"Stranger Things" is one of the most popular TV shows today.
And its success is due in no small power to its distinct visual style.
The look of "Stranger Things" encapsulates both the nostalgia
and sci-fi horror into something all its own.
How is the crew behind the series created such a unique visual palette?
This is "Stranger Things Cinematography".
"- Oh, my God."
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"- What is all this?"
- The creators behind "Stranger Things"
The Duffer Brothers had a clear vision
of how they wanted their series to look at the outset.
"- Our thing is, could we go back to this style of summer blockbusters
but do it in this new form?
But I mean, you have to think about, you know, a lot of our favorite blockbusters,
it's like "Jaws" and "Indiana Jones" and, and "Gremlins", and "Back to the Future".
"- What's happening? - I have no idea.
- You tell me that you built a time machine."
- Let's look at how the brothers and their cinematographer,
Tim Ives achieved this throwback look
beginning with one of the cinematography basics.
"- Let there be light."
- One element in "Stranger Things" that harkens back to the eighties is its lighting.
"- Okay. Good, good, good, good."
- The crew specifically took notes from the cinematographers like Alan Daviau.
"- We looked at films like "E.T.", and I looked at "Avalon".
I mean, a lot of Davio's work and I always liked his softness
and his realism, but it also had a little bit of a heightened to it."
- The subtle stylization can be seen in many of the interiors
throughout "Stranger Things".
- Ives will often pair warm orange lights with blue lights
coming in through windows to provide contrast.
But the colors remain muted,
so as not to become too heightened.
Ives would also use book lights,
which is a method in which the light source
is bounced off a reflective material
and then diffused before it hits the subject.
This creates an extremely soft light
without taking up as much space as standard diffusion.
He would then add crates to keep the light from
spilling into the walls behind the subject,
making the actors pop from their background.
For exteriors, Ives took a reverse approach pulling
from the work of photographer William Edelson.
"- Something that I sort of fell in love with
would be front lighting, which can be very flat.
But I looked at William Edelson's photographs
and he has a lot of that kind of stuff with minimal depth of field.
And it had a feeling of nostalgia of those photographs
that I thought would translate well.
Front lighting means the light source is directly behind the camera
and it's a method which most cinematographers try to avoid.
But Ives's use of the lighting style results in exteriors
that look reminiscent of old photographs.
Of course, the series also operates as a horror,
and to heighten the scares Ives darkened the lights
leaving as Ives put it 'the details in the shadows'.
Tod Campbell, another cinematographer on the series, double down on this approach.
"- I don't use fill light, which I hate anyway.
Having deep dark shadows, they're creepy.
I tried to just use single sources of light
and play the silhouette as much as possible."
- By using single sources of light,
Campbell would create a naturally
low-key image with high contrast and harsh shadows.
Which provide a stark difference from the flat lighting situations
than the non-horror scenes have.
And "Stranger Things" approach to lighting pairs nicely with the next technique.
"- Hi. - Hi."
- A crucial component of "Stranger Things" visual style is its coloring.
- Incorporated, not just in its cinematography,
but also in its production design and wardrobe.
Perhaps more than any other element of the show
color indicates the precise time and place of the setting.
The use of color evolved from season to season.
"- The first season, I think our tone was not the most optimistic.
And so we didn't bring a lot of color into the first season.
And the second season we started bringing in a little bit more color and saturation.
And the third season takes place in summer vacation
and we're fully in the eighties now.
So again, you have neons and a wardrobe."
- The third season of "Stranger Things" saw the biggest visual shift in the series.
The Duffer Brothers told their team
they wanted to shift from their original Spielberg influences
and towards slightly more stylized auteurs like John Carpenter and Robert Zemeckis.
"- Hey, I said, what do you want?"
- This shift in visual tone can be seen most prominently in the Starcourt Mall.
A massive set filled with vibrant primary color.
Here the influences on the visuals indicated the lead characters weren't kids anymore.
"- So what do we do first?"
- As Ives notes, with this new storyline with the kids growing up,
we introduced a lot more neon to go with it.
"- Here we go."
- Instead of pulling from children-oriented films, like "E.T." the Duffers and Ives
were emulating eighties teen classic.
"- This year, we referenced "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" for some of the mall stuff."
- The colors of the mall, a off in the finale of the season
in an extravagant display of neon lights, a massive undertaking to rig.
"- Wiring it getting it to possibly flicker for the finale
that was about a month and a half long lighting project.
And that set up before he even started shooting.
And then I had a crew in there and they pretty much knew what we wanted
and did it all."
- Moving on.
You'll notice that none of the influences, the Duffers mention are television shows.
From the cameras and lenses to the film grain and aspect ratio
the Brothers made decisions that would make their series look as cinematic as possible.
The "Stranger Things" team tested multiple different
cameras to try to get the most filmic feel.
The team landed on "The Red Dragon".
'The Red reminded me of the Kodak 5293, 200 ASA,
we all used to love.
Velvety and smooth' said Ives.
Lenses too were selected based on what looked the most cinematic.
Ives mainly used Leica Primes, which he felt were similar
to lenses from the seventies and eighties.
They produce a flatter and softer image compared to other modern lenses,
which produce more contrast.
Filmic softness was the priority,
which he furthered by shooting with a wide-open F-stop.
According to Ives,
he tried to never have the F-stop over 2.8
so that the background would almost always be outta focus.
The shallow depth of feel was paired with wide lenses.
Again, to evoke a cinematic, feel.
"- Films like E.T. and "Jaws".
They had those big foreground closeups on the wider lenses,
and we really responded to Spielberg's earlier work as far as those lenses go."
- In post-production, a slight grain was added to
mimic the look and feel of shooting on celluloid film.
They interjected an actual 5298 film stock on top of the image being recorded.
They also chose a 2:1 aspect ratio creating a letterbox feel
not found on most TV shows.
Check out our previous video on 2:1 for more in-depth analysis on the format.
"Stranger Things" eighties movie look
is a testament to having clear visual references.
From the get-go,
the Duffers knew the films they wanted to pull from
to create a TV show with visuals that feel nostalgic with a modern twinge of horror.
And having a clear vision means having a clear plan.
And having a clear plan means having a storyboard.
Make sure to check out StudioBinder's storyboard software
to help you make your own sci-fi classic.
What are some of your favorite visual sequences from "Stranger Things"?
Let us know in the comments.
Good luck with your next project.
And remember it could be the next big series.
"Stranger Things" have happened.