Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521244
a scene for it, which they did, but the challenge was that it was a working gas station. We had to prep, shoot and wrap in five days. Illustrator Ali Kashfi lead the way with figuring out the key elements to use and Set Designer Reid Thompson really figured out the materials and fastest applications for construction and set dress. It was a really good time watching it come together. The production used a couple of really special distant locations to really give the post-apocalyptic world scale. For the Brotherhood of Steel Base, we traveled to the historic Wendover Air Base near the Bonneville Salt Flats. This base was frozen in time just after WWII and was just right for this military camp. Partly functioning and partly wonderfully decayed and totally bleak. Utah Art Director Rico Olsen, whom I had worked with for a Soderbergh project, ran the show and I was glad Regina Graves came out to do her magic there. The big adventure for me was going to Kolmanskop in Namibia for the post-apocalyptic outside of the Vault 33 door. This defunct diamond mining town was abandoned after WWII and was then taken over by sand dunes. Jonathan Nolan had been talking about this place for a year and we finally got to go as was perfect for the project. Rows of houses half buried in sand and large buildings used to process the diamonds that were blown up to prevent them from being used again all made for what was essentially a practical town that looked as if was decimated by an atomic blast. We could have sent a crew to scan this and then recreate it in the Volume with a pile of sand and some rubble, but Nolan felt the practical location really grounds the VFX work, so it was important to go. VFX supervisor Jay Worth and I worked on Westworld and he is super collaborative and actually wants me to do initial concepts and get my input on the look of the VFX work and I am really happy to be a part of that. In fact, he hired Thang Le to also work in post as he set up some of these initial concepts. A. BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL TRAINING CAMP, ILLUSTRATION BY THANG LE. B. BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL TRAINING CAMP, PRODUCTION STILL, THIS WAS A WONDERFULLY BLEAK LOCATION THAT THE UTAH CREW JUST DRESSED. EVERYTHING BUT THE VERTIBIRDS IS REAL. C. WASTELAND FARM, ILLUSTRATION BY THANG LEE, THIS DERELICT HOUSE IN KOLMONSKLOP NAMIBIA WAS AUGMENTED WITH DETAILS REFERENCED FROM OTHER FARMS FROM THE GAME. D. BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL TRAINING CAMP, CEREMONIAL ALTAR, SET PHOTO BY JOJO WHILDEN. E. WASTELAND FARM, PRODUCTION STILL, THIS IS THE REALIZED NAMIBIAN LOCATION WITH BOTH BUILT CONSTRUCTION PIECES, VINTAGE DRESSING. C A B