Fury Road before the visual effects were added

boing
1

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/09/13/fury-road-before-the-visual-ef.html
…

6 Likes
2

So. Good.
Sure, there was plenty of decent cgi used too- but it was this solid base of practical effects that they could build on.

12 Likes
3

Excellent. That really is quite something.

5 Likes
4

Nice camerawork.

3 Likes
5

I would’ve probably liked a version closer to this than the actual theatrical version.

3 Likes
6

That was amazing. Everyone there was an artist.

And it brought this to mind:

4 Likes
7

… which is rather different from the startling, crude violence of the first two Mad Max movies…

There are three Mad Max movies prior to this one. Did you miss the first one?

2 Likes
8

I haven’t seen this film yet (something I’m now regretting) and after watching this compilation, I have questions:

  1. Why was CGI even needed?
  2. How much of the end credits is just the legal team?
  3. Is there a film award for Best Lawyering?
4 Likes
9

It’s great to witness the majesty of all those practical effects, ntm that incredible stuntwork & driving, but I don’t want Fury Road to be more like the prior films (i.e. more muted visually, and thus starker, more distant, and less operatic). The visual tone of Fury Road is integral to its super-heightened reality and that’s a large part of what makes its more frantic pacing cohere.

As you say, making it less heightened visually would make certain people more uncomfortable with the violence because it would become more distinct (in a “this is an unsettling documentary” sort of way). Again, I don’t think that’s what I want from Fury Road. That standoffishness, that visual indifference, is what makes Road Warrior unique, certainly, but I don’t think it’d suit Fury Road’s tale, let alone its tempo.

Thanks for sharing; that was damned interesting.

1 Like
10

I assume the intent was to leave out Beyond Thunderdome.

3 Likes
11

I haven’t seen this movie, but judging from the video it is basically State Fair stuff, with monster trucks, tractor pulls, and cooking stuff with giant gas burners?

1 Like
12
  1. Why was CGI even needed?

Firstly, to edit out all the safety harnesses etc. and the camera cars you can see in some of the shots.
Also, IIRC, instead of waiting for the right light, they shot film (or rather digital bits?) all day, and then corrected the light levels and colour balance later on.

2 Likes
13

You know this looks much like the Big Wheel races we had as kids. :smirk:

3 Likes
14

Can’t we just move Beyond Thunderdome once and for all?

2 Likes
15

My beefs with Fury Road was how the Mad Max series had essentially taken in the stuff which was common to ripoffs of them but were never really part of it from the start.

Now comes the entirely unnecessary geekening on my part:

  1. George Miller had stated in a bunch of interviews prior to Beyond Thunderdome that the apocalypse involved was not nuclear war. That he was pessimistic any human beings could survive that. (There were no prior mutants and stuff before the 2 headed lizard gag in Thunder Road)

  2. Mad Max and Road Warrior involved worlds winding down. Where modern technology was becoming increasingly scarce. There are very few guns used in Road Warrior. People relying on darts, arrows and improvised weapons mostly. The whole warlords of oil, water and bullets just seemed unlikely in the world he created.

That being said, I loved Fury Road and was absolutely delighted that George Miller came back to it. I still have trouble explaining to people that the same director did Babe, Lorenzo’s Oil and Happy Feet.

1 Like
16

Couldn’t agree more. I think that tends to illustrate the good films (or TV shows) from the dreck, IMHO. I sort of think of CGI work as being there to do things you can’t do practically in film making.

2 Likes
17

It’s a bit like still photography- if you get the original image right, in camera, there’s very little touch up that needs to be done afterwards, and the image can be that much more realistic.
If all the work gets done in post production, things can (and do…) go off the rails.
If CGI is getting used because it’s cheaper than practical, that’s never a good start.
If CGI is getting used to enhance the practical, that’s (maybe) alright.

3 Likes
18

You can’t take Aunty Entity away from me :anguished:

1 Like
19

There’s some scenes of the movie that are so massively bonkers that practical effects weren’t possible, like the aftermath of a massive dust tornado. And others that used exactly what was shot but duplicated some of the trucks, so instead of 20 crazy big rigs you’ve got 60 or whatever. But like others said, most of the CG was for color grading and removing harnesses.

4 Likes
20

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.