The Morning Watch: 'Stranger Things 3' VFX Breakdown, Examining The 'Close Encouters' Model Ship & More

The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.

In this edition, watch a Stranger Things 3 VFX breakdown showing shots before they were completed with visual effects in post-production. Plus, our favorite video essay creator, Patrick (H) Willems, chimes in with his thoughts on why Star Wars: The Last Jedi is great, and a Disney animation designer breaks down the original Cinderella dress transformation scene and how it's influenced their other modern fairytales.

First up, Netflix provided a little Stranger Things 3 VFX breakdown showing how some of the effects heavy sequences in the series looked before they had visual effects added. See the various objects and people that stand-in for the Mind Flayer monster, see the very inconspicuous place where the exterior shots of a Russian military installation were shot, and much more.

Next up, Adam Savage and the Tested crew visit the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center where the Mother Ship model from Steven Spielberg's sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind is on display. Created by Industrial Light and Magic, the intricate model has some sneaky hidden details, including an R2-D2, a mailbox, and much more. It's truly an incredible sight and a reminder of the incredible feats of filmmaking before digital effects.

Finally, Disney animation supervisor Marlon West went to Vanity Fair to break down the famous Cinderella dress transformation scene from 1950 and the many ways it's been homaged in other Disney movies over the years, including Princess and the Frog and much more recently in Frozen.