The wonderful, dystopian TV HBO Max series, The Last of Us, was shot by the young Russian cinematographer Ksenia Sereda. Sereda chose the beautiful combination of ARRI ALEXA Mini and Cooke S4/i, to help her translate the cinematic look of the acclaimed video game, into a successful TV series. Read the interview below. 

Painting a dystopian world

It’s not a coincidence that the dystopian look & feel of the HBO Max series, The Last of Us reminds us of other TV series. In fact, cinematography-wise, it looks like the TV series Chernobyl. Indeed, one of the creators of  The Last of Us is Craig Mazin, which has also created the mini-series Chernobyl. Furthermore, Ksenia Sereda, which is the main (and youngest) cinematographer of The Last of Us, was the cinematographer of Chornobyl’s Russian counterstrike, which is Chernobyl: Abyss. Hence, the knowledge base for creating a cinematic dystopian is well established here.

It was a lot of pressure to translate the video game language into the TV series because it’s already beautiful and everyone, including nearly all of the crew, loved the game.

DP Ksenia Sereda

A video game as a reference

The Last Of Us, is based on the critically acclaimed video game of the same name developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation platforms. The story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival. “I played the game for the first time almost four years ago, and I was absolutely fascinated by its cinematic look – I wasn’t ready for how beautiful it was, the lighting was gorgeous. And the most surprising thing was how deeply I connected to the characters in the game,” said Sereda. “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 everyone, including nearly all of the crew, loved the game.”

One of the creators ofThe Last of Us is Craig Mazin, which has also created the mini-series Chernobyl. Furthermore, Ksenia Sereda, which is the main (and youngest) cinematographer of The Last of Us, was the cinematographer of Chornobyl’s Russian counterstrike, which is Chernobyl: Abyss.

Shot by multiple cinematographers

While three other cinematographers – Eben Bolter, Nadim Carlsen, and Christine A. Maier –joined the production to work on several episodes, at the start of the process Sereda worked closely with Neil Druckmann, the writer of the original game and co-creator and writer/director for television, and Craig Mazin, co-creator and writer/director for television, to capture the visual language of the series. Starting from an incredible cinematic reference in the game itself, one of the most important things was to recreate the atmosphere of this dystopian world. “Some may say that The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic ‘fight for survival’ story, but for me, the real story is about people building new lives in new circumstances. It’s about friendship and love, and the most important thing is the characters’ journeys. 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,” explained Sereda.

Shot on ARRI Mini and Cooke S4/i

The Last Of Us was shot on the ARRI ALEXA Mini paired with Cooke S4/i lenses. “I am obsessed with spherical lenses,” Sereda said. “I wanted to keep close-ups on the normal side and not go too long or wide lenses because, working from the character’s perspective on the story, we needed to be able to stay close but at the same time preserve the depth of background. I also wanted to work within the range of 25mm-50mm lenses, so the challenge was: which lens won’t distort faces at 25mm; where can I come up with a wide lens on the close-up without being too poppy? Cooke S4/i was an excellent choice for this”.

I also wanted to work within the range of 25mm-50mm lenses, so the challenge was: which lens won’t distort faces at 25mm; where can I come with wide lens on the close-up without being too poppy?

DP Ksenia Sereda

Also, she added: “Shooting low light with the S4/i and ARRI ALEXA Mini produces beautiful work with very high-intensity areas and low exposed areas. In general, I really love to work on the bottom of the exposure curve, I really love to pack the image from 60% and down, having the whites always in a very low range to give us the opportunity of more shades and textures in the blacks”.

The Last Of Us is currently available to view on Sky Atlantic in the UK and HBO Max in the US. Watch the trailer below: Do you see the ‘Chernobyl connection’?

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