It appears Ridley Scott may be on the, uh, outs with his longtime DP John Mathieson. The two collaborated on six films, including “Gladiator,” “Matchstick Men,” “Kingdom of Heaven,” and most recently “Gladiator II,” but in a recent interview on “The DocFix Documentary Storytelling Podcast,” Mathieson voiced his concerns over the director’s use of multiple cameras and CGI and how his process neglects the nuances of cinematography.
“It’s really lazy,” said Mathieson. “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.’”
Scott now favors using multiple cameras, a fact Mathieson puts on Scott being “quite impatient” and caring more about performance than look.
“It’s not very good for cinematography,” he said, adding later, “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.”
Speaking to IndieWire’s Jim Hemphill recently about the process on “Gladiator II,” Mathieson said, “Ridley doesn’t care that it’s not exactly like the last shot. He does care that it looks great.”
Using more cameras, in Mathieson’s opinion, has not improved Scott’s work, but just emphasize how quickly he wishes to turn things around. This was not always the case with Scott, but Mathieson doesn’t expect him to go back to doing things the old way.
“It’s a bit rush, rush, rush. That’s changed in him,” said Mathieson on “The Doc Fix.” “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.”
The late Harris Savides also seemed to not enjoy working this way with Scott when they collaborated on the 2007 film “American Gangster.” In an interview earlier this year in American Cinematographer, Scott said of the experience, “I did a thing [with multiple cameras] on ‘American Gangster’ with another cameraman [Harris Savides, ASC], who was very good. I got on well with him, and he honestly did a terrific job on the film. But I started to introduce three cameras, four cameras, [and] he didn’t like that. I heard him talking to the gaffer, saying, ‘I can’t cope with all of these cameras, what do you think?’ And the gaffer said, ‘Actually, I kind of enjoy it.’”
At 87 years old, Scott certainly has earned the right to do “what he wants” and intends to as he currently has eight projects in development, including a re-team with Paul Mescal for “The Dog Stars,” his long-gestating Bee Gees biopic, a WWII epic about The Battle of Britain, “Gladiator III,” and an adaptation of the comic book “Queen and Country.”
“Gladiator II” is currently in theaters from Paramount Pictures.
