Geektown Behind The Scenes Podcast 66: 'The Last Of Us' Production Designer John Paino Interview

We are back with a new episode of the Geektown Behind The Scenes podcast. For this episode, we've teamed up with Matt from Entertainment Talk, and my 'World Of The Last Of Us' podcast co-host, as we're chatting with John Paino, the production designer on HBO’s fantastic adaptation of the Naughty Dog video game 'The Last of Us'.The Last of Us’ takes place 20 years after modern civilization’s destruction. Joel (Pedro Pascal – ‘The Mandalorian’), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie (Bella Ramsey – ‘Game Of Thrones’), a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal and heartbreaking journey as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.John Paino is a highly experienced production designer, having previously worked on tv shows such as 'The Leftovers', 'Sharp Objects', 'Big Little Lies', 'The Morning Show', and 'The Shrink Nextdoor', along with films such as 'Dallas Buyers Club' and 'Margin Call'. However, 'The Last Of Us' presented him with a whole new set of extraordinary challenges.From houses and restaurants to malls and infrastructure, John was tasked with recreating dozens of post-apocalyptic sets completely from scratch. By relying on physical structures instead of visual effects, John managed to fully immerse actors and viewers into the world of the fan-favourite game.I think it's fair to say, John's work has paid off. The reaction to the series has been both a critical and rating success on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, it was the biggest audience ever for a first-series US drama finale on Sky. In the US, the audience has grown week-on-week, with the finale up a staggering 74% on the premiere episode. This series also has been praised by critics and fans across the board.'The Last Of Us' Season 1 can be found via Sky On Demand and the NOW streaming service in the UK, and on HBO Max in the USA. If you want to keep track of this or any other show, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when they get a UK premiere date. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.