When production wrapped on George Miller’s long-gestating, troubled shoot for Mad Max: Fury Road, the director and his team of editors were faced with close to 480 hours of raw footage and left with the question of how to sift through it all and produce something coherent. For those of you who have already seen the post-apocalyptic reboot, that question was answered in the first ten minutes, but how exactly did Miller and Co. rein in such a hulking cinematic beast?
Vahsi Visuals has the answer: smart editing. With the final version of Fury Road boasting over 2,700 cuts, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Miller’s long-awaited sequel would fall foul to the pitfalls faced by many blockbusters in that there is so much action on screen, it becomes confusing – disorienting, even – for the audience to keep track of. In this case, the esteemed filmmaker ensured that the focus of the sequence remained in the centerpiece of the frame, so that fast cutaways wouldn’t result in your attention beginning to wane or fatigue.
Moreover, though Mad Max: Fury Road is being hailed for its dedication to realism, Miller’s actioner still contained a staggering amount of VFX shots, particularly for the jaw-dropping toxic storm sequence and in the creation of The Citadel. In the words of visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson, “a very large number of those shots are very simple clean-ups and fixes and wire removals and painting out tire tracks from previous shots, but there are a big number of big VFX shots as well.”
Mad Max: Fury Road is in cinemas now, and if you want to read more about our thoughts on Miller’s stroke of genius, check out our glowing review.
Mad Max: Fury Road is an artfully crafted adrenaline ride that’s powered by Miller’s incomparable sense of storytelling through the most primitive, high-speed rawness that’s ever been captured on camera.
