MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Interview with Production Designer Colin Gibson

After working in two “Babe” films, production designer Colin Gibson and director George Miller re-teamed for MAD MAX: FURY ROAD. Gibson was responsible for -among other things- help bringing to life the outrageous vehicles that play a key role in the post-apocalyptic action movie.

I had the pleasure of speaking with the talented Australian recently via telephone.

DH: According to [director] George Miler, there were hundreds of hours of footage.

Colin Gibson: 400 hundred hours I believe. It seems like a terrible waste when you only end up with an hour and a half.

DH: In today’s Hollywood we always hear about studio intervention, safety above all, the push for the CGI route, etc. Fury Road feels like a film from another time.

Colin Gibson: That’s the nicest thing someone ever said to me. We planned for it to be exactly that, a film from another time. Occasionally we thought we were making the last action movie and occasionally I was hoping it would be the first of a new beginning. I congratulate Fast & Furious for its great success. But I think that if we defy gravity we first must show its existence, and then go out of our way to make sure that what we design and build can really do what we imagine it can do. That’s what we set out to do here.

DH: What was your first thought when Miller told you about doing a new Mad Max?

Colin Gibson: George had already made three Mad Max films. I was supposed to work on the third one, but unfortunately I had to decline because my first son was born at the time and couldn’t go off into the desert. I saw the third film and thought it was not the correct movement from 1 & 2. It was an aberration, a little bit too much of a cartoon. I had told George that my main desire with this new Mad Max movie would be for it to feel real, alive and a great action movie where things were at risk and hairs still came up on the back of your neck and hopefully we have done that.

DH: Making so many crazy vehicles you should have felt like Doctor Frankenstein. Was there a “creature” that you were the most proud of?

Colin Gibson: I loved all of them in different ways, maybe a few insignificantly less than other. I knew George felt the same, but overall they were all part of the palette in this crazy world. They all have a place in my heart. Probably Joe’s Gigahorse because it was built from the ground up. Everything was basically built by hand; it’s the one that’s dearest to my heart.

DH: Can you talk a little bit about the actor’s commitment and what they were willing to do for the film?

Colin Gibson: Part of the design process is to make sure they put Tom and Charlize in the drivers seat. Sometimes we would put the drivers seat somewhere else to make it possible for them to perform. I think George’s passion was enough to get most of us through the work and getting the actors on board to react in the right place.

DH: Was there something in particular that you wanted to do at the beginning but later decided not to use?

Colin Gibson: There are always things that you try to do, or push, and later discover it might work but not in context with the world you’ve invented. I still have a concept or two up my sleeves for a prequel or sequel.

DH: What was the main lesson that you learned during the making of this film?

Colin Gibson: Basically, you shouldn’t let anything get ahead of something else. Sometimes ideas were too much about design for it’s own self and forgot to be part of the world you created. Or something was so powerful and big that it did not have the safety factor built into it to allow a great stunt. It is just a question of keeping everything in balance, having the arresting image but also something that works.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD is now playing in theaters nationwide.

Special thanks to Carlos Otero for his contribution to the making of this article.

An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and almost everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order. There’s Max, a man of action and a man of few words, who seeks peace of mind following the loss of his wife and child in the aftermath of the chaos. And Furiosa, a woman of action and a woman who believes her path to survival may be achieved if she can make it across the desert back to her childhood homeland.