Watch How ‘Pluribus’ Rigged a Pickup Truck to Torture Rhea Seehorn Specifically

Adams drove the route through the warehouse-y section of Albuquerque that had been chosen for Scene 46, and saw that the way the shadows hit the car would inevitably create a shadow of the camera and of any lighting equipment on Seehorn’s face. Unable to use any available light for the shot, the next solution would be projections of some sort. From there, Adams planned the sequence and mapped a 3D version of the environment in SketchUp, and decided, in true “Pluribus” fashion, that the projections shouldn’t be separate from the car rig; they should all be a part of it.

“ We built this giant — I want to say it was 10 feet wide by five feet tall LED screen and covered the whole front of the truck, essentially,” Adams told IndieWire. “Then we put the truck on the biscuit, which is an electric tow rig, very low to the ground, so [Seehorn] wouldn’t have to actually drive,  and we ended up with B-Camera shooting forward, and we matched the lenses, so the image was exactly what was happening. So, she could see it coming and react to it.” 

The real-time feedback from the mini-LED wall allowed Gilligan and Seehorn, who directed the episode, to really focus on performance in the eight to 10 takes they shot of Carol’s long drive home. The ability to dial the light from the rig up or down allowed Adams to really finesse the moments and adjust the light levels to keep our attention on Carol, but also keep the background still alarmingly legible — RIP the birthday bus holding, among other folks, longtime “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” writer Tom Schnauz.