“We also spent a huge amount of time on spatial awareness, making sure the viewer could follow the action and understand what was happening. There has to be a strong causal connection from one shot to the next, just the same way that in music there [also] has to be a connection from one note to the next. Otherwise it’s just noise.

“Too often, if you just cram a lot of stuff into the frame, [you’ll] get the illusion of a fast pace. But there’s no coherence. It doesn’t flow. It comes off as headbanging music, and it can be exhausting. [Wells to Miller: Press Play‘s Matthias Stork explained this tendency four years ago in a two-part video essay called “Chaos Editing.”]

“We storyboarded the movie before we had a script: We had 3,500 boards, which helps the cast and crew understand how everything is going to fit together. Movies are getting faster and faster. The Road Warrior had 1,200 cuts. This one has 2,700 cuts. You have to treat it like a symphony. Hopefully audiences will appreciate that.” — Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller to Miami Herald‘s Rene Rodriguez in a 5.8.15 interview piece that includes a near-review.