, and as she throws it these spikes come out of it and it can be attached to a spiderweb. The disc has a will of its own and an ability to do things that are not 100 percent realistic. It’s a dangerous, lethal and wicked weapon.”
CG Time Travel
Although the film is set in the New York City of 2003, most principal photography took place in present-day Boston. “What the art department puts in physically is usually limited to the ground floor,” remarks Brazelton. “You go to [a] place and say, ‘We can put posters up for Mariah Carey,’ which people resonate with from 2003. We did some clever planning on where and how we shot. The more distant vehicles we had to touch, but a lot of times the more near vehicles we did not change because we made sure to get 2003 vehicles in place. I went out and shot a bunch of photography of New York from certain buildings, so when we were inside apartment buildings, you use bluescreen to see a view of New York City. We did a lot of research in how that skyline has changed. There are definitely specific buildings that were there or not there. It’s a more naked skyline.”
The film’s Web of Life shots were very complex. “The most difficult stuff is when you’re in a bluescreen volume and creating amazing things that have never been established before,” he points out. “There are so many cool things in the film. I’m even proud of the spider we created. Of course, the astral projection sequence has been incredibly difficult, and people are going to love that S.J. Clarkson had a real creative vision to do something that hadn’t been done before, and Charlotta Forssman and I were able to accomplish that.”
Sony’s Madame Web is now playing in theaters worldwide.
