Watch ‘Silo’ VFX Supervisor Daniel Rauchwerger Discuss Creating That Spiral Staircase & The People Who Walk On It – Visual Effects + Screen

UPDATED with video: Before VFX supervisor Daniel Rauchwerger began his work on Apple TV+’s Silo, he was told the actual silo should be treated like a character — not a massive structure where 10,000 people are forced to live.

“The design was one open space, so very quickly, we treated it as one room,” Rauchwerger, whose credits include Inception and John Carter, said at Deadline’s Visual Effects + Screen event. “Every time you look up, down and sideways, you see the next room. One of the main things that became a challenge was bringing all those people to life, just living their lives.”

Based on Hugh Howey’s trilogy of dystopian novels, Silo is the story of the last 10,000 people on Earth, whose mile-deep home protects them from the toxic and deadly world outside. However, no one knows when or why the silo was built, and any who try to find out face fatal consequences. Rebecca Ferguson stars as Juliette, an engineer who seeks answers about a loved one’s murder and tumbles onto a mystery that goes far deeper than she could have ever imagined, leading her to discover that if the lies don’t kill you, the truth will. 

The core of Silo‘s set is the massive spiral staircase. Working from a set in London, Rauchwerger said a flurry of effects were created for the steps, like the morning and evening rush hours of people and the different floors where people work, sleep and farm. A great deal of effort was put into what Rauchwerger describes as “crowd captures.”

It’s not so easy, it seems, to create people who are constantly walking on a curved line. But he relished the opportunity. “When I read a script, Silo offered something a bit different,” he said. “Other movies have explosive effects. If I’m doing my work right, no one will know I was there.”

Apple TV+ has renewed the sci-fi thriller series for a second season. It was created by Emmy-nominated screenwriter Graham Yost, who also serves as showrunner. Joining Ferguson in the ensemble cast are Common, Harriet Walter, Chinaza Uche, Avi Nash, David Oyelowo, Rashida Jones and Tim Robbins.

Check out the panel video above.