You shot Gladiator in Super 35 with spherical lenses. How did you exploit that format to enhance the film's 'epic' look?Scott: If I think about the very epic directors, the one that would spring to mind first would be David Lean and Lawrence of Arabia. We couldn't really [shoot in the standard 1.85:1 aspect ratio] because we were attempting to tell an epic story. I don't know why, but psychologically, an epic tends to feel as if it ought to be widescreen with landscapes as opposed to portrait photography. That probably means anamorphic, which can be hard to do within time constraints. We knew that if we shot with spherical lenses, it might save on lights, because you've got a minimum difference of two and sometimes three stops. Lights mean time, and time means money. Therefore, we ultimately elected to go spherical, which would give me what I needed and give John [Mathieson] what he needed, which was speed in working.
Of course, we still went for what I call the 'epic quality' it's that combination of how you see the landscape and which lenses you put on the camera. I don't use a lot of wide-angle lenses; my widest lens tends to be around 75mm. I'd rather move back and use a 75mm, because the image is more powerful. With a wider-angle lens, you see more, but it's less powerful. It's a funny effect. If I want a wide view of a scene, I'll move back, which is also quite good because the actor doesn't have a lump of glass stuck in his face. The camera and crew are further away from him, so in a sense, he's on his own.
Did the film's period dictate a particular photographic style?
Scott: If anything, I shot it in a rather modern way. A lot of the battle scenes, of course, were done with handheld cameras. We employed a lot of techniques we learned from videos to enhance the speed and violence of certain sequences. When you're dealing with a bunch of guys wearing muddy skirts and carrying swords and spears and they're not on horseback and everything is flat it requires a lot of energy to get the footage you need; you have to use a lot of cuts to keep the action moving forward. We worked out a proper strategic battle plan in order to illustrate the formidable might of the Roman military machine. The infantry were engaged in the front, and there were war machines like catapults and arrow launchers to the rear. The arrows were really thick and would impale whoever got in their way; if you got off a really lucky shot, you could nail four blokes together, like a kabob. The Romans would also catapult Greek oil, which is basically a kind of kerosene, in these large, earthenware pots. They would saturate the ground with black oil, then fire flaming arrows that would ignite the whole battlefield. The Romans were very clever strategists.
How difficult were the logistics of filming such large battle scenes?
Scott: Nothing's difficult if you've got a good team. It all has to do with planning and discussion, and finding ways to shoot things in a way you haven't seen before. People get tired of watching [the same kinds of] medieval battles, or any battle scenes that have run dry. I think Steven Spielberg did an incredible 12 minutes [in the opening scene of] Saving Private Ryan; that sequence felt absolutely real and documentary. He raised the stakes in terms of the film interpretation of what that experience might be like. So now we have to go and raise the level. [Laughs.]
What I discovered is that with a big unit, or any unit, the less you move the better. I went to Brataslava [Slovakia] and looked at the military base there, but once I got into it, I thought, 'You know what? I'm staring at pine trees. I know there are pine trees around London.' We found that they were about to burn a forest [in Gatwick]. Half of the valley is all pine trees, and they'd already ripped up the middle. In this valley, I also found that I could put the Roman encampment just outside of the battle area, because the encampment logically wouldn't be on the spot. I never had to move the camera more than a quarter of a mile, and I was really happy about that.
How effects-heavy is this film?
Scott: The number of effects shots started off quite low, at around 40. We ultimately wound up with about 90 shots, but they're very complicated. It's a very neat jigsaw puzzle, particularly in terms of Rome itself. We planned with Arthur to go for a giant scale version of what he built, meaning that a column with a diameter of 8 feet would be up to 35 or 40 feet high. When I jump back to do a wide shot, I'll add another 80 feet to the column [via digital effects] the entire upper part, along with the [rest of the] city. There were a million people in Rome, and because it was on seven hills, I wanted it to feel very dense, as if you could never see sky. I noticed that the other Roman period films were always done with two-story structures, and it all looked a bit provincial. I wanted this to feel like a New York or Wall Street of the time, particularly in the palace district and the Colosseum district.
Were the gladiator/tiger combat sequences a mixture of live action and CGI?
Scott: Tigers don't do what they're told to do. The biggest problem with a tiger is that half the time, it lies on the ground purring or staring at you. We had six Bengal tigers that were about 10 feet long, weighed 600 pounds and could move as fast as a small cat once they decided to. But half the time you're poking at the animal, saying, 'Come on, do something.' That's the moment when you must watch out, because you've got a cat lying on the ground with its tail swishing, and you want to go over and pat it. When you watch [the trainer] hit the deck, he's feeding it with his right hand. In his left hand, he's got a little handle of a sword [with] no blade, and he has to 'stab' the tiger. CGI will drop in the glint of metal that goes into the fur and out the other side with blood on it. All of that action was cheated and helped by CGI.
You also used the Wam!Net service, which was used to digitally transmit footage of the film for production purposes and test screenings. How did that go?
Scott: We previewed only twice, I think once in Orange [California] and once in San Diego. We were on four channels on the Internet. Fortunately, the channels were really great. Needless to say, however, that could easily be negative [in terms of security]. I'm doing Hannibal right now, and somehow a guy at Yahoo! got hold of the script. There are only three actors who have seen the bloody script, so how he got it, God only knows. In fact, he's already written a critique of the script! Fortunately, he loved it and said [Jodie Foster] should have done it. [Laughs.]
Did Wam!Net speed up the production process?
Scott: The quality isn't that good yet, so it's a work in progress. But it's a great sketchbook to show where you are and how far you've developed. It also helped when I did the music in London, because Hans [Zimmer] likes to record at Air Studios, which is George Martin's place. I got to take a firsthand look every day as they fed me the developments over Wam!Net. Eventually, it won't matter where the various studios and effects houses are—you'll be able to work from anywhere.