The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Begins Production Using Film Instead of Digital

According to director Marc Webb, it appears as though production has kicked off on The Amazing Spider-Man 2. A tweet today alluded to it--a shot of "Phil the Camera Operator," with the caption "Day 1" and hashtags relating to Spider-Man. This would appear to constitute a change of at least some of the crew helping Webb spin his second Spider-Man story, since IMDb lists no camera operators named Phil or Philip in the official credits for the first film. One fan guessed that it was Philippe Carr-Forster, a camera operator on 2002's Spider-Man who has more recently worked with J.J. Abrams on Lost, Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness. Carr-Forster is not currently credited as working on The Amazing Spider-Man 2. There is, however, a UK-based cameraman named Philip Barnett, whose resume includes working on "The Amazing Spider-Man film launch" for Sony. He's a decidedly longer shot, though. The film, which stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx and Sally Field, will be filmed primarily in London and is going under the title "London Calling" while there. It's interesting that he's shooting on film (one of his hashtags), given that so many major productions are making the move to all-digital now, but given the amount of emphasis that Webb put on practical effects  in the first film it's perhaps not surprising that he is going for the more traditional look of film. It's apparent that they're shooting on anamorphic widescreen.

Based on a number of interviews and features, it appears as though all or much of the first Amazing Spider-Man was shot using an RED Epic camera, a digital camera also used in David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The image at left was taken of that film's star, Rooney Mara, by Fincher using the camera's still image function as a demonstration of the quality of the camera as part of a campaign that appealed in part to film traditionalists.