John Mathieson, the cinematographer for both Gladiator films, has slammed Ridley Scott’s recent filmmaking habits in a new interview.
Speaking on The DocFix podcast, Mathieson described Scott’s tendency to leave things in shot to be later cleaned up in post-production as “lazy”.
“It’s really lazy. 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 [boom mics]. And they just said [on Gladiator 2], ‘Well, clean it up.'"
The cinematographer didn’t stop there, calling Scott “impatient” for getting “as much as he can” using a multi-camera setup.
“Having lots of cameras I don’t think has made the films any better," Mathieson said. "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.”
Apparently, the comments were taken out of context. It’s from a 2 hour interview, edited down to 30 minutes. Hence the confusion.
That podcast did him dirty.
Being SLaMmEd for being lazy
Oh the delicious irony
And I bet he didn’t even use sharp swords for the fights /s
Are you trying to tell me, they don’t really kill all those people in the movies?
Those lazy directors keep using props and trick shots.
Coward!
They made a gladiator 2? But wasnt he dead, doing a ghostly backstroke atop grassy fields at the end? Who’s he fighting now, Hades?
It’s not him. The other characters are still in it and it’s based around the Colosseum with the politics and training and slavery etc if the first.
G2 sucked and was dull. I’m no film buff to say it was the cameras fault, but it sucked.
