SPIDER-MAN Season Finale Trailer
Marvel / Disney

Writer/Producer: Alexander Gradet.
Editor: Nicole Domenici.
VO: Rynn Shearon.
VP, Creative: Jill Hotchkiss // Creative Director: Ash Randall.

I can admit in hindsight that, when tasked with producing the Spider-Man season finale trailer, I immediately started off on the wrong foot. Building off the show’s heightening conflict between Peter/Spidey and Harry/Hobgoblin, my first instinct was to go epic and action-y, even while I harbored the notion that a lot of their drama was, in practice, pretty silly.

When my action-packed first cut of the trailer fell flat, I joked about how I had considered and dismissed a prosaic riff on the old Electric Company silhouette blends. The very idea of that approach met with greater approval than the actual rough cut I had just presented, so I went back to the well.

This experience cemented for me what have become two guiding philosophies:

1. Self-editing is toxic
2. The worst frustration comes right before the solve