HBO’s The Last of Us successfully disproved the age-old edict that video game movies or television shows simply don’t work. The critically acclaimed series from creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckman successfully adapts the tone and visual appeal of the series while, at the same time, creating an atmosphere and visual language all of its own. That translation succeeds largely thanks to the love and care employed by the creative teams that worked on the project.
Episode five, “Endure and Survive,” emerged as one of the first season’s most talked-about episodes. In the episode, survivors Joel and Ellie (Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey) escape Kansas City along with newfound partners Henry and Sam (Lamar Johnson, Keivonn Montreal Woodard) through a series of underground tunnels. Once in the open, they are ambushed by Kathleen’s (Melanie Lynskey) militia before all are subject to a horde of infected. The survivors narrowly escape, but young Sam has been bitten, becoming an infected. When his brother Henry shoots him, he becomes overcome with guilt and commits suicide.
The episode features shocking moments of intense tragedy blended with sheer terror, and it required precise hands to cut it together. Enter editors Timothy A. Good and Emily Mendez, two editors who co-edited the massive undertaking. Here, in an interview with Awards Daily, they reveal how they worked together to build tension, elevate character moments, and create a blend of spacial relations and chaos all through editing.
Both also worked on the fan-favorite episode “Long, Long Time” and reveal their deeply personal connections to the sensitive and emotional material.
Awards Daily: I’m very excited to talk to both of you about working on The Last of Us. I know that you’ve submitted episode five for Emmy consideration, but I also want to talk about episode three, “Long, Long Time,” because who talks about The Last of Us and doesn’t talk about episode three? So, let’s start with episode five. What do you think about this episode that best represents what you’ve done on the series?
Timothy Good: I honestly feel like episode five was the highlight of what we were able to do. Editorially, it was a really complicated episode. It had so many different moving parts. It had ASL. It had a massive battle sequence. It had emotional, really emotional sequences together, and it also had to work for the story of Joel and Ellie. They had to start getting more and more connected over time. We had side stories that had to work, including Kathleen and Perry, and it had to pay off in a really devastating way, emotionally, for the very end. From my perspective, all of this was impossible without Emily, so having Emily on this episode was when we really were working at our peak powers together. Initially, Emily started out as my assistant editor, and so we worked on episode three together — I as the editor, she as the assistant. But we became a working team when Craig [Mazin] recognized, what we were both able to accomplish together. Episode five I feel was such a high degree of difficulty that this was the one that made the most sense to us.
Awards Daily: Emily, how do you balance that out? How do you determine what piece you take on versus what Tim takes on?
Emily Mendez: That’s something that Tim and I talk about when when we’re getting dailies in for the day, and we’re just splitting up scenes based on which ones we want to take. Generally, Tim and I would try to stick with certain storylines if we could. I took a lot of the Kathleen scenes in episode five. I was editing some scenes for Tim in episode three, just a few here and there. Then, at the same time, I was also working on sound design. During that episode, I was already working with Craig on sound design, figuring out a sound space for the show, and I think doing those things kind of allowed me to progress, to move up as an editor because I already had that shorthand with Craig. I understood what he wanted and what he was looking for. Once Tim and I started working together, it was just a matter of us talking and communicating, figuring out what we wanted to split up.
Awards Daily: What is it about The Last of Us that spoke to both of you and compelled you to join?
Emily Mendez: Well, I was a huge fan of the game. I played the game years before we started working on the show. So, when Tim told me that he’d gotten a call, and he’d been talking about maybe going onto a show called The Last of Us I was super excited. Once we started working on it, the scripts were beautiful. Craig [Mazin] is an incredible writer, and the story is amazing from the beginning. That was why it was one of my favorite games because you have these beautiful characters, and so getting to work on the show with these characters that I already loved but then also starting fresh from the perspective of a television show meant a lot to me.
Timothy Good: For me, it was purely about Craig. I’d known him socially for a long time, but we’d never worked together. When I saw his Chernobyl, I thought this is exactly the kind of stuff I like to do — this character based, really intelligent, nuanced takes on story. I just said that I would do anything to work with him in the future. Three years later, it came to pass, and I’m so grateful to have been able to work with him, and then being given episode three as the very first script and reading it, it was just a joy to read that kind of rich document. To see the kind of care that he gives to all of his his stories and his scripts and the descriptions and the life that he imbues all these characters. I couldn’t ask for more. It’s the greatest when you have beautiful writing, and you have everyone inspired by that writing, the directors, the actors, every department. Then when you as the editor get this final result of all of the love that’s been given to every aspect of the stories. It’s just it’s a marvelous task to be pressured with.
Awards Daily: Moving into specific scenes, I’d like to ask how you’re building tension with episode five because tension is built but in very different ways. First of all, I remember in this episode, there is the sequence where Pedro and Bella approach the abandoned houses, and there’s a sniper firing at them. Talk to me about how you build the tension in that sequence.
Timothy Good: I took that sequence. What we would always rely on is point of view. To create tension, I feel the best way to do that is to be with a character as opposed to being in an objective space. If I’m in an objective space, then I feel less tension because I see too much. I can see safety. I can see where things are. Those things I utilize once in a while just to make sure you understood the geography between where the sniper is and where the survivors are. Primarily, all of it came from how I could show Pedro lifting up to see the sniper. You see his point of view, and then you see this little blink of light and then you know immediately we have to cut to Pedro dropping down. So the audience hopefully feels that the threat is actually in front of them as opposed to them watching it from sort of distance. Creating everything from a specific character’s point of view, which was kind of the hallmark of how we put this season together, was all point-of-view based. It was only objective in times where we had to showcase how the characters were interacting with the environment. Mostly, scenes exist from the character’s point of view, and that’s how I think you can achieve maximum tension.
Awards Daily: So, how does that tension building differ from something like the scene that closes the episode where Sam becomes infected?
Timothy Good: That was another one that I did, and the tension in that sequence I think was created by the fact that we did not score it. There was never going to be any score because, if I scored it, there’d be something to hold on to. I didn’t want the audience to have anything to hold onto. Tension happens when the audience isn’t told how to feel. Additionally, one of my techniques for adding tension was flipping eyelines. They filmed both of these characters, Joel and Henry, on two different sides of the 180 degree line. Anytime the power was shifting from one to the other, I would shift the lines so it would throw the audience off guard as to what they could expect. They were not necessarily seeing the same images, the same sort of axis of action, so that would always throw things off for the audience. In many ways, it’s always about seeing it from the character’s perspective. Initially, we see Ellie being attacked from Joel’s perspective, You see it in the foreground, then you see what he sees. The first thing I wanted to show in that scene was the tension of wondering if Henry was going to kill Joel. I wanted to think when he puts the pistol up to Joel maybe we think he’s going to kill Joel and Ellie for having him kill Sam.
Awards Daily: Before we get to that, we have the battle sequence in which Sam was infected. Talk to me about editing that sequence because I can imagine that was quite difficult.
Timothy Good: That battle sequence was the most complicated sequence I did. They shot for approximately two weeks overnight. There was a massive amount of film, and what it ultimately became about for all of us was it had to be about Joel and Ellie. It had to be basically a huge battle sequence, but really, it was a two person scene. It was two people, one of whom is Ellie who’s behaving like anyone would in a situation where they’re not safe. They’re trying to figure out how to become safe, and they’re doing it in the way that anyone would do. I see an open window. I have to get in there. Whereas Joel from his safer perspective of being in the sniper’s nest has no choice but to protect her. The story of the battle was that it was always going to be about Joel trying to protect Ellie and always about Ellie trying to become safe.
We had monster amounts of footage of Joel firing at the infected, firing at the bloater. None of those made it because it was off the story. It made no sense to divert attention from the power of his connection to Ellie. Nothing else mattered to him in that moment, which basically is shining a light on what’s happening to Joel in the midpoint of the season. By the end, we’re going to understand that he would do anything to protect her. Everything in that battle sequence was designed from that dynamic. Anything that wasn’t from that dynamic was based on a threat to their character. For example, you would see the cars running over the infected characters that would lead you later to see the cars protecting Ellie.
What I find interesting about a lot of the characters that Craig writes is that they’re echoes of each other. So Perry and Kathleen were echoes of Joel and Ellie. Perry felt very protective of Kathleen. So he did everything he could to protect her, including basically giving himself up to this bloater to make sure she got safe. So that’s what’s possible for Ellie and Joel, and that’s what I hope created the tension in that sequence — to see what could happen to Ellie and then, seeing that little baby clicker getting to the car, you see the pain and the fear on Joel’s face since he couldn’t see what was going on in there. From a pure story perspective, nothing was unnecessary to the story. I hate unnecessary stuff where it’s like, ‘Oh, look at this cool shot.’ I didn’t care if it was a cool shot or not. I cared if it told a really good story.
Awards Daily: Emily, you talked about episode three, “Long, Long Time,” earlier. How does editing something like that differ from editing a battle heavy episode such as episode five?
Emily Mendez: Well, episode three, Tim mainly edited. I did some scenes on it when I could. For me, I was lucky enough to edit the ending of that episode. You have this moment of Joel and Ellie in the car struggling with the seatbelt. Editing things like that are really special because it’s these character moments that really endear us. She doesn’t know what a seatbelt is, right? She’s in this car, and she feels like this is a spaceship. Getting to put those moments in to help us connect with our characters, I love editing scenes like that because it’s all character building and interesting detail. So I was happy to get to work on that.
Timothy Good: If I could just tag in a little bit on that, editing three was a totally different thing. But at the same time, it’s all based on this concept that Craig had — it’s about the people. It’s about the love that they have, the love that they show for each other, and the love that they don’t want to reveal to one another. I just love this character editing, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to be on the show. It was huge having the Bill and Frank dynamic and as a gay man myself to be able to see these performances and to decode the secret language that gay people have, to be able to put that on the screen, to be able to enlighten and also to be able to make sure that I’m protecting their performances. To make sure that there’s nothing in there that is going to be seen as not real or that doesn’t make sense. It’s the great honor that I had. It was an absolute honor.
That episode is built on pauses. It’s built on negative spaces. It’s built on tentativeness because it’s about the attentiveness of these characters to connect. They’re not sure about each other. So I am a big fan of using negative space because you don’t have dialogue that the audience has to process simultaneously. You’re able to focus entirely on the characters’ faces and the micro nuances that happen in human beings when they’re in positions where they feel scared, where they feel like they have to protect someone else. You can see it in their faces. To be able to focus hyperintensely on that in these silences is why I loved editing episode three. It’s why it was a little bit longer than the other episodes, but it had the idea of building a relationship based on tentativeness that ultimately becomes about a true love and a life that is lived in a beautiful way.
Awards Daily: Last question for both of you: what were your favorite scenes to cut throughout the first season?
Emily Mendez: My favorite scene was the Ellie and Riley dance and kiss in episode seven, the “Left Behind” episode. That episode was very special to me. It was always my favorite part of the game originally when I played the game, and so when I got to edit the episode, I was beyond excited. For me, I love that scene because there is a nice build that you get where you’re starting off from a place where Ellie doesn’t really want to dance. She doesn’t really want to get on this table, this countertop, with Riley, but Riley begs her. You see this general small build of Ellie kind of dancing, and then eventually she’s really dancing. It gives us this beautiful moment of pure joy. You have these teenagers, and they’re just teenagers. They’re in love, they’re dancing, and they’re having fun. To be able to cut that was great, and to do the kiss and follow it with their big burst of laughter just felt so real and natural. We’re always looking for these real moments. We’re really drawn in, and we’re connected to these characters. I loved working on that scene so much.
Timothy Good: For me, it will always be the first lunch between Bill and Frank that culminates in the piano playing. I remember the day that it happened. Craig texted me, and he tells me we had our first really great day. I said, ‘Oh, really? Great! Weren’t the other days pretty great because I think they were. He goes, ‘No, but this is a really great day.’ When I got the material in, I was just blown away. number one, the performances by Nick [Offerman] and Murray [Bartlett] were just beautiful. It was such a gift to be able to craft that sequence in a way where I tried desperately not to make any edits that weren’t motivated by story and character. That’s my overall perspective on editing in general. In this specific sequence, I tried not to edit as much as I could because the lived-in performance was so strong that any kind of edit I would make would perhaps disconnect you from these two characters. That lunch sequence to me is the thing I just love so much more than anything. It’s like eight minutes long, and I don’t ever feel bored by it. I always feel like this is fascinating. There’s a tentativeness to the beginning, and then there’s a connection being made. Frank goes from charming and suspect to realizing he’s falling in love at first sight to someone who did not expect he would ever find. To see those transitions, to manage those transitions, and to make sure that they existed in a really real space, it can’t get better than that.