"The look and world of the show are among the
things I'm most proud of—and Nancy, Dan and our
ass-kicking location team made it happen."
–Showrunner Brian Yorkey
Opposite page: Sebastopol's Analy High School stands in for the show's
Liberty High School. Photo courtesy of Netflix.
This page, top: Justin (Brandon Flynn) & Zach (Ross Butler) on the field.
Middle: Caleb (RJ Brown) and Tony (Christian Navarro) at the Ring Boxing
gym. Bottom: Zach & Chloe (Anne Winters) share a quiet moment. Photos
by David Moir, courtesy of Netflix
of quality." He pushed the story's scope and daring and told his
production and location teams to follow suit. "I embraced our
fictional county of Evergreen," he said. "But still—no palm trees."
As the series grew, it spread into some areas that were new
to hosting production. "This show had recurring locations in
cities that weren't very close to each other, so we had a great
opportunity fine-tuning the permitting process in a lot of North
Bay jurisdictions that don't often have television shows based
there," said Bay Area native Frances Reyes-Bolinger/LMGI,
who joined the crew on Season 2 as a location coordinator
and finished the series as a KALM managing her own episode
locations. "I got to know a lot of communities outside of San
Francisco and Oakland that had a lot of heart and history."
The show's heavier footprint taught Davis, who was promoted to
lead scout, to "clearly communicate the size of what we wanted
to do," he said. "When I started out, I was holding back on the
gritty details and soft-selling people but quickly learned that
it's better to tell people that the circus is coming to town so I
wouldn't have to deal with blowback later."
His colleague Kelly Tom/LMGI joined the show on Season 2 as a
KALM for the first time in her career. "I had been so used to being
the messenger and just doing tasks that I was told to do," she
said. "This show gave me a chance to figure out my managing
style where I got to be in an authoritative position, take on more
responsibilities that once intimidated me, like cold scouting,
contracts and permitting, and made me grow as a person to not
feel so scared about taking initiative."
Less than a month after the second season launched, Netflix
ordered another, giving Yorkey range to make the show even
more cinematic. "Brian could reach for things," said production
designer Jeremy Cassells, who boarded the series on Season 3,
having pitched Yorkey a plan to open up the visual dynamic. "We
spent more money than they did in the first and second season,
but the scripts got bigger." Cassells increased the size of some
permanent sets by 20 percent to add depth and light and give
the crew more room to shoot. He said he also wanted to create
more interesting location avenues for the narrative so that fewer
scenes had to be set in the characters' true-to-size bedrooms.
"The audience didn't see a massive difference but got more
engaged with the story because the environment got richer."
