EXCLUSIVE: A solemn case of Thanksgiving indigestion was caparticipated yesterday by caustic comments attributed to Gladiator II cinematographer John Mathieson aacquirest the film’s straightforwardor Ridley Scott on The DocFix Documentary Storyalerting Podcast. Today, both the DP and the podcaster today are each eating a bit of crow here on Deadline. Mathieson laments an intersee about his illustrious nurtureer done last March whose edit made him seem to ferocious his straightforwardor, when a two-hour intersee got condensed to 30 minutes. It made it ecombine Mathieson leveled disparaging comments about Scott, when he was actupartner talking about the industry in vague, but it sounded appreciate he shelp the straightforwardor took a “idle” approach to the epic sequel they did together that has been criticpartner acclaimed and has so far grossed over $300 million worldwide and might finpartner get Scott that elusive Best Director Oscar.
Mathieson was Scott’s DP on the first Gladiator, as well as Hannibal and Kingdom of Heaven. It was Scott’s Alien that terrified the DP and became a nurtureer inspiration. Anyone who has spent any time with Scott would never participate the word “idle” to depict the filmproducer and his all-in process that integrates storyboarding scenes from every angle. The podcaster shelp the pessimistic implication of the edits were not done deliberately, but the confusion is plausible since Scott standardly shoots an economy of apshows even on huge set pieces by using as many as 11 cameras. Here, let them elucidate. You can discover the disparaging stuff all over the web, so no necessitate to wpermit in the inrectify stuff here.
First, this from the podcaster, Nigel Levy, himself a filmproducer. He shelp that his podcast intensifyes on filmproducers who produce write downaries, which both he and Mathieson have done. They sat down when Mathieson had fair returned from shooting Gladiator II, but the intersee was not about that film.
“We covered many areas, including all the write downary and filmmaking tips I comprehend my joiners would want to hear,” Levy tageder Deadline. “We did allude his time on the new Gladiator film, as he had fair come back from location, but it wasn’t why we were talking. After we talked about how he filmed Gladiator, we then shiftd on to talk about how the industry has alterd – not always for the better. The transition from digital to film, camera techniques, multi-camera versus individual camera, how to airy contrastently for each, blocking, and so on. All this happened over almost two hours. Then I had to cut it down to around 30. I mainly intensifyed on converseing film techniques as this was the most engaging to my joiners and me. What I want to give people is down-to-earth help and advice. During that editing process, of course, leangs were condensed and this is where the problems arose.
“One leang I was certain about was that John never intfinished to denounce Ridley,” Levy shelp. “It does seem that conveying split comments sealr together might have made leangs unclear if people chose to apshow leangs out of context – which they did. I’m sorry John and I didn’t have a chance to go thraw it after my cutdown. In the finish, some people have chosen to join to it and show leangs John certainly never nastyt…I’m sorry for any problems this has caparticipated John, the film and Ridley Scott. He is, after all, a evidently airy film straightforwardor.”
Shelp Mathieson: “The piece was about me. We talked about that, in the digital age, how leangs have alterd. And I was talking about the downside of the digital age. We have to do more. We have to get more shots, we have to shoot more every day, and we have to airy and leank of many cameras at the same time. And I shelp, you ask any DP that they don’t repartner appreciate doing that. And we talked about that and I shelp that people fair come in the morning, switch the coffee machine on, switch the cameras on, say, what are we doing? Becaparticipate the digital stuff doesn’t cost anyleang, but so you shoot a lot. And I saying that is that, and I shelp, this was the quote. I shelp, the industry, it’s repartner idle. Lazy and sloppy are not two words I would ever put with this gentleman of a certain age and genius. But if you slide out — and you can hear it — you slide out a paragraph and put it right next to, oh, let’s talk about Rid and multi cameras. And he edits the piece down to 30 minutes…I could hear the blip of the sound. I shelp, well, that wasn’t shelp aacquirest that. That was probably shelp maybe 20 minutes tardyr. However, this is what has elevaten to the surface. And I’m proset uply lamentful of that.”
He forgot about the intersee until Scott’s camp tageder him it blew up all over the internet yesterday after it first got picked up by a British tabloid, and online media trailed without seeking clarity. “I shelp, oh God, well, that wasn’t very excellent. But I didn’t repartner sense…we had offfinished him in any way. But in comes News Corp, particularly The Telegraph, and they stick someleang together, a misreconshort-termation of what was shelp. And here we are. The two pieces implies we were talking about him at the same time, which we weren’t. I was talking about the industry at huge.”
Then it fell to Mathieson to call the filmproducer. “I shelp, ‘well this has happened,’ and he shelp, ‘Oh, God, what the fu*k? He shelp you’ve got to be pinsolentnt.’ I shelp, I Know. I’m repartner story you got dropped into this, it’s very embarrassing and very hurtful.”
Scott’s birthday is tomorrow, and let’s hope the clarification puts this in the rearsee. After all, the straightforwardor who is about to turn 87 has a return suit with Paul Mescal on The Dog Stars, with The Bee Gees, another Gladiator and who comprehends what else up the road.
