His name is Max. His world is fire and blood. And by that he means everything is orange; the ground, all the buildings, everything. So why is this scene from Mad Max: Fury Road completely blue? George Miller knew what he was doing when he made this movie. There's a reason why it swept half of the Academy Awards this year. Best costume design, best film editing, best production design, all for Mad Max. Why did it get so many awards like these? Because the visual design of Mad Mad: Fury Road is really good. There is no scene better to highlight the visual design than this one. Why is everything in this scene blue, when the rest of the movie is almost entirely orange, dusty, and hot?
First, a quick synopsis of the film. Mad Max, played by Tom Hardy, is taken prisoner in the middle of the desert. He's brought to a community run by one crazy guy who has a lot of women in his back room that he can do what he wants with. So, with the help of some of these women, Max escapes and helps the women get to their old home on the other side of the desert. The Blue Scene is in the middle of this journey, when their Rig (A mismatch of vehicles all cobbled together, much like the rest of the vehicles in the film) gets stuck in the mud. Since there is an enemy tank car thing coming up upon them, they must move quickly to get out of the mud and moving again.
Before we talk blue, there are other aspects of visual design that George Miller puts to use. The first is the incredible bleakness of this setting. The main characters are in a massive desert of pure mud, with only one plot-important tree, that goes on for at least 15 miles in each direction from them. The mud is there to hinder the heroes and allow for the danger of the car-tank to be an actual threat. The flatness does something else, though. Having such a flat place when a chase is happening is scary. There is nowhere to hide in a flat land like this. This is something the viewers feel along with the characters and it does a great job at building suspense in this scene.
The film stock in Mad Max is surprisingly smooth, given the gritty and rough conditions of the film. Usually action films use a rough-grain film stock, to hide some action and make it look more gritty. But, Mad Mad doesn't do this. Why? The answer is pretty simple- it makes it seem more real to the viewers. You can see all the details. If something looks fake, it really looks fake. There were points earlier in the film where I could see enough detail to tell that something like a crane arm wasn't actually made out of the metal it is designed to look like. But in most other scenes, the production design is so good that everything does actually look real. Because of the smooth-grain film stock combined with high quality sets and props, verisimilitude is held up very strongly.
And now it is time to talk blue. Why is this scene blue, when all others are not? The first reason is pure, unadulterated, visual impact. Since it is literally the opposite of the rest of the film, its contrast brings attention to the scene. It tells the audience that something is different. In this case, the fact that it is night is the main difference highlighted by the color choice. The second reason for Blue is quite interesting. It keeps the scene in low-key night light while still letting the audience see everything in it. Usually a director would use shadows to their advantage, completely covering aspects of shots to hide them. Low-key lighting is used here, but we can still see everything. This weird combination is to show us that the characters cannot see much going on far away from them, but they are still in the open and exposed. That feeling, the feeling of being exposed and vulnerable, is a common theme throughout the entire movie, and it is very apparent in this scene.
Mad Mad: Fury Road is a real pleasure to look at, throughout its entire run-time. It won so many Oscars because of its look, feel, and visual design. The Blue Scene is one of the best examples of good use of visual design from this decade. The setting, film stock, and color palette all contribute to the emotions viewers get just by looking at the screen.
Before we talk blue, there are other aspects of visual design that George Miller puts to use. The first is the incredible bleakness of this setting. The main characters are in a massive desert of pure mud, with only one plot-important tree, that goes on for at least 15 miles in each direction from them. The mud is there to hinder the heroes and allow for the danger of the car-tank to be an actual threat. The flatness does something else, though. Having such a flat place when a chase is happening is scary. There is nowhere to hide in a flat land like this. This is something the viewers feel along with the characters and it does a great job at building suspense in this scene.
The film stock in Mad Max is surprisingly smooth, given the gritty and rough conditions of the film. Usually action films use a rough-grain film stock, to hide some action and make it look more gritty. But, Mad Mad doesn't do this. Why? The answer is pretty simple- it makes it seem more real to the viewers. You can see all the details. If something looks fake, it really looks fake. There were points earlier in the film where I could see enough detail to tell that something like a crane arm wasn't actually made out of the metal it is designed to look like. But in most other scenes, the production design is so good that everything does actually look real. Because of the smooth-grain film stock combined with high quality sets and props, verisimilitude is held up very strongly.
And now it is time to talk blue. Why is this scene blue, when all others are not? The first reason is pure, unadulterated, visual impact. Since it is literally the opposite of the rest of the film, its contrast brings attention to the scene. It tells the audience that something is different. In this case, the fact that it is night is the main difference highlighted by the color choice. The second reason for Blue is quite interesting. It keeps the scene in low-key night light while still letting the audience see everything in it. Usually a director would use shadows to their advantage, completely covering aspects of shots to hide them. Low-key lighting is used here, but we can still see everything. This weird combination is to show us that the characters cannot see much going on far away from them, but they are still in the open and exposed. That feeling, the feeling of being exposed and vulnerable, is a common theme throughout the entire movie, and it is very apparent in this scene.
Mad Mad: Fury Road is a real pleasure to look at, throughout its entire run-time. It won so many Oscars because of its look, feel, and visual design. The Blue Scene is one of the best examples of good use of visual design from this decade. The setting, film stock, and color palette all contribute to the emotions viewers get just by looking at the screen.
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