By An old interview from back in March on DocFix (via World of Reel) with “Gladiator II” cinematographer John Mathieson has been making the rounds again today as the film is out in cinemas now.
Mathieson’s first collaboration with Scott was the original “Gladiator” and he subsequently worked with him on five more films including “Hannibal,” “Robin Hood,” “Matchstick Men,” “Kingdom of Heaven” and now “Gladiator II”.
He says he isn’t a fan of Scott’s current approach to shooting, which has changed in recent years and relies on filming scenes with multiple cameras to capture all the action quickly.
Mathieson says that has had an impact on the quality of the visuals of Scott’s recent films. Specifically “there’s not the care” there as being in such a rush to get things done, post-production is now heavily relied on to clean up a lot of issues.
It also impacts Mathieson’s own work, he explains:
“It’s really lazy. It’s the CG [computer graphic] 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.’
He is quite impatient so he likes to get as much as he can at once. It’s not very good for cinematography. [You] can only light from one angle. 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.
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.”
Whatever the artistic merit debate, it certainly has sped up Scott’s workflow. The 87-year-old filmmaker has churned our four films in three years – “The Last Duel,” “House of Gucci,” “Napoleon” and “Gladiator II”. He has around twice that number in development right now.
Mathieson most recently lensed next Summer’s “Jurassic World Rebirth”. Other films he’s shot include “Logan,” “X-Men: First Class,” “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Detective Pikachu”.
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