LA Special: Sir Ridley Scott

It’s apt that veteran creator of worlds Sir Ridley Scott’s latest is a biblical epic. He gives Iain Blair the gospel on his ad direction training, embracing-not-abusing the latest tech and his place in a more creative and cosmopolitan new Hollywood

The colossal grandeur of ancient Egypt. The bloody battlefields of the Crusades. A mysterious alien world in deep space, hundreds of years in the future. The gore and glory of imperial Rome and the spectacle of its doomed gladiators. 1984 and Big Brother. The pastoral glow of vineyards in southern France. The nightmarish vision of a dystopian Los Angeles and its rogue replicants.

These are just a few of the worlds that Ridley Scott has brought to life over the past five decades since making his feature debut with The Duellists in 1977. The influential advertising director – his inspired 1984 campaign which launched the Apple Mac still resonates – became one of the supreme stylists of contemporary cinema, as such oft-imitated, seminal works as Blade Runner, Alien, and Thelma And Louise make abundantly clear.

Of all his contemporaries still working today, Scott alone seems to be equally at ease creating vast landscapes set in both the distant past and distant future, in the process channelling David Lean, Cecil B DeMille and James Cameron and demonstrating his own prodigious gifts as an epic storyteller and visual artist. “I love the challenge of creating these new worlds, doing all the research, coming up with the look,” says Scott.

The three-time Oscar nominated director has now turned his attention to the world of the Old Testament prophet Moses, in Exodus: Gods And Kings. Based on the Bible’s Book of Exodus, the film stars Christian Bale as Moses, backed by a stellar cast including Ben Kingsley and Sigourney Weaver. It also features plagues of frogs and flies and enough visual effects to keep a small army of artists and designers busy for years. Oh and there’s a little scene where Scott gets to part the Red Sea.

So it’s perhaps an understatement when Scott admits the film “was very ambitious” in terms of recreating a world we know so little about, that existed thousands of years ago. “But then I feel I’m so experienced, I know exactly what I’m taking on board. And part of the thrill of it was to try and recreate this universe that’s set around 5,000 BC. That’s the big challenge.”

On reading the first draft of the script, Scott realised he actually knew very little about the Moses story, but the characters themselves, as well as the challenge of trying to recreate a realistic version of Ancient Egypt on screen, really appealed to the veteran director.

And there were plenty of challenges on the shoot on location in Spain, and back in the studio in Pinewood in the UK. The stunning landscapes of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands were used to stand in for Egypt, and sets were constructed in palm-tree lined valleys in Almeria, Spain.

“The really massive challenge was getting up this almost kilometre-long set, in Almeria, in time to start shooting,” Scott recalls. “We were delayed and suddenly had just 12 weeks to get it done, which is insane when you haven’t even broken ground yet! Dealing with all that was the big challenge – getting it up and running.”

To 3D or not to 3D?

The bloom may be off the 3D rose these days, but Scott “immediately” decided to go 3D for Exodus. “I thought it was natural for 3D,” he reports.

“We used the 3ality Technica rigs and RED Epic Dragons. I’d had some experience with Prometheus and IMAX 3D and I’d worked a lot with [DP] Dariusz Wolski [who shot Scott’s upcoming film The Martian]. He’s a brilliant cinematographer who really understands 3D very well, having done all the Pirates Of The Caribbean films. And I know exactly what I want visually, so it’s a good match.”

Thanks in part to his career in advertising – “where you get to experiment a lot and try stuff out” – Scott has always embraced the latest technology and effects. Just as he immediately decided to go 3D, he also “immediately” began to integrate all the VFX – “there’s around 1,500 shots, I believe” – with the physical production. “I always do,” he explains. “I edit as we go, which makes life a lot easier. Peter Chiang [Double Negative’s visual effects supervisor] is always there on set while I’m shooting, and we’d talk every night, about what effects we needed where and what we expected.”

Born in 1937 in South Shields, Scott exhibited an innate talent for drawing and the visual arts early on. He attended the Royal College of Art in London, with fellow northerner David Hockney and his training there and his work in advertising have always informed his approach: “I learnt to do my own boards early on and I still do a lot of it. I start well before we begin.” Doing the boards himself, Scott explains, means they’re extremely accurate and can be treated like the Bible.

But for Exodus, the storyboard bible had to contend with the real thing. Scott, who calls himself an atheist, approached the parting of the Red Sea with intense realism. “There have been so many magical movies the last 15 years. If I see one more talking tree I’m going to leap off a building. So I couldn’t have anything like that, or clouds talking with God’s voice. I have to approach it realistically. We’re dealing with a man who’s initially an atheist, who gradually and reluctantly edges towards being an agnostic. It takes a very long time and a lot of events before he starts to question whether these events are controlled or just nature. My approach is, it’s always real and natural.”

Pulling it off “was very difficult. Just by boarding it, you start to think about all the visual details.” Attention to visual detail has always been a driving force for Scott, and he makes no apologies for being “very hands-on” whether shooting a commercial or a big-budget epic. “With DPs I’m involved in everything from stocks to lens choices and lining up a shot,” he stresses. “I was a camera operator, and I can’t separate myself from that, and I still like to operate.”

Scott is a loyal collaborator and likes to work with the same DPs when he can. John Mathieson shot Kingdom Of Heaven and Gladiator for him: “John’s got a great eye for the big stuff, but then he also did Matchstick Men which is a far more intimate film and look,” he notes. Hugh Johnson, who shot G.I. Jane and White Squall was second unit DP on 1492 and assistant cameraman on The Duellists. He also worked on The Hunger with Ridley’s late brother Tony. “We’ve had a very long association. Hughie’s also an operator, and I like that in a DP because all the magic happens through the viewfinder. I try and operate wherever I can. If I do a small comedy with just two cameras, I’ll definitely climb back on.” 

Learning the trade on the job

How does the director, who turned 77 in November, feel his shooting style has evolved over the years? “Not a lot,” he says. “I was 39 when I first started directing movies, and my only regret today is that I didn’t start sooner. I arrived with no formal training, other than art direction in TV and 16 years of advertising and commercials.”

Scott, who founded his highly successful commercial company RSA with brother Tony back in 1968 (it has offices in London, NYC, LA and Hong Kong), looks back on his commercial career as a crucial part of his preparation for moving into features. “I must have done over 2,000 spots, about 100 a year, and that was film school for me where I learned to light and operate fast, and shoot in every possible set and location.” He shot his famous 1974 spot Bike Round for Hovis in Shaftesbury, Dorset.

“[Commercials] are a great arena for experimenting and making you really refine your ideas, as you have to tell the story effectively in so little time. It’s a good exercise in discipline. That was so valuable as training.”

His ad experience taught Scott how to maximise coverage with limited resources. “I’d use just one camera back on films like The Duellists because that’s all we could afford – one Arri and a backup body,” he recalls. “It was a very beautiful film. I got beaten up because of that. But that’s what I feel I bring to all my films, a certain kind of visual beauty, so I shouldn’t be ashamed of it.

“Alien was one camera. Blade Runner was one camera, and the DP Jordan Cronenweth was a total classicist. The structure was very classical and he’s one of the greatest DPs I’ve ever worked with. I began to shift to two cameras on Legend and then I realised it made great sense, especially when you do a movie with a lot of dialogue – a great way to capture those magic moments between actors.

“By the time I did Black Hawk Down I knew I had to change gear to get that documentary look, and so we used 11 cameras simultaneously. That makes editing a nightmare, of course, but then you have all the material.” 

Back to the future of sci-fi

Looking back at such pioneering films as Alien and Blade Runner Scott notes that he “got in fairly early in the genre and to me at least there hadn’t been many really good science fiction films then. There was 2001 which to me was the threshold. Before that there were a few I liked, but they were always a bit wobbly on the effects, and I could never get past the lack of reality. It has to be real, and that was the stunning achievement of 2001, which is probably still one of the best ever made.

“Then Star Wars gave me a jolt and woke me up. I loved Close Encounters, which I still think is one of the best things Spielberg ever made. Alien was my dark side of the moon answer to his optimism. Then I wanted to explore urban sci-fi with Blade Runner, and that still works because I didn’t go too far into the future. Setting it just around the corner is a lot scarier and more powerful.”

Blade Runner, which turned out to be a hugely influential sci-fi classic, with its nightmarish vision of a future-shocked LA, was initially panned and failed to recoup its $30m budget. “I got such a thrashing that I thought I’d really screwed up, although in the making of it and editing I knew I’d made a good movie,” says Scott. “Looking back, I feel that at that moment in time, the movie was too dark and the visual information was too dense. But then after seven or eight years, I noticed that it started to leak into other movies and into music videos. I’d see the use of rain or some other image and recognise it. Now I’m amused by it.”

Alien was his “first real introduction to Hollywood” when he was pointedly “never asked” to direct the sequel. “I thought I’d done quite well and I’d have definitely done ‘Alien 2’. But to be fair, there was a huge management turnover at Fox, and often new people don’t want to deal with old business for political reasons, so it sat dormant for 10 years before Jim Cameron came in. And with Alien and Blade Runner I did sort of feel I’d used up that palette. I’m very eclectic and I don’t want to keep repeating myself or the same themes. But I’ll definitely do more science fiction.”

Indeed, like the Bible and ancient history, sci-fi – despite the box-office disappointment of Prometheus – continues to exert its strong gravitational pull on the director. He’s currently posting The Martian, which he shot in Budapest with Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain at the end of 2014 and which he describes as “a sort of Robinson Crusoe survival story, set in space, five years in the future. And as we just landed on a comet for the first time, reality seems to be catching up more and more with fiction now. Technically, everything that happens in the film is doable now. Dariusz [Wolski, cinematographer] shot it 3D, and as usual we started cutting after just the first week’s shoot. Thanks to digital, everything’s so much faster now, and I love it.”

The digital revolution has been “by far” the biggest change Scott has seen since he started. “It’s huge, like the advent of sound in silent film. And as technology changes, then things become, not so much easier, you have more options – but you’ve got to be careful you don’t overuse and abuse it. CGI’s a tool. I don’t think it’s an end in itself, and I think you can get films that are just driven by tricks and visual effects. My films try to be driven by material and characters.”

The man without a plan

What other changes has the director witnessed? “LA’s become a far more cosmopolitan city than when I first came here,” he notes. “Now you can add great restaurants and great creative energy to the great weather. And the advertising scene has really grown here over the past decade or two. You have a ton of really creative agencies and companies now.”

As for Hollywood, the director pronounces it to be “pretty healthy, although the number of huge projects is getting smaller and smaller – just like the screens. And that’s a pity. We need some big venues for playing big movies, because I feel you always enjoy a big film far more at a theatre than at home – no matter how good the technology is.”

Looking to the future, Scott, who was knighted by the Queen in 2003, shows no signs of slowing down. “People ask me, ‘What’s your plan?’ and the answer is, ‘I have no plan,’” he says. “I want to just keep working as hard as I can for as long as I can.”

He’s not kidding. In fact he seems to be speeding up. In an age when most A-list directors seem to work at a glacial pace, it’s telling to note that 12 of Scott’s total of 22 feature films have been made since 2000 – an output almost rivalling that of one-movie-a-year Woody Allen (and Scott’s features have many more intricate moving parts).

Scott’s parting advice to young directors starting out could easily double as his own continuing mission statement: “You’ve got to have your own vision and take no prisoners. You have to hold out for that vision or you’re lost.”