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V isual E ffects
The Road Retraveled
Visual effects up the drama as the post-apocalypse gets even more dire in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road. By Bill Desowitz.
G
eorge Miller, the originator of the dys- randomness of the real world to play out,” they used it for both static and moving shots. “One of my jobs on set was always to retopian genre, has craftily re-imagined says Andrew Jackson (300), the production Mad Max for the fourth time in Fury visual-effects supervisor, based in Sydney. mind people to keep everything moving be“That’s exactly what I like to do, because my cause as soon as the vehicle stops, everyRoad with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. Max Rockatansky (Hardy) still wants to background is in special effects and mod- thing dies,” says Jackson. So it was important wander alone, but becomes swept up with a el-making. And my first thought is always, for the vehicle that the camera is mounted on group fleeing across the Wasteland in a War ‘How much of it can we shoot in live action?’ to be rocked by the grips. And in post, that Rig driven by an elite Imperator, Furiosa (Ther- So it was wonderful working with George was one of the big lessons. Whenever one of the vehicles and on). Having opened May the cameras weren’t 15 from Warner Bros., “Because of the style of this film, a lot of the shots are less moving, they were Mad Max: Fury Road still than one second long, so it’s really good to know what some of the hardest contains a retro vibe, but they are. You don’t want to be adding 12-frame handles to a visual-effects shots Miller uses new camera to make convincing.” rigs and well-placed VFX 10-frame shot.” for a grittier thrill ride. — Andrew Jackson, production visual-effects supervisor, Mad Max: Fury Road DP John Seale’s crew Post-vis was outfitted with six Arri Tightens It Up Alexas and a number of Canon 5Ds, with the right from the start, because we’re both fans One of the most important decisions, latter used in part as crash cams in action se- of that idea.” however, was the creation of a post-vis deNaturally, there was a lot of handheld action partment at the production studio. “It was quences. They also used the Edge crane arm shot inside the War Rig, which is the main lo- something that I knew would work very well, to get close to Furiosa’s War Rig. “When I first talked to George about the cation throughout their journey. But the vehi- and I’ve done before, where we have a small film, he was very clear about wanting the cle with the Edge crane was so effective that team of 10 to 15 people doing a rough version 86 www.animationmagazine.net june 15
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