The Last of Us location managers talk about what it was like to bring the show to Alberta
Luke Antosz from Calgary worked hard for three days and didn’t get much sleep, but it was worth it to see one of his all-time favorite video games come to life in Alberta.
Antosz looked for a place for HBO’sThe Last of Us, tasked for help putting together a photo package of places where the high-budget post-apocalyptic show could be shot. He also really likes that video game.
The show, which has Pedro Pascal as its star,The Mandalorian and Bella Ramsey of Game of Thronesis based on the same-named 2013 video game.
Antosz said, “It’s the story of a cross-country trip to maybe save the world.”
So when the Calgary Film Commission asked him to put together a location photo package for 2020, he ran up the stairs to his office and called his wife.
“Just exclaiming —“Total glee, total joy.” Oh my god, oh my god,The Last of Us, The Last of Us.“I’m going to put together a photo package for The Last of Us.”
Antosz said that the original request for scouting included views of the city as a whole, as well as abandoned buildings, warehouses, and factories.
He was also given a “show bible” to help him remember how the show will look.
“I went crazy,” he said. “I’m a huge fan of the game and the series, so I went crazy.”
Antosz made two photo packages: one with the options that were asked for and another with a list of possible places to film the whole series.
“For every single episode, I told them, ‘Here’s where you can film it in Alberta.'”
“I don’t know how many people get that kind of experience and that special honor to make something like that happen.”—To take something you really care about and help make it happen.”
- WATCH: “It’s Pedro Pascal,” and the shooting of “The Last of Us” shuts down the streets of Calgary:
Antosz has spent most of his life in Calgary and has worked as a location manager for more than ten years. He said that working on the show changed the way he sees the province.
Antosz said that because the main characters of the show travel across the U.S., Alberta had to look like Texas, Boston, Kansas City, Wyoming, and everywhere in between.
“It was interesting to see the city from a different point of view.” “How can my city be four or five different cities?”
Antosz said that a small group of people who liked the show worked with the Calgary Film Commission and the Alberta Film Commission to make it happen.
“Everyone put their hearts into it, and it was a great team effort.”
Jason Nolan was the location manager in Calgary.The Last of UsWho worked to make the first scouting better. He said that the show took place in a lot of different places and made use of the province’s scenery and other sets.
Nolan said that in some of these places, you had to “hunt far and wide.”
“I’m always scouting. Everywhere I go, I’m always looking for new and interesting things that could end up on the screen,” he said.
But he said there were times when the team knew right away that they had found the right person.—The 4th Avenue flyover, the Alberta Legislature Building, and the views in Fort Macleod and High River are some of these.
He also added a few places that viewers haven’t seen yet.
Luke Azevedo, who works for Calgary Economic Development and is in charge of film, and Antosz put together the photo package.
He said, “That young man did a lot of work to get that here, and by the time we were done, we were pretty sure that the work we had done would make this project happen.”
He also said that Alberta is often known as a place where people go to see beautiful views and backgrounds, but that this was a chance to “make something completely different.”
He said that Alberta has a film and TV industry that has won awards, but The Last of Us rshows what the province has to offer.
“The whole world is watching Alberta, and they saw how well the work was done here,” he said.
“It has an effect on our province that has never happened before.”