Capturing The Clash: Spiderman vs. Green Goblin
CASE STUDY
Colin Michael Quinn played a crucial role in bringing a pivotal sequence to life in Spider-Man: No Way Home, where the Green Goblin punches Spiderman through a window. Using the Bolt Cinebot on a three-meter track, Colin was tasked with capturing the punch in slow motion before orbiting the Bolt at high speed behind Tom Holland for one intense and visually stunning sequence.
Colin Michael Quinn played a crucial role in bringing a pivotal sequence to life in Spider-Man: No Way Home, where the Green Goblin punches Spiderman through a window. Using the Bolt Cinebot on a three-meter track, Colin was tasked with capturing the punch in slow motion before orbiting the Bolt at high speed behind Tom Holland for one intense and visually stunning shot.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
During the production phase of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Renowned Bolt Operator Colin Michael Quinn played a key role in shaping a crucial sequence, involving an intense showdown between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin.
Utilising Bolt Cinebot on three metres of track for additional axes of motion, Colin aimed to capture the Green Goblin punching Spider-Man, propelling him through a window, while the camera quickly followed the action from the inside to the outside of the building.
As the combat progressed, the Bolt System needed to seamlessly capture a rapid succession of events happening around the set, showcasing the characters in action and their interactions with the environment, culminating in one epic, action-packed high-speed shot!
The high speed of the Bolt System was integral to the shoot. This is probably the fastest our robot has ever had to go on the track. Everyone was super happy with every take that we did; it was party energy up in there.
Quinn MoCo
THE CHALLENGE
Being a dynamic orbital manoeuvre, the client initially wanted to use a curved track with a lot of speed, meaning Colin had to work out a way to make the move as circular as possible using a straight length of track and the Bolt arm movements.
Another challenge was reconciling the slow-motion aspects of the previsualisation with the real-time nature of on-set conditions. The previs has a 1000fps time ramp in it, so it had to go exceptionally fast on the day.
While the initial plan aimed to closely follow the previsualisation, the demands of the shoot, particularly with the punch action time-ramping down and at a high frame rate, necessitated the robot to move even faster to achieve the desired effect.
The Solution
Using Simul8, a Maya plug-in from MRMC, Colin imported and adapted the previsualisation files provided by Scott Meadows, head of visualisation at Digital Domain for the Bolt. This enabled him to demonstrate to the team at Marvel Cinematic Universe Studios that the desired camera movements could be achieved without the need for curved tracks.
In conjunction with Simul8, Flair played a crucial role in importing axes and converting them to carts. Colin condensed the movement into a few key points to enhance editability, enabling quick adjustments on set. He occasionally used the Drop Keys function in Flair to strategically place keys along the path for real-time fine-tuning.
After adjusting the camera movements beyond what was set in the previs to maximise the Bolt’s speed and precision, ensuring it was proportionally faster for the super slow-motion effect during post-production, the team progressed to high-speed action rehearsals.
Following extensive programming and practice sessions with the stunt team, Tom Holland was brought in for the shoot. Remarkably, Colin captured the shot used in the movie after just two takes, recording two more passes for safekeeping. After Tom’s shoot, an SFX pass with a breakaway window pane for reference was executed. Subsequently, passes involving HDRI balls and charts, a clean pass, and a slower-scaled move for camera tracking were also captured.
The shoot underscores the importance of Flair motion control to plan complex sequences and iron out any issues long before the talent arrives on set, while still allowing the flexibility to make adjustments on shooting day.
CREDITS
Client: Marvel Cinematic Universe Studios
VFX: Digital Domain
Motion Control: Rite Media
Moco Operator: Colin Michael Quinn
Phantom Technician: Justin Dombrowski
Bolt Technician: Chris Hersey
Contributer: Quinn MoCo
Quinn MoCo
Since his contributions to Spider-Man: No Way Home, Colin has established Quinn MoCo, his own motion control production house based in Atlanta, Georgia. If you enjoyed learning about Colin’s innovative work, visit his website for more upcoming projects in the world of Moco!