Colourist Eric Whipp discusses the challenges of creating the look for George Millers epic blockbuster
By Contributor
Published: June 11, 2024 Updated: June 13, 2024
Colourist Eric Whipp discusses the challenges of creating the look for George Miller's epic blockbuster
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> Colourist Eric Whipp discusses the challenges of creating the look for George Miller's epic blockbuster
https://www.tvbeurope.com/features/creating-george-millers-graphic-prequel-furiosa-a-mad-max-saga title=Share via Email class=share-email>
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a 2024 post-apocalyptic film directed by George Miller and shot by cinematographer Simon Duggan. It is the fifth instalment in the Mad Max series and a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).
Responsible for the colour on the latest instalment was Eric Whipp of alter ego, who worked on Baselight 6.0 across three locations: alter ego in LA and Toronto as well as Spectrum Films in Sydney, who handled the workflow supervision, conform, home entertainment mastering and delivery in Baselight.
Whipp, Miller and the Spectrum team worked together previously on Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) and brought a similar workflow to Furiosa. Whipp and Miller also collaborated on Fury Road, but the director-colourist duo has worked together for nearly two decades.
It's been almost 20 years since the first film I did with George, which was Happy Feet, back in 2005, says Whipp. Since then, we've done five films together, and created a kind of shorthand. I have learned what type of image and style he likes, and at the same time, he's challenged me further and further in the grade, knowing that I can most probably achieve whatever he's looking for. Together, we've pushed the boundaries of what Baselight can do and embraced every little toolset we can find to help tell stories.
Developing a workflow: Sydney The work on the film was spread across three different facilities and cities - starting with Spectrum Films, a family-owned and operated business in Sydney, Australia, who handled the conforming in Baselight in the same space as the editorial department.
Left to right: Dan Glass (VFX supervisor for DNEG), Genna McAuliffe (senior producer for alter ego), Eric Whipp and George Miller We started on the workflow for Furiosa while we were completing Three Thousand Years of Longing, comments Michael Messih, technical operations manager at Spectrum. The same on-set VFX supervisor worked on both films, so we were able to bring a lot of what we had developed in Baselight directly over to the Furiosa pipeline.
The Rebel Fleet managed the dailies and all the VFX pulls, and because there were so few shots which didn't require visual effects we decided to do everything via EXR sequences, explains Catherine Armstrong, general manager and head of post-production at Spectrum. At no point did we actually see any of the original camera raw files.
Andrew Cuc , colourist and finishing editor at Spectrum, commented: The best feature we had was Baselight's shot versioning tool. We would typically get up to 100 shots a day, so having the version refresh feature made things so much quicker. Also being able to switch back and compare versions during VFX reviews was amazing.
Spectrum helped to develop a workflow for colour-critical 4K graded streams between LA and Sydney, and maintained a rigorous calibration check procedure - including colour comparisons and render tests - to ensure that everyone was seeing the same images.
George likes to refer to the term rolling DI', implying a tight integration between departments which means that the grading process happens alongside all the VFX work, explains Messih. Having the remote working ability between Spectrum and alter ego meant that Eric didn't have to spend weeks over in Sydney - and George could review everything from the 4K DI theatre at Spectrum.
The Spectrum team worked entirely in ACES and made good use of Baselight's ability to quickly switch between colour spaces to compare colour in different viewing conditions. It also supported quick switching of formats, which they were doing all the time to compare 4K, HD and UHD against the various references.
Supported by a team of additional finishing editors (Affrica Handley and James Cowie) and production experts (Basia A'hern and Sofia Costa), the Spectrum team utilised the Baselight reporting tool, which allowed them to provide daily data reports and enable the VFX supervisor to cross-check versions.
This was essential in Furiosa, as we were doing most of the VFX changes in Baselight rather than waiting for an updated EDL, comments Armstrong. DI was effectively leading the edit in the end, so this reporting tool was critical.
Due to the nature of Eric's stacks, I ended up doing quite a lot of the editorial changes manually in the timeline, adds Cuc . The new Baselight 6.0 timeline editing tools will make this much easier - the addition of tracks and the ability to compress large stacks means managing a complex timeline will be a lot simpler for future projects like this.
Colour: LA and Canada alter ego opened its LA office in September 2023 and knew one of the first projects would be Furiosa.
We ensured we had everything we needed to grade the film while building out the new office, says Whipp. A big part of this was to ensure that our six Baselight suites in Toronto could easily sync with the two new Baselight suites in LA.
We also needed to find a way to sync up the Baselight suites at Spectrum, so we set up a project server here at alter ego in LA, which everyone was connected to, says Whipp. This way, once a reel was conformed in Sydney, it was as easy as opening it in LA and everything was linked up.
Europe Stories
19/12/2025
With Playout Release 2025.4, ToolsOnAir continues to push professional playout w...
19/12/2025
19 Dec 2025
VEON's Mobilink Microfinance Bank Launches Islamic Banking Oper...
19/12/2025
The six-part drama, set in a close-knit Welsh town fractured by an unspeakable c...
19/12/2025
Rohde & Schwarz drives the future of mobility at CES 2026 At the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Rohde & Schwarz will present a powerful lineup o...
19/12/2025
RT is proud to return to the RDS to support the 2026 Stripe Young Scientist & T...
18/12/2025
Canada's largest indoor arena has transformed its live production capabilities with a full ST 2110 infrastructure and Calrec's compact Argo S console. S...
18/12/2025
Long-term agreement includes the SES SCORE platform and hybrid distribution worldwide to deliver more than 5,000 hours of golf tournaments annually featuring th...
18/12/2025
18 Dec 2025
VEON Upgraded to Nasdaq Global Select Market, Enhancing Investor Visibility Dubai, December 18, 2025 - VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON), a global digital o...
18/12/2025
Thursday 18 December 2025
Sky Sports remains the exclusive home of the Masters ...
18/12/2025
Using the additive process of 3D printing, layer after layer gets printed until an object is as close to the final shape needed as possible. Historically, machi...
18/12/2025
In 2025, RT proudly supported 185 arts and cultural events across the island of Ireland, reflecting significant growth since the scheme was re-launched in 2014...
18/12/2025
RT Sports Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
18/12/2025
RT lyric fm presents a very special Winter Solstice edition of Ambient Orbit, l...
18/12/2025
At 7.45pm on 1st January 1926, the precursor to RT , then 2RN, delivered the fledgling new Irish state's first public radio transmission. From those first c...
18/12/2025
December 18 2025, 05:30 (PST) The Movie Experience SLO Becomes First U.S. Exhib...
17/12/2025
Investigative journalists across the Western Balkans and T rkiye continue to con...
17/12/2025
The right playlist is essential on New Year's Eve, building the energy as you get ready and keeping it high as you count down to midnight. This year, Spotif...
17/12/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
17/12/2025
Wuppertal December 17, 2025
Riedel Builds Global Communication and Commentary ...
17/12/2025
December 17 2025, 17:00 (PST) Dolby and LG Unveil a New Era of Home Audio With ...
17/12/2025
Wednesday 17 December 2025
Heated Rivalry will be coming to Sky and streaming service NOW on 10 JanuaryTurn on cookies to view this content. Go to Privacy opti...
17/12/2025
RT has announced that Kathy Fox has been appointed Commissioning Editor with re...
17/12/2025
With the new season of Dancing with the Stars shimmering in the not-too-distant future this New Year, the celebrity and dancer pairings of the twelve couples ha...
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
16/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December.
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
16/12/2025
Singer -songwriter Brian Kennedy has been announced as the final celebrity dance...
15/12/2025
Cape Town, November 13, 2025 - SES and International artist and humanitarian, Fo...
15/12/2025
Luxembourg, December 15, 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Abra Group launched fast and reliable multi-orbit inflight connectivity service on t...
15/12/2025
15 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cel...
15/12/2025
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finds himself the topic of year's cracker jokes
Oasis, David Harbour, Celebrity Traitors and Angela Rayner all feature in this y...
15/12/2025
Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social New capabilities strengthen cross-platform campaign reporting suite; CCR rebran...
15/12/2025
RT .ie has reached one billion page views this year and is on track to finish 2025 2% ahead of last year. Average time spent on the site is up 3% on 2024, with ...
12/12/2025
Last month, Spotify announced a new collaboration with the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men's professional tennis, aimed at bringing the next gene...
12/12/2025
Friday 12 December 2025
Ted is back! Seth MacFarlane's live-action comedic ...
12/12/2025
Uachtar n na h ireann, Catherine Connolly visited RT Raidi na Gaeltachta's...
12/12/2025
Ireland AM host Eric Roberts has been revealed as the sixth contestant taking to...
11/12/2025
Thomson and the Center for News, Technology and Innovation (CNTI) convened a two-day workshop in Sarajevo bringing together more than 35 journalists, editors, p...
11/12/2025
Having the right song soundtrack your moves can make all the difference when gam...
11/12/2025
It's been a big year for Taylor Swift. Her highly anticipated album The Life...
11/12/2025
11 Dec 2025
VEON's Banglalink Receives Regulatory Approval to Launch Digita...
11/12/2025
Thursday 11 December 2025
Sky Arts paints a picture of Britain's beauty as ...
11/12/2025
It's not every day we're asked to create a website for a classical musician!
So, we were delighted to help pianist Georgina Duncan as she embarks on he...
11/12/2025
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Irish golfing hero Shane Lowry...
11/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier ti...
Colourist Eric Whipp discusses the challenges of creating the look for George Millers epic blockbuster
