A.

2 Case study of Pre-

Production documentation:
Gladiator
George Heaney
 Gladiator is a film made in 2000 about a former Roman General who is set out for vengeance after his
whole family is murdered and he is sent into slavery by the corrupt emperor ruling the Roman Empire.
The film was directed by Ridley Scott .The film had a budget of $103,000,000 which was one of the
largest amounts of money spent on a film at the time(2000). The film grossed $460,500,000 in the box
office, making the investment pay off. The film may have done this well because there was no other film
on the market which portrayed the Roman Empire, showing off the revenge of the former general and
how he fights for his life. The budget for the movie was so high due to that fact that they used multiple
different locations in different countries making their travelling cost high and that they made/used
realistic props and structure, they also used a lot of special effects in the movie it recreate certain
characters and make the colosseum higher so it would look like the one in Rome. Another high budget
film made in 2000 was Cast Away which cost an estimate $90,000,000 while grossing $429,632,142 in
the box office. The film starred Tom Hanks which may have added to its success due to the fact that he's
a well known actor.
 The props and outfits where designed to have looked like they were from the Roman Empire era and
they made one hundred suits of steel armour and 550 suits in polyurethane, over a three-month period,
27,500 component pieces of armour were made by them. The props and outfits where made and
developed by Philip McDonald(props) and Janty Yates(Costume design), due to the high costs and
unavailability of items. Before making the props for Gladiator, Philip McDonald had worked on the Film
The Ghost and the Darkness(1996) and Janty Yates is more know recently for working on the 2015 “The
Pre-production
Martian” costumes as well as the 2010 “Robin Hood”. Hiring these two people for props and costumes
made the film a success because they gave the film a sense for realism as the actors weren't wearing
fake armour pieces made out of plastic, making the film more engaging for the audience. $1,000,000 of
requirements
their budget went towards building a replica colosseum which was made from plywood and plaster,
taking several months to build and was 1/3 of the size of the actual colosseum which was about 52 feet
tall with the other 2/3 being added in digitally. The large colosseum was an important prop to the films
success as it was used throughout the whole film in all of the fighting scenes where Maximus has to
defend himself against other Gladiators and animals, a key scene where its used is where Maximus is
fighting the retired gladiator while there are tigers all around the arena.
 Special effects where used throughout the making of the film, an example of this is seen in the retired
gladiator scene where there are 5 live tigers released into the arena on large metal chains held back by
four people where the two champions are fighting to the death. And the arena was made to look larger
than it was recorded in. British post-production company The Mill was responsible for much of the
computer-generated imagery effects that were added after filming. The company was responsible for
such tricks as compositing real tigers filmed on bluescreen into the fight sequences, and adding smoke
trails and extending the flight paths of the opening scene's salvo of flaming arrows to get around
regulations on how far they could be shot during filming. The Mills has also edited visual effects for the
BBC on show like Doctor Who and Merlin which where nominated for 16 awards between 2001-2013,
winning 4 of them for Best Visual Effects. The Mills was so important for the success of Doctor Who and
may have made them a good candidate for the special effects for the film because Doctor Who is a very
special effects focused TV series where the main character has to fight against alien from space to save
the world so they have to add in these creatures through special effects to make the show more
realistic. The tiger scene made the film more successful because it adds to the tension while they're
fighting in the arena as Maximus has more threats that he needs defend himself against as we see him
stab and kill one of them as he turns round to it jumping on to him while his opponent watches.
 One of the ways that help most was storyboarding, this helped them as
it showed them exactly what the scene should look like, shot by shot,
when they went to record it and whether they needed to make any
changes. The storyboard helps the director shoot the scenes with ease
and quicker as they have what they want it to look like in front of them
and the longer it take the more money it will take out of the budget. A
storyboard is a sequence of drawing used to represent the scenes in a
film that the director can use for some direction on how they want to
record a scene. Before starting production for the film, they spent
several months planning and drawing out storyboards, so that they
could plan exactly how they wanted the film to look through the
directors eyes, giving the audience the best possible experience. The
storyboard made the film more successful as the direct can get his exact
vision of how he wanted the film to look like so that it can be portrayed
to the audience it the best way possible for the best viewing experience. Storyboard
 The storyboards in the film were drawn by Sylvain Despretz who had
previously draw storyboards for Alien Resurrection, Don't Tell Mom the
Babysitter's Dead and more recently TRON: Legacy. Sylvian devised
some most of the scenes in the film where Maximus was fighting in the
arena to keep a tight frame where they'd only keep in frame the part of
the arena in which they had built so that no CGI was needed to add in
the extension as well as saving money on the budget. They may have
chosen to hire Sylvain to draw the storyboard for this movies because of
how he choses to use pencils and brushes to draw the storyboards over
the aid of a computer and how he tries to keep the amount of CGI for
certain scenes as low as possible.
 Creating a storyboard saved time because it gives the director and the
cameramen how the scene should look while they're recording it, so
that the directors idea can come to life
  Risk Assessment: They had to conduct multiple risk assessments before recording the film. One of the
largest risks in the making of the film was there were live tigers that where used in the scene where
maximus is fighting the retired gladiator, the risk of this is that the tigers could lash out on the actors and
try to kill them. Because of this they kept the tigers at least 15 feet away from anyone, had multiple vets on
set with tranquilisers to knock them out and recorded some of the tigers using blue screens so that they
can be edited into the scene later. Another risk is that the actors where wearing metal armour in the heat
which could make them over heat and used replica weapons which could hurt other actors if hit hard
enough, due to this risk they had large breaks where the actors were able to cool down and the weapons
used where blunt so no damage could be dealt without a large amount of force used and they were taught
how to used the props safely by professionals. A risk assessment is a process of evaluating potential risk of
danger that may cause harm to anyone. The risk assessment made the film a success because it kept
everyone safe in the process of recording so that nobody was injured/killed which could have possibly
cause law suits, increasing the budget or stopping the film as a whole.
 Location Reece: it took them 6 weeks to scout multiple different locations to film the movie in with the full
extent of the Roman Empire before its collapse with countries including Italy, France, North Africa, and
England. The Gladiator was filmed in many different locations in many different countries which included

Different pre- Surrey(England), Malta, Italy, Morocco and California(USA). These locations where chosen to create the
same scenery as ancient Rome had. A location reece is a pre-filming visit to a location which is to
determine whether they want to set a scene there and it’s a good location or not. The locations used in the
film made it more success as it added to the realism and emersion of how the ancient Rome would have
production looked like. The Opening battle scenes in the film where recorded at Bourne Woods (Surrey, England) this
location may have been chosen because there is a heathland provides views over the surrounding
woodland which was made perfectly for the film.

resources  Scripts & Drafts: The scripts and drafts was made by David Franzoni for the actors and director, so the
director knows how they want to shoot a scene and the actors so they know what to say. The drafts for the
script are used to show the director and cast to see whether they need or make any changes or
adjustments. An example of an adjustment made in the gladiator script is when Oliver Reed died during
recording to a heart attack so they had to get a new actor to play his character and CGI his face on to the
double, costing them $3.2 million for 2 minutes of additional footage where his face was CGI’d over the
other actors face. Two weeks before filming, the actors complained about problems with the script as they
wanted the main character(Maximus) to be more sensitive which caused the writers to make adjustments
to the character to make everyone happy with the storyline. Before writing story for Gladiator David
Franzoni wrote the film Amistad(1997), directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by DreamWorks, which
was his first big film.
 Music: A score was created for the movie by Hans Zimmer who also made the scores for some of the
Batman movies, which is a song made especially for that movie. The score for the movie is heroic and
uplifting for the audience to listen to, which make the main character look more heroic and get the
audience behind him, showing him in a positive manor as has made to fight for his life. The music makes
the film more successful as it engages the audience into the scene as its dramatic. Before creating the score
music for Gladiator Hans Zimmer had also created scores for multiple other Hollywood film like Rain
Man(1988) directed by Barry Levinson which he was nominated an award for and Thelma & Louise(1991)
directed by Ridley Scott. Another score that Hans is know for is the music used in Call of Duty: Modern
Warfare 2, which was his first video game project.
 Director: The director for this film was Ridley Scott who is also know for directing Alien(1979),
Blade Runner(1982) and more recently The Martian(2015), Blade Runner and Alien both seem
to be of Ridley’s only successfully grossing movie up until Gladiator as most of them Grossed
less than the budget. Over his 55 year career Ridley Scott has won over 13 different for the
films he's directed/produced. Ridley was the perfect candidate for the production of this film
because of his previous success in the science-fiction film “Alien” and “Blade Runner” which
were his biggest successes at the time, Ridley had also directed multiple large advertisement
including the Apple Macintosh computer which aired during the Super Bowl, Further
establishing his name as a director in the industry. This may have affected the budget because
Ridley had just started to become a high profile director meaning his price was rising after
every success he had gained. This may have made the film a success because he may have
gained a following of people who liked his work where a presold audience can come in and
how he depicts certain characters.
 Equipment in the Film: The cameras that were used to create this film were the Aaton 35-III,
Arriflex 35-III, Panavision Panaflex Gold II and Panavision Panaflex Platinum, they may have
used the Panaflex Gold II as its frame rate can be changes between 4-36 fps for different type
of scenes like slow-motion or fast-paces scene for example a fighting scene in Gladiator where
the character are moving quickly. The lenses used to film where Panavision Primo Lenses. They
may have used these lenses on all the cameras because they can be used to create different
types of shots. The cameras used can cost upwards of $120,000 and the lenses can cost
$500,000 for a full set of 6 different lenses. The cameras made the film a success because as
these camera have also been used in multiple other large budget film due to their filming
quality and their ability to change the frame rate for different types of scenes which add to the
viewing experience.
 Actors: The main character in the film (Maximus) was played by Russell Crowe who had
previously been in the film L.A. Confidential(1997) starring as one of the main character (Bud
White). Another of the main characters (Commodus) was played by Joaquin Phoenix who had
previously starred in multiple high grossing films like “8mm”, “Parenthood” and “Russkies” but
he more recently known for starring in the film Joker where he played Arthur Fleck. Oliver
Reed had also starred in the film playing as Proximo, he had previously starred in the film
Oliver! Where he played Bill Sikes. Sadly during recording of the Gladiator Oliver Reed passed
away due to a heart attack in 1999 on the Malta set in Valletta. The film is made better as the
main actors have experience with large film where some of their fans may follow them,
bringing a presold audience where the film company can make a profit.
 Transportation: The transportation company used to move their equipment was Scott Free
Productions(makers of the film), they had their own department to help move across country,
saving money on the budget. The department was made up of 17 people with Hamid Araissi
being the transportation manager. The transportation company was essential because they
would have had to buy/rent new equipment at every location, which would have made the
costs higher. This made the film a success because they where able to use the same equipment
for the making of the film as a whole, so that no defected equipment is used costing them
time.
 The pre-production helped with the success of the movie as
the company has to make a profit or there is no point in
spending the large amounts of money in which they did.
 Pre-production helped the film become a big success as the
movie needed to have all the main work such as the scripts,
characters and special effects/stunts used in the film. This
helped production be quick and efficiently as the storyboards
that they created for each scene could be used to set out
each scene so that its perfect and the scripts can be handed
out to the actor starring in the film so that they know exactly How pre-production
what they have to do and say. The creating of all the cgi is
made before the film is finished so that they can edit it into helped
the shot so that the scene comes alive. The pre production
resources mainly make creating the whole movie easier, as
they can see how every thing should be done before it is
made. This means if anything needs to be changed
throughout the production it can be done without effecting
the budget and time.
 Pre-production helped in the making of the film as they had
to assess the risk at which the actors and cast are in during
the recording of the film and they need to know how to
reduce the risk or completely eliminate them fully.