All language subtitles for the.last.of.us.s01e00.making.of.the.last.of.us.1080p.web.h264-bigdoc[eztv.re]

One of the things that we
talked about for a while...

"How do you start this show?"

It was an enormous
undertaking for everyone.

I wouldn't want it to deliver
CG pew-pew,

but to deliver... reality.

Two, one, action!

Negative degree temperatures,

with the wind machine
going like this...

Yeah, so that was hard.

And fun. It was so fun.

The amount of detail
is incredible.

The color schemes, the textures,
how things would flourish.

There's everything on this show.

From big scopes of airplanes
to smaller tendrils.

You're immediately
just so immersed in

The Last of Us world.

Shooting in Canada,
we're not doing anything small.

It was quite the endeavor.

I remember
when the game came out,

there were so many people saying,

"This needs to be made into
a live action."

I was in conflict with it at first because
I was like, "We've already done it.

We've shot it, we've performed it,
we've edited it.

Why do we need to go in
and do this again?"

Neil said,
"At the end of the day,

there are people out there that will
never pick up a controller,

and they will never experience
this story.

And I think our story is special enough
to bring it to them."

The HBO series,

uh, I don't remember
when I first heard about it,

but when I did, I was like,
"Mommy want that."

'Cause I knew it was gonna
be spectacular,

especially when I heard that
it was a collaboration

and that Neil would also
be involved.

When you're casting
these iconic characters,

these characters are iconic
in a cinematic way already.

So now, it's like,

we need to find someone
that can elevate it

or make it their own
in a really interesting way

so it doesn't feel like
they're just duplicating

this other medium.

I learned very quickly

the massive fanbase
that I was stepping into.

I called my sister

to tell her about
the possibility of the job.

And she was in the car
with my nephews.

I didn't even get the S and T
out from the word "Last"

when I said it.

"There's this job,
it's based on a video game.

It's called The La... "

And they were like,
"The Last of Us?!"

And I was like, okay,
I definitely have to do this.

I was actually
advised not to play the game,

so that I wouldn't try
and like copy

Ashley Johnson's version
of Ellie, which is incredible.

But I just watched
some of the gameplay though,

secretly, on my own.

When I met Bella
for the first time,

I was so excited because, obviously,

I'd seen her in Game of Thrones.

And seeing her in person

and even just seeing her on set
and doing scenes,

she has the essence
of Ellie already in her.

Seven, eight, fuck... you.

What's incredible
about what they've done

with these scripts,

was to be able to explore
and nourish things that I think

are very much a part
of the experience of the game.

One of those things

is the internal life
of these characters.

And to really get into the flesh

of what's happening
inside of them.

You want to know what
the biggest surprise

of adapting The Last of Us is?

It's the Neil Druckmann,

the genius who made the game
in the first place,

who created this story,
these characters,

the whole world,

he was so generous
and flexible and smart

about how to re-present
The Last of Us

in a different format
to a whole new audience.

The scientific vision
that the show presents to people

is based absolutely in reality.

That fungus is real,
it does those things to insects,

and if it were to be able
to infect humans,

it would go like that.

It's terrifying.

We want people to feel
the reality of the science here.

Cordyceps, it's a fungus.

And what that fungus does

is it attaches to the brain stem
of an ant,

takes motor control
of the ant's body,

and then attacks the rest
of the ant colony,

spreading the disease
and devouring the other ants.

Fungus is a funny word,

but there's so much more of it
than we realize.

Pretty much anywhere
you see grass,

there's fungus
right underneath it.

They're connected.

More than you know.

One of the changes
that Neil and I felt

we needed to make early on

was the way the fungus
would spread.

We loved the idea of biting.

We thought that
that was primal and violent.

But we started looking at
something called mycelium,

which are these threads
that make up fungus.

And those threads,

if they get into an insect,
for instance,

that's what starts
to worm its way

towards the insect's brain.

Barrie Gower and his team
did this beautiful work

to mesh humans
and fungus together.

Initially, we'd created various
practical tendrils,

which was basically
like a dental plate

that we had inside
the infected character's mouth,

which had all these little
silicon cords joined to.

As soon as you pulled away,

everything started to...

Practically, it looked great.

I think the reality of it

was going to be
the resettability on the day.

Having huge, big fungal pieces
all over the head,

as soon as you took
the eyebrows away,

you started veering into
zombie territory.

When it has
more of a human side,

more of a beautiful side,
it makes it even scarier.

As a person,
you can relate to it more.

From an infected point of view,

we had the first-stage infected.

Very shortly after
they've been bitten,

there's a lot of redness,

a lot of tenderness
around the skin.

Stage two, tiny little things
start breaking through the skin.

They're a bit like the cordyceps
you actually see on ants

or spiders when they've
taken over by the fungus.

Stage three is a slightly bigger
version of that

where you've got real mushrooms
that you can begin to see.

Until you get to stage five,

where the head shape
is distorting.

Just basically
breaks through the cranium

and just splits the skull
down the front,

and you have these huge
sort of blooms,

these sort of petals.

No, I didn't want
to look at them.

I didn't want that in my head
to go home and sleep,

and then you have to be kind of,

you're like, "Hi! How are you?"

And it's not just kind of
what they look like,

it's the physicality
and the way that they move

is what makes them so creepy.
But impressive.

Not just the prosthetic, obviously,

but the inhabiting of it.

Coming from visual effects,

I think the clicker performances
can be quite challenging

just 'cause
they're very specific.

He just had this really
amazing performance

and movement study to him.

Those are the type of things

that is quite difficult
to reproduce digitally.

These are a lot of our
very early concept and busts.

We're following real reference
and real nature

of real fungus
and real mushrooms.

And just down to the shapes
of the petals.

Underneath, you've got all these slits
which are called "gills,"

and we always had to make sure
that the orientation

was as such that all the gills
were facing downwards.

And occasionally,

you'd have a piece which
looked really, really great,

but the mushroom's
around the wrong way,

so it's just like...

Just move that over
a little bit.

The sound of the clickers,

we worked so hard to make sure
they sounded just like the game.

Why don't we try some

good, old-fashioned
clicking in the dark?

Yeah.

Let me just practice a few
so we can make sure...

Yeah, sure.

Misty was the originator
of the sound itself,

and she did these amazing
like throat sounds,

which were like, "That's it!"

And they were like, "Now we gotta find
somebody who can do it too, like a guy."

- Right.
- And then I was like, "I figured it out."

Mr. and Mrs. Clicker.
The original.

The Adam and Eve of clicking.

- Yeah.
- It's also here, like...

I think it's that first
little bit, right?

It's just the initial...

Which I think isn't bad here,
I just want the real thing.

- Sure.
- Let's do some clicking.

- That was good stuff. I like that.
- Thank you.

I love sound, but it's like...

I don't actually think
I've ever had anything like this

where there was somebody
who knew

how to do this
incredibly specific thing,

and I have the incredibly
specific thing people

doing the incredi...
Oh, this is so cool.

All right, I think
it might be time

to go to the bullpen
and bring in the ol' lefty.

Oh, that was a good one.

Yeah, that was a good one!

- I was back here going, "Oh!"
- That felt juicy.

When we made the game,

we don't make any
physical things,

it's all digital.

It's all two-dimensional
on the screen.

The first time I walked on set,
it was Joel's house.

There's Sarah's room,
there's their living room,

there's the sheets
that are just like the game.

And you already got to see
the love this crew had

for the original material.

And I was like
emotionally moved by it.

The sets have just
been so fucking incredible.

I mean, you just
don't even appreciate it

until you're in the space
that you can like,

just fucking shoot things in 360

because everything
is like magic.

In the practical shooting of it,

there was strangely little
left to the imagination

because of the quality
of its production.

The game is beautifully realized

and has a beautiful tone
and story.

The Last of Us
is about a journey,

going across the United States.

And so, having that variety
of landscape

really helps make it feel
as authentic as possible.

Fort Macleod was a good stand-in
for Austin, Texas.

We really tried
to go to town there with neon.

Colors you wouldn't see
once the infection starts.

The QZ, that was a challenge
to make the wall.

You know,
built it out of actual concrete

and I could have people
walk on it.

I think it really lended a lot
to the realism of things.

Edmonton was a key
for the statehouse.

The Fireflies' set was stunning.

'Cause now we're outside the QZ,
it's way more run down.

When we're going
through the tunnel,

like the underground,
and up to the office,

and we're standing behind,
about to get through the door,

and I look down,

and there's like
little sesame seeds

to look like mouse poo
on the ground.

The detail is, like,
from this to like...

That you put that there,
I just...

It's... It's... It's just amazing!

They created a village!
I mean...

Bill's town, the way it was written
was very particular.

The action involved
and the look of the town

and the feel of the town.

And I kind of had
in the back of my mind

that this location existed

after the floods in High River
in 2013.

It's on the... kind of
the wrong side of the berm,

and they had to tear
all the homes down.

And what was left was
all the streets

and the sidewalks
and the infrastructure.

There's a town here, Canmore,

that stood in quite nicely
for Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

This is a town
that's self-sufficient.

My favorite part of that

was building the paddock
and the stables and everything

in the parking lot
right in the middle of town.

I was just like,

"There's the bank!
There's a zoo! Lights!"

I was like...
I was like... Everything was...

I was like,
"They got everything!"

I was really impressed
with our production design.

Everything was just so faithful
to the game,

and so detailed and specific.

But the mall was, I think, one of the
most amazing sets there is.

You know,
we had to get a carousel,

we had to do a Halloween store,

we had to do
a Victoria's Secret store.

Even though this was
an abandoned mall before,

the authenticity
of what the mall looks like,

it's really cool.

Plants growing
everywhere, there's algae.

It's just a mess.

This location has been perfect
to shoot in

because they were gonna
tear down this mall anyway.

So, that's given
the amazing art department

like free reign
to completely destroy it

and make it their own.

So, as soon as we finish this,
like, this mall is gone.

And let's cut.

Okotoks, the challenge was

that we needed
a cul-de-sac neighborhood

to situate
this big action scene.

And it's actually a bit freaky,
in terms of how perfect it fits

within the visuals
within the game.

When we scouted,
it was exactly what we wanted.

We had extreme winds
where literally,

you could almost...
you couldn't stand up.

When Craig was there, I mean, it was
just like, "This is what I wrote."

And that's the best compliment
you can get.

We went to Waterton
because it was known to have

a massive amount of snow.

And what happened was,
there was no snow.

There was drifts
up against some buildings,

but all the roads,
all the grass,

everywhere that you looked,
the snow was gone.

You couldn't bring in snow
from outside the park.

I had to use
whatever was in the town.

So in three days,
we did 350 dump trucks of snow.

Shoveling, brooming,
raking, snow blowers

to cover ten city blocks.

That night, it snowed.

There was a day of shooting,
and we were out in the elements,

and there was snow everywhere,

and we were on the side
of a mountain,

and it was really cold,

and there was a trek
through the snow.

And there were three or four
house-sized wind machines.

I loved it. I love it.
I wanna go back.

How do you want it?

- For me.
- Sí, for you.

Gustavo Santaolalla,
our composer,

has such a different way
of working.

The way I worked with Gustavo,

starting with the game

and now continuing
with the show,

is pitch him the story.

I think Gustavo as well
is very much about minimalism.

Like what's the least
we need to do

to achieve this moment?

Which is very much mine
and Craig's philosophy as well.

The whole thing in the music
of The Last of Us from what I do

is to preserve
this organic element.

Kind of minimalism
because I have to play less.

The pipes, the cans, all that
has a little bit to do with

the reality of
a post-disaster world

of found objects, broken things.

But it's very organic.

It's almost like
in primitive folk instrument.

Like a modern primitive folk.

The beginning, you know,
was trying to find

how do we translate the language
from the game to the series,

but I think we have found now
something that kind of flows.

He would go off,

and he's come back with
an hour or more of music.

And we'd just
sit here listening.

And he's just like, "Here's this moment
that you talked about

that has inspired this theme.

And that's very much what
it's like working with Gustavo.

It's like starting with a lot

and then continuing
to trim it down, trim it down,

and find the right elements
and how they fit.

There's stuff that was created
for the game

that you can just take it
and put it,

and it works fantastic.

Which, for me, says a lot also
about what they have done

'cause it means
that there is a connection

between the game
and what the series is.

Visual effects
is a big part of this show.

Every shot that we shoot

needs to be touched in some way
by visual effects.

There's such an effort
to really push the boundaries

on both what is practical
and what is a visual effect.

Right from the get-go,

the impetus was to try and do
as much practical as possible.

Alex understands
that the dovetail

between practical
and visual effects,

when you make it seamless,
that's the magic.

It is very interesting working
with Alex and the VFX team.

The visual effects department
is probably the one department

we work probably
the closest with

on any given show or film.

They benefit a lot more from having
something there on the day,

which they can either manipulate
or augment in post

or they've got something there
that needs a touch.

There's everything on this show,

from airplane crashes,

to big environments,

to war-torn destruction
in a big city,

to smaller tendrils.

So, there's a lot
for visual effects to work on.

Because there's
a lot of environments,

we've actually used
a lot of drone scanning,

so that we're able
to recreate it digitally.

On this show, we used a combination
of drones and LiDAR.

LiDAR scanning is
light imaging distance ranging.

And it basically gives you a 3D model
of what you're scanning.

We knew that there would be
a lot of environment work,

in line with the game.

There's a lot of overgrowth,
and everything's deteriorated.

And we knew that
we would have to pretty much

help out in every episode
in that respect.

So, there's a couple of different types of
scanning that we're doing on the show.

One of them is cyber scanning.

It's a circle of cameras
and lights

that flash simultaneously.

We scan every character
that's on a show,

in case we need to build
a digital version of them.

For all the gamers,

I know everyone knows the scene
when they're escaping.

And they're in the car,

and you can watch everything,

what's happening
from Sarah's perspective.

The amazing thing
with that scene

is that it's very true
to the game.

We feel like we're with Sarah
and Joel

in Tommy's truck
the entire time.

And because of our desire
working 360,

it was a big challenge
how should we do that.

So, the car was built
with a stunt pod on top.

So, the stunt drivers were sitting on
the rooftop driving a car

while actors
could do their thing.

Tilt up.

Run!

The cul-de-sac
sequence was certainly

the toughest sequence
that we had to do.

The combination of VFX,
the choreography,

and the explosions.

Just the kind of craziness
of it all, really.

And this used to
just be a field.

This was nothing but grass.

Craig wrote
this amazing sequence

where our cast,

they walk their way onto this
seemingly innocent cul-de-sac

and come under attack.

And then behind them,
a whole convoy of rebels

come up behind them.

So at that point,
we actually opened this up

into the main road behind,

and that gave us
all that extra distance

out there in the real world,
on a real road

for the convoy
to get up to speed

and start chasing them.

These trucks come through,
there's a "run" truck

that just plows through
all these vehicles,

knocking them
all over the place.

Yeah, it was a big deal

plowing through all these cars,
making it look realistic.

We had to reinforce the plow

because the first night,
it broke.

And then it was the driving
into the house

without destroying the building

because the building
was prepped for fire.

Meaning that post-crash,
we would pull the truck out

and put another truck in there
that would then explode.

Special effects did
an amazing job

piping those houses and vehicles
with propane,

but we'll go in there and
just add the finishing touches.

In the big,
climactic battle scene,

most of that
was done practically

with real performers.

However, we felt like we needed
to triple that amount.

So, everything in addition
was visual effects.

When we need to make
these creatures in CG,

it's always good to have
a reference

from the actual performers themselves,

so an animator doesn't have to
do it frame-by-frame.

Mocap is a methodology of capturing
movement of characters.

We did a mocap session,

tried to record as many
different movements

from the stuntmen
as we possibly could.

We had multiple cameras set up.

So much of what we do
in post with animation

depends on the performances.

We shot a library
of their movements,

and we selected the best ones
that we could have.

Of course, we try to do
as much practically as possible.

The makeup people were awesome.

The design work from Barrie Gower's
team was complete.

We took these designs
and we scanned them,

and this helped create
visual assets for us in post.

With the infected,

we started exploring all these
other paint schemes.

Once we knew
what the colors were,

then we would paint a suit
to match.

We would glue all the mushrooms
and everything onto the suits,

and then the suits would
go over to Sage and her team,

and they would cut the costumes

for the mushrooms
to be growing through

and sort of dripping stains

as they kind of came through
the skin

and the flesh broke down.

Each clicker is designed individually.

And the costume
had to be durable enough

to go through all of the crazy
contortionist sort of moves

that the clickers have
in the fight scenes.

Then they run through
the breakdown department,

so it looks like they've been
rotting and molding

for months or years.

And so, when you see
the whole thing together,

with the prosthetics

and the sort of muddy, drippy
costume that's coming off them,

it just looks so amazing.

You never
go into battle with one costume,

but these guys did.

So, you know, makeup, effects,
and costumes

would be sitting on set,
biting their nails,

just hoping that everything
stays together.

So, one thing we did
for a lot of our shots

was we actually had
a little area

that we could remove
from the crown

of the clicker's appliance.

We would either have
complete vision for the actors

and you'd see their eyes
looking through,

which would then be
replaced in post,

or we'd be able to do
some more close up stuff

and put that plug back in.

The amount of work
they had to do

just to get the 200
we had in there,

it was amazing.

There are several creatures

that we had to make the decision
fairly early on

whether they'd be done
practically with prosthetics,

in visual effects entirely,

or if it might be a hybrid
approach of the both.

In the case of
the bloater itself,

because it's
an enormous creature,

it's meant to stand about
seven feet tall,

you can get a man and put him
in a prosthetic suit,

which they did.

At the end of the day,

there's only a certain amount
of mobility

in this prosthetic suit.

As good as it looked,
he just couldn't do the things

that he needed to do
as the bloater.

Very early on, we kind of
planned for doing it

practically on set,

in a prosthetic suit
that Barrie Gower made.

But we reserved the option
and shot a lot of clean plates,

which means we took the bloater,
the physical bloater,

out of the shot so that we had
a clean background to use

in case we wanted to go
the CG route

in some or in all cases.

Barrie Gower
and his team did a fantastic job

creating the bloater suit
with so much detail.

However, we found that
what we needed

was the bloater to be
a little bit bigger.

And it needed to move
a little faster, as well.

This CG creature is doing
some very fantastical things.

Things that a normal human
couldn't do.

We ended up just feeling like
it was necessary to create

a full digital version
of the bloater.

In the case of
the child clicker,

very much like
the bloater early on,

what we did was we sussed out

a person that could
play the role.

And in this case,
it happened to be

a girl from Toronto called Skye,
who was also a contortionist.

So she could move her body
very, very effectively

and do all sorts of clicker-y,
kind of stutter-y motions.

What we did was we shot Skye
on set, like the bloater.

And then we also decided
to sort of change the design

just ever so slightly, in terms
of the prosthetic makeup.

We wanted to feel frightened
by her character,

but also have a sense
of sympathy for her.

We had more of her face exposed,

we could see her long hair,
her pigtails.

These were all the aspects that
were important to Craig and Neil.

What started out as just replacing
Skye's head as a CG element,

we realized we might as well
go a full CG body on it.

And then we can get
this child clicker to do

exactly what we want it to do.

So, now she's able to do that
in a much more fantastical way

because we went CG with it.

The fight
at the Silver Lake Steakhouse,

special effects did
an excellent job

of essentially piping
the entire set.

Of course, we can see
some of this piping,

which, this is where
visual effects will come in

and remove the piping
and also blend in more flames.

At one point, we were not
going to do any practical fire

because the discussion was
that it was too much money,

and we couldn't do it
in the time we had.

That's where I come in to say,
"No, we can do it."

Basically, I said,
"You can have...

Of this size set, you can have
a quarter of it on fire."

Joel Whist,
our special effects supervisor,

is amazing,

and he designed that entire set

to be fireproof in the areas
that we needed it to be.

And that helped immeasurably
for us.

Shooting with Nabo the giraffe

will certainly be
one of my favorite experiences.

What I quickly learned after
doing the research on the game

was just how
critically important

this one moment is
to the whole story of the game.

Giraffes are pretty massive.

It's like a spiritual experience almost,

being so close
to such a magnificent animal.

Yes, you can create a giraffe
in visual effects,

but it's just not the same.

Fortunately, the one thing Alberta
does have is a zoo with giraffes.

And we spent quite a while
putting things in the enclosure,

so that we could shoot it
and getting the giraffes acclimated.

Like panels with blue screen,

so that we could go in there
and just shoot the giraffe

and have Ellie feed the giraffe.

And then, visual effects in
all the other pieces around it.

Something that was
so fascinating

about this experience was that

the visual effects
and the special effects

and all of the departments
working together,

building all of these
practical elements.

To be able to actually see it
in front of you was everything

in terms of the playing
of these characters

and the being in
this fungus apocalypse

20 years in.

I don't know how to describe
this feeling of pride.

And I can't wait for everybody
at Naughty Dog

that worked so hard on the game

and realize that the first time
to see this version

does all their work justice.

There's something really
beautiful and moving about that.

When people talk to me
about the game,

we are the same.

We understand each other.

We have a shared language.

Arts are so important

because it holds a mirror
to our social condition,

and it helps us
have better understanding

for someone who doesn't look
or act like us,

who might come from
a different culture,

and I think that we'll be able
to jump over some of these

skyscraper-high hurdles

that we have in the things
that divide us.

And that will never end.

That right there is the crux
of The Last of Us.

One of the most
exciting experiences of my life

was getting this job.

To come back to HBO,
which basically raised me,

to meet Craig, to meet Bella,
all of our different actors,

there was something of where
I knew this was going to be

the hardest and the best
experience of my life.

And weirdly, there was something

that I knew was special
and terrifying.

And it all came true.

On the first day,
I set a fairly reasonable goal

to make the best
television show ever.

That was our reasonable goal.

I just want to say thank you.
I love you guys. Thank you.

And that's the end
of this story.