With the program just wrapping up late last month, HBR's Kevin Allen had a chance to sit down and talk story with Creighton, as well as two Hisako Film Lab students, Kai and Kaylin.

Hisako Film Lab was kind of a lifelong dream of mine.

When I was in my teen years, I really fell in love with movies, and I fell in love with making movies.

And it was really all because of my grandma, whose Japanese name is Hisako.

And my grandma loaned me my first VHS camera and encouraged me to just do whatever I wanted with it.

And I have five siblings, and we all lived in Haiku in the country, and we just started making movies together.

I was hungry for places to learn more about this craft and to meet more people who are doing it.

Can you just talk a little bit more, I guess, about the importance of making sure that kids like Kai and Kaylin have those resources and have those tools?

Did you and Brett develop new ways of shooting it? It seemed even better than

before.

I'm glad you think so.

Brett worked very closely with Jerome and his team to find new ways to experience Spider-Man swinging through the city of New York.

We looked a lot at references of footage of wingsuiters, of parkour videos online to see which angles would really give you that feeling of vertigo, would really make you feel like you're right there with him as he's walking along the edge of a building or jumping off and reaching terminal velocity.

And once we were able to capture some of these moments on our cameras, when we handed it over to our VFX team, they took a lot of meticulous care into figuring out the real physics of the speed, of the weight of Spider-Man, the speed he would be going at terminal velocity.

the length of his web, what the pendulum swing would be, and the speed he would likely be going.

Can you talk about the importance of that to you and this film? And where did you do it?

Yeah.

Um, but it, it, it was, it was actually, looking back, w- really wonderful.

She-- We lived in Haiku, a small town right next to a pineapple field and lots of open spaces.

We grew up on the same property that my mom grew up on, and she would just force us out of the house.

Um, and because of that, we had to find our own ways of, of playing make-believe or making up plays or making up dance routines or fight choreography, and then we'd perform it for my mom.

And we used to do that when I was really young.

And then around 11 or 12, my, my grandma loaned me her VHS camera, and I got, that's when I got addicted to making movies.

Mm.

Yeah.

Um, but it, it, it was, it was actually, looking back, really wonderful.

She-- We lived in Haiku, a small town right next to a pineapple field and lots of open spaces.

We grew up on the same property that my mom grew up on, and she would just force us out of the house.

Um, and because of that, we had to find our own ways of, of playing make-believe or making up plays or making up dance routines or fight choreography, and then we'd perform it for my mom.

And we used to do that when I was really young.

And then around 11 or 12, my, my grandma loaned me her VHS camera, and I got-- that's when I got addicted to making movies.

Mm.

What was that personal connection for you? What was your way into the character and into the movie?

I mean, Peter Parker has always been You know, I, I, you hear everybody say this in various forms.

I grew up on Maui, and I, I have really no cultural connection to a kid growing up in Queens, um, who has spider powers.

[laughs] But he's still the, the character that I chose to dress up with, like on Halloween, and the character that I gravitated towards.

And it's...

I think it's his imperfections.

It's his, uh, it's, it's him being bullied at school, it's him being, making tons of mistakes and still moving forward.

How difficult is it to shoot a New York movie not entirely in New York?

So I wanted to ask you, what does it mean to take everything you learned from those projects and bring your own voice to Spider-Man? And what were the creative benefits and challenges of the time jump, especially when showing how years of isolation have changed Peter Parker?

Hmm.

Well, it's obviously a huge privilege.

I feel like the luckiest kid in the world to be able to do this as my job in general, and then to be able to work on this movie with this character, with actors like Tom Holland and Zendaya and Jacob and Jon, Jon Bernthal and Mark.

Man, it's like, yeah, it's unbelievable that this is my job.

The time jump, I mean, I wouldn't call it a burden.

I would actually call it a gift.

So beyond the excitement of seeing those characters together, how does each one reflect a different path Peter could take if he loses control of himself?

Uh, wh- do you remember the first pitch or entry point or conversation for Spider-Man: Brand New Day when this was the next movie you were gonna make?

I do.

It was...

Well, Ke- Kevin asked me to go in to talk with Amy Pascal about it, so my first, um, and he, and Kevin gave me a little rundown of what they're looking for.

I went in and met with Amy, who I love to death, and, but I was very nervous to go and meet her.

She's like a big deal and she's a big personality and she, um, and she's been, she's been with the franchise since the very beginning on, on every rendition.

And, uh, I didn't know if I was gonna be the right person for the job, um, and so I wasn't going in to, to pitch myself.

Mm-hmm.

We love to l- learn, uh, know a little bit more about why that shot was so important.

Well, the, it, it was really important from the very beginning to find every, every way possible to remind people that Peter Parker is behind the mask.

And so, um, one of those ways is to, you know, we just started brainstorming.

Like, we can't really do the Iron Man technique 'cause it doesn't really make sense 'cause that mask is too close to his face.

But can we get a lens inside that mask and, and feel like we're, we're right there with him? Um, so we did some camera tests, and it, it, it really gave just...

I mean, you could get, you could get a, a camera right, right up on his eyeball.

Um, and, and it did allow me to f- get the feeling that I was in that mask with Peter.

And, uh, how much of that kind of played into what you were trying to tell? Like, were you a fan of that series gr- as well?

Curious for you, working with him, uh, stepping into Jon Watts' shoes, who did the previous three films, what was that like, just getting to know Tom and working with him to take this character in a different direction than what we've seen him in before?

Um, it's always a little...

You know, I, I always get nervous when I'm gonna meet an, an actor for any, for any movie.

Um, it's, it's extra nervous if that actor has played the, this role for the last, you know, o- over three movies.

Um, and I didn't know particularly what I was going to get with Tom.

Um, I was so pleasant- pleasantly- I wouldn't say surprised because he does have a very good reputation, but I was surprised at, at just how much, uh, he has both feet on the ground, how gracious he is, how kind he is, how genuine he is to everybody on set.

Um, and also how, how much he enjoys being a part of the creative process and, and knows how to function, um, in, in the, the way that a, a story develops.

Mm-hmm.