{"id":243063,"date":"2025-10-27T08:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T08:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/243063\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T08:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T08:25:09","slug":"how-killer-baby-opening-scene-was-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/243063\/","title":{"rendered":"How\u00a0Killer Baby Opening Scene\u00a0Was Made"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT:\u00a0This story contains spoilers from the series premiere of \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry<\/a>,\u201d now streaming on HBO Max.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt doesn\u2019t take long for \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry\u201d to remind audiences that they\u2019re back in Stephen King\u2019s eponymous cursed town. The first episode alone features enough blood, guts and gore to rival either of the Andy Muschietti<\/a>-directed \u201cIt\u201d films \u2014 and much of that pours out within the first 10 minutes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe HBO series opens with an 11-year-old boy named Mattie (Miles Ekhardt) hitchhiking his way out of the Maine town circa 1962. He\u2019s picked up by a family \u2014 a bespectacled father (Mark MacRae), pregnant mother (Zo\u00eb Barrett-Wood), teenaged daughter (Audrey Wellington) and boyish son (Lochlan Ray Miller). At first they seem safe and friendly, but such descriptors are always cause for caution in Derry.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Brooke Palmer\/HBO<\/p>\n

\n\tThe family says that they\u2019re heading the Portland, but as they continually pass the \u201cWelcome to Derry\u201d sign, Mattie becomes suspicious that they\u2019re driving in circles. Meanwhile, the son who\u2019s going through a phase of spelling out words starts to spell out increasingly dark terms like \u201ckidnapping,\u201d \u201cmaggots,\u201d \u201ccadaver,\u201d and \u201cstrangulation,\u201d at his mother\u2019s request. Mattie\u2019s pleas that they pull over fall on deaf ears and all doors are locked.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen, the mother starts going into labor. The family join their son in a euphoric chant of \u201cO-U-T! O-U-T!\u201d as the woman\u2019s belly begins to move and blood and guts ooze from between her legs. A bloody head soon emerges and a deformed, fetal infant is pushed out onto the car floor.<\/p>\n

\n\tShrouded in darkness beneath the dashboard, the baby emerges as a two-headed, bat-winged demon, flying around the car like a feral animal leashed only by his mother\u2019s still-attached umbilical cord. Things calm down only when the entire family, including the newborn, pause to set their sights on Mattie. The baby then lunges at Mattie as we cut to the window shattering, presumably signaling the boy\u2019s brutal demise.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of HBO<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWelcome to Derry\u201d serves as a prequel to the two \u201cIt\u201d films: 2017\u2019s \u201cIt: Chapter One\u201d and 2019\u2019s \u201cIt: Chapter Two.\u201d It chronicles the origins of Pennywise the Clown and the previous generation\u2019s encounters with the town\u2019s haunting curse.<\/p>\n

\n\tLike its cinematic predecessors, the show creates its harrowing sequences with a blend of modern visual effects and old school prosthetics. What are practical effects and which are digital ones is sometimes hard to distinguish, as they seamlessly mix to terrifying, yet visually spectacular effect. The cold open, for example, made use of an LED sound stage and a digital model of the demon baby alongside prosthetic legs for the mother and a practical puppet waved around on a stick.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo learn more about how \u201cWelcome to Derry\u201d pulled off the shocking sequence, Variety interviewed Daryl Sawchuk and Sean Sansom for an exclusive conversation. Sawchuk served as the series\u2019 VFX supervisor, while Sansom served as the head of the prosthetics department after previously working in the makeup department on both \u201cIt\u201d films.<\/p>\n

\t\tHow did you both find yourselves working on \u201cWelcome to Derry\u201d?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSean Sansom: For me, it was the previous relationship with Andy and Barbara Muschietti, having worked on the first two films and a few other projects. Andy likes to have his team together, and \u2014 because the show is in the same universe as the films \u2014 he wanted it to have the same style and look.<\/p>\n

\n\tDaryl Sawchuk: When Andy was finishing \u201cThe Flash\u201d for Warner Bros., the visual effects supervisor on that film, John Des Jardin, is actually kind of a mentor of mine \u2014 someone that I\u2019d done a bunch of films with over the years. When they were looking for a visual effects supervisor, John gave me a really nice, flattering review, and then I had a conversation with Andy and we hit it off really well. <\/p>\n

\t\tGiven your respective titles and departments, tell us how you both worked together to bring the show to life?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSawchuk: My responsibility on it from pre-production, through production, all the way through post was both working out some of the previz and early ideas with other department heads, including Sean, for visual effects sequences on the show. I was in charge of being there on set to make sure that we were getting all of the reference passes, all of the material that we needed to add visual affects into later and then carry through to post-production.<\/p>\n

\n\tSansom: I looked after all of the builds. All through pre-production I held concept meetings, meeting with other department heads and figuring out what we were going to build physically for set. I was also assisting Daryl with what he needed in regards to physical references, which they would either scan or use as a basis to build their [digital] models around. And then I was on set for all the filming as well.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Brooke Palmer\/HBO<\/p>\n

\t\tWhen you both read the script for the first episode, and you immediately see this gruesome cold open birthing scene, what goes through your minds knowing that it will require a lot of heavy effects and prosthetic work?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSawchuk: For me, you\u2019re obviously shocked by what you\u2019re reading on the page. You\u2019re just like \u201cHoly shit. I realize this is for HBO, but man, this is going to be a really dark, gruesome and gritty opening and very shocking.\u201d Then the storyboards start. Andy starts drawing some himself, and he\u2019s got a storyboard artist that he works with, and you realize some of the angles that he\u2019s asking for are quite graphic. We started with some previz early on, just to help facilitate blocking things out in terms of action, so we can understand what angles we needed to shoot. <\/p>\n

\n\tThen, we were able to hand it off and work with guys like Sean and our costumes team to figure out what we needed to build practically. We realized that we were really going for it. My approach to visual effects is always to try to get as much practical stuff as possible, and it was great that Andy and Sean feel the same. So we built a lot of practical reference for us to scan and shoot for the baby that comes out, but Sean\u2019s team also built the woman\u2019s fake legs and the birthing rig. We had a lot of fantastic practical goo and blood and all sorts of stuff that we used as a starting point and then expanded upon when we got into post.<\/p>\n

\n\tSansom: In regards to the script, reading any project of Andy\u2019s, I immediately know that it\u2019s not going to be easy. It\u2019s always going to be a challenge. Like Daryl said, you don\u2019t anticipate seeing everything that is described in the script, because you think that they\u2019re going to tone it down a bit for TV, but not with Andy. Then, there are all of the complications involved with the shots, like how it takes place in a car. Normally, it\u2019s fine to build stuff, like the actress had a fake belly and legs so that we could push the baby out from behind, but now she\u2019s also sitting in a car seat, and the car seat is part of a car from the late 1950s, and they\u2019ve only got two of them. So, they have to make a fake seat to mimic the car seat. The art department gets involved and it\u2019s a large group effort. This all comes out of the concept meetings, where we try to figure out who\u2019s going to look after what and what\u2019s the crossover. Of course, we have a lot of crossover with Daryl\u2019s team for the creatures and everything. Andy wanted a practical baby too, so we built a baby.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of HBO<\/p>\n

\t\tHow did you use the practical baby? Is it in any of the final shots, or was it just a reference?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSansom: We had two of them. We made one that was for Daryl to use for reference, which had the arms and wings outspread, and we put that on a stick to fly from this person to that person and all over the place inside the car. But we also had one that was all folded up in the fetal position, and that one was actually pushed out of the belly and used for the beginning of that scene.<\/p>\n

\t\tHow did you make the legs and belly for the birthing shots?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSansom: It\u2019s like the old magician\u2019s trick with the body cut in half. The actress was actually kneeling upright. Her arms and her shoulders and her head and neck were sticking out from the car seat, and then we had a full fake body from the collarbone down, with rods going through the bottoms of the feet, through the hole in the floor of the car so that we could manipulate the legs from underneath.<\/p>\n

\n\tSawchuk: I think Sean is also understating the constraints of the physical space a little bit. We shot this on a volume wall, so we had interactive light. We could have done this on a bench with no seat and maybe just a dashboard, and Sean probably would have had a lot more room to move around and do all of his puppeteering. And he would have been in every shot and we would have had to paint him out. As is, I think maybe there was one shot where we had to remove an arm or something, but because we wanted to use the volume wall for lighting purposes, we tried to keep the car in as fixed a state as possible. Doors were shut all the time, so Sean had to come in from behind or underneath the seat. We had to figure out a way for him to get through that way, but it allowed for those first few shots where the baby comes out to be entirely practical. We added some additional blood and guts to the scene, but the baby coming out is all Sean. It was real lighting, viscous goo and goop and all of that stuff. And it looks great, kind of an homage to old school horror and traditional techniques, with the benefits of some new technology.<\/p>\n

\t\tHow was using the puppet on set with the actors?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSawchuk: Sean\u2019s team is fantastic. Like, we\u2019re always looking for real lighting reference, and he built out a baby. I can\u2019t remember if we had designed something or maybe provided a 3D sculpt that he then took and made a mold of and did all the painting and stuff, but we had something that was great for lighting reference, so that we could see how the light was interacting with it. We would puppeteer the creature on a stick through the scene. We would see how the light changed as it traveled from the front to the back of the car. It was also good sometimes for actor reference. We\u2019d actually get a real reaction. We\u2019d do a rehearsal take, and Andy would also dive in there. If we had to have something smush up against one of the actors faces, we could use this baby on a stick in order to do that. I think we also had some softer, smaller parts like just the head for interactivity. It gave Andy an opportunity to direct an actual performance out of the actors, so they\u2019re responding to something real. It just helps give you a more believable performance.<\/p>\n

\n\tSansom: Andy had a concept artist come up with all these ideas that fits his style. He\u2019ll design a lot of things himself too. He\u2019ll draw it out in the concept meetings on the white board to explain what he\u2019s looking for, which is great for us. He provided some of these concept designs, which then I used to sculpt the baby and the head.<\/p>\n

\t\tHow was it working with such a young cast in this first episode and throughout the series?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSawchuk: It\u2019s always interesting working with kids. Some child actors have had more experience than others. Matilda Lawlor I worked with seven years ago, and that was her first time she worked with puppeteering and holding on to gray, stuffy objects that were later replaced with CGI. So she had some experience, which was really neat, but not everyone did. So I think it\u2019s another reason why it\u2019s great to have some practical references and set pieces from Sean\u2019s team, so that they can kind of understand \u201cThat\u2019s the thing I have to react to\u201d and they find the fun with all of it.<\/p>\n

\n\tSansom: Yeah, the kids are great. It was a lot like \u201cIt: Chapter 1.\u201d The kids get really into it because they\u2019re dealing with make believe and it\u2019s like Halloween every day on set when they\u2019re dealing with creatures and blood and goo. They\u2019re having a blast.<\/p>\n

\t\tLastly, what\u2019s something on the show that people might assume is a digital effect, but is actually practical \u2014 or vice versa?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSawchuk: Well, there\u2019s the opening. I think everybody assumes that things are mostly digital nowadays, but this was really and homage to previous fantastic makeup and prosthetic effects and we were really tried to preserve that and just add on top of it.<\/p>\n

\n\tSansom: It\u2019s tricky, because pretty much everything we\u2019ve done on the show is a crossover, where we\u2019re both involved in the scene. There\u2019s a little bit of practical and a little bit of digital. It\u2019s hard to tell. I\u2019m not even sure that I could tell who did what \u2014 not in the first episode anyway.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT:\u00a0This story contains spoilers from the series premiere of \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry,\u201d now streaming on HBO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[104642,49,48,75,22149],"class_list":{"0":"post-243063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-andy-muschietti","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-it-welcome-to-derry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}