6 ms·

Building the Mad Max machines

144 points by fezz 11y ago

caminante 11y ago
"A specific challenge designing the vehicles was achieving esthetic qualities as well as functionality. Our vehicles had to look amazing, but beyond that, they also had to drive safely at speed!" This is an understatement. I was impressed.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  I thought the war rig (a main character I'd argue!) was both beautifully designed and executed. Reminded me of one of the four horsemen's horses. https://lionsandlilies.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/four_horsemen11.jpg https://lionsandlilies.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/four_hors...
  - smazga 11y ago
    I agree, it was absolutely a character. It was loud and visually intimidating, and even had a temperament. It felt like a dragon to me...under 'control', but wild. Not to mention that it was kind of the glue that held the group together. Great movie, and I think the use of actual vehicles contributes a lot to the feel of it.
    - toomuchtodo 11y ago
      Agreed! I think its the best "car chase" movie since "Bullitt" [1] (beating out Cannonball Run, the Bourne trilogies, etc). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062765/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062765/
      - cpeterso 11y ago
        Don't forget "Vanishing Point"! :)
- devonkim 11y ago
  I'm curious if the sound effects were directly recorded from their respective vehicles or if they were mostly done in a studio. A massive component of the Mad Max movie for me was the phenomenal sound work starting from the brilliant score to the unique purr of each vehicle's engine. Only the dialogue mixing is flawed as far as I can tell as I was dumbstruck for two hours straight each time I saw it.
  - nitrogen 11y ago
    Based on a Top Gear (RIP) interview with one of the actors, all of the dialog had to be rerecorded because the engines were so loud. I wouldn't be surprised if they used actual engine noise, given there was so much of it available.
sp332 11y ago
This article from Jalopnik has crazier details about the actual cars. "So what about the War Rig itself? Well, it’s a Tatra with six-wheel-drive powered by two supercharged V8s, a 1940s Chevy Fleetmaster welded to the back of the cab, and a Beetle cabin mounted to the tanker. And it’s the least insane thing in Gibson’s armada." Edit: yup, forgot link http://jalopnik.com/how-the-man-behind-the-machines-of-mad-max-put-a-hellsc-1704037927 http://jalopnik.com/how-the-man-behind-the-machines-of-mad-m...
- cocoflunchy 11y ago
  You forgot the link I think: http://jalopnik.com/how-the-man-behind-the-machines-of-mad-max-put-a-hellsc-1704037927 http://jalopnik.com/how-the-man-behind-the-machines-of-mad-m...
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- fezz 11y ago
  The peacemaker is awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-CFRAwSShs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-CFRAwSShs
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    Gah that autoplayed and I forgot I had my headset still on. Wow. At least I'm fully awake again. Recommended but turn down the volume on your computer before clicking because that's really loud (un-muffled V8 on a tracked vehicle that makes most Bombardier stuff look very tame in comparison).
beat 11y ago
The drivability and safety of the vehicles is impressive, given the aesthetic constraints. I grew up around motorcycle and car drag racing, and I know how squirrelly such vehicles can get! I raced as a kid myself, but quit after one try at racing my dad's bike. It was full-race B-modified Kawasaki Z1, capable of 155mph in the quarter mile. It would start to shimmy around 130mph. Scared the crap out of me! He was mad that I didn't have the guts to just hang on and ride it through.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  A bike that powerful is something to treat with proper respect and I'm kind of surprised at your dad's reaction. With machines like that it is never the machine that is the limit but always the driver and if you're not confident an accident is just around the corner. Confidence you can fake for humans but machines are fairly unforgiving and the kind of punishment meted out at 130mph+ is not the kind of thing you'd normally wish on your kid. Kudos to you (as a dad...) for knowing your limits rather than ending in hospital. I've had only one major bike spill but it was my first and last in one go, it cured me of my sense that I was in control all the time in a split second (just a bit of loose gravel in a corner that was usually clean, nowhere near 130mph).
  - beat 11y ago
    My dad is an asshole. And yeah, race track conditions are very different. A drag race is a straight line over more or less flat and smooth asphalt, that can easily be kept clean. The hard part is the vehicles are so fast that even keeping them straight over the width of a two-lane road is a challenge (especially when the front wheels may not be touching the ground for the first hundred feet or more). I saw a guy get killed racing once, when I was a kid. It was a mixed car/motorcycle event, and the motorcyclists were arguing with the NHRA to get haybales put up around the guard rails at the end of the track. It didn't get done, and a top fuel bike (~7.8 second quarter mile those days) lost control and went into the rail at close to 200mph. That was sobering. I don't ride motorcycles anymore. Too much sense of my own mortality.
devsquid 11y ago
Hehheh the movie looks like post apocalyptic wacky races
kposehn 11y ago
> I didn’t meet Shira, but I would like to; we corresponded by email while I was in Australia, and she was in Namibia. I did not travel to Namibia for the shoot, so I sent files to her to continue. This is one of the more fascinating tidbits. Two art directors on a major motion picture that never once met - conferring by email.
- waterlesscloud 11y ago
  I don't know, but I bet they used Dropbox. Dropbox is huge in the film production world. Lots of files to share among distributed teams. EDIT- LOL. This comment is currently at -4. I have no idea why.
  - vernie 11y ago
    Probably because you're missing the point?
    - jacquesm 11y ago
      No I think it is because people are missing waterlesscloud's point: dropbox is the place to collaborate (or something like dropbox). Just like plenty of programmers collaborate on github and think of it as a place to collaborate.
      - lotsofmangos 11y ago
        It is depressing. Networks are broken to the point where we have services resold back to us to provide the basic functionality that should be inherent in the protocol.
        jacquesm 11y ago
        It is inherent in the protocol, but providers are more than happy to deny you the option to use your local connection to host services and NAT took away the peer-to-peer nature of the internet before it really took off. See: https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/ https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/ (prescient and very depressing read, but read it anyway if you haven't done so). UPNP and some other firewall traversal tricks restored some of that but asymmetric bandwidth is the norm these days. Maybe with IPv6 we'll see a reversal of these trends.
spiritplumber 11y ago
The new Mad Max is not a green-screen-fest and it shows. Beautiful movie and it has a physicality that, say, Transformers could never have. Just give yourself five minutes before you drive home ;)
- Jtsummers 11y ago
  I remembered where the speed traps were just in time.
- brudgers 11y ago
  Much like Road Warrior. On the other hand, making a movie where the villains are simply villainous because they are willing to use violence to take oil from people who simply want to live their lives and keep it, that's not exactly the sort of big budget theme Hollywood can stomach. These days the oil scarcity narrative works better for blockbuster audiences with the political subjugation of women as the primary determinant of villainy. Women fighting invaders to protect hearth and home, just don't require enough rescuing for the 21st century.
huuu 11y ago
Those machines are nice but somehow I got the feeling they look way too clean. Almost no rust. Very safe. Almost no cracks bumps and what not.. There is missing some creativity here. I think the old movies got this right. But still: great work!
- kibibu 11y ago
  > Almost no rust They're basically a cult that worships vehicles and being "shiny", I think they'd have rather well-maintained vehicles. The cars in the first movie were all in pretty good condition, from memory.
  - CatsoCatsoCatso 11y ago
    In the first movie civilisation hadn't completely collapsed yet so the cars and bikes look in pretty good nick - which is how they should have looked. It's only in the second film that things get really post apocalyptic & rusty since at that point civilisation was all but gone. (I watched both films back to back last night)
meesterdude 11y ago
Honestly, watching this movie I felt like an 8 year old at a monster truck show. Such satisfyingly clever and innovative designs of the vehicles, all REAL machines and not just CGI... really jaw dropping. You just don't see that kinda thing these anymore. I'm still excited by it days after having seen it. 17 years to make this film, and so many chances for it to have died. Amazing the perseverance it must take.
- bduerst 11y ago
  Any word if the director is moving on with the second one? I had heard that he wanted to do it anime-style, like Akira.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
jackvalentine 11y ago
If you wanted to watch something in more detail, some minor celebrities in the Australian modified car scene did a marketing job for the movie and made their own "Mad Max" style car. It's an S15 Silvia with an LS1 v8 on knobbly mud tyres. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp0KnUFYB--g_NcNczfkXW_T7izPjMHcI https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp0KnUFYB--g_NcNczfkX...

144 points by fezz 11y ago

"A specific challenge designing the vehicles was achieving esthetic qualities as well as functionality. Our vehicles had to look amazing, but beyond that, they also had to drive safely at speed!" This is an understatement. I was impressed.

toomuchtodo 11y ago
I thought the war rig (a main character I'd argue!) was both beautifully designed and executed. Reminded me of one of the four horsemen's horses. https://lionsandlilies.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/four_horsemen11.jpg https://lionsandlilies.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/four_hors...
- smazga 11y ago
  I agree, it was absolutely a character. It was loud and visually intimidating, and even had a temperament. It felt like a dragon to me...under 'control', but wild. Not to mention that it was kind of the glue that held the group together. Great movie, and I think the use of actual vehicles contributes a lot to the feel of it.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    Agreed! I think its the best "car chase" movie since "Bullitt" [1] (beating out Cannonball Run, the Bourne trilogies, etc). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062765/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062765/
    - cpeterso 11y ago
      Don't forget "Vanishing Point"! :)
devonkim 11y ago
I'm curious if the sound effects were directly recorded from their respective vehicles or if they were mostly done in a studio. A massive component of the Mad Max movie for me was the phenomenal sound work starting from the brilliant score to the unique purr of each vehicle's engine. Only the dialogue mixing is flawed as far as I can tell as I was dumbstruck for two hours straight each time I saw it.
- nitrogen 11y ago
  Based on a Top Gear (RIP) interview with one of the actors, all of the dialog had to be rerecorded because the engines were so loud. I wouldn't be surprised if they used actual engine noise, given there was so much of it available.

sp332 11y ago

This article from Jalopnik has crazier details about the actual cars. "So what about the War Rig itself? Well, it’s a Tatra with six-wheel-drive powered by two supercharged V8s, a 1940s Chevy Fleetmaster welded to the back of the cab, and a Beetle cabin mounted to the tanker. And it’s the least insane thing in Gibson’s armada." Edit: yup, forgot link http://jalopnik.com/how-the-man-behind-the-machines-of-mad-max-put-a-hellsc-1704037927 http://jalopnik.com/how-the-man-behind-the-machines-of-mad-m...

cocoflunchy 11y ago
You forgot the link I think: http://jalopnik.com/how-the-man-behind-the-machines-of-mad-max-put-a-hellsc-1704037927 http://jalopnik.com/how-the-man-behind-the-machines-of-mad-m...
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
fezz 11y ago
The peacemaker is awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-CFRAwSShs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-CFRAwSShs
- jacquesm 11y ago
  Gah that autoplayed and I forgot I had my headset still on. Wow. At least I'm fully awake again. Recommended but turn down the volume on your computer before clicking because that's really loud (un-muffled V8 on a tracked vehicle that makes most Bombardier stuff look very tame in comparison).

beat 11y ago

The drivability and safety of the vehicles is impressive, given the aesthetic constraints. I grew up around motorcycle and car drag racing, and I know how squirrelly such vehicles can get! I raced as a kid myself, but quit after one try at racing my dad's bike. It was full-race B-modified Kawasaki Z1, capable of 155mph in the quarter mile. It would start to shimmy around 130mph. Scared the crap out of me! He was mad that I didn't have the guts to just hang on and ride it through.

jacquesm 11y ago
A bike that powerful is something to treat with proper respect and I'm kind of surprised at your dad's reaction. With machines like that it is never the machine that is the limit but always the driver and if you're not confident an accident is just around the corner. Confidence you can fake for humans but machines are fairly unforgiving and the kind of punishment meted out at 130mph+ is not the kind of thing you'd normally wish on your kid. Kudos to you (as a dad...) for knowing your limits rather than ending in hospital. I've had only one major bike spill but it was my first and last in one go, it cured me of my sense that I was in control all the time in a split second (just a bit of loose gravel in a corner that was usually clean, nowhere near 130mph).
- beat 11y ago
  My dad is an asshole. And yeah, race track conditions are very different. A drag race is a straight line over more or less flat and smooth asphalt, that can easily be kept clean. The hard part is the vehicles are so fast that even keeping them straight over the width of a two-lane road is a challenge (especially when the front wheels may not be touching the ground for the first hundred feet or more). I saw a guy get killed racing once, when I was a kid. It was a mixed car/motorcycle event, and the motorcyclists were arguing with the NHRA to get haybales put up around the guard rails at the end of the track. It didn't get done, and a top fuel bike (~7.8 second quarter mile those days) lost control and went into the rail at close to 200mph. That was sobering. I don't ride motorcycles anymore. Too much sense of my own mortality.

devsquid 11y ago

Hehheh the movie looks like post apocalyptic wacky races

kposehn 11y ago

> I didn’t meet Shira, but I would like to; we corresponded by email while I was in Australia, and she was in Namibia. I did not travel to Namibia for the shoot, so I sent files to her to continue. This is one of the more fascinating tidbits. Two art directors on a major motion picture that never once met - conferring by email.

waterlesscloud 11y ago
I don't know, but I bet they used Dropbox. Dropbox is huge in the film production world. Lots of files to share among distributed teams. EDIT- LOL. This comment is currently at -4. I have no idea why.
- vernie 11y ago
  Probably because you're missing the point?
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    No I think it is because people are missing waterlesscloud's point: dropbox is the place to collaborate (or something like dropbox). Just like plenty of programmers collaborate on github and think of it as a place to collaborate.
    - lotsofmangos 11y ago
      It is depressing. Networks are broken to the point where we have services resold back to us to provide the basic functionality that should be inherent in the protocol.
      - jacquesm 11y ago
        It is inherent in the protocol, but providers are more than happy to deny you the option to use your local connection to host services and NAT took away the peer-to-peer nature of the internet before it really took off. See: https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/ https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/ (prescient and very depressing read, but read it anyway if you haven't done so). UPNP and some other firewall traversal tricks restored some of that but asymmetric bandwidth is the norm these days. Maybe with IPv6 we'll see a reversal of these trends.

spiritplumber 11y ago

The new Mad Max is not a green-screen-fest and it shows. Beautiful movie and it has a physicality that, say, Transformers could never have. Just give yourself five minutes before you drive home ;)

Jtsummers 11y ago
I remembered where the speed traps were just in time.
brudgers 11y ago
Much like Road Warrior. On the other hand, making a movie where the villains are simply villainous because they are willing to use violence to take oil from people who simply want to live their lives and keep it, that's not exactly the sort of big budget theme Hollywood can stomach. These days the oil scarcity narrative works better for blockbuster audiences with the political subjugation of women as the primary determinant of villainy. Women fighting invaders to protect hearth and home, just don't require enough rescuing for the 21st century.

huuu 11y ago

Those machines are nice but somehow I got the feeling they look way too clean. Almost no rust. Very safe. Almost no cracks bumps and what not.. There is missing some creativity here. I think the old movies got this right. But still: great work!

kibibu 11y ago
> Almost no rust They're basically a cult that worships vehicles and being "shiny", I think they'd have rather well-maintained vehicles. The cars in the first movie were all in pretty good condition, from memory.
- CatsoCatsoCatso 11y ago
  In the first movie civilisation hadn't completely collapsed yet so the cars and bikes look in pretty good nick - which is how they should have looked. It's only in the second film that things get really post apocalyptic & rusty since at that point civilisation was all but gone. (I watched both films back to back last night)

meesterdude 11y ago

Honestly, watching this movie I felt like an 8 year old at a monster truck show. Such satisfyingly clever and innovative designs of the vehicles, all REAL machines and not just CGI... really jaw dropping. You just don't see that kinda thing these anymore. I'm still excited by it days after having seen it. 17 years to make this film, and so many chances for it to have died. Amazing the perseverance it must take.

bduerst 11y ago
Any word if the director is moving on with the second one? I had heard that he wanted to do it anime-style, like Akira.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

jackvalentine 11y ago

If you wanted to watch something in more detail, some minor celebrities in the Australian modified car scene did a marketing job for the movie and made their own "Mad Max" style car. It's an S15 Silvia with an LS1 v8 on knobbly mud tyres. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp0KnUFYB--g_NcNczfkXW_T7izPjMHcI https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp0KnUFYB--g_NcNczfkX...