Check out
The Amazing Spider-Man 2concept art by
Gregory Hill!
Update: All images have been removed at the request of Sony Pictures Entertainment. But enjoy the interview! One character noticeably absent from
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is Mary Jane Watson. Shailene Woodley was cast as M.J. and scenes were filmed, but director Marc Webb decided to cut them out. Webb explained that he wanted to "
streamline the story and focus on Peter and Gwen and their relationship." So what scenes were cut? We get two answers. Webb said, "There was one little scene at the beginning where she is next door and it took place right around the montage where he comes back and there was another little moment between Gwen and MJ." That's two scenes. But Woodbury said she shot "
four scenes." So, what were in the other two scenes? I did an interview with illustrator Gregory Hill who was one of the artists for
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and he told me about Mary Jane's role in the script and one scene that got cut.
Hill is a professional concept illustrator and art director who's worked on big budget projects like
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012),
True Grit (2010) and
The Smurfs (2011).
Read on to find out more about helping to design iconic sets like the Clocktower and learn more about one of the deleted scenes with Mary Jane Watson.
Click on the images to enlarge.
Maurice Mitchell: Thanks for your time Gregory. So tell us what you worked on for the film?Gregory Hill: I actually touched just about every major set in the film, except for the Oscorp environments. I spent most time on the Clocktower design, both interior and exterior, where Spider-Man and Green Goblin have their big battle, and on the Osborn townhouse sets.
This is the final illustration of the tower. I did it very realistically. I built a 3D model of the tower, and then textured it in stone. I then rendered it using the same camera angle and lighting as in the photo of the 59th Street Bridge that is the environment for this illustration. Then I inserted the model render into the photo, and tweaked both the background and the model so that it appeared to be a seamless photo of a real place.
MM: Those were some beautiful sets. Every design has it's own challenges and rewards, but was there one design that you remember working on the most?GH: It's funny. Sometimes you nail the look of a set right away, and other times it takes a long time to get it right. There are several reasons that illustrators work on most films these days. The most pragmatic reason seems to be that the Production Designer is so busy doing so many different things, that they really don't have time to sit down and draw themselves. So, they design the film by assembling a group of people to do the visualization for them. It may sound like a backward way of doing things, but that's the reality of major film production. So, as an illustrator, my job is to take the instruction of the designer, take their research and do my own, and then begin to mold the set into what the designer has in mind. I pass my work on to a set designer who does the drafting of the set (if it's being built on a stage), or to the VFX vendor (if the design is going to be partly or wholly CGI).
Necessity is definitely the mother of invention. The big necessity in film making is to get the work done on schedule. In a sense the calendar is the big problem solver. There is never enough time between when I begin conceiving a set and the time it needs to be finished and approved. So we all do the best we can within that time.
The Osborn clocktower was probably the hardest design to solve. This is a structure that sits within an area of land on Roosevelt Island, near the 59th Street Bridge. It is supposed to be all that's left of an older factory/power plant that belongs to the Osborn family. It's here that they're building a brand new kind of power plant that will help feed New York's vast energy needs. Of course none of it exists in real life.
My task was to design the exterior of the tower, figure out how large and tall it is (based to a great degree on the script requirements), and then define the architecture of the tower. The exterior was the easier of the two facets of the design... we based it on a couple of existing NY towers from about 1900, and then picked stonework that tied in to the existing stonework at the base of the bridge tower nearby. There was a built clocktower set, which was some 40' high... exterior of the tower's top, and interior with the clock faces, upper dome, and clockwork mechanism. While I was working on the interior, a set designer was working on the drawings for the various shops to use for construction, and the previz people were working on turning the scripted action into reality within the clocktower space. So we all interacted regularly. In the end, I had to move on to another set before the details of the interior were finalized... and then the set designer, the production designer, and the previz unit continued that challenge.
So, the answer is that the solution to a difficult set often evolves as different members of the art department get involved and bring their expertise to the problem.
This is not a big, major concept illustration but it is a favorite of mine. There's a small dog-leg street in New York's Chinatown called Doyer's Street. We were going to be decorating it in grand Chinatown style with banners, lanterns, and lots of neon and dressing. I was asked to create a hero look for the street. I am pretty proud of it.
MM: Your illustrations show a scene in a garage. Could you explain what was going on in that scene?GH: In the script MJ and her father have recently moved in next door to Peter and his Aunt… He's run into her a few times, and seen that her father has a habit of getting drunk and treating MJ badly. If I remember right, the scene I illustrated has her dad going into the garage, and suddenly getting hoisted upside down from the rafters….where he meets Spider-Man. And gets a dressing down for how badly he treats his daughter. I think that's about the only MJ scene which was originally in the script… no, there was one other where she and Gwen briefly meet outside Peter's house.
There is a funny story to this too. After I finished the drawing, I had it on my desk as I moved on to something else. When I looked up there was this guy standing beside me, looking at the garage drawing, but he had it turned upside down. We exchanged "Hi's" and he left. Later I heard a major discussion going on around the desk of the set designer who was drafting the garage, and the designer said "It's all Greg Hill's fault." Turns out the guy looking at my drawing was Marc Webb, and he had asked that the garage set be built upside down.
Marc was looking at the sketch right side up first I assume…. and figuring out what would be CGI, etc. Then when he turned the drawing, he realized that he could basically shoot the scene with little or no CGI work if he built the set upside down… then Spidey could act naturally… even walk around. I never saw any footage so I don't know how they ended up doing it however. I assume they built the set upside down… which would be a lot cheaper than adding VFX to a whole scene.
MM: It's a shame those scenes got cut. Where can we see your work next?GH: The odd part of making movies these days is that so much time passes between the making of a film, and the release of the film, that it's not always easy to say what's coming out next. I believe the next project coming out is the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot.
Here's the illustration I did for the scene where Peter has swept Gwen up and taken her to the top of the Manhattan Bridge. She was on her way to the airport to go to London… he literally stopped traffic by writing "I LOVE YOU" in webbing on the support cables of the Brooklyn Bridge. This was not the exact way it was scripted. First of all I had to "design" a believable web message and try it out on each of the East River bridges… and then figure out if it could be seen and make an impact from a neighboring bridge….. This was the most effective, and also featured a great view of downtown and New York harbor.
See more of Gregory Hill's stunning portfolio at
http://gregoryhilldesign.photoshelter.comClick on the links if you want to see more of
Gregory Hill's work or
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 on my blog.
What do you think of the concept art? If you've seen The Amazing Spider-Man 2 what did you think?Official The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Synopsis"
We've always known that Spider-Man's most important battle has been within himself: the struggle between the ordinary obligations of Peter Parker and the extraordinary responsibilities of Spider-Man. But in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker finds that a greater conflict lies ahead. It's great to be Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there's no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: OsCorp."Directed by Marc Webb
Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz, Colm Feore, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field
Cinematography by Daniel Mindel
Production Design by J. Michael Riva
Official Site:
theamazingspiderman.comRelease date: April 16, 2014 (International), May 2, 2014 (USA)
© Copyright 2014 Columbia Pictures, Marvel Entertainment, Gregory Hill. All rights reserved
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. They show the master at work and you can see the intensity in his eyes.
that show what Godzilla almost looked like. Director Gareth Edwards said that a lot of thought went into the creature's look. He said they "tried to sharpen and straighten his face and his body so it's less rounded. Because I find if something looks too round, you could get into Muppet territory — it could get too cutesy." They were also inspired by things like birds of prey, Komodo dragons and the 
