“Gladiator” is by far one of the most successful films to create visual effects of the time using advanced technology and plenty of hard work. Coliseum at that time had a spectacular view and was a battle arena for gladiators and by building part of it from from mud and brick in Malta, the filmmakers were able to portray the whole arena using video effects computer technology. The inspiration of the scenes comes from a painting by Jean-Leon Gerome which was the base to create the velarium and lighting effects. These two were important to persuade the viewers that the spirit of the time was portrayed realistically.
In fact, a samll model of Coliseum was constructed by artists at Max’s department and all the effects were tested on stage. The light and sound effects were successful and the digital parts of the building matched the constructed model. Another special effect was spectators. Filmmakers decided to employ about 2000 extras to fill 4000 seats by spacing them in every second seat, but in some parts of the film all seats needed to be full of Romans dressed in their traditional regalia.
Another CG effect was the moment when the camera displayed the main hero and other gladiators by circumnavigating around them. At this moment 360 view of Coliseum was shown full of spectators each gesticulating and waving hands. This was achieved by generating 70,000 CG performers and this effect lasted almost half a minute.
Filmmakers also created CG tigers and shots of arrows in several scenes. However, one of the other challenges was the death of one of the actors, Oliver Reed, who played the role of Proximo. His death occurred before all of his scenes had been shot, so The Mill needed to create a digital double for this character and around 2 minutes of this film was shot using digital mask of the actor’s face.