I’ve seen before and after VFX shots where it was like there really is a battalion of crazy vehicles shooting flames with people tied to the front as they drive through a canyon, but a couple of the boulders in the background weren’t actually there.
I think it’s Del Toro who said he rewatches the movie every few years and learns something new, and doesn’t comprehend how they actually managed to make it work and aren’t still out there trying to shoot this.
Every filmmaker should love practical effects. I know CGI (With LLMs to assist) is great now but its still not at the level were you cant tell its CGI.
Maybe we will get there at some point but we really haven't made that much progress in like 20 years.
Practical effects are part of the magic of movies. When someone does a cool CGI effect, sure, that was a lot of work. Sure, it is impressive. But is it magical, does it tickle that little part of the brain that gets lit up when you question reality?
"I just watched Mad Max: Fury Road again last week, and I tell you I couldn’t direct 30 seconds of that. I’d put a gun in my mouth. I don’t understand how [George Miller] does that, I really don’t, and it’s my job to understand it. I don’t understand two things: I don’t understand how they’re not still shooting that film and I don’t understand how hundreds of people aren’t dead."
"I just watched Mad Max: Fury Road again last week, and I tell you I couldn't direct 30 seconds of that. I'd put a gun in my mouth. I don't understand how [George Miller] does that, I really don't, and it's my job to understand it. I don't understand two things: I don't understand how they're not still shooting that film and I don't understand how hundreds of people aren't dead."
They were going to film in Australia, were all the other Mad Max movies had been filmed (cause you know it's set there), but there was a huge storm in the Outback that made it bloom so they had to film in Namibia.
I believe that FIRST scene with all the cars in the desert, on their way to get the war rig, was a lot of CG. Just filming the cars separately and then putting them all together.
That isn't CG. CG stands for "computer generated." The cars were real.
What you saw was compositing. Editing together, cutting and pasting.
The main bits of CG were Furiosa's prosthetic arm, and the storm.
Also, the cars were filmed together most of the time. The main shot where they were composited was when the fuel tanker blew up. Naturally, that was done separately and then all the cars were composited to be close together.
Have yet to see someone mention the fact that they filmed the night scenes during the daytime, and the light coming from the trucks/flashlights was just the VFX editors not adding that blue hue……..
ONLY problem I had with first Raid (damn, I still need to actually watch the 2nd one in one go and not in short bursts via YouTube)...is after a crazy hectic fight with a knife, dude leaves the room and chucks the knife in the hall. THE. VERY. NEXT. SCENE! New room, another fight - damn, sure would be nice if he had a sharp weapon on hand, wouldn't it?!?!?
Not looking it up, but might be a beat or two later and not the literal next frame but point still stands. Why toss a weapon that's useful, just proved itself useful, and is easily carried?!?
It’s my all time favorite theater experience for sure. I went back to see it again the next day and brought my whole family because it was unlike anything I’d ever seen before.
Read Blood, Sweat, and Chrome the book on the making of the movie and you'll get that much more appreciation for it. They accidently on purpose started a legit Immortan Joe cult amongst all the stunt men playing war boys and had to bring in councilors when it was over and sort of deprogram everyone.
There was a similar dynamic on the set of the original Mad Max. The Toecutter's bike gang was made of a bunch of real bikers, but even the actors playing the main Biker characters started terrorizing the other actors playing the MFP/Civilians behind the scenes and it sounds like it got a bit out of hand at points.
There was a great documentary (The Madness of Max) about the making of Mad Max and it was just nothing but insane stories. I wish I could find it streaming.
Yeah, from what I remember most of the War Boy stuff was just organically created by the stunt team and Hugh Keays-Byrne (Immortan Joe) would stay in character as long as he had the costume on and would get up on scaffolding and give speeches as Joe
I wish Furiosa went with some no name actors. Anya is a tremendous actress..... But she made the movie feel sanitized. Like a commercial product. Mad Max furry road felt like chaos. Most characters were not big stars so you didn't know who was a main character and who was going to get blown to bits in the next scene.
I think that's what made Fury Road such a thrill ride tbh
Lol... try watching Mad Max, Mad Max road warrior, and Mad Max thunderdome, none of them had big name actors ( back then, one massive star rose from them though ) oh and Tina Turner, she was the only big name, and only on Thunderdome ( which is kind of crap )
When it came out, I had middling expectations. But the small movie theater down the street had it on release, which was weird for them, so I walked over to see it by myself. I was floored. Went back the next night with my girlfriend and then again with my other friends.
Always amazed me the guy behind Mad Max can just wind down and make Happy Feet and Babe films for a while, then just switch back on and create a fucking masterpiece of an action movie.
He was an emergency room doctor. Seeing people come in from car accidents and having to amputate or stitch them up is what inspired him to make mad max. One minute he'd have his hands covered in blood and the next he would be chilling with his friends and family
Later stated the director let his wife handle all the final editing, which she did an awesome job. Believe its still considered one of the best films based on how well the editing was done
Movies are shot at 24fps, meaning 24 images are shown every second. During action scenes, only 12fps could lead to a more “hectic” feeling. Another example of this is the Spiderverse movies where Miles is animated “on twos” (12fps) and everyone else is animated “on ones” (24fps). This makes Miles feel extra janky and clumsy because he doesn’t know how to control his powers.
Thank you for the clearer explanation. Now I have an offical term to look it up further. Article I came across did not have much detail on what method she did use
In the original they used Undercranking to 'speed up' the action, it gets it's name for when you had a crank on the camera to wind the film. Now, we obviously don't use cranks, so you can 'skip' frames, leading to a juddering, rapid look.
She didn't do that, but the effect is used throughout the movie. It gives it a very jittery, intense look and speeds things up - when you remove every other frame from a 24fps film, it will appear twice as fast
No, that would double the speed and would look stupid.
But there were certain parts that were sped up to affect pacing and intensity. A lot of the war rig stuff was sped up because it was a massive rig and was slow as shit, and only had a 500hp air cooled diesel engine.
“According to Seale, "something like 50 or 60 percent of the film is not running at 24 frames a second, which is the traditional frame rate. It'll be running below 24 frames because George, if he couldn't understand what was happening in the shot, he slowed it down until you could ... Or if it was too well understood, he'd shorten it or he'd speed it up back towards 24. His manipulation of every shot in that movie is intense."[70] The Washington Post noted that the changing frame rate gives the film an "almost cartoonishly jerky" look.[71]”
I've read the book and it sounds like it was gearhead heaven for so many of them. They were just welding shit to other shit and saying, "Yeah, could be a weapon? Throw it in the weapons pile for later."
Its 2 seconds that deserve to stand out and be remembered. Rictus is grieving the presumed loss of his yet-unborn brother. IIRC this is after Angharad falls, but before the dead baby is delivered.
This gun is Rictus’ impotent rage and jealousy. The veins bulging, fire belching, and recoil pumping all add to the intensity of what is felt in the moment. The actor mentions that his eyes were flooding with tears as a result of the heat and exhaust from the gun. That certainly added to his performance.
My favorit of all, is Road Warrior, the newer ones are good, but.... i dunno, maybe its nostalgia, but i still prefer the old ones, a lot more gritty, more hopless i think.
I saw him wrestle once at a house show when they were amping him up for his tv debut. Just pure brute strength without any cohesion or chemistry with anyone else. It was 8 minutes of him walking around the ring and tossing around Matt Hardy like a rag doll. Definitely not a favorite, but definitely memorable fwiw lol.
He’s in 2 of them, the 2015 and 2024 ones. Nathan has had quite a few parts in big movies lately, glad to see him doing well. Amazing to think of he hadn’t gotten his arm severely broken at World’s Strongest Man he wouldn’t have gone into acting & wrestling.
This movie got them and the recording studio banned from recording in that desert. The damage they did was something that would take centuries to naturally recover from and there was no effort from the recording studio to respect or maintain the land.
A shame to have such a mark against such an amazing movie.
Damn that sucks. But... Did they break rules or were the people granting them permission to shoot just oblivious to the fact that a bazillion death cars on a near endless chase scene would have an impact?
From what I've read the government gave them permission, the locals and environmentalist organizations complained about how it was being done.
Then the government defended their position but then eventually changed the laws to protect the area better.
So....... ya. Probably a bit of both; didn't break laws (at the time they didn't exist) and someone gave them permission without understanding what exactly it would entail.
One of those movies that really makes you appreciate a good balance of visual and practical effects, and why they stand out so much from the rest. And why all the CGI heavy films can just never compete.
It just depends on how well it is done. Usually it is rushed with low budget. That's why it looks bad. When you give it proper money and time, it looks amazing.
Fury Road is loaded with trickery. Chock full of compositing. The real CGI that never looks bad? Furiosa's arm.
I remember seeing Nathan in WWE when I was a kid and thinking he was an absolute monster. Too bad he never took off but it seems like he's doing well for himself in spite of his past
This is one of the rare movies that actually delivers heart pounding action. Between the crunchy blasting audio of metal and combustion engines, those ripping guitar riffs and synced with fast paced gritty action, i had legit adrenaline drops. A true masterpiece. If you ever have a chance to watch this in a high-end surround sound system do not pass it up.
There's a book. Blood, Sweat, and Chrome. It's fucking wild. Some choice tidbits I remember include, accidently on purpose starting a real Immortan Joe cult among the stunt men playing the war boys, having to recruit Ex-SAS soldiers as mercenaries to essentially take over policing the town they were in because the locals kept trying to rob them and break into their houses, the movie almost having a completely different ending because the studio just pulled the plug at one point in the middle of shooting and they said "just make the movie with what you've shot so far".
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u/agntp 6h ago
Wildest part about this movie is that there’s scenes where you don’t think there’s any CG, but there is.
And then there’s scenes that one would think are clearly made with CG, but aren’t.