Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545821
tried to figure out which limbs hold while other limbs swing, so that it could "tappy tap" across the ceiling and the spaces. But also it's ancient, so it's tired and it finds movement hard, and that's how the seniors get away. So there was a lot of thought given to the anima- tion to enhance the storytelling. I did not expect a Free Solo reference, but it makes a lot of sense! Were there any other references you looked to? Any other creatures from past projects? Tara DeMarco: We didn't look so much at past projects. We looked a lot at photographs of owls, of animal eyes at night for the retro-re- flective effect of the creature eye. We looked at an older woman who was a ballerina for strength and muscle tone and skin laxity. We looked at a lot of different wounds for wound reference. Those were our main reference points for all of the creature work. How did you approach the project's environmental effects and set extensions? Tara DeMarco: The set extension was super important to everyone creative on the show because all of the filmmakers, executives, ev- eryone wanted The Boroughs to feel so real that you could move in, that you can say, "Where is that town? I want to live there." The town is the place that the seniors have to save. So we needed the audi- ence to love the town as much as our cast loved the town and our characters love the town. We enlisted Romain Rico and a fantastic team at Framestore in Montreal to do this photoreal set extension from Sam's house. We spent a lot of time developing the views of the town from Sam's from both the ground plane and an aerial plane. Our in-camera set was eight houses, five around the cul-de-sac and then three on the end, and then two massive container walls that were blocking the view of Netflix Albuquerque. So we knew that we needed a really, re- ally seamless extension to feel like you were part of this community. Conversely, the other major view we see is the establishing of the town from the security gate. That is 180 degrees, two miles across town from Sam's house. In that map view, we placed every set that we filmed. We placed The Manor, we placed the corporate head- quarters, we placed the town square, we placed the funeral home. They are all structures that are within that map so that you could have a logic to where you were going, how long it would take to get there, and know which direction you were traveling. Also it's a little Easter egg-y. If you go back and watch the show again and you stop on the one establishing aerial, you will find every building that we filmed. There are about 1,500 homes, and there are a certain number of rings to the cul-de-sac. Jeff [Addiss] loves this idea of circles within circles. So we very intentionally made it like a map and like a maze with the town square at the center. The seniors are meant to live at the edge of the desert where it's creepy. There is a countless amount of plant life from the Southwest placed into this town. The infra- structure is real. There's the little adobe buildings and there's golf cart parking. There are walking paths because the seniors don't drive cars as much. There are special little bridges that are attached to the walking paths and green spaces built into the CG map because a p r i l • m ay • j u n e 2 0 2 6 c g w 2 1