Speaker 1: Let me know if this ever happens to you. You're watching a movie, and you get to the end of a really amazing scene.

Speaker 2: Maybe it's an exciting action scene that leaves your heart pounding.

Speaker 1: Or an emotionally gut-wrenching scene. And you wonder, how did they do that? That's a question I'm going to try to answer in this video. Today we're deconstructing a scene from George Miller's Mad Max Fury Road. We're going to look at a chase sequence to find out what makes this film so darn exciting. For an action sequence to be great, it's not just about having great stunts or pyrotechnics. The filmmaker needs to find a way to take something utterly chaotic and guide us through that chaos. George Miller does this brilliantly in Mad Max Fury Road.

Speaker 3: There is a certain pleasure in being able to film things which are very, very kinetic.

Speaker 2: Where George is wonderful is he won't let any shot become gratuitous. He worked very hard in editing with Margaret Sixel, his editor, to make sure it's all understood and helps to progress the story in a logical manner.

Speaker 1: The scene we're studying today is actually just a small part of an extended chase sequence that makes up most of the first act of the movie. To help us break down what we're seeing, I'm going to use the shot listing tool that's available in StudioBinder. Before we get started, subscribe to our channel. Don't forget to click the little bell icon so that you're notified when new videos come out. Ready to start your engines? Let's dive into Mad Max Fury Road. Max himself doesn't appear in this part of the scene. It's all about Furiosa. Furiosa is driving the war rig through enemy territory, and chaos is about to ensue. We begin the sequence with this establishing shot. The shot does something very important, especially for a fast-paced action sequence. It orients us to the screen direction of the story. The action of this shot moves from left to right, the primary direction of travel for this part of the film. By bringing in these buzzards in tight close-up from out of frame, Miller unsettles us. He reminds us that danger can appear from anywhere, so we tense up and brace for the scene to unfold. The action here is still left to right, but we know there's a threat coming from the war rig's right. So watch this. Eyes right. Miller uses Furiosa's eyeline to turn the view around. This pan right is very significant. By starting the shot on Furiosa and panning over to the buzzards, Miller gives us a chance to track the change in screen direction. The threatening buzzards are now presented as moving right to left on the screen, in opposition to the war rig's left to right. They're moving towards each other, on a collision course. Tension doesn't come from what's happening on screen, but from what we fear might happen next. No. We're good. Underarm. Here we go. The trap is sprung. Every time that happens, we're reminded to stay alert. Let's go back for a second and break this down so we can better appreciate the shape of this sequence.

Speaker 2: Every shot has to pay its way, and every shot has to count. Whatever was the center point of that shot had to be in the center of the frame. All we would hear was George saying, put the crosshairs on her nose, put the crosshairs on her nose.

Speaker 1: We begin with a close up of Furiosa, followed by her POV. We now get a close up of the steering wheel that tilts up to find Furiosa. That helps us stay oriented, despite the chaos.

Speaker 2: In the faster cutting, your eye won't have to shift to find the next subject when you've only got 1.8 seconds to do that.

Speaker 1: And it's worth noting, 6 of the next 7 shots of this sequence have little or no camera movement. There's so much to keep track of here, Miller shoots the whole beat on sticks to make sure we don't lose track of the action. But we're about to be reoriented once again. We get this long tracking shot, with the vehicles traveling left to right. The camera, constantly on the move, pushes in towards this car. Our action is still moving left to right, but this guy shouts back towards the front of the truck. And here's the front. The eye line leads us to this shot. It took 3 shots to shift our perspective around the front of the truck. So even though our screen direction has jumped, we're still oriented. We've changed screen direction without getting lost, and are ready for the next piece of the action sequence. George Miller and his editor are very careful to guide us when the screen direction shifts.

Speaker 2: There's a lot of people that might throw in some whip pan blurs just to sort of give it energy but you don't know what's happening. George won't do that.

Speaker 3: You get into the cutting room and you've got this massive amount of footage and you say now are the bits going to fit together like a massive ruby cube? And then one day those little bits of material come together like notes in the music and it's really elegant.

Speaker 1: Miller knows the value of camera placement and camera movement to make sure we don't lose track of the action. We feel the chaos without getting lost or confused as to what's going on. If this scene inspires you to tackle your own high octane car chase sequence, make sure you use StudioBinder when you're ready to turn your vision into a shot list. It's a great production management tool. Great for scheduling scenes, breakdowns, calendars, call sheets, and a lot of really important pre-production work that brings a project together. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you didn't get a chance to earlier, go ahead and like and subscribe to our channel. We've got more great stuff coming, so don't miss it. And until then, break a lens.