Tom Luse: Executive Producer, The Walking Dead

Tom Luse has shaped the worlds behind The Walking Dead, Billy the Kid, Remember the Titans, and plenty of others people forget he worked on. His work in physical production sets the real limits of the story. Most of it stays off screen, but it decides everything that makes it on. The early calls he makes define the edges the audience never notices. We talked about scale, constraint, and how the story shifts once those lines are set.

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When you’re running physical production, what’s the call you make early that quietly locks the entire season’s storytelling range in place?

Agreeing on the size of the sandbox with your creative team. If you can get everyone on the same page about cast, sets to build, and other major factors, it will allow your creative team to build story effectively and gives less opportunity for outside interference.

What’s a production constraint you’ve learned not to negotiate on because it protects the narrative more than people realize?

Making sure that the schedule is agreed upon by all parties. Time is the most expensive commodity, and designing a schedule that allows the most time for shooting what is most important is critical.

When a scene feels expensive on screen, what invisible tradeoff usually made that possible behind the camera?

Helping the writer or director recognize what scenes are most important to the narrative vision and protecting those scenes. Scenes that are showy but don’t move the story forward are usually among the first ones cut or minimized.

What’s the first sign a production is drifting off plan, and what’s usually driving it underneath the excuse?

Production usually starts to fail because of two things. Creative falling behind on scripts or decisions, and communication starting to fail because of lack of unified information flow.

Across Walking Dead and everything since, what part of physical production shapes tone more than writers or directors tend to notice?

If your creative team shows up and knows they can dream their best dream about their story, even if that vision has to be altered for time and money reasons, it gives us our best chance to get the most compelling story on screen.

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When Tom talks about production, he isn’t talking about gear or schedules. He’s talking about the hidden choices that decide the shape of the story. For him, the invisible work is the part that lets the world feel real.

Learn more about Tom at:

• IMDB

• LinkedIn