CRAIG MAZIN:<i>
The scientific vision
that the show presents to people</i> <i>is based absolutely in reality.</i> That fungus is real, and if it were to be able
to infect humans, <i> it would go like that.</i> ♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYS) ♪ NEIL DRUCKMANN:<i> These things
are out there to infect you,</i> <i> so they're already terrifying.</i> <i> So instead,
you go in the reverse.</i> Let's explore the beauty
of fungal growth. <i> When it has
more of a human side,</i> <i> more of a beautiful side,
it makes it even scarier.</i> <i> They have so much saturated,
vibrant colors and patterns</i> and fractal ways
that they grow. <i> How do we capture that?</i> <i> 'Cause that's more interesting
than just creating the monster.</i> These are a lot of our
very early concepts and busts. <i> We're following real reference
and real nature</i> <i> of real fungus
and real mushrooms.</i> Once we knew
what the colors were, <i> then we would paint a suit
to match.</i> <i>We would glue all the mushrooms
and everything onto the suits,</i> <i> and then the suits would
go over to Sage and her team,</i> <i>and they would cut the costumes</i> <i> for the mushrooms
to be growing through.</i> Each clicker is designed
individually. <i> And the costume
had to be durable enough</i> to go through all
of the crazy moves
that the clickers have. <i> And you never go into battle
with one costume...</i> (INFECTED SCREECHING) CYNTHIA SUMMERS:<i>
...but these guys did.</i> <i> So, you know, makeup,
effects, and costumes</i> would be sitting on set,
biting their nails, just hoping that everything
stays together. One of the changes
that Neil and I felt we needed to make was the way
the fungus would spread. <i> We started looking at
something called mycelium,</i> <i> which are these threads
that make up fungus</i> <i> and the idea that
if you're infected,</i> <i> these threads grow in you</i> and begin to come out
through your throat. <i>The nightmare of being infected
by someone doing something</i> <i> that is as human and beautiful
as a kiss</i> <i> felt horrifying to us.</i> BELLA RAMSEY:<i> The prosthetics
were so good that</i> the clickers really felt real. ANNA TORV:<i> No, I didn't want
to look at them.</i> I didn't want that in my head
to go home and sleep, and then you have to be
kind of like, <i> "Hi! How are you?"</i> <i> It's not just
what they look like,</i> <i> it's the physicality
and the way that they move</i> <i> is what makes them so creepy.</i> But impressive. TERRY NOTARY:<i> When I start
working with actors,</i> we get into the zone
of being the character rather than playing
the characters. <i> It had to feel like nature
was unfolding</i> <i> in a scary, scary way.</i> ALEX WANG:<i> The clicker
performers were outstanding.</i> Working with Terry was amazing. <i> At the end
of our cul-de-sac scene,</i> Terry and I conducted
a mo-cap session with all the stunt actors. SEAN NOWLAN:<i>
And we put all these actors
in these gray suits</i> <i> that they can have
the tracking dots put on them.</i> And then,
the cameras can pick up all of these little,
nuanced motions. BLAINE LOUGHEED:<i>
And it's just to collect
a library of movements</i> to guide the digital characters, <i> whether it would be jumping
or running,</i> <i> crawling out of holes,</i> <i> whether they're attacking
somebody at full flight</i> <i> or messing with them
on the ground.</i> NOWLAN:<i>
And we use that, basically,
to replicate their motions</i> onto a CG character. WANG:<i>
Any shot with a child clicker
ended up being fully digital.</i> <i>It was very important that when
we saw the child clicker,</i> <i> that we understood
it was a young girl.</i> We referenced what
the original actress did, <i> her movements.</i> <i> We realized that
what we needed to do</i> was expose more
of her childlike features. One of the scarier monsters
that I've ever seen is the bloater. (BLOATER GROWLS, GURGLES) We were debating quite a bit
whether we wanted <i> to have a bloater
in this season or not.</i> <i> Craig called me and was like,</i> "Okay, what if we did
the bloater?" Work on the bloater
started quite early on, obviously,
starting with the game <i> and then building models.</i> For the design process
of the bloater, we had all the intentions
in the beginning <i> to shoot the bloater
practically.</i> NOWLAN:<i> We changed the design
in the bloater a little bit</i> from the prosthetic suit, <i> just enough to know that</i> <i>we wouldn't be able to get away
with using the practical bloater</i> <i> and CG bloater
in the same sequence.</i> When he emerged out of the hole,
it was an amazing moment <i> watching such
an iconic character</i> <i>from the game become a reality.</i> DRUCKMANN:<i> I don't know how
to describe this feeling,</i> this feeling of pride
that the set design, <i> the costume design,
the look of the clickers,</i> <i> the sound of the clickers--</i> <i> We worked so hard to make sure
they sounded just like the game.</i> (SCREECHING) <i>I watch it, and I get emotional</i> <i> because it does it justice
and then some.</i> There's something really
beautiful and moving about that. ♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
