{"id":973,"date":"2019-05-15T13:44:40","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T13:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olioweb.me.uk\/wordpress_media\/?page_id=973"},"modified":"2025-10-15T16:40:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:40:31","slug":"the-making-of-stranger-danger-the-special-effects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/olioweb.me.uk\/oliomedia\/?page_id=973","title":{"rendered":"‘Stranger Danger’: the special effects"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Jeremy Cooper (Director, Editor)<\/em><\/p>\n

See also Making the backgrounds<\/a>, Movie Trivia<\/a><\/p>\n

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The special effects were made by building up layers of images, and then using “colour keying” (also called “colour separation overlay”) to make part of the image transparent.
\nThe main colour key used nowadays is a bright green – “green-screen”. It used to be blue, but people’s eyes and clothes (especially blue jeans) tended to stop that working properly. So everyone <\/span>switched to <\/span>using\u00a0a shade of green which is seldom found in clothes, eyes, food …<\/span>
\nBut you can<\/span> use any bright <\/span>colour which is not anywhere else in the scene you are shooting.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Geek note: the edit used Adobe Premier Pro CC on an Apple iMac computer.)<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n

This was the basic shooting setup for the sticks house interior shots.<\/p>\n

\"\"This is what the camera saw – the actor, furniture and props in front of the
\ngreen-screen stretched behind.
\n(The green was really much brighter than it appears here – see the Wolf-at-the-door example, below.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The editing computer has turned (‘keyed’) the green to black –
\nthe black is, in effect, transparent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We add the background image, and can see it through the transparent black.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The image of the stickers is now superimposed on the computer screen.
\nThat’s the final shot!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is the editing ‘timeline’ – you can see the different tracks (layers) that make up the shot:<\/p>\n