Why filming in Nambia?

[milian]

Is there any mention why they choose to shoot in Nambia? I realise they didn't shoot in Broken Hill due rains making it much greener than in RW, but I wonder why they didn't choose some where else in Oz? Perhaps the Great Sandy Desert, Great Victoria Desert, etc.

Might they have been looking for a certain terrain that isn't present in OZ deserts, or maybe getting permission to shoot was easier, tax purposes, some one knew of a great location without having to scout, shooting location easier to get to from a major city, etc, etc?

[CouplaDaisygo]

Is there any mention why they choose to shoot in Nambia?

They had already set up for filming there once before when the production collapsed around a decade ago . Vehicles etc already transported to Africa, but different to what we see for this version..... before the broken hill collapse. I heard most of the vehicles were just left there and used by locals before falling apart with rust.
So they were already completely familiar with the terrain and knew what they could get that fitted the existing story.
When they set up in Broken hill they would have been on the look out for terrains that could match what they already knew they could get in Namibia.
But they couldn't.
Looking at the trailer they need rocky hilly mountainous terrain, some super flat landscape, rolling hills and deep canyons. George said the salt lakes in Oz were full of pelicans, so I guess that means shifting to Lake Eyre or similar quite a hike from BH. A few hundred crew members would need a decent size town to live in so even if there was somewhere awesome deep in a desert, if there's nowhere decent to stay for crew then it's a no-show. It might be ok camping out for a tiny BBC crew trying to catch footage of the rare lesser spotted Tassiesnatch but not for A-listers

I've visited broken hill and you'd need to travel interstate to get that variety. Have a look at Swakopmund Namibia in Google Earth and the locations we've heard of that were used. A very diverse range of extreme "nuked" environments all within a comparably short 1 hr drive from a comfy bavarian style town.

[DGSimo]

Miller had his heart set on the location ever since 2002 and from what some said, even when the rains came to Broken Hill that Miller instantly began prepping to shoot in Namibia and the whole "waiting for the rain to stop" and whatnot was just PR and allowed them extra prep time before shooting in 2012.

There were no vehicles in Namibia in 2002. This is how Miller tells it:

In the early 2000s you were going to make a Mad Max movie in Namibia. Was that a different story?
No, it was exactly the same movie, with Mel Gibson.

How close did you come to going on that one?
We didn’t have vehicles there. We had a lot of locations figured out, we were starting to crew up. I’d say we were about 12 weeks from shooting, but after 9/11 the dollar collapsed significantly, and
we basically lost close to 30 per cent of our budget. It meant that we couldn’t do a lot of stuff.

[kennerado]

Didn't he claim they would be filming in Broken Hill when he did the "official" announcement on Australian TV in 2009?

If its true that he always wanted to film in Namibia (and I can believe that as well) then its pretty poor form IMO to lead on people, especially the local businesses of Broken Hill who were expecting the production as a means of bringing in local revenue.

The positives of shooting in Namibia probably outweighed the negatives, Miller probably got away with a lot more stuff than if he chose to film here. In regards to the stunts, the insurance costs and laws might be stricter in Australia? Which might of prevented him from doing a lot of stuff he wanted?

Having said this though, I recall reading an interview a while ago with someone involved in the production - I think it was a producer who said they had LOTS of issues with the locals in Namibia and they WONT be filming future Mad Max films there if they get the chance to. I wish I could remember where I read it, but I swear that's what he said.

[CouplaDaisygo]

They were intending to film in Broken Hill and had chosen locations, had vehicles at the ready.
Have a look at some crew pictures of the test tracks at Mundi Mundi. It looks like a scene from tellytubbies... lush green pasture with pretty wildflowers.
No way they could have filmed without every single shot requiring digital backgrounds. The locals insisted the greenery would burn off in late summer when they were scheduled to shoot but it just got lusher, not less.

[roadwarriormfp]

All these pictures were taken outside of Broken Hill at the original filming location.
I was told the property they were one at one location got a massive long road built on it for a chase scene.
It was as you can see much too green in the tanker shot.



Dont forget that Millers company was to receive a massive tax break if he filmed here in Australia and that the NSW Filming corporation (i think?) was all set to support it.

[biolumen]

There were no vehicles in Namibia in 2002.

Maybe not Namibia, but surely South Africa.

Designed and manufactured some monstrous desert jumping vehicles, capable of huge jumps and crazy stunts

http://www.apocalypse.co.za/index_files ... ypsecv.htm

Coming from Alex Wheeler, I'm thinking this pic was taken in South Africa.



And then there's this...

I also heard on the everpresent and ever unreliable grapevine at the time that the cars that were built firsttime round were shipped to Namibia but not returned .... again unconfirmed.

http://www.madmaxmovies.com/forum/viewt ... 629#p81629

[biolumen]

Dont forget that Millers company was to receive a massive tax break if he filmed here in Australia

They got it anyway. Google "Gallipoli Clause".

[aussie muscle]

Dont forget that Millers company was to receive a massive tax break if he filmed here in Australia

They got it anyway. Google "Gallipoli Clause".

Screen Australia has invoked the “Gallipoli clause”, named for the World War I film shot partly in Egypt, to allow Fury Road to qualify as Australian for the purposes of a 40 per cent producer tax offset.

See, it's crap like this that makes Australia such a joke country. No other country would let a film be made on the other side of the world and still give them massive tax breaks.

[P-Tron]

See, it's crap like this that makes Australia such a joke country. No other country would let a film be made on the other side of the world and still give them massive tax breaks.

That's a little harsh, he still used plenty of Australian actors as well as crew for the job not to mention the additional filming here in Sydney which gave more work to local actors and crew.