"Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices".
To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied?
I believe that a successful film is defined by its ability to make money and win awards. The result of this is down to many key decisions which need to be thought about when marketing a film. The include A-list stars, explosions if it is a Hollywood/American produced film, or introducing new actors profiles and receiving positive critical feedback if it's a British film.
Two films which I have been studying are Mad Max Fury Road directed by George Miller and Ex Machina directed by Alex Garland. Both films are successful but in different ways. Mad Fury Road is more profitable as it had a larger budget and a bigger crew team, it cost $150 million to produce and turned over $374 million at the box office. Ex Machina only made $36.9 million with a budget if $15 million. Ex Machina is a success in response to it's Britishness being unpredictable, the product would appeal to older film aficionados as it contains full frontal nudity where as Mad Max Fury Road aims to target a larger and older audience who enjoy continuous action.
The production practices for Mad Max was long and lengthy which involved 10 years to map to map the story boards. Filming began in 2009 in Namibia but was delayed due to the start if the Iraq war. The film was then delayed again due to heavy rain in Australia where the film was originally going to be set. This had a slow and costly impact on the production team of Mad Max, as it caused more post production editing of the weather to be incorporated and the movement of all the vehicles and filming equipment. Mad Max Fury Road was also made with 80% of real practices, where effects were concerned, placing actors on real pole cats and strapping them to the front of the cars, this is another clear point which highlights the success which the film made, due to the product being more believable to it's audience, which resulted in more people going to watch the film as it offered a more realistic approach, which in turn helped the film make profit. The production practices in Ex Machina on the other hand were much shorter, production took place over four weeks with only a small cast. It's filming took place at Pinewood Studios in London and two weeks at Juvet Landscape Hotel in Vaudalen. The film includes very little SFX , CGI, special effects and has a greater reliance on scripts rather than the action and explosions predominantly seen in Mad Max Fury Road. The Britishness of the film focuses on introducing two new actors into the film industry before they were set to appear in the new Star Wars. (Domhnall Gleeson as Caleb and Alicia Vikander as Ava). This is good as it creates a bigger British acting list which puts more of them out on the scene, available to star in upcoming more expensive British films. The technology and camera work used in Mad Max was technical and focused primarily on the visual look rather than the context of the film. Synergy is used in in Mad Max Fury Road, for example, the edge arm is a large camera structure device used to capture the fast moving action between more than 150 vehicles which were involved in car chases. The film also works in synergy along side Warner.Bros, Village Road show Pictures, Kennedy Miller Mitchell and Rat Pac-Dune Entertainment. Production practices were much cheaper for Ex Machina because there were less actors and extra, and had a smaller filming process in general, working in synergy alongside DNA Films, Film 4 and Universal Studios.
The marketing of Mad Max was expensive costing them $7 million on TV advertising and an extra $4.37 million from Warner.Bros who helped them to advertise. Their image of advertising was going all out and targeting a wide market, by creating posters, turning an F1 car into a Mad Max car which looked rusty, and releasing constant video teasers, the first released on the 10th of December 2014. They spent a large amount of money on advertising because they were targeting their product at a wide audience who were the typical mainstream audience who like predominant action scenes and car chases. Ex Machina on the other hand was successful due to minimalistic advertising which heavily reflects their films context. They made social media their central focus point and made an app where you could have your face drawn by Eva (the artificial intelligence in the film), also a fake Tinder account was created which pretended to be an attractive 25 year old woman who was actually the actress who was playing the AI (Ava) in the film (Alicia Vikander), and was speaking to men who were then tricked and were directed to an Instagram page which was promoting Ex Machina. This was only done in Austin America which in comparison to other film marketing covers a very small proportion of the US. They relied heavily on self-promoting, receiving extra kudos from their fans spreading the excitement for them. The films advertising is almost parallel to its content, for example, the way in which fans were 'tricked' by the App symbolises the same process in the film where Caleb is 'tricked' into believing that he has been randomly selected to win a trip to the CEO of the company he works for. Advertising was also very minimalistic and simple but effective, this is the same in relation to the film as it is slow paced and simplistic where action is kept to a minimum, yet Ex Machina is perceived by a small part of the viral market as unique and a fantastic film, this shows how successful all stages of production and distribution was.
The challenging institutional practices were seen by the very different distribution methods. Mad Max was the most pirated film and had 22.90 million shares on Torrent Network, it remained on top of both national home video sales chart for two consecutive weeks and generated 48% of it's second week sales through synergy from Blue-ray. Ex Machina was distributed unexpectedly and increased slowly in popularity, the product was distributed by Universal Pictures, and was released by piggy backing onto the Avengers ending excitement which then helped Ex Machina to increase it's screens. It was originally released on four US screens, and after a few weeks managed to increase to 1200 screens. A week after Avengers came out it was showing on 2000 screens with a running time of 1 hour and 50 minutes. Mad Max went straight out and came out in 2D and was re mastered into 3D on Imax. The film is still growing and is set to come out as a comic book in a miniseries and also to be created as a game at the start of 2016. Neither Mad Max Fury Road or Ex Machina are four quadrant as they are both rating 15+.
In conclusion I believe that the future of the film industry is looking to be dominated by the big action feature films produced in America with big budgets and big advertising campaigns. Social media is looking to develop over the next 20 years into an even more effective device used to connect a film to a wide audience through advertisement, therefore I think it will become the relevant source and will completely replace posters on public transport, leaflets etc. as the world is turning to an online extension. In the film industry there is set to be another three star wars films in the next five years and another fifty Marvel films in the next twenty years, this is evidence that British films will die out along with the more unique ideas and approach to films, being replaced and outnumbered by sci-fi stories where the hero will always save the day. PG will be the main rating available to watch and anyone who wants to see 'Britishness' in a film or something a bit different and unpredictable won't be able to as the industry will be filled with animated explosions.
Friday 27 November 2015
Monday 23 November 2015
TV Drama-Generic Conventions
- Characters – even particular kinds of characters: eg, at its most simple, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ characters.
- Stories – they all tell stories, whether those stories involve adventure, crime or romance and they often, but not always, end happily.
- The stories are told against familiar backdrops: – eg, homes, police stations and offices (for crime dramas), hospitals (for medical dramas) – most of which are created in studios. However, most dramas also use outside locations to create particular effects.
- Camerawork – particular kinds of shots are used: eg, sequences involving establishing shots followed by mid-shots of characters, shot/reverse shots to show character interaction and, in particular,close-ups to show the characters’ emotions.
- Stories use dialogue to tell the stories. Occasionally, monologues are built in (as voiceovers, a character telling a story).
- Music is used to punctuate the action, create effects (suspense, tension) and underline emotional moments.
- Particular subgenres tend to have items which make them immediately identifiable – police cars, blue lights, operating theatres and scalpels, triage/reception areas in hospitals. Icons of the genre, they symbolise the (sub)genre.
The Big Six Film Studios
Warner Bros. Pictures -
Parent Company: Time Warner Incorporated
Parent company: Fox television,founded by William Fox
Divisions inside the company: Fox TV group, Filmed Entertainment,Fox Networks, Endemol Shine Group, Fox Sports, National Geographic Channels and Fox International
Owns: Blue Sky Studios, Fox Star Studios (India)20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Fox, 20th Television, 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century Fox Japan, Fox Studios Australia and TSG Entertainment
20th Century Fox has 12.3% market share
Known for: X-men, Avatar, Star Wars, Fantastic Four and The Simpsons
Columbia Pictures -
Parent Company: Sony, CEO: Michael Lynton.
Divisions inside the company: Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, Sony Pictures Animation, TriStar Pictures and Sony Pictures Imageworks.
Owns: Consumer electronics, Semi conductors, Video games, Media/Entertainment, Computer hardware and Telecom equipment
Columbia pictures has a market share of 8.9%
Total gross: $828.4 million.
Parent Company: Walt Disney Studios, owned by Walt Disney's company
Owns: Live action TV, film production and theme parks.
Walt Disney Pictures has a 16.2% market share.
Buena Vista (divisions of the company): Disney Pixar, Publishing (Marvel and Disney Music), Theatre (Aladdin the musical), Radio (Radio Disney and ESPN Radio Network) and websites such as Club Penguin
Known for: The Avengers, Frozen, Toy Story (1,2 and 3), Wreck-it-Ralph, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Finding Nemo
Total Gross: $1,508.0 million.
Parent Company: Time Warner Incorporated
Divisions inside the company: HBO, Time Warner Corporate, Turner Broadcasting System and Warner Brother's entertainment.
Owns: Warner Brothers Television Group, Warner Brother's digital distribution, Warner brothers interactive entertainment, DC entertainment and DC comics.
Warner Bros has 15.6% of the market share.
Known for: American Sniper, Mad Max, The Hobbit, Game of Thrones and FRIENDS
Total Gross: $1,454.4 million.
20th Century Fox -
Owns: Warner Brothers Television Group, Warner Brother's digital distribution, Warner brothers interactive entertainment, DC entertainment and DC comics.
Warner Bros has 15.6% of the market share.
Known for: American Sniper, Mad Max, The Hobbit, Game of Thrones and FRIENDS
Total Gross: $1,454.4 million.
20th Century Fox -
Parent company: Fox television,founded by William Fox
Divisions inside the company: Fox TV group, Filmed Entertainment,Fox Networks, Endemol Shine Group, Fox Sports, National Geographic Channels and Fox International
Owns: Blue Sky Studios, Fox Star Studios (India)20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Fox, 20th Television, 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century Fox Japan, Fox Studios Australia and TSG Entertainment
20th Century Fox has 12.3% market share
Known for: X-men, Avatar, Star Wars, Fantastic Four and The Simpsons
Total gross: $1,147.4 million.
Columbia Pictures -
Parent Company: Sony, CEO: Michael Lynton.
Divisions inside the company: Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, Sony Pictures Animation, TriStar Pictures and Sony Pictures Imageworks.
Owns: Consumer electronics, Semi conductors, Video games, Media/Entertainment, Computer hardware and Telecom equipment
Columbia pictures has a market share of 8.9%
Total gross: $828.4 million.
Paramount Pictures -
Parent Company: Famous Players-Lasky Corporation then Independent then Gulf+Western then Paramount Communications inc and now Viacom.
Divisions inside the company: Paramount Home Media Distribution, Insurge Pictures, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Vantage and Paramount Animation.
Owns: Madison square gardens properties, 50% steak in USA networks as well as being involved with TV, music publishing and home video.
Paramount pictures has a market share of 6.3%
Known for: Titanic, Shrek (including 2, 3 and 4), Forrest Gump, Iron Man and The Truman Show
Total gross: $585.4 million.
Parent Company: Famous Players-Lasky Corporation then Independent then Gulf+Western then Paramount Communications inc and now Viacom.
Divisions inside the company: Paramount Home Media Distribution, Insurge Pictures, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Vantage and Paramount Animation.
Owns: Madison square gardens properties, 50% steak in USA networks as well as being involved with TV, music publishing and home video.
Paramount pictures has a market share of 6.3%
Known for: Titanic, Shrek (including 2, 3 and 4), Forrest Gump, Iron Man and The Truman Show
Total gross: $585.4 million.
Universal Studios -
Parent Company: NBC Universal, owned by National Broadcasting Company
Divisions inside the company: Universal animation studios, Focus features, Illumination entertainment, Working title films, Universal pictures home entertainment and United International Pictures
Owns: NBC News, NBC sports, NBC Universal TV and Cable.
Universal Studios has a market share of 25.2%
Known for: Jurassic Park/ World, Despicable me/2, Pitch Perfect/2, Jaws, Ted, Fifty Shades of Grey and E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial
Total gross: $2,348.7 million.
Walt Disney Pictures -
Parent Company: NBC Universal, owned by National Broadcasting Company
Divisions inside the company: Universal animation studios, Focus features, Illumination entertainment, Working title films, Universal pictures home entertainment and United International Pictures
Owns: NBC News, NBC sports, NBC Universal TV and Cable.
Universal Studios has a market share of 25.2%
Known for: Jurassic Park/ World, Despicable me/2, Pitch Perfect/2, Jaws, Ted, Fifty Shades of Grey and E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial
Total gross: $2,348.7 million.
Walt Disney Pictures -
Parent Company: Walt Disney Studios, owned by Walt Disney's company
Owns: Live action TV, film production and theme parks.
Walt Disney Pictures has a 16.2% market share.
Buena Vista (divisions of the company): Disney Pixar, Publishing (Marvel and Disney Music), Theatre (Aladdin the musical), Radio (Radio Disney and ESPN Radio Network) and websites such as Club Penguin
Known for: The Avengers, Frozen, Toy Story (1,2 and 3), Wreck-it-Ralph, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Finding Nemo
Total Gross: $1,508.0 million.
Wednesday 18 November 2015
Narrative Codes
Narrative Codes
Roland Barthes developed a concept that every narrative is interwoven with five codes that drive one to maintain interest in a story. The first two codes involve ways of creating suspense in narrative, the first by unanswered questions, the second by anticipation of an action's resolution. These two codes are essentially connected to the temporal order of the narrative.
The Hermeneutic Code
The hermeneutic code refers to plot elements of a story that are not explained. They exist as enigmas that the reader wishes to be resolved. A detective story, for example, is a narrative that operates primarily by the hermeneutic code. A crime is exposed or postulated and the rest of the narrative is devoted to answering questions raised by the initial event.
The Proairetic Code
The proairetic code refers to plot events that imply further narrative action. For example, a story character confronts an adversary and the reader wonders what the resolution of this action will be. Suspense is created by action rather than by a reader's wish to have mysteries explained. The final three codes are related to how the reader comprehends and interprets the narrative discourse.
The Semic Code
A seme is a unit of meaning or a sign that express cultural stereotypes. These signs allow the author to describe characters, settings and events. The semic code focuses upon information that the narration provides in order to suggest abstract concepts. Any element in a narrative can suggest a particular, often additional, meaning by way of connotation through a correlation found in the narrative. The semic code allows the text to 'show' instead of 'tell' by describing material things.
The Symbolic Code
The symbolic code refers to a structural structure that organizes meanings by way of antitheses, binary oppositions or sexual and psychological conflicts. These oppositions can be expressed through action, character and setting.
The Cultural Code
The cultural code designates any element in a narrative that refers to common bodies of knowledge such as historical, mythological or scientific. The cultural codes point to knowledge about the way the world works as shared by a community or culture.
Together, these five codes function like a 'weaving of voices'. Barthes assigns to the hermeneutic the Voice of Truth; to the proairetic code the voice of Empirics ; to the semic the Voice of the Person; to the cultural the Voice of Science; and to the symbolic the Voice of Symbol. According to Barthes, they allowing the reader to see a work not just as a single narrative line but as a braiding of meanings that give a story its complexity and richness.
Friday 6 November 2015
Representation Of Disability
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2W2xHM4cWo
(Watch clip from 0:00 to 4:00)
Above is a clip from Game Of Thrones where Tyrion's ability of dwarfism affects the language used against him and results in him being faced with more dis advantages in his historical background. You can also see other people with dwarfism in the clip who are treated as being at the bottom of the hierarchy in the time period and having no identity.
Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
At the start of the clip high angled shots are used to view king Joffrey in comparison to low angled shots which are used to show Tyrion. This is shown throughout the clip especially when the king is looking down at the other dwarfs below him. This shows hows disability is represented as a weakness in strength and power in society. Over the shoulder shots are also used when Tyrion is handing the cup to king Joffrey, this shot emphasises on the intimidation which Tyrion is faced with. The angle of the shot could be seen to show Tyrion as a child, in which king Joffrey is looking down upon him and punishing him. Over the shoulder long shots are also used to show the few dwarfs on the stage below the king, which suggests how they are far from any 'normal' human and are judged as morally different. The camera uses a low angle panning shot technique at 1:17 in the clip to show king Joffrey walking over to Tyrion, this adds to the tension of the conversation and helps you to see the scale of the stage, and how far Tyrion is away from the kings throne, showing discrimination in disability as he is near to the end of the table.
Mise En Scene
The setting is in late medieval period, where king Joffrey is wearing a crown and gold robes which makes him look important. He is also on a higher platform to those affected by dwarfism, who are wearing fancy dress costumes sitting on fake horses. This impacts on the representation on disability as it clearly shows how they are portrayed as being the odd ones out, who are unusual. They are also far from any one else on a stage which suggests they are not liked by anyone or are the entertainment of the crowd, being treated as animals with no voice. Tyrion is wearing a black armoured chest piece which is an unusual representation for disability in a TV drama, because it empowers the disabled which is rarely seen, however King Joffrey takes a glass of wine and pours it over his head, to intimidate Tyrion and show him that he doesn't get respect like any 'normal' person would.
Editing
Quick pace cutting between each shot is consistently used throughout the clip to show the speech between the King and Tyrion. When wine is poured over Tyrion's head the shot is shown for a long period of time with his face in the frame, you would expect him to be building anger and tension, however Tyrion remains calm, which triggers Joffrey to become more argumentative. However the quick pace editing shows that When Tyrion tries to speak he is quickly intercepted by king Joffrey who is the more powerful speaker in the conversation.
Sound
The sound of laughter can be heard in the background behind King Joffrey's voice when he is mocking Tyrion and the other dwarfs who are in front of him on the stage. This adds to the humiliation of the disabled, representing them as something instead of someone. A monotone sound of a violin can be heard from 2 minutes 10 seconds which slowly increases in level as Tyrion approaches Joffrey. Tyrion is being commanded to bring the king his cup full of wine, which suggests how powerless the disabled are represented and the jobs which they are seen to be useful for.
(Watch clip from 0:00 to 4:00)
Above is a clip from Game Of Thrones where Tyrion's ability of dwarfism affects the language used against him and results in him being faced with more dis advantages in his historical background. You can also see other people with dwarfism in the clip who are treated as being at the bottom of the hierarchy in the time period and having no identity.
Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
At the start of the clip high angled shots are used to view king Joffrey in comparison to low angled shots which are used to show Tyrion. This is shown throughout the clip especially when the king is looking down at the other dwarfs below him. This shows hows disability is represented as a weakness in strength and power in society. Over the shoulder shots are also used when Tyrion is handing the cup to king Joffrey, this shot emphasises on the intimidation which Tyrion is faced with. The angle of the shot could be seen to show Tyrion as a child, in which king Joffrey is looking down upon him and punishing him. Over the shoulder long shots are also used to show the few dwarfs on the stage below the king, which suggests how they are far from any 'normal' human and are judged as morally different. The camera uses a low angle panning shot technique at 1:17 in the clip to show king Joffrey walking over to Tyrion, this adds to the tension of the conversation and helps you to see the scale of the stage, and how far Tyrion is away from the kings throne, showing discrimination in disability as he is near to the end of the table.
Mise En Scene
The setting is in late medieval period, where king Joffrey is wearing a crown and gold robes which makes him look important. He is also on a higher platform to those affected by dwarfism, who are wearing fancy dress costumes sitting on fake horses. This impacts on the representation on disability as it clearly shows how they are portrayed as being the odd ones out, who are unusual. They are also far from any one else on a stage which suggests they are not liked by anyone or are the entertainment of the crowd, being treated as animals with no voice. Tyrion is wearing a black armoured chest piece which is an unusual representation for disability in a TV drama, because it empowers the disabled which is rarely seen, however King Joffrey takes a glass of wine and pours it over his head, to intimidate Tyrion and show him that he doesn't get respect like any 'normal' person would.
Editing
Quick pace cutting between each shot is consistently used throughout the clip to show the speech between the King and Tyrion. When wine is poured over Tyrion's head the shot is shown for a long period of time with his face in the frame, you would expect him to be building anger and tension, however Tyrion remains calm, which triggers Joffrey to become more argumentative. However the quick pace editing shows that When Tyrion tries to speak he is quickly intercepted by king Joffrey who is the more powerful speaker in the conversation.
Sound
The sound of laughter can be heard in the background behind King Joffrey's voice when he is mocking Tyrion and the other dwarfs who are in front of him on the stage. This adds to the humiliation of the disabled, representing them as something instead of someone. A monotone sound of a violin can be heard from 2 minutes 10 seconds which slowly increases in level as Tyrion approaches Joffrey. Tyrion is being commanded to bring the king his cup full of wine, which suggests how powerless the disabled are represented and the jobs which they are seen to be useful for.
Mad Max Fury Road Research - 100 Facts
General Facts
1. Originally slated for a 2003 shoot in Namibia, the film had to be delayed after the beginning of the Iraq War caused trouble with shipping and security in Namibia. Production began again in 2009.
2. Mad Max: Fury Road will be released thirty years after the last film, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
3. Charlize Theron shaved her head for her role of Furiosa, and had to wear a wig for A Million Ways to Die in The West.
4. Rumors flew that Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, who plays Max, did not get along at all, and that Theron got to the point of not even speaking to Hardy on set.
5. Constant weather delays and location issues caused the film to be delayed more than once, including cold when it was supposed to be hot, and vice-versa. Reshoots also delayed the final product on countless occasions.
6. Liam Fountain auditioned for Max but lost the part to Tom Hardy. Liam Fountain played Max in the 2011 short film Mad Max Renegade, which takes place between the first two films.
7. The film was shot in sequence, which is rare, and the storyboards were completed before the script.
8. Over 80% of the effects seen in the film are real practical effects, stunts, make-up and sets. CGI was used sparingly mainly to enhance the Namibian landscape, remove stunt rigging and for Charlize Theron’s left hand which in the film is a prosthetic arm.
9. Originally, Mel Gibson was going to have a role as a drifter in the film, but this never came to fruition.
Pre Production
10. It took more than 10 years to map out the storyboards for the film.
11. Producer Denise di Novi was assigned to supervise the ongoing production and report any further problems.
12. Miller has a history of going over budget.
13. Much of the expense attributed to the road-ripping vehicles and the creative, but savage weaponry that appear in the film.
14. 3D shooting rigs developed for the film were scrapped.
15. Hardy and Miller had been working on a way to establish a human story within the action-filled movie.
16. The cast were chosen in 2009 including Tom Hardy.
17. Pre production was restarted due to delays.
18. Warner Bros. and Miller agreed to a full 12-month delay so he could continue work on Happy Feet 2
19. Tom Hardy took over the icon role from Mel Gibson.
Production
20. The film was directed by George Miller.
21. Mad Max is part of a franchise.
22. John Seale became the director of photography who developed the testing of the 3D cameras.
23. The 3D camera rig had to be small enough to go through the windows of the truck where a lot of the action takes place.
24. The camera used in the dessert had to be waterproof and dust proof.
25. The digital cameras were fixed with an inbuilt cooling system.
26. Seale faced a challenge between the lighting compromises for multi-camera shooting.
27. Miller announced that the film would be switched to film in 2D after many limited factors which stopped a clear image being present.
28. Mad Max Fury Road was based on a single camera philosophy - the idea that somewhere on the set is a single perfect spot for the camera to record that scene.
29. Following the switch to 2D, they used Alexa cameras (with Primos) to film.
30. John Seale used the Alexa 11-1 zoom camera, which he called the paparazzi camera.
31. The crew used handheld Canon cameras when filming on the vehicles.
32. Originally the camera crew used wide lenses to film the actors whilst on the moving vehicles, but it became expensive to crop out the camera operators, so they were replaced with an edge arm.
33. George Miller had no script when they were prepared to shoot the film, but instead had over 3500 storyboards created by Mark Sexton.
34. The studio insisted they needed a script, George Miller had one but he thought it was not very good.
35. The director began a lengthy 6 month shoot in Namibian Desert, faced with several false starts.
36. More than 150 vehicles are involved in the stunts conceived by production designer Colin Gibson.
37. Key stunt crew members include, Special effects supervisors Andy Williams and Dan Oliver, and supervising stunt coordinator Guy Norris.
38. Mad Max Fury Road was to be released thirty years after the last film, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
39. Further filming for Mad Max was shot in Sydney.
40. The film had to be delayed after the beginning of the Iraq war.
41. Mad Max Fury Road includes insane stunt action and post-apocalyptic landscapes.
42. Visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson led hundreds of visual effects artists during the film.
43. The visual effects team crafted more than 2000 visual effects shots, helping to transform the exquisite photography into the final film.
44. Colorist Eric Whipp carried out plate manipulation, weaving in a distinctive graphic style for the film with detailed sky replacements and unique day for nights.
45. Jackson was aided by visual effects producers Holly Radcliffe, with Lloura taking on the Lion's share of digital work.
46. More than 1500 shots were overseen by visual effects supervisor Tom Wood and producer Fiona Crawford.
47. An in-house postvis and VFX crew set up at production company Kennedy Miller Mitchell.
48. Addition work was completed by Method Studios and BlackGinger, with early previs delivered by the Third Floor.
49. There is 2000 VFX shots in the film. 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.
50. The Citadel location was produced via a combination of principal photography in Namibia, shooting in Sydney and visual effects work from lloura informed by actual rock cliffs photographed in Australia and re-worked using photogrammetry.
51. The cliffs in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney were used to create the Citadel, Jackson took a helicopter up and flew backwards and forwards with a high res stills camera.
52. They had a chopper standing by for 10 days waiting for the right conditions.
53. The photogrammetry techniques were 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.
54. The photography drone was a one meter wingspan plane with a compact camera.
55. The photography drone worked by someone mapping out the area on the ground, you then throw it up in the air and it flies in a grid taking photos every two meters and then lands where it was launched.
56. lloura did all the Citadel work, she started using the software Photoscan to build textured terrain models, and then, experimenting with the software. This involved taking raw materials, chopping it up and bending it around and re-building it.
57. George didn't quite like the black staining over the Blue Mountains, so they were re-coloured and re-textured, in order to keep it as authentic as possible.
58. Photogrammetry acquisition was also carried out at Jenolan Caves south of Sydney for what would become interior regions of the Citadel.
59. There was a practical set piece on the Citadel that was shot in one of the stages at Fox Studios in Sydney, which was completely replaced.
60. Below Joe they had shot about 150 extras which were then extended to 30,000 with crowd sims.
61. Practical rain machines were used on set in front of the very small pieces of rock face. There was also some pouring water where it splashed on some rocks.
Post Production
62. Film Editor Margaret Sixel was given over 480 hours of footage to create Mad Max Fury Road.
63. The final edit of the film ran 120 minutes and consisted of 2700 individual shots.
64. 'Eye Trace' and 'Cross hair framing' techniques were used during the filming which enabled the editor to keep the important visual information in one spot, the center of the frame.
65. George Miller was constantly heard over the walkie talkies saying 'put the crosshairs on her nose' and 'put the crosshairs on the gun', this was to protect the footage for editorial.
66. Every new shot had to occupy the same space as the previous spot, this would allow Margaret Sixel to amplify and accelerate scenes and cut as fast as possible.
67. One bad cut could ruin any moment of the film.
68. There were rumors that Charlie Theron and Tom Hardy who play Max did not get along at all and that Theron got the the point of not even speaking to Hardy on the set.
69. Over 80% of the effects seen in the film are real practical effects, stunts, make-up and sets.
70. Liam Fountain auditioned for Max but lost the part to Tom Hardy.
71. It was important that the cars did not exceed a given speed so that the action depicted would be true to what they could legally and safely shoot.
72. The final twisted mix of vehicle pieces, metal and bungie-corded guitar that fly towards camera were largely practical effects.
Marketing
73. Due to years of delays and cost over runs, Mad Max, Fury Road ended up costing $150 million to produce.
74. Mad Max Fury Road generated $374 million at the box office.
75. 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.
76. The film's marketing kicked into gear at SDCC, when Warner debuted a several-minute sizzle reel, a condensed version of which made it up online a few days later.
77. The first teaser debuted on December 10th of last year.
78. Mad Max, Fury Road had its world premiere on the 7th of may 2015 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.
79. Warner Bros spent a total of $43.7 million on advertisement for the film
Distribution
80. Mad Max was one of the most pirated films.
81. Mad Max had 22.90 million shares on torrent network.
82. The five most pirated film, led by Mad Max, were downloaded on torrent networks worldwide 85.34 million times, according to piracy-tracking firm Excipio.
83. 'The Age of Adaline' sold remarkably well, moving more than 57% as many units as 'Fury Road' did in the latter's second week of release.
84. Max Max had 1.75 million pirated downloads over summer.
85. Fury Road generated 48% of its second week sale from Blu-ray Disc.
86. Mad Max remained on top of both national home video sales charts for two consecutive weeks.
87. 'Hot Pursuit' dispersed their spending more.
88. In the U.S box office revenue was the second best on record, after 2014 hit a seven-year low.
89. An art book and a comic book miniseries will be released for Mad Max.
90. An upcoming console game based on the film series is releasing in 2015.
Important facts
91. An invasion and subsequent war in Iraq stopped filming.
92. The film was going to be filmed in 3D as a CG animated movie.
93. Filming was delayed twice.
94. Filming originally first finished on the 17th of December 2012.
95. In 2013 they had to go over filming and re shoot particular scenes.
96. Warner Bros insisted that a script was written during pre-production stage, Miller said that he had one but it wasn't very good.
97. The cast were picked in 2009 for Mad Max Fury Road.
98. The film was originally going to be filmed in Iraq but it rained persistently.
99. Just under $1 million was spent on TV adverts.
100. The crew spent 6 months in the Namibian desert.
1. Originally slated for a 2003 shoot in Namibia, the film had to be delayed after the beginning of the Iraq War caused trouble with shipping and security in Namibia. Production began again in 2009.
2. Mad Max: Fury Road will be released thirty years after the last film, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
3. Charlize Theron shaved her head for her role of Furiosa, and had to wear a wig for A Million Ways to Die in The West.
4. Rumors flew that Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, who plays Max, did not get along at all, and that Theron got to the point of not even speaking to Hardy on set.
5. Constant weather delays and location issues caused the film to be delayed more than once, including cold when it was supposed to be hot, and vice-versa. Reshoots also delayed the final product on countless occasions.
6. Liam Fountain auditioned for Max but lost the part to Tom Hardy. Liam Fountain played Max in the 2011 short film Mad Max Renegade, which takes place between the first two films.
7. The film was shot in sequence, which is rare, and the storyboards were completed before the script.
8. Over 80% of the effects seen in the film are real practical effects, stunts, make-up and sets. CGI was used sparingly mainly to enhance the Namibian landscape, remove stunt rigging and for Charlize Theron’s left hand which in the film is a prosthetic arm.
9. Originally, Mel Gibson was going to have a role as a drifter in the film, but this never came to fruition.
Pre Production
10. It took more than 10 years to map out the storyboards for the film.
11. Producer Denise di Novi was assigned to supervise the ongoing production and report any further problems.
12. Miller has a history of going over budget.
13. Much of the expense attributed to the road-ripping vehicles and the creative, but savage weaponry that appear in the film.
14. 3D shooting rigs developed for the film were scrapped.
15. Hardy and Miller had been working on a way to establish a human story within the action-filled movie.
16. The cast were chosen in 2009 including Tom Hardy.
17. Pre production was restarted due to delays.
18. Warner Bros. and Miller agreed to a full 12-month delay so he could continue work on Happy Feet 2
19. Tom Hardy took over the icon role from Mel Gibson.
Production
20. The film was directed by George Miller.
21. Mad Max is part of a franchise.
22. John Seale became the director of photography who developed the testing of the 3D cameras.
23. The 3D camera rig had to be small enough to go through the windows of the truck where a lot of the action takes place.
24. The camera used in the dessert had to be waterproof and dust proof.
25. The digital cameras were fixed with an inbuilt cooling system.
26. Seale faced a challenge between the lighting compromises for multi-camera shooting.
27. Miller announced that the film would be switched to film in 2D after many limited factors which stopped a clear image being present.
28. Mad Max Fury Road was based on a single camera philosophy - the idea that somewhere on the set is a single perfect spot for the camera to record that scene.
29. Following the switch to 2D, they used Alexa cameras (with Primos) to film.
30. John Seale used the Alexa 11-1 zoom camera, which he called the paparazzi camera.
31. The crew used handheld Canon cameras when filming on the vehicles.
32. Originally the camera crew used wide lenses to film the actors whilst on the moving vehicles, but it became expensive to crop out the camera operators, so they were replaced with an edge arm.
33. George Miller had no script when they were prepared to shoot the film, but instead had over 3500 storyboards created by Mark Sexton.
34. The studio insisted they needed a script, George Miller had one but he thought it was not very good.
35. The director began a lengthy 6 month shoot in Namibian Desert, faced with several false starts.
36. More than 150 vehicles are involved in the stunts conceived by production designer Colin Gibson.
37. Key stunt crew members include, Special effects supervisors Andy Williams and Dan Oliver, and supervising stunt coordinator Guy Norris.
38. Mad Max Fury Road was to be released thirty years after the last film, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
39. Further filming for Mad Max was shot in Sydney.
40. The film had to be delayed after the beginning of the Iraq war.
41. Mad Max Fury Road includes insane stunt action and post-apocalyptic landscapes.
42. Visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson led hundreds of visual effects artists during the film.
43. The visual effects team crafted more than 2000 visual effects shots, helping to transform the exquisite photography into the final film.
44. Colorist Eric Whipp carried out plate manipulation, weaving in a distinctive graphic style for the film with detailed sky replacements and unique day for nights.
45. Jackson was aided by visual effects producers Holly Radcliffe, with Lloura taking on the Lion's share of digital work.
46. More than 1500 shots were overseen by visual effects supervisor Tom Wood and producer Fiona Crawford.
47. An in-house postvis and VFX crew set up at production company Kennedy Miller Mitchell.
48. Addition work was completed by Method Studios and BlackGinger, with early previs delivered by the Third Floor.
49. There is 2000 VFX shots in the film. 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.
50. The Citadel location was produced via a combination of principal photography in Namibia, shooting in Sydney and visual effects work from lloura informed by actual rock cliffs photographed in Australia and re-worked using photogrammetry.
51. The cliffs in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney were used to create the Citadel, Jackson took a helicopter up and flew backwards and forwards with a high res stills camera.
52. They had a chopper standing by for 10 days waiting for the right conditions.
53. The photogrammetry techniques were 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.
54. The photography drone was a one meter wingspan plane with a compact camera.
55. The photography drone worked by someone mapping out the area on the ground, you then throw it up in the air and it flies in a grid taking photos every two meters and then lands where it was launched.
56. lloura did all the Citadel work, she started using the software Photoscan to build textured terrain models, and then, experimenting with the software. This involved taking raw materials, chopping it up and bending it around and re-building it.
57. George didn't quite like the black staining over the Blue Mountains, so they were re-coloured and re-textured, in order to keep it as authentic as possible.
58. Photogrammetry acquisition was also carried out at Jenolan Caves south of Sydney for what would become interior regions of the Citadel.
59. There was a practical set piece on the Citadel that was shot in one of the stages at Fox Studios in Sydney, which was completely replaced.
60. Below Joe they had shot about 150 extras which were then extended to 30,000 with crowd sims.
61. Practical rain machines were used on set in front of the very small pieces of rock face. There was also some pouring water where it splashed on some rocks.
Post Production
62. Film Editor Margaret Sixel was given over 480 hours of footage to create Mad Max Fury Road.
63. The final edit of the film ran 120 minutes and consisted of 2700 individual shots.
64. 'Eye Trace' and 'Cross hair framing' techniques were used during the filming which enabled the editor to keep the important visual information in one spot, the center of the frame.
65. George Miller was constantly heard over the walkie talkies saying 'put the crosshairs on her nose' and 'put the crosshairs on the gun', this was to protect the footage for editorial.
66. Every new shot had to occupy the same space as the previous spot, this would allow Margaret Sixel to amplify and accelerate scenes and cut as fast as possible.
67. One bad cut could ruin any moment of the film.
68. There were rumors that Charlie Theron and Tom Hardy who play Max did not get along at all and that Theron got the the point of not even speaking to Hardy on the set.
69. Over 80% of the effects seen in the film are real practical effects, stunts, make-up and sets.
70. Liam Fountain auditioned for Max but lost the part to Tom Hardy.
71. It was important that the cars did not exceed a given speed so that the action depicted would be true to what they could legally and safely shoot.
72. The final twisted mix of vehicle pieces, metal and bungie-corded guitar that fly towards camera were largely practical effects.
Marketing
73. Due to years of delays and cost over runs, Mad Max, Fury Road ended up costing $150 million to produce.
74. Mad Max Fury Road generated $374 million at the box office.
75. 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.
76. The film's marketing kicked into gear at SDCC, when Warner debuted a several-minute sizzle reel, a condensed version of which made it up online a few days later.
77. The first teaser debuted on December 10th of last year.
78. Mad Max, Fury Road had its world premiere on the 7th of may 2015 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.
79. Warner Bros spent a total of $43.7 million on advertisement for the film
Distribution
80. Mad Max was one of the most pirated films.
81. Mad Max had 22.90 million shares on torrent network.
82. The five most pirated film, led by Mad Max, were downloaded on torrent networks worldwide 85.34 million times, according to piracy-tracking firm Excipio.
83. 'The Age of Adaline' sold remarkably well, moving more than 57% as many units as 'Fury Road' did in the latter's second week of release.
84. Max Max had 1.75 million pirated downloads over summer.
85. Fury Road generated 48% of its second week sale from Blu-ray Disc.
86. Mad Max remained on top of both national home video sales charts for two consecutive weeks.
87. 'Hot Pursuit' dispersed their spending more.
88. In the U.S box office revenue was the second best on record, after 2014 hit a seven-year low.
89. An art book and a comic book miniseries will be released for Mad Max.
90. An upcoming console game based on the film series is releasing in 2015.
Important facts
91. An invasion and subsequent war in Iraq stopped filming.
92. The film was going to be filmed in 3D as a CG animated movie.
93. Filming was delayed twice.
94. Filming originally first finished on the 17th of December 2012.
95. In 2013 they had to go over filming and re shoot particular scenes.
96. Warner Bros insisted that a script was written during pre-production stage, Miller said that he had one but it wasn't very good.
97. The cast were picked in 2009 for Mad Max Fury Road.
98. The film was originally going to be filmed in Iraq but it rained persistently.
99. Just under $1 million was spent on TV adverts.
100. The crew spent 6 months in the Namibian desert.
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