Supernatural (season 2) - Production - Effects

Effects

The series makes use of visual, special, and make-up effects, as well as stuntwork. Beginning with the second season, visual effects became an in-house department. Visual effects supervisor Ivan Hayden feels this improved the series because a fixed budget allowed them to compensate for other scenes that lacked effects, such as in "Nightshifter". Wide shots of the bank's exterior—featuring closed-off streets, police, and SWAT helicopters—were accomplished with visual effects. The series' catchphrase—"Scary just got sexy"—was added to a billboard in the background. For the episode "Houses of the Holy", production did not want viewers to be able to determine that the "angel" was in actuality a priest. Thus, the shape engulfed in light was a girl wearing a skintight white leotard. At times, the visual effects used were subtle. Cockroaches were digitally inserted into the sewer scenes of "No Exit"; director Kim Manners did not ask for it, but thought the addition "made it really creepy". The episode "Playthings" featured a scene of a man dying after falling down stairs. The department added blood flowing from underneath him, and also made his fingers twitch and his mouth open and close to create a more lifelike appearance.

The special effects and makeup departments are also important assets to production. Dean has an out-of-body experience in "In My Time of Dying", and some scenes feature him looking at his own body in a hospital bed. To forgo the use of visual effects, the special effects department sculpted a full gelatin face from Ackles, and applied it to a body double. To depict a woman burning to death in the episode "Simon Said", the actress was sealed inside a full body silicone designed to look like her, and was doused with fire accelerant. She was required to breathe through a straw, as well as don underwear soaked in ice-cold fire-retardant gel. Prior to "Heart", Kripke had not wanted to include werewolves in the series, as he felt that the budget would only allow for "a guy with fur glued to his face". As he prefers to have monsters be able to walk among humans, production made the transformation subtle—the character's eyes change, and her canine teeth and fingernails grow. However, writer Sera Gamble believes that they "dropped the ball" in the design, feeling that the creature looked too similar to a vampire.