Warning: spoilers ahead for The Last of Us episode 3.
The Last of Us has stunned viewers across the globe since its release, with the TV show reaching a high point of emotion, heartache, heartbreak and warmth in episode 3.
The third instalment of the video game adaptation follows Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), two people who may have never met before doomsday, but in a post-apocalyptic world, fall in love and stick with one another until the end of their lives.
Of the many beautiful moments that they experience together, one scene in particular has captivated audiences, when Frank reveals to Bill that he’s grown strawberries after trading one of his partner’s guns with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv) for some seeds.
Bill is astonished by the sight of the strawberry patch, with the hardened survivalist bursting into adorable giggles when he takes his first taste in years, before he shares a loving embrace with Frank and utters the already unforgettable line: ‘I was never afraid before you showed up.’
During a recent conversation with Metro.co.uk, Eben Bolter BSC, the director of photography on the episode, recalled how the scene was pieced together, revealing that they had a very limited timeframe to ensure that they captured the natural light from the sun.
‘It’s a beautiful moment. It’s written beautifully, and we talked a lot about how, where, when, how to make that magical. What it came down to is we wanted to lean into low sun, magic hour,’ he said.
He and the crew had to figure out which part of the town that they’d built for the show would provide the best setting for the strawberries while featuring a backlit sun, which involved ‘blocking out the scene ‘based on the real sun in that case’.
There was quite a lot of pressure to bottle up the magic that had been conveyed in the script, as they only had around 15 minutes to shoot it with potentially only three takes, along with a quick reset.
‘We had a whole day of shooting, 20 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to shoot,’ Eben recalled.
‘So you’re really taking a gamble, particularly in television, even with HBO. You don’t want to be saying, “We didn’t get it, we lost the sun, we need another day.” You don’t want any of those things.’
With that in mind, they had to make sure that everyone involved with bringing the scene together was ‘on board’ with the speed required to make it happen.
‘There was a lot of planning, a lot of courage. The actors were incredible. The blocking worked. Things like the pollen in the air was something that I’d requested because I just wanted to give it that extra little bit of naturalism and magic,’ the cinematographer outlined.
He explained how the SFX team brought in massive Ritter fans, that went send ‘tiny little feathers’ – real feathers that had been ground up – up into the air, allowing them to fall down slowly to resemble pollen.
‘They only had one shot at that. It’d be very easy for it to just look silly and like a clump of feathers that fall to the ground quickly or the wind’s in the wrong direction. But they’re experts at what they do and a lot of what you see there is take one. It just worked really nicely,’ he recollected.
Fortunately, all of their hard work paid off so much that they wound up having extra time when the sun was still in the sky, allowing them to shoot some more close-up shots of the strawberries in the natural light.
‘It felt like an independent movie where everyone was on the same page creatively and we shot it in quite a lo-fi way. That’s arguably risky but out of that you get something more interesting,’ Eben added.
Reactions to the third episode of The Last of Us, and the strawberries scene specifically, have been emotional to say the least, with one person tweeting: ‘I can’t stop crying long enough to brush my teeth because I keep thinking about two men eating strawberries during the apocalypse.’
In a behind-the-scenes video about the episode, Nick perfectly summarised Bill and Frank’s relationship and the way that they love each other throughout their 16-year relationship, stating: ‘Frank is the flowers, and Bill is the soil.’
Hot Property Picks from Metro
Bed in conservatory listed as 'studio flat' to rent for £1,200 per month
We bought an uninhabited island for £24,000 — it was a lot cheaper than a house deposit
London’s ‘secret’ village with ‘stunning views’ named one of UK’s best to live in
The former owners of my house asked to look inside 30 years on — my answer shocked them
Nuclear bunker with Renaissance-style interiors could be yours for £15,000
The Last of Us is available to watch on Sky and NOW, with new episodes released on Mondays.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
MORE : The Last of Us showed exactly how LGBTQ+ romances should be portrayed on TV
Share this with