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Jackson Colony
As in the video game, the Jackson colony of the TV series The Last of Us evokes the typical westerns. A town created from the buildings in Canmore, Alberta, presented the production with a number of challenges.
A city to create another
John Paino, the production designer, explained to the Los Angeles Times how Jackson was born: “Up until this point, we’ve had a lot of concrete, and there was a desire to be out in the Midwest, with all the natural beauty and the fresh air that you can find in the middle of America. The real-life Jackson Hole has become a tourist town the Jackson in the series was constructed in Canmore, a small town in Alberta, Canada. The buildings there have a real rustic feel, and this beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains at the end of its main street.”
A long process
Transforming Canmore into Jackson required optimal planning. Once all the authorizations were obtained by the production, the team of decorators went to work, trying not to disturb the inhabitants. Craftsmen have built stables, greenhouses on top of empty parking lots and other elements.
New facades were added to the existing buildings and railroad ties were installed. The wall surrounding the colony, while it appears to go all the way around, was in fact built only a few meters on either side of the main gate. John Paino’s team of course took care to remove everything at the end of the shooting. A cleaning process that was restrictive and regrettable in a way for John Paino because of the many sets that the production had to destroy.
Rutina Wesley, the interpreter of Maria Miller, has already played in an HBO series, namely True Blood, where she played Tara Thornton.
Canmore
A town of 12,000 inhabitants in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canmore is located about 100 kilometers from Calgary.
Known for hosting the Cross-Country Skiing World Cup in the late 1980s, Canmore was founded in 1884 by Canadian Pacific Railway employee Donald A. Smith. Having obtained the right to exploit the coal present in its basement by Queen Victoria in 1886, the city developed around this industry before becoming a popular tourist destination for winter sports enthusiasts.
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By Gilles Rolland
Passionné de cinéma, de rock and roll, de séries TV et de littérature. Rédacteur de presse et auteur des livres Le Heavy Metal au cinéma, Paroles de fans Guns N' Roses, Paroles de fans Rammstein et Welcome to my Jungle : 100 albums rock et autres anecdotes dépareillées. Adore également voyager à la recherche des lieux les plus emblématiques de la pop culture.