GLADIATOR II PRODUCTION
W hen John Mathieson, BSC stepped back onto the grand stage of ancient Rome to shoot Gladiator II , he was met with a unique challenge: seamlessly blending the iconic visuals of Gladiator , captured over 20 years ago, with fresh scenes of Maximus’s descendants clashing in the Colosseum. “Ridley Scott wanted to use some unused footage,” recalls Mathieson. “This was continuing the story of Lucius and Lucilla – and there are flashbacks as Lucius tries to figure out who he is. “But then Ridley said, ‘I’m going to use some other stuff’. For him to want
to cut this footage, shot on Super 35 – a small image that’s two-thirds the size of a British postage stamp – together with a large format, modern digital camera was a surprise.” But image resolution was not a problem. “In the DI, I went right up to the screen with my eyes and tried to see the grain. I could see the structure of it and it was different, but you wouldn’t know. You’d have to tap other DOPs on the shoulder and tell them when the old shots were coming up.” Another twist in production was that the Roman fleet’s assault on a coastal Numidian fort wasn’t filmed on a new set at all – instead, they transformed
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