DP Brett Pawlak's vision for Spider-Man: Brand New Day

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 372: Brett Pawlak

When Brett Pawlak walked into prep for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, he wasn’t chasing a bigger, shinier version of the superhero aesthetic, but a simpler, pared down character tale. “For me, what I approach anything with is just the story,” Pawlak says. “You inherit everything that Spider-Man brings anyway. So the best thing I could do was really look at the script, look at the story, and just support that as much as possible. The Spider-Man part is kind of taken care of, to be honest. All I have to do is support the story.”

A suit designed to show more of the man inside helped. Pawlak and director Destin Daniel Cretton tested several versions, and decided on one that let Tom Holland’s face read through the mask. His jaw visibly moved when he spoke, and his eyes were visible through the mesh. “We were all looking at it and questioning it, saying, oh, do we want that?” comments Pawlak. “And Destin was like, I love that I can see that there’s someone behind that mask. I love that we can see his eyes back because then we are reminded that there is a human in that mask.”

On lighting, Pawlak’s process starts wide, not tight. Rather than building a look shot-by-shot, he lights the full space with practicals, using as much natural light as possible. Window light, the way a wood floor or a colored wall bounces ambience, all adds to the look. This allows for speed and consistency. Close-ups get only the smallest cheats needed to match the wide, rather than a full relight. “I’m always very sensitive in my own work to be in a wide and then cut to a close-up and suddenly feel like the close-up is lit,” he explains.

Pulling off the film’s most arresting visual sequence required a surprisingly simple camera move. (SPOILER) Jean Grey’s telekinetic mind-hop from body to body was choreographed with a dance choreographer and workshopped extensively with the camera crew before Pawlak landed on a surprisingly simple camera language. “We were kind of against it because it felt so simple — we’re like, it has to be more complicated than this,” Pawlak says. “But anytime we did anything else, it just didn’t translate.” The final sequence leans on whip pans and a choreographed “wave” from actor to actor rather than heavy VFX.

Pawlak traces his instincts back to working closely with director Destin Daniel Cretton for nearly 17 years, dating back to the short film that became the longer feature, Short Term 12. He began his career gripping and watching how different DPs solved the same problem differently. Scale, he says, changes the math but not the job. Moving from Marvel’s Wonder Man TV show to a huge Spider-Man tentpole meant more crew, more previs, and more departments, but the fundamentals held. “It’s surprising to me that it feels totally different and exactly the same,” Pawlak says.

Find Brett Pawlak: Instagram: @brettsbo

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is still playing in theaters and conquering the box office.

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