Finally! Eleven, Years Later Episode 3

I finally posted the third installment to my Stranger Things Parody series – Eleven, Years Later. This one required more effort to make than the first two.

I wrote the first draft of the script back in August 2017. It had lots of Mike, and some Dustin. I did a rewrite in November after learning Alex (who plays Mike) had limited availability for filming. This challenged me to find ways to fill the episode without the Mike Wheeler character. The rewrite lost Dustin and brought about the interaction between Karen and Billy, as well as the in-between world sequence. Also, the original script had a scene with Tiffany and Mike in the same room, but since that wasn’t an option, I changed it to a phone scene.

Through auditions in Santa Barbara I found Deborah Cristobal, Deborah Bertling, Van Riker, and Will Walker who played the news anchor, Karen, the payphone guy, and Billy.

Filming took a total of 7 sessions.

Session 1: Eleven in between world
Session 2: Eleven in janitor’s closet
Session 3: Karen and Billy
Session 4: News anchor
Session 5: Mike
Session 6: Tiffany
Session 7: Eleven on street + in-between world pickup shots

Production-wise this was one of the most demanding and challenging projects on the channel. I drove from Santa Barbara to LA during the Thomas Fire to get the phone shots of Alex, filmed in my sister’s kitchen. I could see flames just feet from the freeway during the drive. It started to rain while I was filming the payphone scene at SBCC. I struggled to keep my gear dry. The Thomas fire was raging in Santa Barbara the day I shot the scene between Karen and Billy. I remember unloading all my gear wearing an N95 mask, while ashes rained on the equipment. The power went out on during one of the in-between world shoots. Luckily, all I needed was a dark room and a single battery powered LED light.

Post was another challenge that seemed to never end. From trying to find 3D models of TV sets to making news graphics to trying to 3D track a blurry background to place the monster. This took a ton of time and is the main reason why I took 5.5 months in between video uploads on my channel.

Last, in hindsight, I wish I would have lit and color corrected most of the shots differently, but I’m not letting perfect be the enemy of good on this one. It’s done.

Here’s a few behind the scenes pics:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfjbhAsBqtD/?taken-by=mikewingerfilms

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfzXwTchw_k/?taken-by=mikewingerfilms