Getting the perfect shot can be tough. Directors need to think about lighting, camera angles, CGI enhancements, the script, the performance of the actors, camera cuts, and probably a hundred other things that we’re not even aware of. That being said, sometimes one short scene can consume a ridiculous amount of time, forcing cast and crew member to remain on the set for long hours, day after day, until the director thinks it’s finally perfect.
The following scenes all took an extraordinary amount of time to film, for a variety of reasons. As you’ll see, the people most passionate about filmmaking consider their work an art form, and will stop at nothing to make sure the final product is exactly the way they want.
Spider-Man – Lunch Tray Scene
Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe found so much success that there was a new superhero movie every month, Sony Pictures and Sam Raimi brought us the original Spider-Man movie and really showed audiences what was possible with a film based on a comic book. Like most movies in that genre, Spider-Man featured a bunch of fancy CGI graphics, but for whatever reason, they choose not to use computer effects for one of the most difficult scenes in the entire film.
As Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is discovering his new powers, there is a scene where Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) slips in the school cafeteria, prompting our hero to not only catch her in mid-air, but also effortlessly rescue her lunch before it hits the ground. As explained in the DVD commentary, Maguire actually caught all of the falling food in real life. It makes for a great looking scene, but apparently took a ton of takes before they managed to get it right.