It’s been over a year since Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse hit theaters, but we’re still in love with the ridiculously clever and gorgeously animated film. In fact, doctors agree that re-watching the film lowers blood pressure and eases anxiety (okay, they didn’t say that, but it sounds true right?).
Like all great films, Spider-Verse began with a great script. But that script went through countless revisions and adjustments before becoming the movie we know and love. Phil Lord, who wrote the script with Christopher Miller, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman, shared pictures of the massive whiteboards the team used to break the story and build the world of the Spider-Verse.
These dumb whiteboards became our bible
— Phil Lord (@philiplord) March 22, 2020
This is not a flex. This is embarrassing that we hadn’t figured it out this late in the process. It’s more to illustrate that it IS a process. Always. pic.twitter.com/9JvSP4X43b
— Phil Lord (@philiplord) March 22, 2020
Editor Andy Leviton then shared his own board:
That’s the white board for only one of the Act III “rebreaks”… We rebroke it again the July before release with another beautiful mind-y whiteboard. I locked myself in my edit bay for 3 days and mocked something up based on this. pic.twitter.com/gyl3sjH3nK
— Andy! Leviton (@AlliterAndy) March 22, 2020
Fellow writer Rodney Rothman shared his copious notes:
This Persichetti doodle stands out. This might have been the lodestone pic.twitter.com/MPT8L3RvQm
— rodneyrothman (@rodneyrothman) March 22, 2020
These tweets are a great peek behind the curtain at the intensive labor and hard work that goes into developing a feature film. Creating multiple universes is not easy! It’s also a fascinating look at the creative process the team went through, and how they kept re-envisioning the story until very late in the production process.
While the road to getting there was messy and disorganized, the final result was pretty much flawless. Well done, Team Spider-Verse.
(via io9, image: Sony Pictures Animation)
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Stay safe out there! “Hands… washing hands..” 🎶 pic.twitter.com/QaRB1qZshp
— Neil Diamond (@NeilDiamond) March 22, 2020
this is how central park looks after environmental normalization. as humans decrease their presence and species return to their natural habitat 🙏❤️ pic.twitter.com/c9IDZ6NJ1x
— catalina (@christanbaIe) March 21, 2020
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