GLADIATOR II PRODUCTION
slower and not as sharp, but they give you a wealth of options to work with.” Generally, Mathieson leaned toward tungsten over LEDs: big HMIs and Wendy Lights especially. “LED light is soft but unkind; it travels in straight lines and picks up every pore and wrinkle in the face. Yes, LEDs are cold and don’t set fire to things but lack sophistication. What you see and get are different things,” he notes. Elaborate shots aren’t Ridley Scott’s style. “He’s more about the cuts,” states Mathieson. “He doesn’t design each shot from head to toe. Ridley knows where the cuts are as he sees them.” Every shot had to count. “You should write alongside the camera, story and character. Everything else, forget it.” The crew quickly found their rhythm. “It wasn’t like I’d never left but it still felt familiar.” One standout sequence is the Colosseum naval battle. “We’d film the top half of the frame, then the bottom half with the water and they blended beautifully. The colours are what really made it shine – the shimmering water, the Roman senators, rich emblems, wine, tapestries, grapes, gold, smoke – all that lavishness. It’s a real visual feast.”
EMPIRE’S REACH Filming spanned multiple locations – including Malta and Morocco – to authentically depict various regions
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