Development and writing in 2024
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods began writing
A Quiet Place in January 2016 based on a concept they conceived in college. Platinum Dunes'
Michael Bay had a first-look deal with
Paramount Pictures and showed their script to the studio. Paramount bought the script from the duo. which he read in July. The concept of parents protecting their children appealed to him, especially as his second child with Blunt had recently been born. After reading Beck and Wood's script, Krasinski
pitched his vision of the story to Blunt, who suggested he direct the film. The use of sign language came about when, prior to filming, Simmonds showed Krasinski the
American Sign Language translation for a scene's dialogue, and he found her gestures to be "so much more cinematic than saying the words would've been". Most of the directing Krasinski did with her role was off-screen from the moment she accepted the project. The two worked through the script and discussed the
shots for the film before it went into production, and by the time they got on set they had "done all the collaborating ... all the hard work." The film was produced on a budget of $17 million.
Filming , used as a location in the film The film was shot in 36 days. Filming also took place on the
Wallkill Valley Rail Trail in
New Paltz of Ulster County, using the Springtown Truss Bridge. Outside Dutchess and Ulster counties, filming took place on Main Street in
Little Falls in
Herkimer County, New York.
Sound and music During filming, the crew avoided making noise so
diegetic synchronized sounds (e.g., the sound of rolling dice on a game board) could be recorded; the sounds were amplified in post-production. Supervising sound editors
Erik Aadahl and
Ethan Van der Ryn worked on
A Quiet Place. For scenes from the perspective of the deaf daughter, sound was removed to put greater focus on the visual. They also advised on organizing shots to reflect the creatures' perspective, like showing them noticing a sound, then showing what was causing the sound. Composer
Marco Beltrami provided the sound editors music to work with in a way that would not interfere with the sound design throughout the film. In the film, creatures are blind and communicate through clicking sounds. Aadahl and Van der Ryn said they were inspired by
animal echolocation, such as that employed by bats. The sound of feedback, normally avoided by sound editors, was woven into the story at a loudness level that would not bother audiences too much. For moments in the movie that depict Regan's point of view, Simmonds worked with sound designers to convey what the
cochlear implants in the movie would have sounded like, and what she was able to hear without the implants.
Use of sign language The characters communicate in
American Sign Language (ASL) to avoid making sound, so the filmmakers hired deaf mentor Douglas Ridloff to teach ASL to the actors and to be available to make corrections. They also hired an ASL interpreter for deaf actress Simmonds, so that spoken and signed language could be interpreted back and forth on set. Simmonds grew up with ASL, and she helped teach her fellow actors to sign. She said, "In the movie, we've been signing together for years and years. So it should look fluent." She observed that each character's use of sign language reflected their motivations: the father had short and brief signs which showed his survival mentality, while the mother had more expressive signs as part of wanting her children to experience more than survival. Krasinski said that Simmonds's character used "signing that's very defiant, it's very teenage defiant." Simmonds said that she suggested for the daughter to rebel rather than cower during a sign-language fight with her father. She also said that the script originally had the father sign "I love you" to his daughter at the end of the film, but she suggested for him to follow with "I've always loved you" to make up for their arguing earlier in the film. Producers
Andrew Form and
Bradley Fuller said that they initially planned not to provide on-screen subtitles for sign-language dialogue while providing only "context clues," but they realized that subtitles were necessary for the scene in which the deaf daughter and her hearing father argue about the modified hearing aid. They subsequently added subtitles for all sign-language dialogue in the film.
Creature design Production designer
Jeffrey Beecroft headed the creature design, and
Industrial Light & Magic created the creatures, led by visual effects supervisor
Scott Farrar. The director wanted the creatures to look like they had evolved to no longer need eyes, and to be "somewhat humanoid" in nature. Farrar said the initial creature design showed them with rhinoceros-like horns out of their faces, but later redesigns omitted this because it was not scary enough. Creature designers referenced prehistoric fish, black snakes, and bats, particularly their movement patterns. Inspiration was also drawn from
bog people: cadavers that have been mummified in peat, turning the skin black and giving it a sagging, leathery look." Krasinski provided
motion capture for the creatures. == Marketing ==