‘Fallout’ Builds a World Unlike Any Other — Including the Video Game
Amazon Prime Video’s “Fallout” is set within the post-apocalyptic universe of one of the most beloved video game series of all time, something that gave its filmmakers a rich world they could build on, deepen, and expand. When production designer Howard Cummings came on board, the first thing he did was immerse himself in the game and its various environments. “I really got to research it like I was doing a period film,” Cummings told IndieWire, noting that there was a vast network of fans whose YouTube videos he could draw from to collect reference material. Those videos not only provided information, they made Cummings fully aware of how much scrutiny his work would be subject to from the video game’s devoted followers. “I realized, ‘Wow, if I do this, every single thing I do will be analyzed.'”
Yet the appeal for Cummings and the other department heads wasn’t just the dense world but the fact that the series was telling a story not directly based on any of the games. “The fun thing is there’s such a rich universe in Fallout, but we weren’t doing a version of a specific game,” visual effects supervisor Jay Worth told IndieWire. “It really gave us the freedom to develop things within that world.” Worth, visual effects producer Andrea Knoll, and prosthetic department head Jake Garber weren’t restricted by the parameters of the video game but were liberated by the possibilities it offered for new environments, creatures, and characters. Cummings, in particular, was pleasantly surprised by the freedom he was given to let his imagination run wild. “Bethesda [the company behind the video game] informed the story, but it wasn’t dictatorial, it was really collaborative in a great way,” he said.
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That meant the filmmakers were able to create a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles with plenty of echoes from the video games — the “Ghoul” creature played by Walton Goggins that Garber helped bring to life has its origins in the ghouls of the game, as does the horrifying “Gulper” creature that emerges in the story — but with just as many new inventions and innovations. In the videos below, watch how Cummings, Garber, Knoll, and Worth conceived and executed some of the series’ most striking moments.
The Production Design of ‘Fallout’
Amazingly, the Los Angeles locale that is so central to “Fallout” was not the original locale as scripted — according to production designer Howard Cummings, the initial concept was to set the story in Colorado. A location scout changed that, however, providing not only some fantastic environments for Cummings but inspiration for a whole new setting. “Switching to set the show in L.A. was really a response to finding a beautiful location,” Cummings said. That location was an abandoned mining town in Namibia that provided Cummings with sweeping landscapes and decades-old wreckage that could be used to build a post-apocalyptic world. “When they abandoned the town they also blew up all the processing buildings, so that was great for us — there was twisted steel that was over a hundred years old eaten by windstorms and rust.” When Cummings looked at the ocean he had a vision of the Santa Monica Pier placed there, and as soon as that idea came to him he ran to one of the showrunners to suggest setting the show in L.A.
Although a great deal of “Fallout” was shot on location — not just in Namibia but also in New York and Utah — Cummings built enormous sets and took advantage of LED volumes to make them even larger. “We used [the volume] to expand and give the vaults scale,” Cummings said, noting that for a section of the vault with an enormous cornfield it would have been impossible to find a stage large enough to contain the set. In addition to expanding upon what was built, Cummings came up with the idea of creating projections motivated by the story itself to create more dynamic backgrounds. “The extended fake farm was written as a painted wall, and I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be better if it was projected?'” That enabled Cummings to change the time of day and provide further visual dynamism for the environment, something he was able to do on sets throughout the series thanks to the freedom afforded him by the concept. “The story was not part of the game, it was its own thing,” Cummings said. “As a designer, that was the freeing part of it: I could figure out what the language of ‘Fallout’ was and then apply it to ideas I had.”
In the video above, watch Cummings explore the worlds he created for “Fallout.”
The Prosthetics of ‘Fallout‘
When prosthetic department head Jake Garber was approached about helping create Walton Goggins’ Ghoul character for “Fallout,” his initial instinct was to say no. “I was kind of hesitant because I had done eight years of ‘The Walking Dead’ and wanted to change things up a bit,” Garber told IndieWire. Luckily, changing things up was exactly what the creators of “Fallout” wanted to do as well, and when Garber realized he would be able to strike out in new directions with his Ghoul makeup, he jumped at the chance. Surprisingly, given the character’s frightening function in the narrative, Garber didn’t want him to be too off-putting. “We didn’t want to have him look repulsive,” he said. “[We wanted] a sort of dried leather look.” That created a challenge, given that leather tends to be one tone, so Garber spent a lot of time experimenting with the coloration of the makeup. “We tried to get it to look like dried leather without having it look like a catcher’s mitt on his face.”
The Ghoul’s missing nose meant that some visual effects would have to be involved, but luckily, the effects artists informed Garber that he wouldn’t have to go the conventional route of making Goggins’ nose green or another color; all that was required was a few tracking dots on his nose, which meant the actor wouldn’t be distracted by seeing green out of the corners of his eyes. According to Garber, the makeup involved nine prosthetic pieces and the initial test took five hours, but he eventually reduced the application process. “I think the fastest I got it down to was an hour and a half,” he said. “Once you’ve done the makeup a number of times, you start [finding] shortcuts.” Garber would pre-paint appliances to save Goggins time in the chair, where the actor would sit watching Westerns for inspiration. One of the biggest challenges was repeating the look and maintaining it for the series’ entire run. “I equate it to a chef that has to replicate the same recipe every time and still have it taste the same.”
In the video above, watch how Garber created the innovative, terrifying makeup for The Ghoul.
The Visual Effects of ‘Fallout’
Just as The Ghoul was a key character for Garber, the visual effects artists had some pivotal figures of their own to work on — most notably, an extremely frightening yet also oddly amusing monster known as “The Gulper.” Even though The Gulper is a completely outlandish, one-of-a-kind creature, visual effects producer Andrea Knoll still wanted to start from a reference point based in reality. “My preference is to lean into a practical approach where visual effects is supporting the characters and supporting the story,” Knoll told IndieWire. To that end, even though The Gulper would be created digitally, the visual effects artists worked with the prop department to develop a proxy Gulper puppet that could be used on set to insure ideal framing and lighting conditions. Built to scale, the puppet was even capable of swallowing the actors. “It really helps the actors to be able to be engaged in the scene fighting with The Gulper so that we’re able to have the ultimate execution feel as photorealistic as possible because the performance is really there.”
The biggest concern for the visual effects team was unifying the various environments in which “Fallout” shot to represent a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. “The biggest challenge was tying together Namibia, Utah, and New York in a way that felt like it was one world,” visual effects supervisor Jay Worth told IndieWire, “so we started using iconic landmarks more and more.” Los Angeles touchstones like the Capitol Records building, LAX, and Randy’s Donuts were created digitally to anchor the viewer in the city. One of the most striking L.A. sequences comes in Episode 1, when the city is destroyed by an atomic bomb. Once again the team wanted the effect to be as realistic as possible, but Worth said that there was a fine line in which what was realistic wasn’t necessarily believable or impactful. “If you look at a real nuke go off, the mushroom cloud rises pretty quick and it doesn’t really have the roiling feel,’ Worth said, noting that the visual effects department adopted more of a hybrid approach for this sequence that would give the explosion the characteristics of a roiling monster. The key question, according to Worth: “What does it need to feel like?”
In the video above, Knoll and Worth explain how they achieved the photorealistic effects of “Fallout.”
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