Spider-Man 3 Interview With Location Scout John Fedynich
21-04-2007 12:15
John Fedynich has been a location scout for ten years. In addition to working for Sam Raimi on all three of the Spider-Man films, he has also worked on Pollock, Changing Lanes, The Pink Panther (remake with Steve Martin), Copland and many other film and television programs.
Q: How did you get into this type of work?
A: I traveled internationally with an educational, cross-cultural exchange group called "Up With People". Through this group I traveled to over 20 countries and lived with close to 300 host families. It was an incredible experience and I made many friends. The father of one of these friends worked in film doing stunt work. I met with him and explained my interest in working in film production. He knew my strengths and suggested doing location work. He recommended some people in New York. Once I stopped traveling, I made contact with these people and began working as a location scout in New York City. I am now managing many film and television projects in the New York City area.
Q: Are you a native New Yorker?
A: I was born and raised in New Jersey. And I still live in New Jersey, but I’ve known New York all of my life. What’s different is that I knew New York as a tourist and once I started getting into the business I realised that there was so much of New York that I was not aware of and that’s what’s been exciting about the type of work I do.
Q: Do the Spider-Man films create their own version of New York?
A: We use old pre war buildings with architectural detail. The look is certainly not futuristic and while there’s no reference to time in the movie, I think you can tell that it is real time based on the cars and the way the people dress. I think that’s what makes Spider-Man popular. Not only can people related to Peter Parker and the challenges that he faces by being Spider-Man; they can related to the activity around the story, because it’s today.
Q: How do you begin a project a large as Spider-Man 3?
I begin by working with the production designer who gives me Sam Raimi’s vision of what kind of New York he wants. I get the script and sometimes I get art renderings of location ideas. I then go out and find the locations. I take photographs and I send them to Los Angeles for the production designer, Sam and the producers to review. Once a location is approved, I start contract negotiations with the owners of the location and begin setting up all the logistics.
Q: How far in advance of filming do you start your process?
A: Well, the Spider-Man films are different to other films I’ve done before. Sometimes it’s eight weeks in advance; where for Spider-Man it was almost a year in advance. We had to set up a lot of New York locations early because some of the interiors of these locations had to be recreated in Los Angeles and they were filming in Los Angeles before coming to New York. So they had to recreate these interiors based on the exteriors. In addition, they wanted to get a head start on the visual effects. We had to set up quite a few locations in advance so they could start photographing and creating whatever they needed for the film in terms of the visual effects months before the New York production was scheduled start shooting.
Q: What is the biggest challenge you faced on Spider-Man 3?
A: I think one of the biggest challenges was to create somewhat of a different look from Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2. You know, New York is only so big. Also, what is different about this type of film is that I had to look at it from Spider-Man’s point of view; which is high above the city. It was great to have a different perspective of the city and show the city in a different way. In most films, everything is usually shown from street level.
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