Hey folks, Harry here... Well, seems that the Chicago contingent is doing their job... Capone and the various freelance roscoe wielding flim-flammers & schnozzle snorting shamuses in Chi-town seem to be hitting it pretty good. Just to let you know, that I'm on the case as well, I discovered today that Sam is essentially shooting background plates for sequences in the film that'll need CG out the wazoo. Currently, Chabone is hammering his pinkies away to crank out copy for Sam, but Raimi has an outline and the basic jist of the action scenes, so he's just getting some of the work done now. In other news, it seems that Raimi was wanting to pursue the whole Otto Octavius / Aunt May thing, to create the insane tension that Peter Parker had when he knew his enemy was dating his Aunt, but apparently they don't want to cast Otto that old, and feel that the May / December action might be a bit odd for the folks. However, I'm sure that whatever Chabone is working on, will bring Octavius into Peter's life personally. To make the conflict internal as well as external. Now, let us bow our heads and send good thoughts towards this project.... ohmmmmmmmm..... ohhhmmmmmm.....
Hey Harry, as Donny Osmond The Vampirate told you, I too was on the set for The Amazing Spiderman, and let me just get one thing straight, first off it was all second unit, sam wasn't anywhere in sight. The scene i was helping out on was when people watch a train go by and spidey and doc ock are dukin' it out on top. I was just an extra on the brown line and all we had to was get there at 6:45 am, check in, then go to our designated train stop, where about once an hour a train with a ton of cameras came by and filmed us watching the train pass. Thats all we saw, and i have some pics of the train, and proof that it was real with my crew card :) I was just happy to be on their for the first day of shooting of this highly anticipated sequel. I think they might be doing some more filming this week as well, so i'll keep you posted, but until then i have to hop into my lemon and take off. You can call me Popmart.
Then SuperheroHype.Com emailed me the following lead, and if you go over, you can see the crane set up and a pic a fan took with the future director of EVIL DEAD 4 (Dammit Sam! DO IT!) and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN --- Sam "Moe" Raimi!!!
Hey all,
We've recieved the first set pictures from "The Amazing Spider-Man," which
is filming early footage in Chicago this week. Sam Raimi also confirmed to
our scooper that his brother Ted will return in the sequel. The news & pics
can be found at:
CLICK HERE
Superhero Hype!
Hi Harry,
I work a couple of blocks away from where they are filming Spiderman 2 in Chicago. I spent my lunch hour watching and this is what I saw:
They hoisted a large camera up to the top of a 160 foot crane. Then they had lots of taxi cabs parked on both side of the street. Then on signal, the cabs all speed out of their parked positions and the camera dropped really fast to about 5 feet off the ground. It appears that the camera dropping will be Spiderman dropping once the Film is complete. I was also a few feet away from director Sam Raimi. He was watching the filmed scene on a flat Director's TV. There were also alot of trailers and prop trucks but I didn't see any stars such as Toby or Kirsten Dunst.
I hope this was helpful.
Thanks,
Tbone
As I'm sure all of your spies will tell you, 2nd unit unit for The Amazing
Spider-Man was here, and the shot should kick ass!! There was a crane about
150 to 200 ft. in the air with a camera facing down. The PA's shouted at
the cars to move and the camera came zooming down. Pretty cool, who was
supposed to be coming down is anyone's guess. There was a "splinter group"
filming at the Wabash el stop but by the time I got there it was over. So
Unfortunetly no sightings of Sam Raimi or Kirsten Dunst for me but maybe
somebody else got to see them.
Love the sight by the way.
Call me zod.
Hey Harry,
Well, thanks to the information Capone and his
buddies supplied, I found my way downtown into the
Chicago Loop this afternoon, and got in on the camera
crane action going on. The rig was set so that the
camera would descend to the street below. According
to one person nearby, the visual effects people would
take the 4 lanes of the street and insert a CG El
Train with tracks into the shot. Cabs and
miscellaneous vehicles took off at given cues.
At one
point, I 'blended in' with some of the extras walking
back and forth under the camera. They did 2-3 shots
with the camera zooming to the ground and then a
couple stationary wide shots. As I was watching, I
noticed a guy with grey hair and a Spider-man crew
jacket. Being a visual effects/animation nut, I was
able to determine that it was visual effects
supervisor John Dykstra (one of the original ILM
guys!). Later on, a man with brown hair showed up and
took a seat next to Dykstra. Why, it was Sam Raimi!
While they were taking care of reloading the camera
rig, I rushed off to my place a few blocks away, and
brought back my DVD. When I showed it to a couple of
the crew members, they actually let me back to meet
John and Sam! These guys were great, and it truly was
a great way to end my day. They signed my DVD (scan
enclosed), and allowed me to watch the digital display
monitor nearby. They were taking basic building shots
for visual effects plate shots.
I talked to several of the crew and extras, and it
seems that the shoot is scheduled to go on through
Sunday. Thursday November 14, they will be filming on
the El platforms around the loop. So if you're in the
loop, keep your eyes open.
sincerely,
Michael H.
Next we have Tbone with his observations from the set pictured at the above links!!!
Here's Zod with his observation...
And now we have Michael H., who was an outstanding observer and geek that did what all good film geeks near filmsets should do, ask questions, be cordial and polite, blend in, dissappear, reappear when they least suspect it and get the scoop! Here's Michael....
