Speaker A
I don't have a gun. Woah, woah, woah, woah. Woah, woah, woah. [screaming] This is a five-story building in a city center, and I am going to paint it. My name is Doke. I'm a muralist, and this is the tallest project of my life for one
Muralist Doke paints a 5-story building for a Spider-Man movie promo, sharing challenges and experiences of this record-breaking project.
Key Takeaways
- Large-scale mural projects require extensive preparation, specialized equipment, and safety measures.
- Using VR technology can aid in accurately transferring designs onto massive walls.
- Commercial art projects can still positively impact urban aesthetics and community engagement.
- Time and budget constraints are significant challenges in ambitious mural projects.
- Collaboration and networking are crucial for securing unique and prime locations for murals.
Summary
- Doke, a muralist, is hired to paint a five-story building in the city center as a promotional mural for the new Spider-Man movie.
- He was initially tested with a smaller project promoting the movie Project Hail Mary, which gained millions of views on social media.
- The Spider-Man mural is a large-scale, high-profile project requiring specialized equipment and careful wall selection.
- Doke collaborates with a friend from the Bratislava Street Art Festival to secure the prime wall location.
- He uses VR technology to project the design onto the wall and works with a lift to reach high points, facing fear and technical challenges.
- The mural is a commercial project but also appreciated by locals for beautifying the city despite its advertising nature.
- Doke manages logistics like paint supply, weather conditions, and safety concerns while working at height.
- He creates a paint-by-numbers map to help with the large-scale execution and deals with time and financial trade-offs.
- The video documents the entire process, from preparation to completion, including interactions with passersby and reflections on the work.
- After finishing, Doke receives an invitation to a Spider-Man event in Amsterdam, celebrating the successful project.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Project Overview
- 01:12Initial Success and Getting Hired for Spider-Man
- 02:21Project Scale and Location Challenges
- 03:13Starting the Painting and Facing Challenges
- 05:14Using VR and Safety Measures
- 06:25Painting Process and Emotional Reflections
- 09:24Logistics, Supplies, and Time Management
- 12:04Progress Updates and Public Interaction
- 17:56Finishing Touches and Project Completion
- 19:56Celebration and Client Event
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
of the most exciting and special clients of my life. Yeah, I'm nervous as hell.
Speaker A
Let's do this. First of all, let me explain how I got hired by Spider-Man and why this project is a huge deal, literally. In January, I got an email from a local distributor of Sony movies.
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They were looking for new ways to promote new films. Already back then, they mentioned the new Spider-Man movie coming up this summer. Spider-Man. First of all, they wanted to test me out, and they hired me to make a promotion for
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the movie Project [music] Hail Mary. And yeah, boy delivered. I painted a billboard, and the Instagram reel from that project reached 7 million views. Pretty cool, right?
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Well, the YouTube short from that project reached 33 million views. So, I proved the concept, and I asked, [music] "What about Spider-Man?" And they said, "Let's do it, but this is a huge deal.
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The trailer for the movie broke all the records. If [music] we do this, we need to go big." Sure, but how? We could have done a bigger billboard, but nah. We needed a huge wall at a prime location. But, walls
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like this, you don't just Google them. They are not listed on any marketplace. You need to find potential walls, figure out who the owner is, figure out whether they're open for collaboration. This process can sometimes take years. So, I
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was desperate. I asked a friend for help, a friend who runs Bratislava Street Art Festival, a festival that for many years has been bringing beautiful street art into our streets, into the streets of this city. As you already
Speaker A
know, my friend succeeded [music] and got us this monumental wall in the city center. Kudos to him. My plan with this wall is simple. I want to create the most epic promotion of the new Spider-Man movie on the internet.
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Yeah, even bigger than lighting up the Empire State Building in Spider-Man colors. That has only 4 million views. I think we can beat that. And you will actually see whether we beat it because I'm going to release the Instagram reel
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before I'm going to release this video. So, it's going to be in a wall in here.
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Obviously, in order to paint this biggie, I'm going to need specialized equipment. 6:00 a.m. in the morning.
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This is my best friend for the next approximately 2 weeks. Hi, buddy. About this, the city center has certain areas that are, um, a little bit sketchy, and this is it. I'm a little bit worried about that because I'm going to be up there
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and my camera will be, well, I guess up there as well. Anyways, Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah.
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Okay, let's go. Um, I'm not going to lie. From up here, it feels like I drastically underestimated this project.
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[sighs] Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah. This is sketchy as hell. Oh, yeah. I'm probably going to close this.
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The first step of this enormous project is creating anchor points on this gigantic wall. Anchor points that will help my VR headset with orientation on the wall. Before I go up there again, let's apply some safety measures.
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God it. God damn it. Got to go even higher. Yeehaw! I'm fine. This is easy. I'm fine. This is easy.
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This is safe. Don't worry. I just finished the grid and saw one guy kicking the other guy in the ass. He's looking at me right now.
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Day number two. I'm slightly afraid that this is not going to work. Let's give it a try because without it, I might lose a day or two.
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[music] The VR projects my design on the wall. I could do the same with a projector, but I wouldn't be able to do it during the day at full sunlight. I've been in the headset for an hour and a half. I have
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done about 40, 45% of the whole sketch. This is the highest point this machine can reach.
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The battery's drained, but not anymore. Haha, excellent idea. I see that a lot of people are taking pictures already.
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Yesterday, I asked a guy how safe it is to work on a machine like this, and he said that it's pretty safe, but when something happens, it's usually fatal.
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Let's go. I painted with lifts before, but never this high. And I'm going to admit it, I was scared. And the painting itself, well, I started to apply the first colors, and inside I was freaking out. I felt like there is no way, no way
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I'm going to finish this on time. One more thing that bothers me is the fact that this mural is basically an ad.
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It's an ad for a super cool movie, it's Spider-Man, it's Marvel, it's all very exciting. But I see people's faces.
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They already know this, they already take pictures, and some of them have comments like, "Thanks for making our city more beautiful." And yes, usually that's what I do, but in this case, first of all, it's not going to stay
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here. Second of all, just 100 m from this wall, there is this mural, which went viral locally, because it's a portrait of two icons. There is even a hidden message, and that mural received hugely positive reactions. And then here
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I am painting, well, also an icon, but with a bit of commercial background. Yeah, these are some of the thoughts going through my head while painting 20 m above the ground. Even though I have this giant lift, it doesn't reach all
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the way there, so I need a long stick as well. I don't know if you can see it, but the platform at this height, well, it's moving.
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[music] [music] Fun fact, that right there, that's my gym. That's my temple. All right. When I went color shopping, I didn't exactly know how much color I'm going to need, so I bought just the bare minimum. The advantage of buying colors like this, I
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mean, in pre-mixed buckets, is that it's almost impossible to run out of color. You can always just go into any shop, give them the code, and they will mix it for you.
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Icky. [music] [music] [music] I think over there, the ground is not even. [music] [music] [music] All right, I spent a good 2 hours up there.
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Well, it's hard to judge the colors without all of them being there, but I'm just freaking out how little I have done.
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I'm freaking out. You know, I scheduled this project for 2 weeks, and one thing I didn't want to deal with during the biggest project of my life is time. I did not want a strict deadline. Well, I don't have one, but I priced this
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project very generously for the client because, come on, Spider-Man, this wall, I did not want to risk not doing it.
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But, because of that, I priced it in a way that even when everything goes according to the plan, I'm going to make very little money. And if it takes me more time, the lift, which is obviously rented and I need to pay for it, well,
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each extra day the lift will eat up more money. So, at the end, I might end up making nothing and peeling my ass off for 3 weeks and creating content for a huge client that is [music] worth probably way, way, way more than I
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quoted. [music] So, yeah, these are the trade-offs. Yesterday evening, I little bit improved my preparation for this project, and I basically created a map. It's like a paint-by-numbers map, because when you're up there, you have no perspective, and the last thing you want
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to do is think about every next step. So, today should be better, except it's windy.
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Yeah, I guess I'm going to start from the bottom. The design I'm painting, well, it's an official poster of Spider-Man Brand New Day. So, I did not design it, but I picked it myself because this particular poster, well, it fits perfectly to the
Speaker A
shape of the facade, and also color-wise, it looks great with the surroundings. 2 and 1/2 hours in the air.
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Uh, yeah. Okay. It's out. That little guy has a Spider-Man backpack. I think he's going to be the biggest fan when it's finished.
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Good morning. I refilled the colors because I'm running out of most of them. Let's hit it.
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He gave me a thumbs up. Good. That's actually reassuring because you never know what people think.
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The wind isn't any weaker today. [music] Yeah, I have new neighbors. It's Friday evening. Kids
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I think it's hard bus. I think they're listening to hard bus. All right. Woo.
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The end of day five, and I still haven't even finished the background. Remember how I said in the beginning that I'm stressed, I am still stressed. Pollen allergies are hitting hard. Anyways, it's Sunday. Normally I wouldn't be here, but I'm behind the schedule, so
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All of this, this is just the first layer. And yeah, it is because the whole background should be blurred. So, I put wet color here and I take wet color on this roller and I go over it.
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Like this. And what I'm aiming for is a smooth transition. This. [music] [music] Oopah.
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Thank you. I just received a bravo. [music] [music] [music] The day number seven. Um Um, the background has been covered in color, but now I need to soften it.
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Yesterday I started up there in the skies, but the problem is that doing soft transitions with a roller is uh not ideal. And because of that, I have a secret weapon.
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A spray gun. Battery powered? Yeah, with this thing I should be able to make very nice and smooth transitions. Let's see.
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[music] [music] [music] [music] It is not the one this. See how soft the edges compared to this.
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[music] [music] So far so good, but these machines they like to clog up and stop working and [music] They don't last forever.
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[sighs] I can't I can't I can't open it. I can't open it. The day is coming to the end. I haven't done what I planned to do and now this happened. I don't have a gun.
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Yeah. [music] The end, it may be look even better. Or not. I guess we'll see.
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So, after this major setback with a spray gun, I just continued [music] with uh rollers. I just tried to make every single edge as soft as possible, and I hope that it's going to look good. All righty, it's time for the phase number
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two, spray cans. My goal here is to fill in as much space as possible because the colors I picked, I'm not sure whether they're going to work or not. But, let me tell you, this character, Spider-Man obviously, it's the highest point of the
Speaker A
mural. The lift at this height, extremely shaky. You feel like you're going to die [music] every 30 seconds.
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It's not a pleasant painting experience. It's a nightmare. I forgot two colors down there.
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[music] [music] Oh, I hate this. I hate being here. [music] [music] Oh. woah, woah.
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God damn it. God damn wind. [music] [music] [music] I don't know my heart rate right now, but it's high.
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When you are close to the wall, it feels like any other wall. But then you look down, and suddenly you fear for your life, with no exaggeration.
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Uh, this was uh adrenaline. I had adrenaline in my blood. Anyways, the colors look uh reasonable.
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I think they're fine. Yeah, that's good. What's not good is that I need to go up there at least one more time, but more like two.
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[music] Uh, hell yeah. It looks good. May need one or two touch-ups but [music] [music] Today I'm going to have help.
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Michael. [music] Over there. Why do we want to be so good at this? Michael's going to use VR for the first time in his life.
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He's impressed. He actually does calligraphy, and so I thought that he might handle the name of the movie and also a bit of text. Let's see.
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It looks like he knows what he's doing. [music] We just had a visit from the company that hired me, and we were talking about Project Hail Mary, how successful it was, and they said something that made me super happy because they said that
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the creators of the film, of the Project Hail Mary, they know this. You know, that's just that's just incredible. They literally said that it's amazing that a creation from such a small country as Slovakia was able to reach so many
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people. Hell yeah. That's exactly what I wanted. Exactly. Reach the world. I hope that this project will do the same. Yeah.
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[music] Came here to gather some materials. There are some half-naked kids running around. [music] It's always incredible to hear something like that.
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Well, yeah. In order to get projects like this done in time, sometimes you need to get your materials at night.
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[music] There is one very important detail that I haven't even marked yet. A detail that has been haunting me for Yeah, since the beginning. It's the name of the movie.
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Yeah, it's going to be a technical nightmare. This part of the painting is big, but it's actually pretty easy to paint because there are no faces. There are no sharp lines. Well, except swords. They are hard to paint, but other than them,
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once you lock in the right colors, painting clothing is pretty forgiving. Unlike the name of the movie I mentioned previously.
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This wall is eating cans like crazy. [music] This is my fourth time going into the graffiti shop. Each time I thought I have everything I'll need.
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I'm tired. [music] [music] [screaming] I feel like I might finish the wall today. And I need to say a big thank you to the weather because it haven't rained for 2 weeks straight, which is exactly what I needed.
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[music] [music] [music] The euphoria of a finished wall is close, but I still need to paint the Spider-Man.
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Painting of this logo {slash} graffiti {slash} whatever this is, a sign, it brings me back to [music] my graffiti days like straight back because this is basically graffiti and it's the kind of graffiti that is one of the hardest to
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paint. Clean lettering, straight lines, every wrong angle matters. That's why I said that this is going to be the most technical part. It is.
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[music] [music] It's annoying. Every single small mistake is instantly visible and Yep, this is going to work.
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I think it's fine but it still needs some tweaks. Finish today. Ha. Yeah right right.
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For sure. The day number 12, the last one. [music] [music] Look at the weather forecast for the next days. I mean, it literally should start raining in 3 hours.
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The timing couldn't be better. [music] I think it's done. I still need to sign it, but there is a storm coming. So, we kind of need to hurry. Michael is finishing some legally required text, and then it's finished.
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Well, we are done. Oh, I still need to sign it. Hell. Hello from Amsterdam.
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Guys, during this project, I had several moments when I felt like this is way too much for me to handle.
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But, at the end, it all worked out. And a few days after I finished the wall, I got an email from the client. "Would you like to go to Amsterdam for an epic Spider-Man event and see the real
Speaker A
Spider-Man live?" You already know what my answer was. It's amazing is that the event is happening [music] in Museum of Graffiti and Street Art, very famous one. Look at those murals.
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Fellow creators from Czechoslovakia. This This is not correct. I paint it correctly. [music] Woah.
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Before the final shots, let me share with you how the short form version of this project performed. TikTok, half a million local views. Instagram, 7 million views. And YouTube, 11 million views and counting. Guys, I just came back from the local TV where I presented
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the mural. [music] The director of Spider-Man Brand New Day, the director of a Hollywood blockbuster, reshared the video. It is insane. Guys, [music] thank you for your support. This is it.
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Zendaya and Tom Holland! [screaming] 3 2 1 [cheering and screaming] Spider-Man Brand New Day!
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[music]
Topics:Spider-Manmural paintingstreet artlarge scale arturban artmuralistSony movies promotionVR in artBratislava Street Art Festivalcommercial mural
