I went to the Variety Artisan Awards tonight at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. They honored lots of Academy Award Nominees, including: Carter Burwell for original score in CAROL, Hank Corwin for editing in THE BIG SHORT, Mark Mangini for sound editing in MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, Arthur Max for production design in THE MARTIAN, John Seale for cinematography in MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, Patrick Tubach for visual effects in THE FORCE AWAKENS, Dianne Warren for best song in THE HUNTING GROUND, and Jacqueline West for costume design in THE REVENANT. I’ve written some of the highlights below.
Mark Mangini, Sound editor, MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
Other films: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, various STAR TREKs, GREMLINS…
- They treated the war rig as a character in the film. The analogy was Moby Dick. The war rig was the whale, and Immorten Joe was Ahab. So they mixed in whale sounds to the mechanical sounds of the war rig. When harpoons were shot into it, bear and whale sounds were mixed in. In fact, when it crashes, only animal sounds are heard.
- They maxed out the largest recording mixer in North America at 2048 channels for the mix. Not all can be heard, but you need lots of stuff in case George Miller wanted this sound or that brought up so you can hear it.
- In the end, it is all about sonic focus. For example, in some scenes where it is intended to be about quieter character moments, they took the war rig sounds down.
John Seale, Cinematographer, MAD MAX
Other films: RAIN MAN, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, HARRY POTTER…
- Shot with 30(!) cameras, including Cannon 5Ds and Nikons, and destroyed them all.
- Shot 400 hours of footage.
- 3500 storyboards, including every action beat. They were very meticulously planned out and coordinated for safety. “George Miller, being a doctor, is paranoid about safety.”
- People on the team spent 3 years developing a new, smaller 3D camera so that it could fit through the window of the war rig. But then before shooting, they decided to shoot 2D.
- 8 people were crammed into the war rig for shooting. That’s primarily what he shot.
- George Miller was off in another truck watching the video footage, which was fed over radio frequency. But his voice was piped into the war rig.
Arthur Max, Production Designer, THE MARTIAN
Other films: SEVEN, GLADIATOR, PANIC ROOM, PROMETHEUS….
- Has worked with Ridley Scott for 30 years.
- Has a science degree.
- Said Ridley Scott has a framed report card from elementary school, where he failed every subject except for art.
- About Ridley Scott: “He loves the art department because he comes from the art department. It is sickening how well he draws.”
- NASA let them use their name, but they had some amount of approval over the technology shown. They didn’t want it to seem too far from reality.
- Said he saw NASA’s Orion technology but didn’t like that it was so functional and didn’t have a sense of design. [Editor’s note — this is where I disagree with him. I’d prefer things more on the “real” than “cool looking” side.]
- “I’ve got a couple of emails that mean more to me than any award, from the head of Planetary Studies at NASA [Jim Green].”
Patrick Tubach, Visual Effects Supervisor, THE FORCE AWAKENS
Other films: THE AVENGERS, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, WALL-E…
- The film was a combination of practical and CG effects.
- There were 2100+ effects shots in the film.
- He worked on episodes 2 and 3. George Lucas was all about creativity. He pushed the boundaries of what could be done digitally. If it weren’t for their work on those films, they couldn’t have done THE FORCE AWAKENS
- So much of the job is about creating emotion. There’s not really a Millennium Falcon in a desert doing those things. An artist has to create that and evoke those emotions in you.
Jacqueline West, THE REVENANT
Other films: THE SOCIAL NETWORK, ARGO, TREE OF LIFE
- Her team made all the costumes on the film
- Had to fly back and forth between Vancouver (her work space) and Calgary, where they were shooting
- Since everything was shot in natural light, on location, costumes had to be tested there
- The whole production was out in remote locations. Sometimes they had to trek out two hours to shoot, then back two hours.
- Inarritu is all about the physical, and visceral reaction. Wanted to see each costume in front of him, not just on camera.
- She had a book on fur trappers, and they said often you couldn’t tell what their clothes were made of when they came in because they were so black from bear grease. They used black wax and experimented until it caught the light just right.
- There were dozens of versions of Leonardo DiCaprio’s outfit in all different states of disrepair depending on which point in the story it was supposed to appear or how much blood it was supposed to have on it.
