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For production designer Howard Cummings, Fallout<\/em> wasn\u2019t just the name of his most recent project \u2014 it also became a verb. As he was working on Amazon\u2019s live-action adaptation of the game series<\/a>, Cummings and his team used the word Fallout<\/em> as a shorthand to describe the particular retrofuturistic, post-apocalyptic style the franchise is known for. \u201cEverything had to be Fallout<\/em>-ed,\u201d he tells The Verge<\/em>. \u201cFor locations, I\u2019d say: \u2018How do I Fallout<\/em> this grocery store?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Initially, though, that wasn\u2019t the plan. Going into the project, Cummings \u2014 who previously worked on shows like Westworld<\/em> and Lovecraft Country<\/em> \u2014 didn\u2019t know all that much about the games and thought he might have to update the visual style to make it \u201cslicker.\u201d That changed once he did some research. After watching YouTube videos of fans building their own vaults and Pip-Boys and scouring wikis for every detail he could find, Cummings says he became enchanted by the franchise\u2019s mix of playful and dark. \u201cThe script was actually so well-written to the game that we decided that we should absolutely do it like the game,\u201d he explains. \u201cNobody ever told me to do that, which was kind of great. I did it because I really liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cummings says that he got \u201cinto a groove after a while, with what makes something Fallout<\/em>.\u201d And that meant being really focused on the details. The underground vaults, for example, had completely unique features like triangular bolts and lots of metal arches, all of which had to be custom-made for the show. \u201cWe had our own factory for computer cuts and Vacuform,\u201d Cummings says. \u201cI had a row of 3D printers in my office for all of the small parts.\u201d When it came to the settlement of Filly, \u201cFallout<\/em>-ing\u201d meant crafting a small town mostly out of metal, with structures that could be 60 feet tall in some places (not including the airplane fuselage resting on top). Cummings says that it required more than 30 welders working on set each day to put it together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One element of Fallout<\/em> lore that Cummings particularly loved was the Red Rocket truck stops, with their distinctive sloping roofs and giant red rockets. But initially, there wasn\u2019t one in the script. \u201cI begged Graham [Wagner] and Geneva [Robertson-Dworet], the showrunners, to let me do a Red Rocket,\u201d Cummings says. Eventually, they found a functioning 1950s gas station in Nyack, New York, that had the right look, and the owner gave the team five days to use the space. That meant three days to prep, one day of shooting, and then one day to \u201creturn it back to a functioning gas station.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Not everything got the Fallout<\/em> treatment, however. In the games, shots of the pre-war world usually consist of a series of perfectly pleasant suburban homes ripped out of a 1950s sitcom. But for a scene early on in the Amazon show featuring a children\u2019s birthday party at a rich executive\u2019s home, the vibe needed to be different. Instead of \u201cFallout<\/em>-ing\u201d a location, Cummings and the design team instead crafted a sleek, mostly glass house inspired by the futurist Googie architectural movement<\/a>. It was a different look that still fit within Fallout<\/em>\u2019s time period and aesthetic \u2014 and also made one of the more tragic parts of the show even more dramatic. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to have an atomic bomb go off,\u201d says Cummings, \u201cyou do not want to live in a glass house.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n