The Life of A Superhero Movie Production Assistant: Working Inside WINTER SOLDIER, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, and BATMAN

Hey Fanboy Nation! Wait… that sounds too similar to… never mind. Hello! I’m The Daily SuperHero (@DailySuperHero) and time-to-time I’ll be writing the occasional guest column here on Unleash The Fanboy! Usually I write in third person with a professional tone but here on UTF, I’ll be writing in a very casual tone. Also for this piece, I’m using a first person approach so without further delay, let’s do this.

During May and June, Marvel Studios was in my hometown of Cleveland filming Captain America: The Winter Soldier and I was covering it for the other sites I write for. That is until they left at the end of June. I met many production crew members, and then some, while on location near the sets but one crew member really stood out to me.

In order to respect his request of staying anonymous, his name will not be given out but he will be referred to as “Super Fanboy”. This is because he is a production assistant whose past work is only on superhero movies and he looks to continue his career in the business.

While talking with Super Fanboy I asked him about his past and got jealous when he told me about the past movies he’s worked on.

“I have a film degree and I’ve been working on movies for a few years now. I’ve worked on Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises.”

If you’re jealous now too, I told you so. But seriously, Super Fanboy has an impressive resume. Wait… I forgot to say he also told me what movie he just came from–before coming to Cleveland for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

“Before I got to Cleveland I was working on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in Rochester.”

When he said that I went right to the question that Spider-Man fans everywhere probably want to ask anyone who has seen the new suit up close and in-person. So I asked how Spidey’s eyes look on the new suit.

“They look so cool and while the actors [and stunt men] were walking around the set in the full suit, it almost looked like Spider-Man had jumped off his comic book pages and into real life.”

Super Fanboy might be near the bottom of the food chain, when it comes to positions held on a movie production, so I asked him what he’d say to others who want a career in the movie biz.

“Be patient and be willing to work 12-15 hour days on you feet for most of the day. Being a production assistant means you do a lot of the grunt work and if you do it well, and stand out, then you might catch someone’s eye and start moving up the food chain to a higher position. I do what I’m told and I’ve been doing it for a while and I hope in the near future I can be working higher positions on future superhero movies.”

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Speaking of superhero movies, I asked why that movie genre.

“I’m a huge comic book fan and have been my whole life. I might not have a great movie job right now but I’m working in an industry that I love. No complaints here.”

No complaints indeed. I can relate to that mentality when it comes to doing something you love to do.

In closing, I have to give a shout out to Super Fanboy for taking the time during one of his short breaks while working on the Cleveland set of Captain America: The Winter Soldier to hang and answer some of my questions.

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