100 Facts About Mad Max

1. The invasion (yes invasion) and subsequent war in which country stopped filming? Iran and Saudi Arabia
2. What TWO formats was the film originally going to be in to only then NOT be in? It was supposed to be an animated 3D film but it ended up being a 3D live action film.
3. How many times was filming delayed? Twice
4. In which year did filming first conclude? November 2001
5. In what year did they have to go back and film additional scenes? November 2013
6. At what point did Warner Bros panic and insist someone write a script? When John Seale joined the cast in around about 2003
7. When did the stars sign up to be in the film? Every cast member was in place by 2010
8. Where was the film originally going to be produced only for it to rain! Broken Hill in New South Wales of Australia
9. How much was spent on TV adverts? $7.5 million
10. How long did crew spend in Namibia? Most of them spent 10 months there.
11. There was a $150 million budget.
12. George Miller was 70 years old when he made the film.
13. John Seale and his crew chose to shoot principal photography with ARRI Alexa cameras and capture with Codex Onboard Recorders.
14. Six ARRI Alexas and a number of Canon 5Ds and 11 Codex Onboard recorders where used.
15. Mell Gibson originally signed up for the film but then dropped out.
16. The final film consisted of 2700 individual shots,
17. When Miller made the script he knew it wasn't very good but he thought what he had in his head would make it better, using his story boards.
18. Miller also made Happy Feet 1 and two.
19. Everything in the film followed the rules of physics so they could create it in real life.
20. The film was finally released 30 years after the last film.
21. Overall it generated $374 million at the box office from all across the world.
22. The two main actors in the film Tom Hardy and Charlie Theron did not get on as Tom is a method actor he stayed in character the whole time.
23. They used Photoscan to build terrain models
24. The camera had to be made waterproof and dust proof because of the conditions
25. The cast became used to living in the desert as they spent so much time there.
26. Nicholas Hoult had previously been in the teenage drama skins
27. The production of fury road was said to be 5 days behind the original schedule.
28. In total there is 450 hours of footage for the editors to look and put together.
29. The director was George Miller
30. Fury Road was said to be based on a simple camera philosophy
31. Brendon McCarthy also worked with Miller to produce the massive storyboard.
32. It took 18 years to complete the storyboard
33. Charlie Theron shaved her head for her role therefore had to wear a wig in another film she was staring in
34. The film lasted for 120 minutes
35. 140 vehicles were used in the film
36. It is not a CGI film.
37. Tom Hardy was chosen for the role because of his animal charisma, as he became the character so well.
38. Miller believed that there would not be a sequel to the original film let alone a fourth.
39. A CG car is used when a twister picks up the vehicle and the war boys inside, sending them flying into the air.
40. An edge arm was used to film 95% of the footage
41. The edge arm cost $500,000
42. Weather delays stopped filming as it became cold when they really wanted the hot desert conditions.
43. DOP John Seale, would use multiple digital cameras to capture incredible practical stunts with more than 150 vehicles conceived by production designer Colin Gibson
44. To get the scene that Miller wanted they had to blow up part of a quarry.
45. Eric Whipp's phone was used at one point to film extra details to a particular scene.
46. The trailer to Mad Max did not show crucial parts of the whole film unlike others do.
47. Andrew Jackson was the visual effects supervisor
48. Jackson was helped by visual effects producer Holly Radcliffe
49. It became the highest of the most five prated films between June 21st and September 9 in 2015.
50. It was downloaded on torrent websites 85 million times in this time .
51. In the summer it had 22.9 million shares on torrent websites.
52. They used a remote control truck so they could blow it up from a distance without any injuries.
53. Whipp created the graphic style for the films day and night scenes with detailed sky replacements.
54. The use of photogrammetry techniques for the Citadel location, and for others in the film, was actually inspired by Jackson's initial use of an on-set aerial photography drone from Sensefly that he had intended to employ just for ground reference photos.
55. Eye trace was used within the film to make the audience look where they wanted them to.
56. This was normally in the center of the frame
57. Miller has already planned two more films
58. Everything was shot during the day
59. They employed freestyler's for the motorbike riders
60. To show Furiosa's arm that had been replaced mechanically Charlie had to wear a green screen glove whilst filming.
61. Photoscan was used to build terrain models
62. The camera that filmed the final crash sequence was the Phantom Camera as it takes 300 frames per second.
63. It took us around about 19 years for the film to be made from the idea in 1987
64. Chalize Theron was the female hero of the story which is different for films as the hero is normally male
65. Tom Hardy did not think he would be offered the role because he thought it would go to an Australian actor
66. On the set the production of the twisters were edited after so the drivers had to be told were to drive to 'avoid' them
67. At one point there was a six month shoot in the desert
68. Whipp believes that the trickest part of filming was the day to night section
69. Contrast range between the interiors and the harsh desert exteriors a challenge for the cameras.
70. The camera used to film the final crash sequence was the Phantom Camera and it takes 300 frames per second.
71. The vehicles got rigged, driven and crashed by the key crew including special effects supervisors Andy Williams and Dan Oliver and supervising stunt co-ordinator Guy Norris.
72. An in-house positives and VFX crew set up at production company Kennedy Miller Mitchell, dubbed Fury FX, was also crucial in planning and realising hundreds of effects shots.
73. Other work was completed by Method Studios and BlackGinger, with early previous delivered by The Third Floor.
74. here was a practical set piece that was shot in one of the stages at Fox Studios in Sydney, which was completely replaced.
75. There was a combination of real photography in Namibia of various cars an additional green screen and stage shoots was coined with CG car take-overs, digital doubles and complex fluid and dust stimulations by Iloura for the storm.
76. VFX elements were shot to help tie pieces together and provide more foreground dust.
77. Jackson incorporated a dust element shoot for swirling action close to camera and streams of sand blowing off the vehicles, this was to ensure the toxic storm looked somewhat grounded.
78. Conceived as a practical effect, the refinery was blown up in Namibia, with Iloura then compositing in the other cars and Max on the foreground pole.
79. Jackson went back out and shot equivalent plates for all the chase vehicles to be around it.
80. The final chase sequence was also one in which The Third Floor delivered previs, under previsualization supervisor Glenn Burton.
81. The final car chase consists of a lot of characters and a lot of switching vehicles and concurrent action.
82. The previs had to carefully track where everyone was at a particular beat and help work out the transitions so the characters would be at the right place at the right time.
83. The sequence of the final crash made use of numerous Namibia plates, including stationary action that would be enhanced by moving backgrounds, canyon augmentation, a War Rig and other vehicle crash stunts.
84. Miller wanted to use real dust for the end, so they went one floor up on a balcony and put a whole bunch of dry wall rocks and dust and crashed them down and filmed it at 240 fps for the slow-mo bit at the end, because they did not want to use CG.
85. The frenetic pace and complexity of the shoot in Namibia meant that backgrounds and skies were not always consistent from shot to shot.
86. Whenever they changed the sky, they tried to make it as graphic as they could.
87. The problem they had with Namibia was that there was a weird foggy atmosphere which rolls in the morning.
88. A positive of postvis process was when shots are half a second to a second long the postvis was virtually good enough.
89. Mad Max: Fury Road got entered as development hell, and people believed it would never escape.
90. The is assumed to be another Mad Max, after filming Fury Road called, Mad Max: Furiosa.
91. Fury Road was supposed to be released in 2013.
92. Tom Hardy apologised to Miller for being frustrated with what Miller wanted during shooting, he apologised at a venue.
93. There was 450 hours of footage the editors had to go through.
94. Due to Hardy apologising for his act towards Miller, it shows how much he appreciates the film due to the finished product.
95. Mad Max: Fury Road outruns Hot Pursuit for the title of top-spending movie of the week.
96. Fury Road repeated its No.1 position on the strength of a slightly lower estimated $7.5 million spent on 957 national airings across 42 networks.
97. Seale shot most of the film on Arri Alexa cameras, supplemented by far less costly Canons for the crash shots.
98. Concerns diminished when the complicated 3D shooting rigs developed for the film were scrapped.
99. Apparently, Miller also used post techniques to degrade the footage, increasing it's grain and contrast, and crunched the focus digitally. He did not want clean shots, he wanted the audience to feel as if they had sand in their eyes.
100. Charlize Theron thought this was a very hard film to act in

Media Essay-

Why did Ex Machina succeed at the box office?

In this essay I will explaining why the film Ex Machina did so well at the box office despite reasons why it shouldn’t of. The small British film is about a man who gets chosen to test out whether a robot has human intelligence and can be mistaken for a person. It could be compared to other films such as Blade Runner and 2001, in its story line but it does contain some ‘realistic’ features that may set it apart from others. It features Alicia Vikander  Osar Issac , Domhnall Gleeson and Sonoya Mizuno.  This film was not suspected to make as much money as it because there is little aspects that are simlar to other films like this, there is little or no action scenes so no explosions happens. This immediately puts someone who likes to watch action films, stereo typically men. The pace of the film is very slow because of the long takes that were shot. Long takes means more reliance in the script as in what the characters say as there is not much going on. The films ending is not what is as expected, there is no closure, not giving the audience the closed narrative that they are used to. As this film is not a four quadrant feature the film actually had to be good and interesting. This is because budget was not extensive enough. Mark Kermode said in his famous you tube video 'Kermode Uncut: Transformers 3 and the truth about blockbusters' that if you spend enough money on a film and make it newsworthy it is almost certain to make its money because you make the movie an event, the media will then report the event increasing the publicity and in turn the profit. Ex Machina had a reasonably small budget compared to most blockbusters so it had to be good quality of performance or else no one would have gone to see. This is yet another reason why it made a profit at the box office because the public genuinely believed that it was a good film to watch. Although only using 7 actors makes the film easier to follow it can become boring for the audience, also the actors are not big yet but will be soon. The full frontal nudity that it contained made it not appeal to all age ranges as it put of the audience and brought the age restriction higher. The film is said to be realistic as if the audience was to imagine a robot it would be like Ava.   

This film is mainly sci-fi but does contain aspects of other genres. It appeals to sci-fi lovers because of the robot Ava who is almost human like inspiring fans of sci-fi that it can actually become real at some stage. It seems to include its very own sci-fi fan, Caleb, who is amazed at the very thought of Ava. This leads it to be relatable to the sci-fi fans. Over the past year or so sci-fi films have become more popular and more people have taken an interest in them. There is an aspect of romance within the film as Ava tricks Caleb into falling in love with her even though she is a robot; widening the audience to more women who enjoy these types of things. Drama occurs throughout the film and grows till the very end, making it a tense atmosphere for viewers. Finally there is an essence of mystery with the fact that the viewer does not really know what is going on even at the end of the film, the viewer is left thinking about why everything happens the way that it did. Yet again widening the audience. Having a wider audience increases the amount of people that will take interest in the film therefore in turn increasing the views. The studio and production studios that were used are very popular throughout the film industry and people who know about films will know that these companies are good leading more chance of the film being good. They were DNA films, Film 4 and Scott Rudin productions. DNA films and Film 4 often work together as this increases the amount of budget available as they are both quite small companies in the film industries. As Universal Studios distributed the film this will entice more people to watch it because everyone has heard of them and they have distributed many great films before this one. It is extremely famous and is one of the largest film companies. This film was made and released in 2015 so it is very recent meaning that the technology and actors are relatable to people at this time. The culture and traditions can be related to also. The original budget given to the film was $15 million, which is fairly low compared to other films made in recent times but quite big for the British film industry. It went on to make $36.9 million at the box office through film ticket sales, then $6 million on DVD and Blu-ray. To make a profit a film has to make double the budget anyway so to make this much money is outstanding for a British film. The marketing for this film was fairly small with no stand out ways of attracting attention. They did release teasers of the film which showed maybe the most exciting areas of the film, this will get people excited as they will want to see it due to seeing exciting parts. They usually left viewers on a cliff-hanger so they go to watch the film.  The main way that they marketed the film was through viral marketing that is free for them to advertise. They set up a website called Avasessions.com which enables anyone to log on to meet and interact with an Ava persona, which we then ‘draw’ a portrait of them. This website was not very popular though. The thing that made the most impact was that they made a fake tinder account as Ava and targeted SXSW attendees, they would asked to meet Ava was directed to the films Instagram account. As this is unusual way of marketing has not been seen before it created talk, this was also free marketing for the movie as people want to see the film that everyone is talking about. Posters were also made and put outside cinemas to encourage people to go in and watch it. If they were going to the cinema for another film a trailer may come on for the film, this is targeted at regular cinema goers as they will go and watch it if it looks go.  There was not any famous actors at the time in this film but two of the main characters are set to be in the new star wars film; upcoming popularity will inspire people to watch films they have started in such as this one. Another reason that famous actors were not employed is because the budget could not stretch to afford them.

Pre- production:

As said before the inspiration for the film was from other films like it such as 2001, this therefore is the source material that was used. Alex Garland (director and producer of Ex Machina) throughout of the main ideas then took inspiration from the sci-fi media to build the foundations of the film. He is a famous director and screenwriter; he has worked on the films 28 days, Dredd and sunshine. These are all now well acclaimed films that have a good reputation within the film media, so if the public like Garland they are more likely to watch the film as they have high expectations of him. He worked with his close friend Danny Boyle who he has worked with several times before to make films such as slum dog millionaire, 127 hours and 28 days. Again if the public know about the duo working together and know that they work well they will be enticed to watch the film. The three main actors are not very famous but are known by some people, film ‘buffs’ will know who they are and if they like their work they will want to see the film. Domhnall Gleeson plays Caleb, the impressionable young coder; he has worked on others films before such as unbroken and about time. He is fairly well known in the film industry but is not famous yet; he will be though after the new star wars edition comes out later on in the year. Oscar Isaac plays Nathan, the alcoholic inventor that created Ava, he is better known as he has been in a most violent year and drive. As he is older he has been in more films, building up a better reputation. Alicia Vikander is the actress that plays Ava, a robot who has artificial intelligence to manipulate the people in control of her. She has been in films including the man from U.N.C.L.E and a royal affair. As I said before the films budget would not stretch to get majorly famous actors but Alex Garland choose upcoming actors that will soon be well known which allows his film to ongoing make money.  

Production:

During the production of the film they wanted total creative freedom throughout the creation of the film, allowing them to choose and change anything that needs be. They choose to film in a fantastically modern house in Norway, the setting was only in two locations so it was easy to film and cheap as they didn’t have to buy lots of places to film different scenes. There was no need to add any original ‘action scenes’ so the filming did not take as long as it would if explosions had been involved. No green screening was needed with Ava because they simply filmed the scenes twice and then drew the robot parts of Ava on afterwards in editing. They also clothed Ava halfway through saving on time and cost with renting the life. No CGI was also used, overall the film took only 4 weeks to film which is extremely short for a film nowadays.

Post Production:

The marketing as I mentioned before was the main part of the post production as it is what made people aware that the film was even produced at all. The most influential one being the trailers which gave interested audiences teasers to lead them onto cliff-hangers; making them want to go watch the film. The film was shown in American cinemas for 15 weeks which gives more of a chance for people to go and see it, this an unusually long amount of time for a film to be in cinema, allowing more time for it to get popular. It was shown on 1,255 screens in America too allowing more people across the country to see it, making the audience wider across America. A lot of hard work and effort went into this section of this film to make it into the success it has in had in the box office.

Ex Machina is not a cult film that appeals to everyone as it has aspects of oddness that not everyone will appreciate in modern day times. The characters and story line is out of the ordinary. The film certificate was R because of the full frontal nudity that occurred whilst filming. Making this film not a four quadrant picture, meaning that it is not open to everyone to watch. This closes down the audience range to only adults and late teenagers. This could have stopped them from making more money than they actually made but it would have changed the film. As I said before the SFX they used was Ava was drawn on after in the editing stages of the film allowing quick non-expensive editing. . In the US in May 2015 they made $16,705,000.  Then in the Netherlands they made €89,727 on 6 May 2015. In Portugal they made €29,501 on 15^th may 2015. Looking at these figures it is clear that the USA took the most money for the film even though it came out later then in the UK.

Finally I think that the film Ex Machina is truly a sci-fi film because it shows the technology overruling living beings which is everything that they said the future would be from the sci-fi point of view. I believe that the figures for this film were so high because of the film makers being popular and the pre-production of the film being so creative. It also helped with the long amount of time that it was shown in cinemas and the quantity of screens it was shown on. 

Jurassic World

The British Film Industry and American's Influence

What % of global box office was the British film industry responsible for? 15%
What was this % in 2009? 6.8%
What might this change indicate about British film? Action films have become more captivating for the audience and therefore more people watch them. More of them had also been made.
What films have been responsible for this change? Skyfall
What % of the British film industry makes a profit? 7%
What % of Hollywood films make a profit?17%
How does that % differ between £2m and £10m budget British films? 4% of 2 million pound budget films make a profit whereas 17% of 10 million budget films make a profit.
What might we infer from this difference? That the more you spend on a film the more likely you are to make a profit.
Which age group makes up the largest % of UK cinema goers? Over 45s
Why do you think this might be? They have the money to go out and the time to go out.
Which 'type' of film has seen an 18% drop in attendance? 3D films
Within that 'type' which genre has seen the biggest fall? Big family films.
What did Charles Grant put this decline down to? Families need to economise
Who is Paul Greengrass? He is a British Film Director.
How did he describe the British film industry? A success story.
What did a BFI spokesperson say was the point of less profitable low budget British films? Beneficial to the industry for other reasons like skills and training development and for artistic and cultural importance.
What was the budget for Filth and how much money did it take? The budget was less then two million and it made 4 million pound profit.
What advantage did James McEvoy feel £100m films have over low budget films? Because they have a massive budget to sell the film.
What is VOD? Video On Demand.
What % increase did VOD see last year? 50%
What impact might VOD have on distributers and Studios? The distributor and the studio might become less important
What impact has it had on Blockbuster rental stores? Not many people need to rent them as they can get them from home, quick and easy so there profit has dramatically decreased.
What was unique about Ben Wheatleys 'A Field In England'?The first UK film to be released simultaneously in cinemas, on DVD, on TV and through video-on-demand.
What does director of The Machine Caradog James think is the toughest part of film making?The toughest thing is you make a good film but can you get it to reach an audience? It's events like this and individuals who champion independent cinema that give us a profile and any chance of a mass audience.
Why have rules been relaxed on what makes a film 'British'?To help encourage more investment in the UK film industry.
How has the use of visual effects in films been encouraged?The cultural test, which was introduced in 2007, is used to allow production companies to apply for UK film tax relief and is administered by the British Film Institute (BFI) on behalf of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
Name five of these rules and link them to The Kings Speech, Kill List, The World's End: 1:Film set in the UK 2:Lead characters British citizens or residents 3:Film based on British subject matter or underlying material 4:Original dialogue recorded mainly in English language 5:Represents/reflects diverse British culture, heritage or creativity


The Kings Speech:


1.Yes Sheffield


2.Yes Colin Firth


3.Yes The king of England


4. Yes English


5. Yes The monarchy is British Heritage


Kill list:


1.Yes


2. Yes Neil Maskell


3. Yes coming home from the military


4. Yes


5. Yes coming home from the army


The Worlds end:


1.Yes Letchworth Garden City


2. Yes Nick Frost


3. Yes Alcoholic


4.Yes


5. based around a pub- crawl which happens regularly in Britain
What rules has chancellor George Osbourne announced for tax on British films?announced tax relief would be increased from 20% to 25% on the first £20m of qualifying production expenditure.
What is the highest grossing film in UK box office history? Skyfall
How much has it taken and how many screens was it available on? £94.3 million 587 films







American Influence - Variety links



Why has Sony opened a Digital Motion Picture Centre at Pinewood studios?It is used to provide hands-on training for cinematographers and other crew members to help them get the most from Sony’s 4K cameras.



What benefit might this have for the British film industry? Evolved technology and allowed more people to be highly trained



Where else have they opened facilities like this?Culver City in L.A



How many films have been produced using the F65 camera? 30 feature films.






What has been the consequence of Blockbusters to US film production?The studio of the future, some CEOs predict, will embody a streamlined distribution and marketing mechanism leveraging a limited flow of features through global revenue streams. The conceit of developing scripts and nurturing filmmaking talent will be history.



How big a loss to Sony expect to post? $181 million



Which films are responsible for this? White House Down, After Earth



How is Lionsgate different to Sony? Lionsgate has no physical studio to support and a more modest overhead than the majors, can register enormous grosses with a franchise like Hunger games.



Why is "the new mandate to avoid niche products'?The belief that blockbusters alone represent a sound investment strategy is in itself driving up the cost of blockbusters as well as superstars. While business strategists traditionally have argued for diversification, the new mandate is to avoid niche product because the niches are getting narrower.