How ‘Whalefall’ Production Designer Ramsey Avery Built the Creature’s Stomach Using Mattress Foam and Silicone Bits — SkimNews
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- Ramsey Avery built a 30-foot whale head with a functional tongue on an animatronic arm, placed inside a 60-foot-wide, 20-foot-deep water tank so director Brian Duffield could film entirely in water.
- The whale's stomach was constructed from 2-3 inches of upholstery (mattress) foam, lined with multiple layers of translucent colored silicone and wrapped in canvas coated with glue for rigidity and flexibility.
- The main stomach set measured only about 8 feet wide and 6 feet tall when fully expanded, but most shots used it compressed to roughly the size of a sleeping bag — room for Jay and just one or two cameras.
- Four separate stomachs on four rigs simulated whale motion, including a small rig that kept the whale 'swimming,' a spinning rig Avery likened to a washing machine, and a large teeter-totter rig that created sloshing bile movements.
- The stomach bile was made from methyl cellulose mixed with additives to mimic an oatmeal-like texture, with manufactured silicone bits simulating floating debris and bubble ports suggesting acid eating away at objects.
- Avery's color palette tracked real sperm whale anatomy — white throat, muscular white-and-pink first stomach, pink second stomach with red acids — a scheme he says mirrors Jay's emotional journey from uncomfortable to horror.
- Avery's research included daily 6 a.m. autopsy calls with biomedical scientist Dr. Joy Reidenberg, plus footage from cameras inserted into orcas, dolphins, and porpoises since no comparable imagery existed for sperm whales.
Why it matters: Avery's practical build — a sleeping-bag-sized stomach and four-rig motion system that withstood six weeks of stunt filming inside a 20-foot tank — demonstrates that creature-interior claustrophobia can be achieved physically rather than through CGI, giving survival thrillers a cost-and-craft blueprint for visceral realism.
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