PRODUCTION THE LAST OF US
on the bottom,” recalls Goldschmidt. “There are also a few shots we included where the operators are stepping through the snow.” Stepping is one thing; sliding is another. To capture Abby’s fall, the crew rigged a pair of sleds – one for Abby and her stunt double, and the other for the operator. “They were fighting over who would get to do that shot,” Goldschmidt laughs. “[The sleds] could either slide down in tandem, or we could let Kaitlyn get away from us. The next day, they reconfigured it so that they were on parallel tracks – so as she’s going down, the camera is going up. I’m very glad they did that option because it makes it much more visceral.” After Abby discovers the infected, they chase her into a fenced area, and the fence itself starts to give way, crushing her under its weight. “That’s a great example of [the show being] like the game,” says Goldschmidt. “This is the claustrophobia we want; this is the intensity we want.” The Last of Us Part II introduced the ability for players to crawl, and “that’s why that scene was designed that way.” To stay with Abby as she’s being pressed further underneath the fence, Goldschmidt used the DJI Ronin 4D – as opposed to the ALEXA 35, which is used throughout the show – on a telescopic
CLOSE QUARTERS For Abby’s fence- crush scene, the team chose to use the DJI Ronin 4D for its ability to operate close to the ground in confined spaces
arm. “We could take off the base and lie in the snow. We could pull with her, push with her, take her point of view.” ACTION-PACKED The infected are connected via what could be called a hive mind, and when Abby awakes one group, the rest come running too. Instead of attacking her, they pivot towards Jackson; as the infected approach, the city becomes a well-oiled machine, with dwellers either taking cover or bracing for a fight. “The battle was a huge, VFX-heavy sequence,” begins Goldschmidt. “And with all VFX-heavy sequences, they are previsualised. The battle previsualisation was done even before Mark and I got started on the job, to get an idea of how much it would cost. Once we began, we watched the previsualisation, gave notes on it, went back to the storyboard
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