MA Sound Design Project - 'Into The Spider-Verse'

Feedback from my supervisors led to the decision to include an animation clip in this MA project. In a spotting session, we viewed audio-less clips of various animations such as 'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' directed by Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman and Bob Persichetti, and 'Avatar the Last Airbender', created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. We discussed my aims for the MA project, and came to the decision that a clip from 'Into the Spider-Verse' would allow for different sound design skills to be showcased next to my other pieces such as BBC's 'Planet Earth II' trailer.

The attraction of this clip is primarily the inter-dimensional aspect. Scenes with visuals of creatures and events that don't exist in reality, allow for a more creative and experimental sound design approach, I therefore will be creatively challenged by needing to create a believable sound for the portal scene (see image 1).

Image 1 - Portal Scene

Pre Production:

Before collecting any bespoke recordings, I inserted the 'Spider-Verse' clip into pro tools in order to add markers to the cues that I spotted during the spotting session with my supervisors. This allows me to view the clip frame by frame, and see the cues that I may have missed in real time (I missed a fair few).

Image 2 - Cue Spotting

Production:

Spider Man's Web:

I am a huge fan of Spider-Man, I have been since a child, so the idea of re-creating the iconic sound of Spider-Man's web is a very exciting one. However, research into how it has been done was a surprisingly difficult task. There are very few written or audio-visual examples of others re-creating this sound, but I found an audio-visual interview from the original sound designers from 'Spider Man II' (2004) in which they stated that they used rolls of vinyl tape and shredded leather to create the sound of web firing out of Spider Man's arm (see link below).

Before spending money on buying many rolls of vinyl tape or cassettes, and leather material (I'm still on a student budget), I experimented with cheaper props that I thought would make a convincing web shooter sound effect. The comic books frequently use 'THWIP' as its onomatopoeic phrase for the web sound, so I tried to find props that would create this feel too.

I started with recording shaving foam, in an attempt to capture a 'wetter' sound for the web shooters. This however, felt too 'thick' sounding, and didn't create explosiveness that I wanted.

I then recorded a can of hair spray, hoping that layering it underneath the shaving foam recording would create the desired 'thwip' sound. Frustratingly, this didn't sound right either, and now my room was full of hairspray and I had to get some fresh air!

The following day, I went out and sought props that may create more of a 'squirt' sound, for the web shot, and came back with a water gun, some bottles of paint, and some slime. The slime was useless and smelt really bad, but the water gun added the 'wet' explosive sound I was looking for.

The paint was the last prop I recorded, and it immediately sounded strongest. I asked a housemate to assist me by stamping hard down on the bottle. The sound of the paint being forced out the bottle created the explosiveness texture that you would associate with web being fired out of Spider Man's arm.

A blend of these together, with a little reverb sounded like this..

Portal:

Image 3 - Guitar Amp

The portal scene was also experimental. Visually, it looks like the portal starts by bubbling, before expanding and forcing itself open. My first instinct was therefore to record various foods boiling to capture their bubbling effect. A blend of chopped tomatoes and lentil soup had an interesting texture. When pitch shifted up by 7 semitones, the recordings became distorted, and had a static feel which I liked.

I then layered in recordings of a guitar amplifier humming, and buzzing, creaking of a metal container and an acceding sine wave to get a base tone for the portal opening.