Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1532695
o c t o b e r • n o v e m b e r • d e c e m b e r 2 0 2 2 c g w 7 N early 25 years ago, filmmaker Ridley Scott created Gladiator, a historical epic that was one of 2000's most successful films, while catapulting Russell Crowe to international stardom. The feature went on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Scott recently returned to direct Paramount Pictures' Gladiator II. The new release once again pits a heroic warrior against the might of the Roman Empire, this time starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, and Denzel Washington. EDITING Ridley Scott called on a familiar team of collaborators, including ed- itors Clair Simpson and Sam Restivo. Simpson has a long history of working with the filmmaker, going as far back as 1987's Someone to Watch Over Me, and more recently on The Last Duel, House of Gucci, and Napoleon. For Restivo, Gladiator II marks their fih consecutive collaboration, dating back to 2020's Raised by Wolves, for which Scott directed two episodes. He also worked alongside Simpson, co-editing The Last Duel, House of Gucci, and Napoleon. "We actually finished Napoleon almost a year before it came out, even though there [were] small things that came up," Restivo recalls. "Ultimately, we were off for like six months before Gladiator started." According to Simpson, their preparation to edit the new feature began with a reading of the script. "He is very interested in our opinion on the script," she says of the director. "So, we have quite a bit of input on the script level. And then he draws these fantastic storyboards, which are works of art, in and of themselves. They're beautiful cels, so we're pretty much informed about what his intention is by the time he starts shooting. Of course, as we well know, the film constantly evolves. The actors have their own interpretation of the roles, and locations become sometimes difficult and unexpected, and yield up all kinds of difficulties, which we weren't expecting, so it's a constant evolution, even right up to the finished film. You start off with a plan—all good plans don't nec- essarily materialize." During the film's production, the editing team was set up near the shoot. "It's very helpful for us to have special effects, the cinematogra- pher, close by so we can get together and have a lot of communica- tion with the shooting crew," Simpson explains. "Ridley comes and visits us, usually at the weekends, and looks at cuts, and we usually have a pretty good cut with sound effects and sometimes music. We've been very lucky in that our sound designers were basically on from a very early stage, so they helped us out a lot. When Ridley ac- tually watches an assembly, it's really more like a first cut. It's quite well developed." "When you think about a show of this size, the amount of depart- ments, the amount of people that need to be looking at exactly the same thing is a lot," adds Restivo. "There's a technical challenge to making sure that we are seeing and hearing exactly the same thing that Ridley is getting on the set, so it is super important for us to be nearby to solve problems right away. Our sound designers are fan- tastic, and they were helping too. Production sound mixer Stéphane Bucher was instrumental as well. We were all always on the same Director Ridley Scott drew detailed storyboards during pre-production.