Between the sniper, militia members, Clickers and a Bloater, the fifth episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us” delivered an intense action sequence set around a rundown suburban cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Kansas City.
The makers of the show have spoken about the creation of this militia vs. infected battle sequence, revealing it took four weeks of night shoots in the harsh Calgary weather of high winds and random snow in order to pull off everything in the scene which was shot in a parking lot that was converted into a massive (and expensive) outdoor set.
Sixteen houses in various states of disrepair were created across the space of around 1.5 acres with a road leading into them, a small fleet of wrecked cars which was then demolished by a plow, and the plow itself had to crash, explode and fall into a sink-hole before a horde of fungus-ridden people emerge and start tearing the soldiers apart.
Speaking with Slashfilm, cinematographer Eben Bolter calls the sequence “probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to light in my life” and required the team to create an entirely new lighting system that would also work in the Calgary and wind which could get up to 100 miles per hour.
They used four grids of 100 lights each on huge cranes to create a soft toplight effect along with hard backlights circling the set “like a football stadium” allowing the ability to backlight the cast and avoid the “Game of Thrones” problem of night scenes that are too dark.
Production designer John Paino reveals to the outlet that the tunnels sequence wasn’t a set, they found those tunnels underneath a beer brewery. That includes the daycare center which had the crew painting all the murals, and dressing as a settlement.
The fifth episode was released early on HBO Max on Friday and is available now. For those who don’t have access to the SVOD service, the linear broadcast will still take place on Sunday night as per usual.
