SPOILERS for Silo season 2.Siloseason 2 greatly expanded the world, characters, and stakes of the post-apocalypse. Following Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) to an entirely different underground bunker while simultaneously exploring the beginnings of a rebellion in the familiar Silo 18, the series’ second outing allowed audiences to dive into multiple storylines before yanking them all back where it all began. Also diving into the unknown was Juliette herself, who spent part of one episode (season 2 episode 7 “The Dive”) underwater, on a quest to escape an abandoned silo in time to save her own.
The revelatory story naturally came with challenges, but viewers were guided through the season to whatScreenRant’sSiloseason 2 reviewcalled a “boiling point” in part by cinematographer Baz Irvine. Irvine, also known for his work onManhunt, MobLand,andInvasion,was the director of photography for four episodes ofSiloseason 2. He introduced the season as a whole through his work on episodes 1 and 2 (“The Engineer” and “Order”), explored the Silo 18 rebellion in episode 6 (“Barricades”), and dipped his feet into underwater filmmaking with episode 7 “The Dive”.)
ScreenRantspoke with Baz Irvine about his work as director of photography on themystery-filledSiloseason 2. Irvine discussed the biggest swings of the season, especially the giant underwater tank that was built and decorated for Juliette’s intense episode 7 diving sequence. Plus, the DOP shared the reasons why, despite clear affection for the show and pride in his work, he moved on rather than return for season 3.
Why Silo Season 2 Drove Baz Irvine “Slightly Crazy”
“You Have To Question If You’re The Right Person”
Speaking with Baz Irvine, it was immediately apparent that the director of photography had plenty of affection for the series. He excitedly discussed story points, shared the opportunities that only a show like the Apple TV+ sci-fi drama could provide, and praised the work ethic of #1 on the call sheet Rebecca Ferguson. But he also revealed why he didn’t return forSiloseason 3.
“It was such an incredibly long stint, season two,”Irvine shared, continuing,“I was the lead DOP, so I came in 12 weeks early to do prep. I also had to contend with COVID, the actors’ strike, [and] the writers’ strike. And what happened was, what would’ve been about a nine-month commitment–which was already a really long commitment–ended up being 15 months.”
“Also, a lot of that time was spent in subterranean sets going slightly crazy due to lack of sunlight.”
“I think I had the scurvy, or one of those old-fashioned diseases,”Irvine laughed, adding,“When you do a stint like that, you have to question if you’re the right person for the project to go forward next time. And I think Silo is a great example of a show where it probably does actually benefit [to have] a new set of eyes and a new DOP come in, just to mark the difference and variation you need from season to season to make a show progress. That was my rationale, and also, I wanted to experience some other things.”
He did share good news forSilofans, though:“Three is actually just finished.But, interestingly I met the director, Michael Dinner, who I worked with on season two … he made the decision to stay on and do season three and season four, [and] they’re actually about to start season four.”
How The Look Of Silo 17 Was Created
And How The Actors Strike Actually Helped Silo Season 2
Juliette spentSiloseason 2 in the strange, yet totally familiar, land of Silo 17. After the season opening introduced 17 as a tumultuous dystopia in the midst of rebellion, Juliette stumbled upon it after stepping over hundreds of the bodies of “successful” revolters. Long before that, Baz Irvine, the production designers, and the rest of the filmmaking team found ways to make Silo 17 distinct from Juliette’s home.“Just by showing graffiti and some murals on the wall,”Irvine said,“it set up this notion that this other silo had evolved, and it’s identical, but with a different culture.”
That opening sequence–the one with“the son of the sheriff who comes running down the corridors with the torch”–established the living Silo 17, but then more consideration was taken when showing it after it became (mostly) uninhabited.“The biggest thing that we talked about and tested at length,”Irvine shared,“was ‘How dark do we go?’”
“At one point the writers were [like], ‘She walks into somewhere that’s pitch black,’ and it was like, ‘Well, it can’t be pitch black.’”
“My logic,”the DOP said,“was that if this silo had been desolate for 25 [or] 30 years, maybe there would be some light–some bulkhead emergency fittings that would still glow, [or that] the overhead light in the silo was glowing, but only at twenty percent of its capacity, and it had gone green in the years of decay …you’ve got to make it feel immediately familiar but also recognizably different, so that when you jump between the silos–which is quite a lot–you have something distinctive to show you that this is a different world.”
But it wasn’t a different world at all. Aside from select additional builds (like Silo 17’s pump rooms), Silo 17 was made from the exact same set as Silo 18, meaning most of the Silo 18 storyline had to be filmed first.“The weirdest thing,”Irvine said on that front,“was that we shot all of the original silo, and on the last day of shooting the original silo, the actor strike happened. We had to stop for three months, which gave the art department time to flip the original silo into Silo 17.”
“[The original silo got] a massive art department breakdown of fracking pillars and tearing bridges out. It was pretty brutal. It got a right old thrashing.”
Silo’s Seemingly Infinite Staircase Is Actually Very Finite
“You’ve Got To Run Little Sections And Repeat It”
While Juliette faces the depths and darkness of Silo 17 (more on that in a moment), a rebellion brews in her hometown. The Silo 18 rebellion, which is highlighted in episodes like “Barricades”, puts a lot of action on the silo’s massive staircase, which was revealed to be a true feat of movie magic when Irvine shared that“effectively, the set we have is is one floor, with that particular barricade sequence.”
For multi-level mayhem, Irvine revealed that“when you see [things] off at the top, you do go to the blue screen, and when you see below, you go to blue screen.”And although the DOP did work to ensure everything in frame was practical with shots like“people looking at people through the barricades,”in wider shots,“you are panning off a bit of action that doesn’t even exist yet, or tilting down from a bit of action that doesn’t exist yet.”
“And, obviously, we’ve only got that one spiral staircase, and [in] the barricade sequences, there’s quite a lot of running up the [stairs.] It’s quite funny. You’ve got to run little sections and repeat.”
The Massive Endeavor Of Creating Silo 17’s Water Sequences, Explained
“We Built … The Third Biggest Indoor Tank In Europe”
Early inSiloseason 2, Juliette falls into the waters of a slowly-flooding Silo 17. And while the production attempted to shoot at Pinewood Studios’ underwater stage, Irvine said,“We realized we needed a substantial area of water that was a bit more controllable, that we could fill to the height that we required.”So, they built their own,“which, I think, instantly became the third biggest indoor tank in Europe, or something like that,”Irvine said,“and we built the staircase [she climbs out on] in the middle of that.”
“Once she’s fallen into the water, from that point on, the water is a big character in the show.”
“So,”Irvine shared,“to have an asset that goes into the water saves so much VFX and work. That was incredible. I think the special effects supervisor was like, ‘What if we just build a massive tank?’ and literally four weeks later, the guys are just riveting these huge metal panesl, making the biggest paddling pool you have ever seen in your life … it was brilliant to be part of a project where you could be there for the kind of genesis of those ideas and then see them through to fruition. It was kind of magical.”
Although it didn’t fit the bill for Juliette’s fall into the water, the Pinewood set was perfect for other underwater scenes, especially in episode 7, “The Dive”.“The whole idea of shooting in water, underwater, [and] on the surface of the water,”Irvine said,“took up a massive [amount of] time in terms of testing and theorizing what would work. We went to Pinewood for a week, where we just tested ideas.”
At Pinewood, different challenges arose.“‘What would it look like if somebody was pulling themselves out of the water on a rope?’”Irvine gave as an example, continuing,“‘But, actually, the pool’s not very deep, so what if we put the rope diagonally across the length of the pool and had somebody … tile the camera around?’ In other words, ‘How do we create the sections we [need?]’”
In bringing the underwater sequences to life, the production had one more key asset: Rebecca Ferguson.“It became clear that Rebecca wanted to do the stunts herself,”Irvine revealed, adding,“not all of them, but [she wanted] to be very proactive. You remember there was an incredible sequence in one of the Mission: Impossible films where she held her breath underwater, so she’s a veteran.”
So, the DOP shared,“Rebecca came and did some underwater tests, and then it became clear that she was totally up for doing anything. And also, [she’s] incredibly confident underwater in a way I would never be. You almost take it for granted, but it’s a really hard thing to do, to work in that environment.”
Irvine shared some of the difficulties inherent in such work, like choosing different-sized lenses“because the water magnifies the image,”using two cameras at once because the time it took to change lenses out-of-water“was prohibitively [slow],”and the fact that“there are restrictions about how long people can be underwater.”Ferguson herself, he shared, was usually underwater for“maybe like five minutes”at a time, maximum.
Story-wise, Irvine said,“The bigger thing was to work out the logic of the air pipe. I know it suspends disbelief a little bit, but I think we just tried to make everything have an internal logic so that even though it would be hard to have a pipe with the air pump that we had and [be] totally credible, I think because we worked out all the mechanics of how it would work–how long it had to be, how much she would have to carry–[and] because all of that was logical, I think you believe the sequence.”
The Unique Challenges Of Crafting Silo’s IT Rooms
“We Talked At Length About What It Would Look Like”
In addition to the introduction of a brand new silo,Siloseason 2 gave viewers a closer look at the most secretive rooms in both habitats. Irvine shared how the looks of the IT rooms were conceived, beginning with Silo 18.“I think in season one, at one point, you see Tim Robbins’ character running through a door, which poses the question, ‘What was beyond it?’ You never get beyond the corridor in the IT level. So we talked at length [about what was there.]”
“The two things that we needed to convey were that kind of retro look–that bleak, brutalist, concrete bunker look–[of] the rest of the silo, but [also that] somehow, when you went past that door, you’d open a portel to technology that was instantly not familiar with what we know of the silo, but familiar to the audience. Because, obviously, for the silo to make sense, there had to be a high-tech component for what was beyond the door.”
But that was just the beginning, because“of course, we’re not seeing it in our silo; we’re seeing it in the silo that’s been kind of empty for 30 years.”Irvine and co.“talked at length about the algorithm room, which is the room that Steve Zahn [is in,]”he shared,“and once we’d established that room, which was the most high-tech space, that was the point where we did reference other more contemporary sci-fi films.”
“Then,”the DOP said,“we [had] to do a scene where Tim Robbins in Silo 18 has a scene in a similar room. So, everything had to work on a basis of, ‘What would it look like if it was fully functioning?’and‘What would it look like if it had been unloved for 30 years?’”
“We kept those curved shapes and quite a lot of stonework in the algorithm room,because it still had to have some sort of retro element to make it feel like it was [not] another world, but a portal to the [knowledge] you needed to decipher the silo.”
Irvine won’t be involved inSiloseason 3, but the show will likely return in late 2025 or early 2026.
Siloseasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Apple TV+.
