A deep dive into new movie Whalefall

How do you turn polystyrene, timber, giant inflatables and glow-in-the-dark fabric into a convincing trip inside a whale? 

That was the rather unusual making challenge behind our Whalefall project.

Whalefall is a film about a scuba diver who’s been swallowed by an eighty-foot sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out. 

To celebrate the film's Premier in London's Leicester Square earlier this month, we created a giant sculpted whale’s head with a walk-through tunnel designed to recreate the inside of a whale's stomach. 

Our talented team sculpted the whale's head from polystyrene and brought it to life with carefully layered paint techniques. There were two important jobs to get right. The first was capturing the distinctive shape and character of a sperm whale, complete with intense, watchful eyes. The second was to create an enormous open mouth that people could pose inside!

Getting the shape right was only half the battle. The paintwork had to do just as much heavy lifting. Rather than relying on a single coat of colour, the finish was built up in layers, using variations in tone and shading to create depth, definition and a more convincing skin-like appearance. Each layer helped develop the overall finish, bringing out the contours of the sculpture and making the surface feel more lifelike. 

The walk-through stomach called for a completely different set of skills. Instead of sculpting one large object, we needed to create an entire environment, something enclosed and immersive but also fun and inviting

We began with a timber frame to establish the underlying structure and then added giant inflatables. These introduced the rounded, irregular forms that gave the interior its distinctive character and were designed make visitors feel like they were squeezing through the large intestines of a whale's stomach.

Then came the fabric and lighting. We covered the entire installation in glow-in-the-dark fabric and UV lights were incorporated throughout the space. 

Projects like this show how varied the work at Plunge can be. One part of the installation called for sculptural judgement and detailed finishing while another needed careful planning and an understanding of how lighting and surfaces interact. 

The result brought a carefully sculpted whale’s head and a fully immersive interior together for the premiere, giving guests a centrepiece to pose with and a glowing environment to explore.