‘The Last of Us’ Cinematographer Ksenia Sereda Breaks Down the Space Launch Sequence and How ‘First Man’ Was An Inspiration

Episode 6 of “The Last of Us” is a flashback episode that takes a break from the Infected and the warring factions of Seattle.

The special flashback gives a rare glimpse into more tender moments between Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsay) as they explore the Wyoming natural history museum like wide-eyed kids.

Cinematographer Ksenia Sereda worked on creating the look and feel of the show for seasons 1 and 2 hand-in-hand with creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. Sereda, who worked on episodes 201, 203, 205, and 206, knew she wanted to preserve a lot of the looks from season one. Speaking with Variety‘s Artisans presented by HBO, Sereda said, she wanted to keep it very grounded and maintain the handheld camera movement to keep the trustworthy vibe of the show.

In choosing her lens, Sereda says she wanted to stay in the 35-millimeter sensor family, and Arri had a new upgrade to the Luxo 35mm lens, which was “amazing for the low-lit scenes.”

Episode 6 was special in many ways. Not just because Druckmann was directing, it was a warm moment that audiences could relish and reminisce on since Joel had been murdered at the end of episode 2.

Sereda says, “He knows this material like nobody else. It was very interesting to develop that with Neil, even though in the game it was already amazing and we could have just taken that as a very big, very beautiful, expensive previs and just replicate it shot by shot.”

She goes on to explain, “There’s one very special sequence when Joel brings Ellie to the Museum of Natural History. We know Ellie is obsessed with space and all the space stuff, so they move through the museum and they go to the space department, he brings her to the space capsule, he gives her a tape recording, and as she’s listening to the recording and we see the lighting is changing and we’re hearing this recording and we’re listening to it with her.”

Sereda discussed the elements of bringing the scene to life and how the pre-viz process worked. “We had a 3D model of the space capsule.” That model was used for blocking and she carried it around anytime the sequence needed to be discussed. The model also helped with finding camera angles to shoot the capsule, which she says “was very small,” and from there our department created a 3D take apart model for us and after that they printed it on a 3D printer.”

To shoot the sequence, Sereda says she also looked at other movies that featured a launch sequence. One movie that inspired her was Damien Chazelle’s “First Man.”

“Underneath the space capsule, we had hydraulics installed and everything would be synchronized and choreographed all together to recreate the sequence and the feeling as if the spaceship is going to space.”

Realism was also key in shooting the sequence. “Overall, the sequence had three layers. The first layer was the lighting, the second layer was the camera movement, and the third one was how to recreate the feeling of the space launch.”