The origin story of the renegade warrior is revealed in Director George Miller’s sci-fi action-adventure, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
In the prequel to his 2015 DGA Award-nominated feature, Mad Max: Fury Road, Miller’s film tells the story of how the young Furiosa survives the many trials of the post-apocalyptic wasteland and is molded into the hero she will become prior to meeting Mad Max.
On May 19, after the DGA membership screening in New York, Miller discussed the making of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga during a Q&A moderated by Director Darren Aronofsky (The Whale). He also spoke about the film in a conversation moderated by Director Edgar Wright (Last Night in Soho) following the DGA screening in Los Angeles on May 25.
During the New York conversation, Miller revealed his thoughts on the hardest type of shots to accomplish.
“Every shot has its challenges. The rhythms and the play of a series of shots, making up one visual sentence is really where the effort is, how one shot can flow into the next, and some shots are just technically difficult. The ones you have the most apprehension about is when you have two actors at the end of the movie, and you’ve done all the preparation — and you’ve drilled it, and you’ve worked it, and you’ve discussed it — and then you get into the moment of the performance. On a stunt you should know what’s going to happen, but you don’t really know what’s going to happen. You know what you’d theoretically like to happen, but until you actually experience it... That’s the ones where you’re wondering ‘are we going to stick the landing?’”
He also spoke about what he’s learned from directing.
“One of the things I’ve learned is that you’ve really got to pace yourself on every level, personally and I think in terms of the crew. It’s kind of a relaxed discipline that slowly creeps into the work if you are working with really good people with cohesive, shared strategies. I think that’s really very important.”
In addition to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Mad Max: Fury Road, Miller’s other directorial credits include the feature Mad Max, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, The Witches of Eastwick, Lorenzo’s Oil, Babe: Pig in the City and Three Thousand Years of Longing.
Miller has been a DGA member since 1982.