thas-fandom:Mad Max: Fury Road | Behind the ScenesHigh-Octane Camera Wrangling on Mad Max: Fury
thas-fandom: Mad Max: Fury Road | Behind the Scenes High-Octane Camera Wrangling on Mad Max: Fury Road Coordinating AC Michelle Pizanis Details the Cameras and Bad-Ass Rigs that Captured the Film’s Kinetic Action Some say the genius of George Miller’s dystopian Mad Max franchise lies in the uniqueness of its genre-blending vision, equal parts post-apocalyptic morality tale, classic Western, and biker film on steroids. Others point to each film’s relentless action, where the audience rides shotgun with road warrior Max Rockatansky, his gritty story in perpetual motion. Gearheads call out the parade of sinister Frankencars and trucks. In Mad Max: Fury Road, just out on Blu-ray, Miller is still firing on all pistons, the drama amped by Charlize Theron’s anti-heroine Imperator Furiosa, Tom Hardy’s Max reboot, some 200 custom-built vehicles and a strong feminist message. The driving force of Fury Road, however, is this installment’s extraordinary array of practical effects and how Miller, cinematographer John Seale, ACS, ASC, and the large crew captured its many moving parts. “You get on set with some directors and wonder how they ever got so far,” says L.A.-based coordinating camera assistant Michelle Pizanis, who travelled with the crew to the Namibian desert for principal photography in 2012 and back to her home town of Sydney in 2013 for additional shooting. “But not George. He knows exactly what he needs and what he doesn’t need. His vision affects every little thing during production.” Mad Max: Fury Road took more than 15 years to develop and spent 120 days in production, 84 of which were full days of shooting, says Pizanis. (Miller has said he was set to begin filming in 2001 but after the September 11 terrorist attacks, he shifted gears to direct Happy Feet, winner of the 2006 Oscar for Best Animated Film.) “Every single stunt or effect you see had a practical basis,” she says, requiring carefully calibrated setups and executions to maximize coverage and on-set safety. “George would try anything, but never once would they put anyone’s safety at risk. It was always safety first. If the shutter fell on the wrong side or the light faded too fast, we knew it could be fixed in post. We didn’t have any serious accidents out there, and I thought, ‘Well, there’s a first.’” (+) -- source link