Mad Max worldbuilding with production designer Colin Gibson

thebyrchentwigges:

Colin
Gibson was a long-term production designer for George Miller and the production
designer on Mad Max: Fury Road. Somehow I didn’t learn about him and his
interviews until recently. I listened to 2.5 hours of podcast interviews, so you don’t
have to, and scavenged some Fury Road film worldbuilding.

To start,
some of the shiny bits from the first podcast I listened to, You Are Awaited:

  • “Every War Boy would
    be competitive. Every one wants to have the most aspirated carburetor, the
    biggest tires, the largest spread, the most explosive weapon.”
  • Coins, useless as currency after the Fall, were used by the
    War Boys to create damaging shrapnel, packed into the tips of the
    thundersticks.
  • The
    Vuvalini motorbike metal adornments were indeed inspired by henna tattooing.
  • On the People Eater: “He’s got a syphilitic nose because
    George loves the idea that it’s rotting!”
  • There’s very little written language any more: “only those
    higher levels have managed to maintain that.”

Behind the
cut: 1000+ words on vehicles in love, fetishized masks, the narrative role of
the History Man, and a whole lot of Gas Town and Polecats.

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