Behind the Scenes and On the Screens with Spider-Man: Homecoming

You might not know this, but Dell technology has powered five of the last seven Academy Award-winning films for visual effects.

It takes a lot of behind-the-scenes computing power to not only create those effects, but also to transfer the assets across properties and systems, and ultimately store them.

Dell on the Big Screen


Spider-Man: Homecoming suit on display at Dell Experience during CES 2017

But sometimes we get to be in front of the camera, too!

Dell products were seen in 52 films and 100 television shows last year, but we’re especially excited to be in one of this summer’s “most anticipated” movies.

When Spider-Man: Homecoming swings into theaters July 7, keep an eye out for our Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming Laptop and the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1.

As a young Peter Parker tries to become familiar with a new Spider-Man suit his mentor Tony Stark made him, his best friend Ned helps tap into the suit by connecting it to his Inspiron Gaming laptop. And the XPS 13 2-in-1 is the tech of choice for Stark’s friend and confidant, Happy Hogan.

You’ll also see Dell in much of the Spider-Man creative across television, cinema, online video, social media and more this summer.

“I’m really excited about the TV spot as we had an opportunity to work with Jon Watts, the director of the Spider-Man: Homecoming film, and Digital Domain, the VFX house on the film to bring to life our vision and create a bonus scene in the film,” said Gerri Tunnell, senior vice president of Dell Consumer and Small Business Marketing.

Dell Behind the Camera

That kind of collaboration is exciting, indeed, but for Dell this integration goes much deeper than marketing. Every single frame of Spiderman: Homecoming has been built on a Dell Precision workstation, rendered on a Dell server and a good portion stored on Dell EMC storage.

It’s not the first time Dell has played a part in the Spidey legacy. Our customer Pixomondo helped develop some of the more intricate VFX shots in the “Amazing Spider-Man” movie in 2012.

We’ve had a long standing relationship with Sony Imageworks as a customer and as a partner. We’re working closely with them to understand and forecast the future of their industry to ensure we equip them with what they need not only today, but also in the future.

Did you know a petabyte — 1,000,000 gigabytes (GB) — of total capacity is required to feed both the render servers and artists’ workstations at any given moment? That’s the equivalent of enough songs to last more than 2,000 years playing continuously notes ComputerWeekly!

As audiences demand more, directors’ creative ideas get bigger, and producers want the process to be faster and cheaper, innovation in filmmaking will continue to demand more and faster technology solutions.

That’s why Dell will continue to work closely with studios and develop powerful technology that help create, manage and store these projects seamlessly.

Dell on the Red Carpet

We also look forward to more immediate opportunities to support the media and entertainment industry.

Dell is a sponsor of the Spider-Man: Homecoming World Premiere June 28 in Los Angeles – helping to present a red carpet event that will truly be powered by Dell.

We’ll bring a mobile experience directly to the celebrities and VIPs to enjoy virtual reality (VR), gaming and other Dell tech demos along with behind the scenes Spider-Man: Homecoming content. Sony has created a Spider-Man VR experience on VR-ready Dell technology that will be powered by the new Ready-for-VR Dell Inspiron Gaming desktop.

The VR Experience allows users to put on the Spider-Man suit in a virtual world and through Tony Stark’s instructions, use the suit to spin web and fly around New York City. It launches at the premiere event, but will be available publicly, for free, on June 30 through Oculus, HTC and Playstation VR.

If you’re in the real New York City next weekend (6/30) or the following (7/7), you can join in the fun with an interactive game in Times Square that we’re calling the Spider-Man Scramble. It’s a massive video game where fans can go head-to-head as Spider-Man and race up to the top of a digital skyscraper – all powered by Dell Precision workstations, of course.

You can keep up with all of the red carpet and Times Square action on social media by following Dell on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Dell in Real-Life Review

And while on the topic of Spider-Man… the team at TechnoBuffalo is working with Sony and Dell Reconnect partner Goodwill Industries on a “create your own Spider-Man suit” contest and used our XPS 13 2-in-1 during a video shoot at YouTube. If you’re interested in how it performed for them, here’s the review: