A lot has changed with filmmaking in recent years. With the ubiquitous nature of CGI, you can do things now that were thought to be impossible years ago. And apparently, that has changed the way some filmmakers do things, such as Ridley Scott.
In a recent episode of the “DocFix” podcast (via World of Reel), cinematographer John Mathieson talked about his recent work as DP on Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II.” During the conversation, it was evident the longtime collaborator with Scott had a lot to say about how the process of working on this film was different than working with Scott in the past. Namely, he talks about how “lazy” the filmmaking can be.
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A lot of his gripe with Scott seems to stem from the filmmaker’s reliance on CGI to “clean” a shot.
“It’s really lazy,” Mathieson said. “It’s the CG elements now of tidying-up, leaving things in shot, cameras in shot, microphones in shot, bits of set hanging down, shadows from booms. And they just said [on ‘Gladiator II’], ‘Well, clean it up.’
In addition to his reliance on CGI to clean up a shot, Mathieson talks about how Scott will use a multicam approach to a scene instead of just one shot at a time. While this might be good for getting a lot of work done at once, Mathieson contends that there is a lot that is lost when you have so many cameras working at once.
“He is quite impatient so he likes to get as much as he can at once,” Mathieson said. “It’s not very good for cinematography…Look at his older films and getting depth into things was very much part of lighting. You can’t do that with a lot of cameras but he just wants to get it all done.”
He continued, “Having lots of cameras I don’t think has made the films any better…It’s a bit rush, rush, rush. That’s changed in him. But that’s the way he wants to do it and I don’t like it and I don’t think many people do, but people love his films and he’s Ridley Scott and can do what he wants.”
It’s definitely pretty shocking to see Mathieson talk so openly about Scott’s technique and to criticize the legendary filmmaker. That said, the cinematographer has worked with Scott on a number of projects and has been nominated twice for an Oscar. So, he definitely knows what he’s talking about.
You can hear the full discussion below:
