Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542693
The Billboard Shootout After Vecna opens a rift between worlds at the end of season 4, the government seals the entire town of Hawkins to prevent Vecna's curse from spreading. When the military wants to enter the Upside Down, they execute a "burn," a flaming assault that creates a tear in the veil between worlds. It's during a "burn" that Hopper and Eleven have a chance to enter, but become pinned down under a decayed billboard. Even though VFX weren't a major aspect of the scene, everything was storyboarded. Comprehensive location photos provided enough information to kit-bash a set together that would accurately reflect the blocking. This was another sequence drawn very early on that later went to Storyboard Artist Ray Prado and director Frank Darabont. The biggest challenge with the shootout, with any action sequence, is keeping the geography clear. The 180° rule can be broken in action scenes, sometimes to great effect, but shouldn't be unless absolutely unavoidable. When the viewer can't tell who is shooting at what from where, the scene devolves into frenetic noise that becomes tedious for an audience. So, screen direction becomes situational: If someone shoots left, the target responds right. If a commander barks an order screen right, the response is screen left, and so on. Typically, you'll cut to a wide shot to reestablish the line but this can defuse tension, so you must use it sparingly. Since the government is trying to prevent Eleven from battling Vecna, they hunt her as fiercely as they do the Demogorgans. Their weapon of choice is a sonic blaster that cripples her telepathic abilities. When they locate her near a crumbling old billboard, they hadn't counted on one thing: a heavily armed, superbly trained and infinitely grumpy Hopper.