- [Shawn] You're seeing visual effects
that look more and more photo real.
And that's where things get really exciting.
- This was not at all what it looked like on set.
Props to the visual effects team, 'cause this is amazing.
- Here's a little peek behind the curtain
at the visual effects that help bring
this very satisfying sequence to life.
Max in the Mind Lair.
- I've been waiting to hear those words.
I am here Max, to end your suffering once and for all.
(Max gasps)
- So in this sequence,
Max has been following the reapparition of Billy.
- Obviously she's grieving,
but she's also feeling really guilty, and nobody knows that.
But, of course, Vecna does.
- [Shawn] And she sees this kind of
membrane of fog pulsating,
and this calling through that mist, only to find herself
inside this kind of realm of Vecna's mind, the Mind Lair.
- The set was pretty impressive.
It was like a full on platform
that was built on a sound stage.
- You're not really here.
- [Shawn] We always try to combine real art department
constructed environments with these digital elements.
- [Sadie] And so all the pillars in there,
and the ground was there and everything.
But the sky, that was all just like a blue screen.
- The more you can practically build,
the more you're helping your actor do their job,
but you're also helping the audience
with kind of an on ramp to believability.
She was standing in a real rocky, bloody, kind of pan.
- And I'm just remembering how slippery the ground was,
and how careful I had to walk on it.
- One thing that people will assume wasn't real, but was,
is that winding staircase.
That was very much there.
And it allowed me to frame the expanse of the Mind Lair,
and to also do shots behind that staircase.
Which is always useful,
if you can have a foreground element that actually exists.
This shot here with blood dropping,
that was a practical dummy with dripping glycerin.
We augmented the gauntness of the face
and the hollowing out of the eyes.
But again, those were real dummies
mounted in the practical set,
which gave Sadie something to react to.
- [Sadie] Chrissy's dead body didn't look
as good as it looks in the finished product,
but Vecna looks just as scary in real life
as he does in the show.
(mysterious music)
- Would you like to join them?
- This was the first scene that I ever had with Jamie,
who plays Vecna, and my first time ever seeing him
in his full prosthetic suit and everything.
I mean, it's terrifying.
Like you'll be setting up
for like a different shot or something.
And then he's in the corner like growling.
And then he's just like completely in it.
- Vecna is able to animate these kind of
twisted gnarls, flesh-like vines.
We had Sadie running towards us
and then falling into a stunt pad.
- [Sadie] There was like a rope tied to my ankle
and then dragged me across the floor.
- [Man] Ready and pull!
- We had about three guys on the end of a rope
while we dragged the stunt Max
on her belly and up against the pillar.
- But the vines when I'm like...
None of that was there,
so that was kind of just like strain my arms
and my neck to make it look like
there was something wrapped around them.
- [Man] Three, two, one, go!
(Max grunting)
Right, left, up!
- But we wanted the vines themselves to almost
echo the flesh monster from season three.
To have this kind of churning, undulating life,
inside the meat, if you will.
So you've got the meat of the vines,
that was one stage of the process.
Then you had rough animation,
where it doesn't look like real life texture.
And then, slowly but surely,
you're seeing visual effects
that look more and more photo real.
And that's where things get really exciting
because that started with a leap of faith.
But you still get that excitement when you start watching
a sequence that looks like it actually happened
(all shouting)
- Now!
(dynamic music)
- Once Vecna has Max pinned against this pillar,
and he's slowly kind of moving in for the kill,
she has a vision.
This kind of glimpse of her friends,
back in reality in that cemetery,
trying to wake her up from this Vecna induced trance.
(dynamic music)
She's running her ass off through this muddy pool.
And she has to essentially be reacting
to objects falling from the sky that weren't falling.
So Sadie is bobbing, and weaving, and faking it, basically.
It also helped that we had Sadie's stunt double
take these awesome wipeouts into the muddy, bloody water.
And so it creates again a combination
of digital effects and real energy.
- It's definitely scary.
And it feels real, like the stakes are really high.
It was not the easiest set to film on.
But I mean, it looks amazing.
- From artists, to visual effects engineers,
to an entire cast and crew,
it's deeply gratifying to tell stories
that has both spectacle and emotionality,
that hits us where we live.
Because for me, my favorite kinds of storytelling
are the ones that do both.
- Thank you so much for watching
"Stranger Things 4" only on Netflix.
(dynamic music)