Netflix’s commitment to its Christmas fireplaces is such that it physically records them and already has several themed ones

It’s not Christmas until they turn on the lights in Vigountil Mariah Carey doesn’t give us permission and until the Netflix fireplaces. What began, in other formats and on other channels, as a programming filler in a difficult time for small channels, has today become a powerful promotional tool. Let’s see what we warm up to this year.

This Christmas. Netflix premieres today three hour-long virtual fireplaces set in the universes of ‘Stranger Things‘, ‘Wednesday‘ and ‘The k-pop warriors‘. Three digital chimneys that recreate iconic scenes from the platform’s three indisputable last bombs. A maneuver whose origins at Netflix date back to 2013, when they created ‘Fireplace For Your Home’, a three-hour loop that accumulated millions of views. What started as an alternative for homes without a real fireplace evolved into a holiday tradition.

Differentiated experiences. Each of the fireplaces has its particularities, and even, in an attempt to expand the possibilities of the format, Easter eggs. The one from ‘Stranger Things’ includes the iconic wall with the illuminated alphabet that Joyce used to communicate with Will in the first season. There are six easter eggs hidden, from Demogorgons to Steve Harrington’s spiked bat.

Particularities. In ‘Wednesday’, the scene is in Principal Weems’ office inside Nevermore Academy. Thing makes a surprise appearance, and all with the series’ original soundtrack. In ‘The K-pop Warriors’ we go to the lair of the demon Gwi-Ma, where the Saja Boys perform their most recognizable song. There will be instrumental versions of songs from the movies, so that the fireplace takes on an authentic karaoke tone.

How it was done. Netflix’s Product and Design teams developed these virtual fireplaces with a level of detail unusual for content of this type. According to what they tell us from the platform, the process included recordings in real physical settings instead of depending exclusively on digital effects. According to Netflix, it collaborated with the showrunners of each series to guarantee fidelity to the original narrative universes.

Later, digital artists integrated fantastic elements such as the Demogorgons or the violet flames characteristic of the ‘Wednesday’ universe. Therefore, except for these special effects, the fireplace props are authentic, coming from the original sets or recreated with the intention of maintaining aesthetic continuity.

Fireplace: Origins. These fireplaces recover a television tradition created in 1970 by the New York network WPIX-TV, which broadcast a virtual fireplace for the first time on December 24 as a Christmas greeting. That 17-second loop, filmed at the New York mayor’s residence with music by Nat King Cole, also allowed the canal workers to celebrate Christmas Eve with their families. After disappearing in the nineties, it returned by popular demand, spawning imitators that marketed VHS and DVD-ROM versions for decades.

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