Apparently using rigs and camera equipment developed by Miller himself. Well, that's a relief. None of that 3D conversion crap.
Exclusive: Mad Max 4 to be filmed in 3D
Tue 06/07/2010 08:49:28
By Brendan Swift
Mad Max: Fury Road will be filmed in full 3D using revolutionary new technology developed by director George Miller.
The fourth installment in the Mad Max series comes after several years of development amid rumours that Dr Miller is developing his own 3D rigs and cameras to shoot the big budget film.
“We are doing 3D on Fury Road – we are shooting with real 3D cameras,” Dr Miller told INSIDEFILM.
The $100 million-plus film will receive the Australian government's 40 per cent Producer Offset rebate and is currently in pre-production.
“Seven years ago we were going to shoot in 3D but the technology in cinemas wasn’t geared for it then but I always loved 3D or stereo,” he said.
While Miller is also rumoured to be building his own 3D rigs and cameras based on technology originally developed by Dalsa Corporation, a spokesperson would only say that Dr Miller is working on new 3D advancements to be used during the shoot.
Dalsa's digital cameras are highly regarded by the industry but the company's digital cinema division struggled to gain traction in the market and it came close to selling the division to ARRI last year before the deal fell over.
Filming the live action, high impact Fury Road in the tough outback conditions of Broken Hill will represent a significant challenge for any 3D system, with the fledgling technology often breaking down despite an industry-wide rush to produce more 3D content following the success of James Cameron's Avatar.
However, Dr Miller has consistently pushed technology forward during his long career on previous films such as Babe and Happy Feet. Last month, he became the first non-US citizen to be granted the Visual Effects Society's honorary member status for his long-standing contribution to the industry.
Meanwhile, Peter Jackson's WETA Workshop has confirmed that it will work on Fury Road's conceptual design, specialty make-up FX, costume and dummies while The Australian has reported that the film's shoot has been delayed until early next year.
Miller is also currently working on another 3D feature – the animated feature Happy Feet 2, which will be released in 2011.
Check out the July issue of INSIDEFILM magazine for a full interview with Dr George Miller.
Here, here. The guy doesn't give very many extensive interviews until usually a long while after the fact, but he's been a lot more verbose of late. This might be our first real word on the narrative aspects of not only this film, but Happy Feet 2 and the several other hushed-whisper Dr. D projects I've heard tell about, round the cooler.
seriously....3d. when most stuido under use it while now overusing it to the point to where it's really just terrible idea.
i remember growing up with 3d and it was okay but it never really added anything to the experience for me. now all i hear is mostly groans for my fellow movie gowers when they hear something new will be shot in 3d.
i love miller,i love mad max to death but what i don't want is a reboot that leaves a bad taste in our mouths and sinks the franchise for good.
i'll wait to see now that the project is delayed....AGAIN!
It seems the 3D cameras built for Fury Road were also used on a week's worth of live action filming for Happy Feet 2. Camera details below.
Miller's "Happy Feet 2" Uses 'Fury' Cameras
By Garth Franklin Sunday June 5th 2011 12:12PM
Kennedy Miller Mitchell has just wrapped shooting at Fox Studios in Sydney of one week of filming of live action elements on Dr. George Miller's highly anticipated animated feature "Happy Feet 2".
In an online exclusive, Dark Horizons can reveal that the sequences were done using a completely customised 3D camera system developed by Paul Nichola and built specifically for Miller's next project - "Mad Max: Fury Road".
Two years ago Miller requested a 3D shooting system for 'Fury Road' that wouldn't get in the way of the filmmaking process. Paul Nichola and his team constructed a compact 3D rig that required no alignment on-set. This was achieved by implementing a software convergence methodology.
Software convergence dispenses the need for intricate mechanical alignment of lenses. The end result is an operationally less intrusive, smaller robust and faster to shoot with system. There is no alignment required at any stage in the shooting process.
For 'Road', a customised digital cinema camera system was constructed, based on the Dalsa 4M60 sensor, which had the left and right cameras shooting in parallel at a higher resolution than what was available at the time.
The resulting image was converged on-set non-destructively (no toeing-in), and the convergence could be re-assigned at any stage during post-production right up until the final master without any affect on the original oversized capture.
This essentially allowed Miller to adjust and assign the 3D levels of individual shots and elements during the editing process rather than on-set.
George Miller says "Why converge in camera when it can be done more appropriately in the cutting room. Our post convergence methodology means I can adjust that decision losslessly right through to the final master."
It also meant for a more robust style of shooting as the camera and other advancements with the chips used meant that much of the technology that processed the images was physically separate from the cameras themselves. This made the units both much lighter and easier to operate, and allowed them to be used for shots you simply couldn't attempt with a more conventional system.
Tests of the camera have been taking place since February. Though originally designed for "Fury Road", that project's environmentally caused delays meant this shoot for 'Feet' was the first time footage for a major studio film had been shot utilising the new system.
"Happy Feet 2" is scheduled for release Thanksgiving 2011.
ive only seen one of the new 3d movies, and was pissed about it, ill never watch a 3d movie i hates what it does to my eyes and the fact that so much of the non 3d elements of a scene are lost in the "3d blur"
Your concerns about blurring 'artifacts' and eye-strain may be alieviated by Miller's desire to use the same solution as Peter Jackson ... shooting at 48 frames.
Standard frame rate is 24 frames per second. By doubling the framerate there is a shorter time elapsed between frames thus giving your eyes twice the information and you percieving stuttering and blurring.
The down side is the amount of data, already doubled by 3D, is doubled again. More data more cost.
Of course it then has to be projected at 48 frames to deliver the improvement.
PacificMuscle wrote:Your concerns about blurring 'artifacts' and eye-strain may be alieviated by Miller's desire to use the same solution as Peter Jackson ... shooting at 48 frames.
Is this a confirmation for 48fps on Fury Road? The only movies scheduled to be filmed at that rate are The Hobbit 1 & 2 and Avatar 2 & 3. WB is behind the Hobbit movies and is supportive of Jackson's desire to film at 48fps, so they'd likely be behind Miller as well if that's the way he wants to go. I hope so, cuz FR in 3D at 24fps is gonna have blurry action sequences.
As for the number of cinemas capable of projecting at that frame rate by 2013, that's still a question. Jackson says digital projectors need only a software upgrade to project at 48fps, but he remains uncertain as to the number of theaters that'll be ready for his film in late 2012. He also says 24fps film down converted from 48fps looks better than native 24fps film, so that's something else.
