"- You're alive.
- Too bad. You will die."
- For decades, filmmakers have struggled to adapt video games.
"- Oh, Mario. I knew you would come for me."
- "The Last of Us" however has become a sensation.
The series' visuals capture the essence of the acclaimed game they're based on
while also having a life of their own.
How did "The Last of Us" cinematographers
translate the iconic landscapes of the video game for television?
"- We should get moving."
- This is the cinematography of "The Last of Us".
We'll be covering cinematography from the entirety of "The Last of Us"
so consider this your spoiler alert.
As well as a graphic content warning.
"- There's stuff up there you shouldn't see. - Now I have to see."
- But before we begin, don't forget to subscribe to the StudioBinder Channel
and click the bell to stay in the know
on all things filmmaking.
Let's get started.
At the outset "Last of Us" Creator Craig Mason aimed high.
"- I said a fairly reasonable goal to make the best television show ever.
That was our reasonable goal."
- Of course, this was no easy task.
Especially because the team was adapting a beloved video game series
already praised for its visuals.
As one of the cinematographers for the show Ksenia Sereda noted,
'I wasn't ready for how beautiful the game was.
The lighting was gorgeous.
So of course, it was a lot of pressure to translate the video game language
into the TV series because it's already beautiful.'
- And so the show's goal was to replicate the feeling of "The Last of Us" video game
creating an understated realism
which would immerse the audience into the post-apocalyptic world.
Sereda explains the specific type of translation.
'Part of the joy of the game is the interactivity with the characters,
seeing action from their perspective, so for the TV
show we wanted to stay as close to them as possible,
and that informed our choice of camera and lenses'.
Today, we look at different techniques "The Last of Us" cinematographers employed
to create this level of realistic immersion
including realistic lighting and docu-style camera movement.
But, first, let's look at the show's camera and lens choices.
One of the most striking elements of "The Last
of Us" is its expansive and detailed world.
Much of this world was created through extensive practical effects.
"- In the practical shooting of it there was strangely little left to the imagination
because of the quality of its production."
Ksenia Sereda who was Director of Photography for episodes one, two, and seven
wanted to emphasize the lush sets
while also keeping the viewer's attention on the characters.
As she stated,
'We needed to be able to stay close but at the same time
preserve the depth of background.'
This meant relying on many close-up shots on relatively wide lenses
which would place the character at the forefront while keeping the background present.
Sereda decided to shoot primarily on 25 to 50-millimeter lenses
but she knew that shooting close-ups on 25-millimeters
could run the risk of distorting faces.
"- Get in."
- To minimize this distortion, she chose to work with Cooke S4/i spherical lenses
which offer the ability to control distortion as well as spherical aberrations.
Distortions occur when light rays that are off-center to the spherical surface
are refracted and reflected more than light at the center.
Her choice of camera too helped achieve her goal
of situating the characters in their environment.
"The Last of Us" were shot on an Alexa mini
which allowed for a large dynamic range similar to 35-millimeter film.
Eben Bolter cinematographer for episodes three,
four, and five explains the perks of the camera.
'Unlike the shallow focus, you get from large format or 65 mil,
which is the fashion right now,
the Alexa captures a large amount of detail in the background,
so you're not just getting out-of-focus blobs'.
But not everything was shot on a wider lens.
For the climatic battle in episode 5, Bolter used longer lenses
to crush the depth of the images being captured
creating a feeling of claustrophobia and heightening the tension of the scene.
"- Run! Find cover! Don't look back. Run!"
- The lens and camera choices on "The Last of Us" allowed the cinematographers
to subtly emulate the interactive feel of the video game
creating intimate portraits of characters
while also clearly situating them in their environments.
The camera and lens choices also informed the cinematographer's use of lighting.
Like with their equipment choices,
the directors of photography on "The Last of Us" drew inspiration for their lighting
from the source material.
For the cinematographers, the style boiled down to a deceiving simplicity
as Bolter describes.
'The Last of Us' just has a kind of style that's inherent,
and quite often it was about less is more.
It was about a kind of cinematic naturalism.
It was about lighting a room rather than a shot.
And letting flaws exist, and leaning into those flaws.'
This less is more approach was often literal with DP's leaning
into the darkness of a world largely deprived of electricity.
"- Everybody I have cared for
has either died or left.
Everybody f*cking except for you.
So, don't tell me that I'd be safe with somebody else
because the truth is I would just be more scared".
- Here shooting on the Alexa Mini with the Cooke S4/i lenses
proved to be advantageous since both pieces of equipment excel in low-light situations.
The Alexa Mini boasts 14 stops of dynamic range
while the Cooke S4/i's can open up to an aperture of T2.
Sereda preferred to shoot on the bottom of the exposure curve.
A term which refers to a graph illustrating the amount of brightness in a frame.
For "The Last of Us" Sereda kept most of the image below the 60 range.
This low-light approach was conducive to the dark tone of the series
and was more forgiving on the extensive makeup work required for the clickers.
When lighting the monsters Bolter drew inspiration from the
sparse lighting on the Xenomorph in Ridley Scott's "Alien".
Like an alien, the clickers would often be given a sheen of slime
that would reflect even small amounts of light
giving the audience enough information to understand
the general contours of their gruesome faces
but leaving enough darkness to let imaginations run wild.
Scenes with little light however didn't necessarily mean little lighting setups.
"- Run!"
- For the cul-de-sac seen in episode 5
Bolton needed to simulate moonlight
that was bright enough to capture clear images
while dark enough to fall within the naturalistic lighting of the show.
Because the crew was shooting in Calgary
which can have high winds and inclement weather
the team needed to build a durable rig.
The answer was a net of lighting that the wind could blow through.
The net comprised 406-foot bi-color LED tubes
hoisted in grids onto four cranes.
These lights were supplemented with Arri s360 LED Skypanels
which provided backlight from separate cranes.
Later in the scene...
fire gave Bolter another source of light.
Much of the fire was done for real by the SFX team
which rigged gas fire pipes throughout the set.
Because more fire will be added in post,
Bolter added additional warm illumination
from the LED tube nets
which he set to a fire effect to act as a fill light.
Finally, dinos were placed to give more directional fire light.
"- It ends the way it ends."
- In the end,
is elaborate setup was in service of the reality of the scene
with every source motivated by elements within the world.
Because most of the world in "The Last of Us" lacks electricity
interior locations often also needed to rely
on what looked like light coming from outside.
To lean into the naturalistic palette of the show,
Bolter would usually try to do this for real.
"- A little game really I have made for myself to try to not bring movie lights
inside the set to keep all of our lights outside the set walls."
- To pull this off, Bolter used what he calls 'skip lighting'.
A favorite technique of cinematographer Conrad Hall
which refers to bouncing light coming in through
a window on bright props like tablecloths.
This allows for a cinematographer to light actors with indirect soft light
that feels true to the scene.
This naturalistic approach to lighting
grounds the unimaginable events of "The Last of Us" in reality.
The show's camera work serves a similar purpose.
From the outset, "The Last of Us" team knew they wanted a gritty aesthetic
that would fit the mood of the series and put the story first.
"- Are you okay? - Yeah.
- You're not hurt. Nothing? - I don't think so."
- To achieve this, the cinematographers opted for a handheld look.
Bolter explains,
'Handheld gives things a documentary-style grounding.
When you suddenly put a camera on a stick,
it feels like a bit more artifice so we generally defaulted to handheld
unless there was a good reason to do something differently.
According to Bolter, about 80 to 90 percent of each episode utilize this handheld look.
But in reality, much of the camera work was not actually handheld.
Instead, the camera crew used a ZeeGee.
A piece of equipment which imitates the movement of a handheld camera
but which can be mounted on a Steadicam.
The ZeeGee allows for more control than a traditional handheld technique
and removes shoulder mounts.
It also makes things easier for the camera operator
removing the weight of a heavy camera rig.
This docu-style approach further inserts the
audience into the world of "The Last of Us"
making each traumatic event feel more real.
And allowing for the focus to stay on the characters rather than the camera.
Bolter notes,
'We wanted the camera to sit back a little bit and be a bit more observational,
and react,
and be the audience, and occasionally make mistakes.
In episode 8, DP Nadim Carlsen
used the show's docy-style approach to highlight the interiority of a character.
"- There's no way out, Ellie.
The doors are locked and I have the keys."
- During the episode's climactic scene,
Ellie is forced to resort to brutal violence.
Carlsen shot her from a low angle
while she was lifted from the floor with a pillow in order to elevate Ellie
both literally and emotionally.
This also allowed fake blood to spray the camera lens
slightly distorting the light and color in the shot.
In another context, imperfections on a lens might be considered a mistake
but here it visually encapsulates Ellie's rage.
Said Carlsen, 'It looks so right for the scene and it felt organic
because it came from the simple and lo-fi way we shot it'.
The docu-style aesthetic also allowed
for freer camera movement
which Sereda fully utilized in this scene from episode 1.
Instead of cutting from character to character, Sereda had the handheld camera whip pan
putting the audience in the character's perspective.
"- Move."
- Because the camera needed to be able to turn 360 degrees in the car,
the team built a stunt pod on top of the vehicle
so that the actors could focus on their performances
while the stunt driver focused on getting the
car where it needed to be all without being seen.
Often on a project which involves lots of CGI,
handheld footage is simulated in post-production
since it's much easier for visual effects artists to add movement after the fact.
This however was not the case on "The Last of Us".
Visual effects supervisor Alex Wang
ensured that his team would be able to work with the handheld footage
by scanning sets with a drone
enabling his team to project backgrounds onto geometry
and then apply them to the camera's footage via motion capture.
The handheld look of "The Last of Us" puts the viewer in the character's shoes
achieving the effect of its interactive source material
and making scenes feel all the more visceral.
"- I said unhook her.
- I won't let you take her.
Unhook her.
Move."
- The visuals of "The Last of Us" required extensive
collaboration between the cinematographers,
directors,
art department,
visual effects team and more.
The cohesive look from episode to episode is a result of a singular vision
to tell a compelling story by doing justice to a beloved video game.
A massive production with multiple DPS means
extensive pre-production planning is a must.
Kickstart the pre-production process for your next film big or small
with StudioBinder's storyboard software.
And remember to subscribe and click the bell to
stay up to date on all our filmmaking videos.
That's all for now.
And stay away from weird-looking mushrooms.
"- Any one of them could become capable of borrowing into our brains
and taking control not of millions of us but billions of us.
Billions of puppets with poisoned minds
permanently fixed on one unifying goal...