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Conjuring New Demons How the VFX artists of Stranger Things crafted more frightening monsters for the fourth season. By Trevor Hogg
T
he VFX artists working on the fourth season of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things had their work cut out for them. Set six months after the previous season’s Battle of Starcourt which introduced new levels of mayhem and destruction to Hawkins, the new season finds the central group of friends separated for the first time and navigating the special weirdness of high school! The new narrative explores three storylines set in Lenora Hills, Calif.; a Russian gulag and Hawkins, Ind. In fact, the creative ambition was so great that the number of episodes were expanded from eight to nine, with 30 visual effects companies working on over 4,000 shots. Rather than release everything at once, Netflix streamed the first half on May 27 and the second half will be made available on July 1. After being hired as a senior concept illustrator for Seasons 2 and 3, Michael Maher Jr. served as the visual effects supervisor for Episodes 401 to 406, while the remaining three were handled by Jabbar Raisani and Marion Spates. “As a whole, I have done over 1,500 storyboards for the show and got a couple of opportunities here and there to direct second unit, which got me up to speed to supervise — which was a totally different role!” says Maher. “But I’ve always been there through post as a visual effects art director, which meant I helped out with the visuals as the show got closer to release, with shots coming by, work-
ing on the animation and the look of the composite, and painting over things.”
Expanding the Territories The Byers family and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) moving to Southern California and Jim Hopper (David Harbour) being a prison inmate in Russia added to the narrative scope. “There were a lot of set extensions, especially when you want to do these big outdoor settings with blizzard-like conditions,” states Maher. “A
lot of the scenes in Russia, for example, were shot in Lithuania. It is always interesting taking these huge locations that have been built and doing extensions to make them look as good as they do on screen.” Each season, there is an expectation that demons coming from the hellish dimension known as the Upside Down become even more imposing, powerful and threatening. “For Vecna, we drew a lot of inspiration early on from Nightmare on Elm Street and Pinhead
‘For Vecna, we drew a lot of inspiration early on from Nightmare on Elm Street and Pinhead from Hellraiser. I started the designs on Venca in August 2019 and would go to the writers’ room, throw stuff out at them and see what was sticking.’ — VFX supervisor Michael Maher Jr.
Freddy’s Back! Robert Englund portrays a disturbed man who is imprisoned in a psych hospital for a gruesome murder in the ’50s.
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june|july 22
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