PRODUCTION GLADIATOR II
the Kingdom of Heaven Jerusalem set to pull it off. And while the Colosseum naval battle may look like a dramatic clash on water, it was actually shot ‘dry for dry’, with just a few water tank scenes. “Neil Corbould [special effects supervisor] brought in these incredible self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) capable of lifting and moving massive objects like ships or even oil rigs,” Mathieson explains. “It’s a modular system you can assemble to manoeuvre with extreme precision. That allowed us to turn the ships on a tight line – something impossible on water, where you’d need tracks and a monorail system to stabilise them against the wind.” One day, an SPMT accidentally rolled over Mathieson’s track, which didn’t sit well with the grips, as its movements weren’t totally accurate. “Guys would walk alongside with remote controls, with arrows flying overhead. We knew that everything below a certain height would be ‘underwater’, allowing us to place our equipment more freely than if we’d been on water, where we’d have had to rig it on barges that might drift.” Some water tank footage was captured later. “Luke Scott [second unit director] came in to handle the real water shots – guys falling in, splashing, drowning and even getting attacked by sharks,” Mathieson adds. A cut sequence from the original movie revived for Gladiator II was the rhino battle in the Colosseum. “Ridley likes rhinos, while I like frogs!” laughs Mathieson. “The rhino fight had been lurking around since the first Gladiator ; I thought it was going to be CGI, but Neil actually built the rhino.” He continues: “It didn’t have legs but warred around the Colosseum throwing up dust – it was angry and smashed things over. I’d filmed rhinos for natural
FULL COVERAGE Using multiple cameras at once allowed Scott to capture both wide shots and intimate close-ups in the same take
history in the past, but not as big as this one! The rule is to stay out of the way. The rhino being real was important for everyone. Even though you understand CGI, when you actually have something that’s physically there, people are a lot more engaged.” At times, the production deployed up to 12 cameras on-set. “With digital cameras, you can use more of them and they’re easier to operate, so why not?” Mathieson points out. “It’s the way to go for big set pieces with lots of people and multiple actions happening at once. You don’t want to rely on pickups or little bits and pieces because those can miss the background details – the explosions, the horses charging past.
“If you can get it all at the same time, the melee might not be as refined, but it has the right feeling and energy.” Not every camera rolls at the same time, though. “Sometimes, you set up and things change. Suddenly, camera A becomes an extra camera. I usually keep a few cameras nearby because I can spot where the action is flowing and position them to capture it. Ridley might then say, ‘I like that angle more’, and those cameras become the main ones.” The primary camera was the ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. “We had a dozen Mini LFs and some larger LFs. We also used the Z CAM, which were like our GoPros. They
I USUALLY KEEP a few cameras NEARBY BECAUSE I CAN SPOT where the action is flowing ”
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