section_path: Design and effects/Birth of Sue
section_name: Birth of Sue
paragraph_text: Birth of Sue
  
  Early in production, without life casts or scans from the actresses, Persin created and filmed a 30 cm maquette of the back opening to send to Fargeat for her approval. This enabled him to begin work on the scene.
  
  Persin initially believed the prosthetic designs in the bathroom would be visually enhanced by moody lighting, akin to The Howling or Dario Argento 's films. However, he would learn this was not the case, as he explained: "At first, I asked Coralie, I said, in the bathroom, because lots of things happen in the bathroom, are we going to have a nice something a bit dark and with shadows and to hide a little bit of the silicone and all that. And she was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cut to the white tiles."
  
  For the birthing scene, Persin used a combination of prosthetics on body doubles and puppetry, which relied on two faceless, hyper-realistic silicone dummies that took between 1 and 1.5 months to construct. The entire sequence was shot with practical effects, with the exception of the close up of the eye splitting. Shots of the back splitting were achieved with the dummies on a raised set, operated by 5–6 puppeteers below while Fargeat directed from under the set or nearby. For the stitching of the back, Persin alternated between a dummy and a prosthetic applied directly to the actresses' skin. Careful attention was paid to the realism of the skin: the pores and cellulite were meticulously crafted, while layers of various colors: reds, yellows, greens, blues, and ochres — were applied in a pointillist method, as no single paint color can replicate a natural skin tone, according to Persin. One challenge was avoiding giving the skin a "too rubbery or too elastic" appearance, so the team designed a prosthetic with soft material, but stiffer wound edges to make the needle weaving through the skin appear more realistic. The spine scar and other prosthetics were applied to Moore, two stunt doubles and two body doubles."
  
  Early in production, without life casts or scans from the actresses, Persin created and filmed a 30 cm maquette of the back opening to send to Fargeat for her approval. This enabled him to begin work on the scene.
  
  Persin initially believed the prosthetic designs in the bathroom would be visually enhanced by moody lighting, akin to The Howling or Dario Argento 's films. However, he would learn this was not the case, as he explained: "At first, I asked Coralie, I said, in the bathroom, because lots of things happen in the bathroom, are we going to have a nice something a bit dark and with shadows and to hide a little bit of the silicone and all that. And she was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cut to the white tiles."
  
  For the birthing scene, Persin used a combination of prosthetics on body doubles and puppetry, which relied on two faceless, hyper-realistic silicone dummies that took between 1 and 1.5 months to construct. The entire sequence was shot with practical effects, with the exception of the close up of the eye splitting. Shots of the back splitting were achieved with the dummies on a raised set, operated by 5–6 puppeteers below while Fargeat directed from under the set or nearby. For the stitching of the back, Persin alternated between a dummy and a prosthetic applied directly to the actresses' skin. Careful attention was paid to the realism of the skin: the pores and cellulite were meticulously crafted, while layers of various colors: reds, yellows, greens, blues, and ochres — were applied in a pointillist method, as no single paint color can replicate a natural skin tone, according to Persin. One challenge was avoiding giving the skin a "too rubbery or too elastic" appearance, so the team designed a prosthetic with soft material, but stiffer wound edges to make the needle weaving through the skin appear more realistic. The spine scar and other prosthetics were applied to Moore, two stunt doubles and two body doubles."