Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541535
36 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Winter 2026 ambience from the kids. We generally knew who was going to speak but it changed from take to take. Paul Greengrass would tell us who he wanted talking, so Mike and Emily would move body mics around from child to child. I sat in the back of the bus with the focus pullers. We were all scrunched down below the seat backs in order to stay out of shots. While on the bus, I usually worked off the Sound Devices 888 recorder with Shure wires and Mike Scott on the boom behind the cameras picking up whatever he could. We also had a speaker on the bus so Paul, using a Shure handheld wireless, could talk to the actors and crew from a follow vehicle. We filmed all over New Mexico; Ruidoso, Santa Fe, Española, Truchas, and Glorieta, to name a few. It was incredibly dusty, and we had big Ritter 502 fans running full time to recreate the huge one hundred mph winds that drove the fire. It was like a blizzard of dust and smoke. When I initially spoke with Producer Greg Goodman, the plan was to shoot all this on a stage at the Garson Studios lot in Santa Fe. ILM would build a volume on one of the stages there where we would shoot all the bus scenes with the kids. We'd be two or three weeks on location in Ruidoso and then we'd be eight weeks or however long it took on the lot and stages. As the show progressed, the scheduled morphed into less time on stage and much more time on practical locations. Matthew really wanted to drive the bus. A big part of getting his performance was to actually drive the bus and experience the practical effects. So that's what we did. We shot a lot of scenes on the bus while driving through some very narrow streets, in the woods and all over the place, far Lisa Piñero: I always wanted to work with Director Paul Greengrass, it was on my bucket list. My regular crew of Randy Johnson and Eva Rismanforoush were not available, and I'm at the point in my life where if I cannot get the crew I love to work with, I'd rather not do the project. But the script resonated with me and as I said, it was an opportunity to work with Paul Greengrass. Most of the time I'm traveling to work. I hardly ever work here in Los Angeles. I lucked out and the crew I assembled was Boom Operator Mike Scott and Sound Utility Emily Jane Price, and for the last few weeks of shooting, Eva came in at boom to cover the last few weeks for Mike who unfortunately experienced an ankle injury on the show. I really enjoyed Paul, he's one of those directors who you run through walls for. He's the kindest guy, very collaborative and, very good with the crew. He shoots in a documentary style but with multiple cameras swinging in every direction to capture all the action. It may look haphazard but Paul and his DP have spent time carefully choreographing how to capture the actions and emotions necessary for the scene. Richard Lightstone: The school bus is also a major character. LP: Yes, the bus is a character all in itself and we shot many, many days on that vehicle, more than half of the film takes place in and around it. Our DP was Pål Ulvik Rokseth, who's a lovely guy, a Norwegian cinematographer, and very easy to work with. Pål was operating most of the time, so it was him and two other operators. With three cameras in a tight space, it was very challenging for Mike Scott to get a boom mic near the action. Of course, the cast was wired, and we planted mics all over the place to pick up interior "The key to working with Paul Greengrass is being very flexible and able to adapt to changes quickly because that's how he works and his style is what makes his films so exciting. He's the master of this kind of filmmaking." Matthew McConaughey 'driving' through the fires on the Gordon Studios