Babylon’s wild elephant poop scene took an ungodly amount of work

Following a New York premiere of his film, Babylon, director Damien Chazelle admitted that his jazzy ode to the depraved underbelly of early 20th-century filmmaking was ultimately a “hate letter to Hollywood.” Obviously, he loved cinema — no one gets into movies without passion — but a decade of research into show business’s turbulent transition from silents to talkies left him seething.

“There’s a lot of shit that goes into the industry, into the making [of a movie], and the lives wrecked in order to make this thing,” Chazelle said at the Q&A, “but something comes out of the other end that is undeniable and that humanity will always have to show for itself.”

Chazelle’s interest in “shit that goes into the industry” and “something that comes out of the other end” isn’t just metaphorical. However Babylon weaves together the lives of glamorous movie star types played by Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, the movie’s focus is on Manny (Mexico’s Narcos’s Diego Calva), an immigrant with big-screen dreams who, in the film’s increasingly notorious opening, is dragging an elephant up a hill to a cocaine-fueled party hidden away in the desert hills of Los Angeles. The task of moving an elephant in a truck built from 1920s-era materials is not easy, especially when Manny and his accomplice the wrangler are subject to fecal hell. Chazelle is somewhere in the middle. There will be blood Ace Ventura is the One to Call When Nature CallsHe then takes his camera and follows it into the slurry. It is quite a lot of dung. Everywhere. This is Minute Four of a 189 minute run.

The tone is set by the elephant scene Babylon, a roller-coaster ride that zips through zany set pieces and around dark turns as it interrogates what we really know of the “golden age” of Hollywood. And despite all the work that went into realizing the world of his film, Chazelle couldn’t have imagined what it would take to get the largest-known land animal to spray poop on the camera and cast. It happened safely and one brave stuntman was left saline in the name art.

Image by Paramount Pictures

Damien Chazelle, writer-director: The idea of an elephant attending a party was what I first thought. It felt appropriate as the type of thing that they would sometimes do at parties of this time, with everyone trying to top each other in how outsize and elephantine (excuse the pun) they could make their soirées.

It was then that I found it funny to go backwards from this and ask, literally speaking: How do you get an elephant to a party. Especially if it’s in one of the big castlelike houses at the time, out in the middle of nowhere, up on a hill — it’s as impractical as possible for getting an elephant there. What if all the possible problems do occur? The truck driver for some reason wasn’t aware that he’s transporting an elephant, refuses to, then has to be bribed. They then get the elephant moving, but they must climb a steep hill. Is it possible? Then when it feels like things couldn’t possibly get any worse, well, that’s when the elephant suddenly has a bout of diarrhea.

Linus Sandgren is the director of photography Damien wanted to make the film feel something between. Whiplash La La LandIn the fashion. This was due to the energy. The styles were mixed quite a lot in terms of movement, with both long and short moves. There was also frenetic editing. Whiplash.

Jimmy Ortega, “elephant wrangler”: I was booked on the job for a month, and then one day, a buddy of mine called me and said, “Hey, Jimmy, your scenes are coming up. What do you know about elephants?” I said, “Well, they’re big… I’ve seen them at the circus…” And he goes, “OK, let me talk to the director.” And then he calls me back like a half hour later and goes, “You’re the guy.” So I start doing everything, watching documentaries about elephants, trying to prepare for it, and then I get one more call: “Hey, man, I forgot to tell you, but the elephant’s just gonna shit on you.”

Chazelle: For some reason, everyone thinks back to the past in a gentler, more peaceful, less vibrant colors, sepia. The wildest thing that people did was have too many champagne sips or dance the Charleston with a lot of other people. Ooh! It’s a quaintness that has really warped our perception of what was actually a really transgressive, radical, wild, filthy, insane time. The elephant was then intentionally thrown into camera to make the audience feel at ease.

Sandgren: Some may even leave the theater. That was the topic of our discussion. In the first 15 minutes, we give everyone a lot of what they’re going to get. This is where we establish the humor of the film.

Photo: Scott Garfield/Paramount Pictures

Florencia Martin, production designer: Damien needed the elephant to be 100% realistic. It was so specific.

Chazelle: We couldn’t shoot with an elephant. This elephant was not supposed to be on the screen.

Martin: We cast an elephant as the first, and perhaps most important, thing we did. To find the right fit, we looked at many different elephants from sanctuaries in America. We found one who had a little spot in front, was the right scale — this was supposed to be a circus elephant; they weren’t African — and it was Great casting. We then worked with [Industrial Light and Magic]Amazing! [visual effects supervisor]Jay Cooper was able to capture the elephant in 3D and make Damien’s dream come true.

However, we needed to reduce the size of the elephant within the space. We didn’t want to have a void there; we wanted something for the actors to act against. We worked closely with Gay Perello, our prop master and Ace Eure, the art director to locate all pieces of elephant for puppets and prosthetics.

Arjen Tuiten, prosthetic designer: The first time they called, I asked if the makeup could be done on. Babylon’s Elephant Man-looking guy and the conjoined twins for later scenes. They were then like this. This elephant is also ours. We know it’s not really your cup of tea, but do you want to please take it on, so it’s under one roof? I’m like, Uh, yeah, I’ll do it.

My guys and I went with the visual effects crew to Los Angeles Zoo. We saw one of their favorite elephants. Then we photographed the elephant and started to sculpt. Elia from special effects did the fake urine. The actor had to learn so many things in order to make it safe.

Elia Popov is special effects supervisorMy company [Jem V/X]Builds stunt vehicles. Out of here, there are around 300 stock cars per year. You can find more information here. Babylon, it was our responsibility to manufacture anything that has to be what they call “show action.” So in the case of the opening scene with the elephant truck and all the poop emitting, the truck itself was a picture car, but the elephant box didn’t exist.

Martin: After extensive research into horse trailers from the time, we found that it could be scaled so an elephant can fit behind it without being too uncomfortable. We didn’t want to put an elephant in a situation where it would be completely outside the trailer, and obviously the elephant is much taller than a horse, so we redesigned the truck, which was a Model T, and redesigned the truck bed in a way that our characters would have dismantled it at that time in order to make the elephant fit in. It is now so his legs and butt are in the front, with the back gate pushing forward. We were so impressed to work alongside such skilled artisans.

Popov: Second, Arjen provided the prosthetic and we built a complete system for mounting the elephant butt inside the bed. Next, we created an auger system that would distribute elephant poop.

Sandgren: They later added CG skin to the green-screen buck, but it was still there and could shit.

Tuiten: The behind was sculpted and we then did 2 different… uses? You could probably call them this. These were created from soft silicone, which was a light layer. They needed to be reinforced.

Martin: Elia actually reconstructed an elephant’s guts using a very basic method in order to make our elephant poop push through the anus precisely and propel forward.

Popov: We do the Kids’ Choice Awards, where they slime the kids, and actually used those pumping systems because they can move substances with the viscosity of butter. That was the only system that wouldn’t aerate the liquid. You couldn’t pump it with a traditional pump; the poop would look like froth by the time you did it. These large pressurized vessels have big valves, big hoses, and augers to distribute the poop according to your needs.

Martin: Elia had put up an elephant outside the shop for testing purposes. The entire movie effects equipment was surrounded us, including an elephant that shot projectiles onto road crash-dummies.

Illustration: Apple

Popov: The hardest thing was the poop.

Martin: This material was very difficult to find so that it could projectile and have the right color. The process required many recipes.

Popov: There were many testing with various textures and different camera angles. They needed to texture it in a particular way when they looked at it with backlighting. If it was lit from the front, it would be another. We had to make the whole thing biodegradable as we were working in California’s desert. Also, we needed to maintain the ground, so we could only use food grade stuff that was safe and not dangerous. All natural dyes and no chemicals. Oatmeal base.

To be able to see the first poopball emerge, the actual opening of rectum needed to look realistic. [the anus]It was necessary to be flexible and let it happen. This took both our teams a while. Arjen was able to create us at least four variations of this silicone area. The bladder. The ball was released by the bladder.

Martin: Damien’s feedback was so precise and entertaining. He’d say, “The elephant would be stressed. He’s distressed, he’s riding through this road on this truck, and it’s not very hot. So maybe he doesn’t feel very well.” We needed a mix of normal poop, but also diarrhea.

Popov: Damien once wanted to insert a shot of steaming his poop. The dry ice was crushed into small poop balls. When they hit the ground, the steam would rise a bit from the water in the slimy poop.

Chazelle: We could use the feces in any way we wanted. The MPA doesn’t care about animal excrement. Only one scene in which we needed to negotiate was the later peeing scene, inspired by Fatty Arbuckle.

Martin: Poop balls were made from sawdust that Michael Diersing (our construction coordinator) collected from every set build. There were just bags after bags upon bags of sawdust.

Popov: I owe so much to Ace and Flo, the art department. The poop came out of our factory perfectly because they were there. Do you have any idea of a production that would take on the most difficult job in the film and work hands-on?

Martin: This was an extremely difficult task, so we were determined to make it a successful one. Then, as with everything else. BabylonBecause we were working at such a large scale there weren’t enough hands. Elia was probably with a 10 person team; Ace, my assistant and May Mitchell were our art directors; Gay was the prop master. However, I am not lying: We made elephant pellets all day long, despite having just collected a truckload of solid waste two days prior. It was impossible to have enough.

Image by Paramount Pictures

Chazelle: During the shoot, the two most photoreal things that were camera ready — where VFX didn’t have to do that much to augment them — were the sort of orifice of the anus and what comes out of the anus, and the trunk, which an amazing makeup effects artist designed.

Tuiten: The trunk is actually my arm and Ron Binion’s, one of the puppeteers. It’s basically made out of foam latex, which is something that’s been around forever. We didn’t mold it; we casted it. Then it’s basically my arm slapping that actor in the face.

J.C. Currais, “truck driver”: Damien was right behind me during the driving scene. Although it was an elaborate stunt, I felt that we were simply having fun. He was clearly having fun as the elephant trunk puppeteer.

Tuiten: With puppets, that’s where you get those happy accidents.

Currais: The best part is, the whole time we’re on set, Damien keeps going, “He’s not dirty enough! More elephant slime!” He wanted it to be grimy. All that goop you can see on my face, is K-Y Jelly.

Sandgren: The expression was always meant to be pumped up. It should be hot in the desert, so we overexposed it. We also push-processed film stock and let it sit dark at night. It’s more expressive and more outside of the safety box than I normally would have done.

Currais: It was hot that day. It was hot. There were also lots of elephant poop. He was a great stuntman. We did the same thing twice, but he had to do a quick switch each time. It was great fun for all of us.

Ortega: They showed me what’s in the poop, and the poop is hay, and there’s maíz, like stuff they use for tamales — they had all kinds of concoctions in there. I saw the buckets and I said, “Wow, they really got a lot of buckets.” I didn’t realize they were gonna use it all on me.

Sandgren: We didn’t know the consistency of what would come out. It was actually very funny because sometimes it came like chunks, and sometimes it’s just water or whatever.

Ortega: So I’m watching the [elephant poop machine] test and counting the speed, and I’ve got in my mind that the shot will be just a few seconds. So great, now we set up the real thing, they call action, and the shit starts coming out.

Image by Paramount Pictures

Sandgren: The moment should feel chaotic and not be rushed. If you’re in war, like in The Private Ryan Savings, and you get a blood splatter on the lens, it’s… well, it’s fucking awesome. It was so simple.

Ortega: My mind went: Wow! This should all be done in a flash.And it continued on for like a minute. Man, a minute is an eternity.

Sandgren: That was what I thought the public needed. It was very gross.

Tuiten: I think we wound up with something that was realistic but not… off-putting.

Sandgren: Damien is also a master at cutting, and it kept on going. He was just too soaked.

Ortega: Damien was yelling at me like, “Scream! Scream!” But I couldn’t hear him. My ears were full of shit; I couldn’t hear anything. So the camera assistant is tapping me saying, “Jimmy, they want you to scream like you’re frustrated.” And yeah, I was frustrated — it just kept coming down! You can cut it! You know what, though? I’ve worked with a lot of great directors. This was an amazing experience.

Popov: We all returned home at the end of our day and everybody was changing their clothes, as we had been covered. You couldn’t avoid it. It was splattering everywhere, and you’re doing take after take. It seems like I’ve just toss my shoes.

Chazelle: I don’t know if I ever felt 100% sure that [the tone of Babylon]They would be able to work together. The idea came together organically. It felt almost like a farce to me as I read stories or stumbled upon funny anecdotes. It was because the lives of those people were so intense and extreme at the time, with the high levels of alcohol consumption, the damage caused by parties, or making films that made it seem like this combination of styles would be the best language to do justice the the entire world.

Popov: Damien had a very clear vision of what he desired. […]This gag took the longest time to prepare and test. For the big explosions and battlefield scenes, there were a few tests. Damien then picked the perfect amount of color for the dirt. However, none of these gags needed as many details as the elephant poop gag.

Ortega: People might say, “Hey that’s the shitty guy from the movie.” But I like to think of myself as, Hey, that guy’s the shit.