Daryl Dixon, Bacon & Sons Survive 'State of Survival' Shoot 05.24.2021 The Walking Dead's Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) keeps encountering and killing himself in Bacon & Sons Film Co.'s super meta spot for mobile strategy game State of Survival: The Walking Dead Collaboration. Producing the spot became exponentially harder due to two problems: having to change the shoot location several times at the last minute and extreme weather. The original location was set to be a rural gas station with a post-apocalyptic feel, but incoming thunderstorms forced the team to scrap that choice. While Executive Producer Dan Appel was flying in from Los Angeles to Atlanta, the team scouted a new location-an abandoned tire factory. The team spent an entire day there, planning out the shoot and figuring out every angle in preparation for the next day's tech scouting session. At the end of the day, the team did a Zoom run-through with its clients in New York, Barcelona, London and Beijing. But when they were packing up to leave, they got the news that the county had revoked its production permit because there was a moratorium on the property. Now they had to scramble again to find another property and complete the tech scout. Reedus was only available to shoot for one specific day and obviously the entire spot revolved around him. After several different location scouts went into overnight overdrive, the final location-a working sheet-metal factory-was selected at noon. The team completed the director's scout that afternoon, and then set up the tech and the lighting the following day. Meanwhile, storms were pounding the Southeast, including tornadoes. In the end, though, the team managed to get everything done in the nick of time to produce the spot, featuring tons of dying Daryl Dixons until the #RealDarylDixon comes in to win the day. State of Survival: The Walking Dead Collaboration is available on Google Play, Apple iOs and for PC and Mac using an emulator. CREDITS Creative Agency: Bacon & Sons Film Co. Executive Producer: Dan Appel Shoot Producer: Sheree Shu Production Manager: Donald Williams Director of Photography: Eric Haase Editor: Daniel Reitzenstein Post-Production Supervisor: Cedric Williams Copywriters: Brian Frank & Dan Appel Client: FunPlus (Beijing) Creative Director, FunPlus: Zhihao He For FunPlus: State of Survival Team Brand Partner: AMC Networks VP, Games, AMC Networks: Clayton Newman VP, Digital Content, AMC Networks: Kevin Dreyfuss VP, Digital Production, AMC Networks: Alexander Dvorin Visual Effects: Mr. Wolf VFX Supervisor: John Pierce VFX Executive Producer: Mike Pryor VFX Producer: Stacey Badour For Google: Google Creative Team.