How ' Mad Max' director George Miller survived making films on a low budget

Someone died during filming⁉ Low budget brings danger

Perhaps because this was the first film of director George Miller, who was still a fledgling director at the time, the budget for this film was barely secured. The film was made on a very low budget, with most of the budget spent on modifying the vehicles featured in the film. For example, the modified special interceptor vehicle (V8 Interceptor/Black Passuit Special) that Max rides towards the end of the film is based on the Ford Falcon XB manufactured by Ford Australia. It is a monster machine tuned to produce 600 horsepower, featuring a huge supercharger that protrudes from the hood. Even now, 40 years after its release, it is still so popular that fans all over the world build replicas of it.

Additionally, the modified special police car that is stolen by the Night Rider early in the film was based on the Monaro HQ manufactured by Australian car brand Holden. In addition, many Japanese motorcycles appear in this film, including the Z1000 manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and the CB750 manufactured by Honda Motor Co., and all real cars were used for filming. The film's budget was also spent on those vehicles, so in that sense there was no financial leeway. As a result, there was no money left over to set up open sets for filming, and most of the filming was done in existing buildings.

"Mad Max" (c) 2013 Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Ministry of Justice building (MFP's headquarters) in the film is a dilapidated former water department building, and the underground parking lot for the MFP headquarters is located on the campus of the University of Melbourne. Nowadays, digital processing such as CGI/VFX is mainstream, but back then there were no such convenient tools, so all crash scenes and other scenes were shot using real parts. The crash scenes were so realistic that it was rumored that several people died during filming, but some say that this was just an exaggeration by the distribution company. In reality, there were some injuries, but fortunately there were no fatalities. The existence of the dead is denied by the testimonies of actors and people involved.

However, the filming location for this film was said to be extremely lawless and barbaric. Because the budget was limited, he decided to take dangerous guerrilla shots by blocking roads without permission. What's even more surprising is that most of the biker gang members that appear in this film are real biker gang members, with the exception of the actors who have lines. By using these real actors, who had no experience in acting, the aim was to make the work more realistic and at the same time save money on the budget. It can be said that the plan was a success, but the filming location at the time must have been extremely brutal.

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