The Location Managers Guild International (LMGI) is the largest organization of Location Managers and Location Scouts in the motion picture, television, commercial and print production industries. Their membership plays a vital role in the creativ
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BOOTS ON THE GROUND Producer Rose Lam would serve as the "boots-on-the- ground" representative for co-showrunners Mazin and Druckmann. She narrowed down the photos Nolan had helped put together and headed up to Canada for nearly a week of scouting in both Manitoba and Alberta with Antosz, an executive from HBO and two members of the local film commission. When Lam returned to Los Angeles, she presented her findings to Mazin, who would be directing the pilot, Druckmann, who was set to direct episode two (his first time helming an episode of television) and other HBO execs. The team settled on Alberta due to the variety of different terrain and architecture, as well as the fact that Manitoba gets much harsher winters, and the shoot was expected to take as much as a year. When production designer John Paino joined the production, he was surprised at how clean and well-cared for everything in Alberta appeared to be. "I've worked all over," he says, "and pretty much everywhere you go, you can find an area that's a bit … run down. Not there. The Canadians keep things pretty buttoned up. Very clean and neat which, of course, was not what we needed." What was needed was a world ravished by a hideous fungal infection that attacks the body from the inside, growing like a mushroom and sprouting outward. With roots spreading underground, the fungus also bursts above ground overtaking physical structures and interior surfaces. Humans are turned into deformed-crazed- zombies and, as the fungus takes hold, cities are destroyed as the uninfected attempt to eradicate the zombie hordes with bombs. In other words, it was going to require a lot of work to make the area look, well, bad and to be able to get it all done, they were going to need an absolutely top-notch Location Department. Impressed with the images Jason had put together for the scout months earlier, they asked him to join the team. As Prey was nearing completion, he was able to accept. The mandate from the start was that The Last of Us would not be a show with actors walking past green screens or LED walls. This show would be about placing the actors into real locations that would then be extensively dressed. "In the story," Paino says, "Joel meets Ellie (played by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in the series, respectively) after the world has shut down, and they make their way across the U.S. The audience needed to believe, first of all, that Joel and Ellie were moving through those different states … but even more important was to give a sense that nature had completely taken over. That's what gives the show its gravitas and it was very important to Neil, Craig and the rest of the team." In vast areas of Canada, from Alberta to Calgary, Edmonton and surrounding suburbs, Jason and his team Photo courtesy of HBO/Liane Hentscher