Behind the Scenes - Worldbuilding in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Director George Miller had been plotting a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road for some time and even approached original cinematographer John Seale to shoot it. Seale had been nominated for work on the 2015 film but, approaching 80 when Miller finally got around to making it, Seale decided to pass.

The baton went to fellow Antipodean DP Simon Duggan, a New Zealander who has shot Alex Proyas’ I, Robot, Duncan Jones’ Warcraft and Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge.

“I knew that George had been developing both Fury Road and a prequel story for many years and had originally planned to shoot both films back to back,” Duggan tells IBC365.

“He explained how the prequel was to tell Furiosa’s journey from her childhood, her abduction and years growing up at the Citadel mostly disguised as a boy, then her first failed attempt to find the Green Place and her final revenge against her abductor Dementus.

“Furiosa is a much more complex story than Fury Road. One creative goal was to establish a larger society in the wasteland that surrounds the Citadel Fortress.”

The lead is played by Anya Taylor Joy with Chris Hemsworth as Dementus, the deranged warlord leader of the Biker Horde.

Flawless continuity

Back in 2012, Miller had been planning to shoot Fury Road in stereo 3D and was testing a prototype 3D sensor camera and rig with the film’s DOP John Seale. In pre-production on that film, Seale visited Duggan in Sydney where he was shooting The Great Gatsby for director Baz Luhrmann in digital stereo 3D.

“I believe John realised that shooting real 3D was going to be too limiting for the intense action scenes in the harsh and dusty Namibian desert and decided to shoot digital but in 2D using the ARRI Alexa Mini,” Duggan says.

With the prequel filming in the Australian desert, a chief task was maintaining visual consistency between the two films. The Citadel Fortress, where chief villain Immortan Joe ruled over his dominions in Fury Road, makes a return in Furiosa as does the look of the barren wasteland. The design of the War Rigs is also consistent with other films in the franchise.

“Fury Road was the reference point as it is so original with the intense red plains and blue skies but there was still the opportunity to expand the look with the establishment of a much larger world than previously seen.

“George and I also talked about the Black and Chrome version of Fury Road and specifically how it feels more like an apocalyptic film from a much earlier time. I did manage to slide in a few nods to film noir lighting techniques such as slashes of light across faces and deep contrast lighting for interiors of the Citadel.”

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Duggan says Miller also inserted a direct throwback to Mad Max 2 of Mad Max observing proceedings below from a cliff top. “Furiosa does reveal a much larger world that exists in the postapocalyptic wasteland so there was much more scope for the visuals,” he says.

Camera selection

Duggan photographed on the Alexa 65 “because it captures beautiful looking faces and the desert vistas attain an almost 3D feel when covered with the large format.” He also required several smaller cameras for the action work. These were mainly RED Komodos fitted into tight rigging points around the78ft 18-wheel War Rig and RED V-Raptors for Steadicam or handheld cameras. They also needed the additional cameras for higher filming speeds to amplify moments of a character’s predicament, especially in sequences with Furiosa.

“Generally, for dialogue scenes with our actors we used two to three cameras,” adds Duggan. “George would rehearse with the camera operators recording on iPads and then his onset editor would do a quick 10-minute assembly in his trailer. Once George was happy with his approach to coverage we would shoot. We paid a lot of attention to the quality of light, facial modelling and making sure we could read into their eyes. Anya’s eyes especially were a window into her soul.”

Duggan principally shot Arri DNA Primes. “ARRI even produced two new full coverage 25mm Primes for the 65mm format with each lens individually named ‘Furiosa’ and ‘Max Max’ for our production.”

“For action sequences, we would often run the remote camera crane tracking vehicle, a second camera tracking vehicle, a drone, and rigged camera mounts to the various vehicles. The film’s Action Unit would have up to half a dozen cameras rolling at once along with an array camera rig of Komodos on a buggy capturing background sky plates at War Rig speed. We weren’t worried about other cameras being in shot as they could be erased in post later.”

Unreal Engine

As in Fury Road, it is the kinetic camera movement which propels the action in what is a relatively dialogue-free movie.

Duggan explains that Miller used Unreal Engine to construct virtual animated scenes using real inputs such as locations with sun data, vehicle dimensions and speeds and humans with actor heights.

“He was able to quickly plot movements for camera tracking vehicles, drones and also Steadicam shots especially the ‘oners’ where it was to be a single shot sequence. It was from this process that George realised how much more dynamic it was to be continuously part of the action with the cameras. This method also provided the crew with the technical information to make it happen.”

The whole film was shot in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The main location for the exterior barren red earth locations was Broken Hill with much of the War Rig stunt scenes shot in a town called Hay which had a 4km highway which could be closed down. The remainder was set back in various exterior locations in Sydney including a short time on the Disney Sound Stages. For example, shots of Furiosa hanging underneath the War Rig were shot here.

“I was very honoured to be included in George’s Mad Max universe and to be able to follow up from Fury Road with another great film,” he says.

Duggan is currently back in the Australian outback shooting TV thriller Desert King for Netflix.

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