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www.postmagazine.com 17 POST MAR/APR 2024 A brilliantly-animated web of visuals is brought to life in dazzling detail in Spider- Man: Across the Spider-Verse, directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson. The sequel to 2018's Oscar- winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, this visually stunning new adventure follows Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) as he embrac- es his role as Brooklyn's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. After reuniting with Gwen Stacy (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld), Miles encounters a fearsome new foe: Spot (voiced by Jason Schwartzman), a sinister scientist with a body punctured by portals to other dimensions. Miles is catapulted beyond his own universe and becomes acquainted with the Spider Society, an elite league of Spider- People tasked with protecting the existence of the multiverse. When Miles begins to clash with the society, he sets out on a daring quest to pro- tect his loved ones while navigating the complexi- ties of being a hero. This award-winning new chapter of the Spider-Verse saga unfolds across a vast array of multi-faceted parallel universes, each animated in a strikingly distinct visual style. At the 2023 VIEW Conference, director Joaquim Dos Santos and visu- al effects supervisor Michael Lasker discussed the process of bringing these spectacular visuals from the page to the screen. DIRECTOR JOAQUIM DOS SANTOS Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has so many different visual layers. How did you approach the challenge of bringing these to life on-screen? "I came in at the tail end of the first film, when it was still in the final phases of lighting in post pro- duction. Phil (Lord) and Chris (Miller) had screened it for me. We were in a small, little screening room, and at that point, I think the trailer had already re- leased. The animation industry was aware that this was coming down the line. They just didn't know how hard the film was going to push. I watched the film and I was blown away by it. They turned to me and they said, 'Alright. So how do we go bigger? How do we take the governor off now and really go at it?' And I was like, 'Guys, I think you did it. I don't know where it goes from here.' Especially that Collider fight at the end. But I think with any- thing, you start with a really simple idea. "So there were two things: the first film was about these characters invading Miles' world and imposing themselves on him; the second film was really about Miles and Gwen going out and doing the opposite, and imposing themselves on these other worlds. So by nature, that was already a bigger idea. That's a big, fantastical supernatural idea. The other idea is that we've all felt a version of insecurity, of feeling like you don't belong — feeling like you're trying to figure out your way into the world. I can remem- ber being of a certain age and sort of making that separation from my parents. My kid's eight years old, and I was holding his hand just a few months ago. His friends came up and he pulled his hand away — he didn't want me to hold his hand any- more. Kemp (Powers) — one of my fellow directors — both Kemp and Justin (Thompson) have kids that are Miles' age, and they were going through a lot of what Miles is dealing with, with his parents. So that relatability and those ideas sort of transpose on top of those big supernatural ideas. That is really the kind of ignition point for how these films get started. Even if you stripped away this Spider-Man motif, there's still compelling drama that's playing out between Miles and his parents, and Miles and Gwen. I sort of joke about it, but I really wouldn't mind seeing just a Miles day-to-day life that doesn't even deal with him being in the Spider-Verse." Were there any sequences in the film that stood out to you in terms of being especially complicated or exciting to work on? "One of the things that was really near and dear to my heart, to all our hearts, was this idea that often- times after a film is made, they release those 'art of' books, right? So you look at the art in there — this is across live action and animation — and then you look at the final product and you say, 'Man, this art was so inspiring and had such a spontaneity to it' or 'You could really feel the hand of the artist.' It was sort of our mission to make sure that the art was one-to-one represented on-screen. So that idea was really exciting. "I think one of the places that it came across re- ally well was in Spider-Man 2099's worlds. We were paying direct homage to amazing concept artists like Syd Mead and Ron Cobb. Seeing the pencil strokes first and then the marker comps, and then the more fleshed out line work build up as things dipped off into perspective. Just as a fan of art, that was really, really exciting to me. "It's actually one-to-one. We didn't want to pull any punches. We didn't want anybody to feel like we'd shortchanged them on that promise. That was the goal." How did you communicate with your artists, animation and visual effects teams to accomplish that goal? "It's massive. It's a huge orchestra. You have artists and leads that you put absolute trust in. As direc- tors, we have the advantage of being able to go into a room and talk about the emotionality of the scene, or bringing in reference images and saying, 'We really like something that evokes this feeling.' Then we have a slew of amazing artists that will get to work on that. "And then the handoff between Sony Animation The film is a collaboration between Sony Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks. Director Joaquim Dos Santos says the film stayed close to the original designs.