Napoleon - Ridley Scott's film with Joaquin Phoenix

[KiramidHead]

Just really sweet hats, if The Duellists is anything to go by.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

[nanison]

I don't understand what he is trying to say. So he says Waterloo is boring because it is all centered on one battle? But he loves the film Zulu which takes the same approach, right... Does this mean that he will film several Napoleonic battles (making it repetitive and confusing) or is he saying he won't film any battles at all and concentrate on Napoleons' love life?

If he says Kubricks version wanted to do it all making it too big and he (Ridley Scott) finds attention on one battle boring then it surely means he won't have any battles scenes at all, instead he will focus on Napoleons formative years and later his love life.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

I'm sure there will be plenty of battles. There's a casting call for lots of military extras on the previous page. I think what he means to say is that he's trying to find a balance. It's not going to be one battle and nothing else, and it's not going to include every little detail from Napoleon's life either. There's going to be battles and there is going to be romance. It's about trying to catch the essence of the man.

[nanison]

The battles should be easy enough go film, just produce a lot of smoke from the gun and canon shot rounds and done ;-)
Those battles apparently were smokey as hell

[Ingwar]

Scott is Smoke Grandmaster.

[Local Trouble]

Anyone else notice how Ridley loves to show airborne particulates in his movies?  Here's an example:

He did in Gladiator and Legend too.

[Ingwar]

Love that scene in KoH. Sudden snow in Gladiator during battle in Germania was pure coincidence. It simply started snowing during the shooting.

[Local Trouble]

But there was no snow in this scene from Legend.

[Ingwar]

It pollen flower. Anyway, it looks good. Scott loves movements on the screen.

[Local Trouble]

I don't think it's bad thing, just that it seems to be a signature staple of Ridley's cinematography.

[Ingwar]

He mentioned that - I might be wrong - Kurosawa inspired him when it comes to the movement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doaQC-S8de8&ab_channel=EveryFrameaPainting

Regarding battle in Germania. It's funny how John Mathieson talks about it: "when you look at the sequence is all over the place"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_AWNqT9l_Y&ab_channel=CookeOpticsTV

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Anyone else notice how Ridley loves to show airborne particulates in his movies?  Here's an example:

Yeah, the smoke and rain in Blade Runner was to disguise the fact that they were shooting on a backlot. The "pollen" and "snow" (very fine polystyrene) in Legend probably to help disguise the fact that everything was shot inside a soundstage. Even had huge fans blowing to simulate wind. The floating bubbles was used to indicate when "fairy magic" was at work. Both the polystyrene snow and bubbles effect can also be seen in Blade Runner during the Zhora shooting scene.

The "snow" in that Kingdom of Heaven clip you posted was actually ash particles produced from "sfx snow candles". The same technique was used again in The Last Duel.

The smoke also helps create depth by separating foreground and background elements and creates atmosphere. In Alien, Prometheus and The Martian storm sequences they also used lots of particles to show the force of the storm.

[nanison]

Legend is Ridley Scotts most beautiful looking film. It is the pinnacle of set building.

[Ingwar]