Afterlife - Research

This blog post will cover inspirational films, camera techniques, colour and similar scenes to Afterlife. I will also discuss what we could test and duplicate.



Probably the most obvious scene that is a direct reference to a piece of work is the black room. There are subtle changes like the water on the floor just being a reflection. In the above scene, the camera is mostly mid shots, one wide of the Demogorgon. Moving the camera will be tricky for us as we don't have the budget for a fully black room so most of it will be effects in post. We did a few tests but just couldn't find anything that could make the movements smooth enough and would be too much for our visual effects artist. The wide shots are doable, but an extreme wide would probably require effects. There's only so much we can do in camera. The colours in Stranger Things are also very significant; the blues, use of shadows and depth of field in the series are gorgeous and something I want to recreate in the void scene.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/eleanorbate/how-many-lens-flares-is-too-many-lens-flares?sub=4321238_9309749

Feels a bit weird mentioning a music video as inspiration for a film but here we are. This video was the first thing that came into my mind when the director said they wanted a slow motion car crash. But obviously we can't crash an actual car like in the video so we have to be clever about it. At the 2:27 mark, there's a close up of Simon's hands and glass added in post and it looks very effective, and the next shot of him lying on the ground. Most of the car crash scene for us will be close ups and I don't think we are even smashing any glass. The heads and hair in slow motion look particularly effective, and the blood running down Simon's forehead at the end looks great and would be good to replicate. I also love the lighting in this, it's subtle like the red lighting on Simon in the car but also the natural looking lights outside, that close up of Simon on the floor too with the headlights flashing we can also duplicate.

The director also briefly mentioned having the main actress coming down on an umbrella with the camera directly underneath her, so only her foot is in shot. The only similar shot I can find is from The Greatest Showman but they use actual ropes and trapeze to film the scene. The only way around I can think of is getting the actress to jump from a height and use a higher frame rate (or slow it down in post). A light is also getting made similar to the one used in the film so reflections of it will also look great, especially in the cellar.

You'll have to ignore the Korean subtitles