Wilson Chapman editor“Stranger Things” is one of the most visual effects heavy show on television — the recent season 4 finale featured more VFX shots than the entire third season combined.
While some of those VFX shots are obvious — the ground splitting open into lava, a horde of demonic bats attacking the heroes — others are designed to be hidden from the audience.For example, one of the most memorable scenes of the season featured a return appearance by Dacre Montgomery, whose character Billy died last season, as a vision torturing his stepsister Max (Sadie Sink).
However, Montgomery was unable to physically return to shoot the season due to COVID-19; the season shot beginning in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, and Australia’s strict lockdown rules prevented Montgomery from leaving his home country.
In order to circumnavigate the issue, series editor Dean Zimmerman said the team used editing and digital engineering tricks to insert Montgomery into the scenes with Max. “We actually had to shoot the Max side of the cemetery in Atlanta, then digitally track the plates, then send them to Austrailia to set up a kind of stage that he would walk onto, and we edited those together with Max,” Zimmerman said.Zimmerman spoke on a panel with fellow “Stranger Things” editors Katheryn Naranjo and Casey Cichocki at a Microsoft Production Summit in Burbank, Calif.
Read more on variety.com