Visual-Effects Supervisor John Nelson and a legion of artists stretch epic boundaries in Gladiator.
The May issue of American Cinematographer explores the world of Gladiator from the perspectives of photography ("Death or Glory," page 34), directing ("Veni, Vidi, Vici," page 46) and production design ("Rebuilding Ancient Rome," page 54). AC also takes an in-depth look at the visual effects involved in constructing the epic Roman tale.
From the creative talents of Academy Award-nominated director Ridley Scott and cinematographer John Mathieson, the classic "sword and sandal" epic film has risen again in the form of Gladiator, after a big-screen absence of more than 25 years. During that time, motion-picture technology has improved by leaps and bounds, and the visionary director wanted to use that technology to push the boundaries of his epic film beyond those of its lavish yet somewhat limited predecessors.
To accomplish this feat, visual-effects supervisor John Nelson was chosen to lead the visual-effects effort with the lion’s share of the work done at Mill Film London. Pacific Title also handled some shots, and even visual effects editor Wes Sewell worked on two shots on his Macintosh computer in the editorial suite. Nelson, a longtime supervisor and cameraman himself, had been battle-tested on such effects-laden films as Johnny Mnemonic, In the Line of Fire, Anaconda and City of Angels.
"I feel that visual effects should only be a supporting player in the service of furthering the story and character," admits Nelson. "In this film, our primary job was just to make the set bigger, the scope grander, and the fights a little more dangerous and elaborate. Our sets were huge, but they were not limitless."
Elaboration certainly was a key element in creating a massive battle between the Roman Army, led by General Maximus (Russell Crowe), and the Germanic barbarians in the thick forests of Germany during winter (the forests of southern England substituted for Germany in these sequences). "We would shoot what we could shoot, then later extend the Roman encampment to the horizon," says Nelson "There was a point of view of [Roman Emperor] Marcus Aurelius watching the battle from high on this hill, where you could see everything. What Ridley wanted was to have one, sweeping shot where you just saw thousands of marching soldiers and thousands of arrows and fiery pots of pitch flying through the air."
Using the Baby Beaumont, Greg Beaumont’s small VistaVision camera from Industrial Light & Magic, the range of the battlefield was photographed in three separate, locked-off shots, or plates, using Kodak Vision 200T, the same stock that director of photography Mathieson had chosen. A Panastar 4-perf camera was also used frequently. "We were shooting on 5274 without any daylight correction," he points out. "Shooting in Vista helped us because the grain was that much less, and we were shooting right into the depths of dusk with it."
Those locked-off plates were then sewn together to create a vista in which a virtual camera could pan, allowing the artists to strategically place all the battlefield elements shot in separate plates wherever they needed to be. "We’d shoot 500 soldiers standing at attention, 500 soldiers up on the line firing arrows or 500 soldiers marching in the front," Nelson details. "Then we moved the camera to the second part of the pan and moved the soldiers over, followed by moving the camera to the third part of the pan and moving the soldiers over. In each of the different lock-offs, we would have our pyro elements go off in the background. We’d also move the people out and shoot our pyro elements separately."
The reason for shooting pyro elements separately was to synch the explosions to the correct time. Having pyro go off within the live-action shot also posed a risk to the extras portraying the German Barbarian army. Because the separate element plates were also locked off, the explosions could be slip-synced during the virtual pan so they would ignite at the correct time. The Roman weapons of war the catapults and scorpions (arrow machines) were also photographed in locked-off plates for the ease of duplication, and because they were just too heavy to move around in the muddy fields.
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