Pluribus: Director of Photography Talks Helicopters, Drones & Shooting at the Very Large Array

When a TV series needs a landscape that looks like it was beamed in from another galaxy, you don't build a set — you rent a radio telescope array. The Very Large Array in New Mexico, a sprawling grid of 27 dish antennas that looks like a herd of metallic alien mushrooms, serves as the perfect backdrop for *Pluribus*. Director of Photography Marshall Adams recently told Reactor about the logistical sci-fi of shooting there: helicopters buzzing around a machine that's literally listening to the universe, and drones curving through the desert air to capture the array's eerie geometry. It's a reminder that our own planet hosts places so bizarre they double as portals to imagined worlds — and that the truth of engineering, when framed right, becomes the stuff of wonder. The Very Large Array is one of those rare earthly structures that doesn't need any CGI to feel alien. Its 27 dishes, each 82 feet across, stretch across the New Mexico desert like a mechanical chorus, all tuned to the faint murmurs of cosmic hydrogen. When *Pluribus* decided to film there, they didn't just use it as a pretty background — they brought helicopters and drones to weave through its metallic sinews. As Adams explains, the challenge wasn't just getting the shot; it was making the machine feel alive, almost sentient, as if the array were dreaming of the signals it catches. There's something poetic about a production crew using cutting-edge tech to capture a facility that itself is a giant ear for the universe. The drones and helicopters become modern-day instruments, dancing around an instrument of astronomy. It's a meta-layered experience: humanity's desire to tell stories about the cosmos, using the very tools we built to listen to it. Adams' description of hovering over the dishes, watching the desert light reflect off their surfaces, evokes a sense of scale that's both humbling and exhilarating. I can almost hear the hum of the antennas, a constant thrumming that's the sound of galaxies whispering. What fascinates me is how *Pluribus* uses this real scientific infrastructure to ground its speculative fiction. Too often, sci-fi relies on futuristic cities or barren alien planets, but here they chose a place that exists on our own map — a place that already feels like a relic from a parallel dimension. By shooting at the VLA, they're tapping into a well of wonder that's both authentic and surreal. It's a reminder that science and art can feed each other: the array was built to ask profound questions about the cosmos, and now it's serving as a stage for those same questions in narrative form. The technical details Adams shares are a treasure for anyone who loves the craft of filmmaking. He talks about the unpredictability of aerial shots in that vast, empty space, how the wind and distance can turn a planned shot into an improvisation. It's a small echo of the larger cosmic uncertainty the VLA itself grapples with daily — we can aim our instruments, but the universe often sends us surprises. In that way, *Pluribus* isn't just a show set at a telescope; it's a show that embodies the spirit of exploration, both behind the camera and in front of it. Source: [Reactor's interview with Marshall Adams](https://reactormag.com/pluribus-director-of-photography-talks-helicopters-drones-shooting-at-the-very-large-array/)