WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.280 Imagine you have exactly 60 seconds. Right. And 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:07.580 less than a million dollars to convince the entire 00:00:07.580 --> 00:00:10.160 world that a new personal computer is going to 00:00:10.160 --> 00:00:13.039 save them from like a dystopian mind -controlling 00:00:13.039 --> 00:00:15.560 nightmare. Which is a tall order. It's a massive 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:18.140 order. So how do you pull that off? Well, if 00:00:18.140 --> 00:00:20.719 you're the director we're looking at today, you 00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:24.059 don't write a long impassioned speech. No, definitely 00:00:24.059 --> 00:00:27.480 not. You build a terrifying gray monolithic world. 00:00:28.059 --> 00:00:30.960 You hand an athlete a sledgehammer. And you just 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:33.079 let the visuals do the talking. Cool. You basically 00:00:33.079 --> 00:00:35.179 bypass the intellect entirely and go straight 00:00:35.179 --> 00:00:37.000 for the nervous system. Yes. I mean, the lighting, 00:00:37.140 --> 00:00:40.299 the shadows, the sheer scale of the space. Yes. 00:00:40.420 --> 00:00:42.520 It all tells the story before anyone even opens 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:45.259 their mouth. And that is the absolute core of 00:00:45.259 --> 00:00:48.060 our deep dive today. We are exploring the life, 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:51.799 the wildly varied career, and the massive cultural 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:54.399 legacy of filmmaker Sir Ridley Scott. It's such 00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:57.119 a fascinating journey. It really is. We're pulling 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:00.439 from a comprehensive Wikipedia biography and 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:05.019 filmography to decode how a boy from a British 00:01:05.019 --> 00:01:07.560 military family took his art school training 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:10.480 in a stint making television commercials and 00:01:10.480 --> 00:01:13.239 used them to literally redesign our cinematic 00:01:13.239 --> 00:01:15.540 imagination. Because we really are looking at 00:01:15.540 --> 00:01:18.319 a visual vocabulary that covers an incredibly 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:20.459 wide spectrum. Oh, yeah. I mean, he has given 00:01:20.459 --> 00:01:23.780 us the dusty, blood -soaked arenas as ancient 00:01:23.780 --> 00:01:26.500 Rome and gladiator. Classic. And he's also given 00:01:26.500 --> 00:01:30.159 us the grinding, neon -soaked, flying car future 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:32.680 of Blade Runner. So to everyone listening, I 00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:34.659 want you to think of his filmography not just 00:01:34.659 --> 00:01:37.219 as a list of movies, right? Think of it as a 00:01:37.219 --> 00:01:39.700 meticulously curated art gallery. That's a great 00:01:39.700 --> 00:01:41.939 way to put it. Every single frame is structured 00:01:41.939 --> 00:01:44.420 like a classic painting. But the brilliant part 00:01:44.420 --> 00:01:47.540 is that the human characters actually pop. They 00:01:47.540 --> 00:01:49.340 are never drowned out by the paint. Right, the 00:01:49.340 --> 00:01:51.840 humanity is always there. Exactly. And for you 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:54.260 listening... Whether you are picking a movie 00:01:54.260 --> 00:01:56.799 for this weekend or maybe you're fascinated by 00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:01.180 how creative leaders manage massive teams, understanding 00:02:01.180 --> 00:02:04.180 Ridley Scott's methodology is like getting the 00:02:04.180 --> 00:02:07.980 cheat code to visual media. Oh, 100%. It reveals 00:02:07.980 --> 00:02:10.879 exactly how the images you consume every single 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:14.340 day. are engineered to manipulate your emotions. 00:02:14.580 --> 00:02:17.520 And to understand how he engineers those sweeping, 00:02:18.439 --> 00:02:21.500 sometimes incredibly ominous worlds on screen, 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:24.879 we really have to trace his eye back to its origin. 00:02:25.099 --> 00:02:26.960 We have to look at the real world landscapes 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:29.259 and the actual figures that shaped his worldview 00:02:29.259 --> 00:02:32.509 during his youth. So he's born in 1937. in South 00:02:32.509 --> 00:02:34.490 Shields, England. Right, in the shadow of the 00:02:34.490 --> 00:02:37.330 Second World War. Exactly. He grows up in a military 00:02:37.330 --> 00:02:39.629 family. His father is an officer in the Royal 00:02:39.629 --> 00:02:42.050 Engineers and is constantly away on deployment. 00:02:42.069 --> 00:02:44.270 Right. And that leaves his mother, Elizabeth, 00:02:44.669 --> 00:02:46.650 essentially running the Household Command Center. 00:02:46.810 --> 00:02:49.050 And Scott has been very vocal about this dynamic. 00:02:49.210 --> 00:02:50.870 I mean, his mother laid down the law and the 00:02:50.870 --> 00:02:53.210 law was absolute. She was the general at home. 00:02:53.569 --> 00:02:56.530 Exactly. She was formidable, practical and tough. 00:02:57.129 --> 00:03:00.990 He openly credits her as his very first female 00:03:00.990 --> 00:03:03.830 role model, which and this is a vital piece of 00:03:03.830 --> 00:03:05.909 the puzzle. This isn't just a random bit of trivia 00:03:05.909 --> 00:03:08.569 from a biography. Right. It is the direct spark 00:03:08.569 --> 00:03:11.009 for his lifelong commitment to anchoring his 00:03:11.009 --> 00:03:14.520 films with incredibly capable, resilient. female 00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:16.800 characters. Which we will definitely see redefined 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:18.879 science fiction later on. Oh, absolutely. But 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:21.800 the other major imprint from his youth wasn't 00:03:21.800 --> 00:03:24.340 a person at all. It was industrial infrastructure. 00:03:24.539 --> 00:03:27.439 Yeah, the landscapes. Right. After the war, his 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:30.199 family moves to the Teesside area and he attends 00:03:30.199 --> 00:03:33.599 art college in West Hartlepool. And every single 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:36.280 day, his commute takes him past these massive, 00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:38.800 sprawling industrial steelworks. And, you know, 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:41.300 most people look at a 1950s British steel mill 00:03:41.300 --> 00:03:43.360 and they just see pollution. This is gray smoke 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:45.680 and rust. Right. They see towering smokestacks, 00:03:45.939 --> 00:03:48.659 bleak metal, grimes. But Scott looked at those 00:03:48.659 --> 00:03:51.319 exact same structures, especially at night when 00:03:51.319 --> 00:03:53.599 the blast furnaces were lighting up the dark, 00:03:53.740 --> 00:03:56.840 ominous sky. Oh, wow. And he saw absolute majesty. 00:03:57.360 --> 00:03:59.960 He found a strange, terrifying beauty in the 00:03:59.960 --> 00:04:03.520 industrial darkness. because he actually cites 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:08.139 those very steelworks as the direct visual blueprint 00:04:08.139 --> 00:04:10.599 for the futuristic Los Angeles we see in Blade 00:04:10.599 --> 00:04:13.219 Runner. Like a mid -century British steel mill 00:04:13.219 --> 00:04:16.139 is literally the foundational DNA for modern 00:04:16.139 --> 00:04:18.560 cyberpunk sci -fi. It's incredible. And he takes 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:21.800 that fascination with physical structures to 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:24.540 the Royal College of Art in London. Right. He 00:04:24.540 --> 00:04:26.980 has this very telling quote about his time there. 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:30.079 He notes that he uses everything he learned every 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:32.720 day at art school, and he boils his entire process 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:36.000 down to just white sheets of paper, pens, and 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:38.579 drawing. OK, let's push on that traditional definition 00:04:38.579 --> 00:04:40.439 of a film director for a moment. Because people 00:04:40.439 --> 00:04:43.189 usually describe directors as Writers with a 00:04:43.189 --> 00:04:45.089 camera right someone who just shoots the dial 00:04:45.089 --> 00:04:47.069 exactly someone who takes a script and figures 00:04:47.069 --> 00:04:49.569 out how to film people talking Yeah, but looking 00:04:49.569 --> 00:04:52.110 at his background. It feels much more accurate 00:04:52.110 --> 00:04:55.449 to describe Scott as like an industrial architect 00:04:55.449 --> 00:04:57.449 Oh, I like that someone who doesn't start with 00:04:57.449 --> 00:05:00.089 the spoken word at all But begins by physically 00:05:00.089 --> 00:05:02.050 drafting the universe that the characters are 00:05:02.050 --> 00:05:04.470 gonna be trapped inside Framing him as an architect 00:05:04.470 --> 00:05:07.810 really explains his specific, highly unusual 00:05:07.810 --> 00:05:10.410 methodology. I mean, Scott claims to possess 00:05:10.410 --> 00:05:13.689 an eidetic memory, a photographic memory. Which 00:05:13.689 --> 00:05:16.209 sounds like a superpower. It basically is. He 00:05:16.209 --> 00:05:19.110 isn't arriving on a movie set with a script in 00:05:19.110 --> 00:05:20.930 hand trying to figure out where to place the 00:05:20.930 --> 00:05:24.290 actors and the camera on the fly. Right. He pre 00:05:24.290 --> 00:05:27.910 -visualizes and extensively storyboards every 00:05:27.910 --> 00:05:30.730 single shot, every lighting angle, every shadow 00:05:30.730 --> 00:05:34.189 before the cameras are even unpacked. He is literally 00:05:34.189 --> 00:05:36.569 drafting the reality of the film on those white 00:05:36.569 --> 00:05:38.850 sheets of paper. So he drafts the entire building 00:05:38.850 --> 00:05:41.170 before he even invites the actors to walk through 00:05:41.170 --> 00:05:43.290 the front door. Exactly. And because he approaches 00:05:43.290 --> 00:05:45.790 film as a world builder, his next career move 00:05:45.790 --> 00:05:48.509 is actually perfectly logical. He doesn't go 00:05:48.509 --> 00:05:50.329 straight to Hollywood to make two -hour features. 00:05:50.629 --> 00:05:52.730 No, he takes a detour. Right, he goes into tell 00:05:52.730 --> 00:05:55.100 - television set design at the BBC, and then 00:05:55.100 --> 00:05:57.120 he starts directing commercials. Which is huge. 00:05:57.560 --> 00:06:00.420 In 1968, he teams up with his brother Tony, who, 00:06:00.420 --> 00:06:03.399 you know, also becomes a legendary blockbuster 00:06:03.399 --> 00:06:05.480 driver. Oh yeah, Top Gun. Right, so they form 00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:08.959 Ridley Scott Associates, known as RSA, and directing 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:11.079 commercials was essentially a master class in 00:06:11.079 --> 00:06:13.040 extreme limitation. Because you have no time. 00:06:13.259 --> 00:06:16.220 Exactly. You have to build a highly concentrated, 00:06:16.759 --> 00:06:19.839 emotionally resonant world in just 60 seconds. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:22.519 And he wasn't just churning out like standard 00:06:22.519 --> 00:06:25.879 soap advertisements either. Take his 1973 ad 00:06:25.879 --> 00:06:29.120 for a bread brand called Hovis. Oh, the Hovis 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:32.120 ad. So iconic. It really is. He shoots it in 00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:35.680 a picturesque, steep, cobblestone street in Dorset 00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:38.740 called Gold Hill. And visually, it's just a young 00:06:38.740 --> 00:06:41.339 boy pushing a bicycle up a massive hill, delivering 00:06:41.339 --> 00:06:43.899 bread. Pretty simple on paper. Right. But he 00:06:43.899 --> 00:06:46.100 underscores it with the slow, sweeping movement 00:06:46.100 --> 00:06:49.259 of Dvořák's New World Symphony. Yes. And he uses 00:06:49.259 --> 00:06:51.279 this golden hour lighting and the sheer exhaustion 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:54.120 of the climb to evoke such a profound sense of 00:06:54.120 --> 00:06:57.319 Nescalgia. It was so effective that in a 2006 00:06:57.319 --> 00:06:59.600 poll, it was voted the UK's favorite commercial 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:02.360 of all time. Of all time, for bread. For bread. 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:04.699 And he applies that same atmospheric intensity 00:07:04.699 --> 00:07:07.600 to luxury brands, too. I mean, in the 1970s and 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:10.420 80s, Chanel No. 5 was at risk of feeling completely 00:07:10.420 --> 00:07:13.600 mass market and, frankly, outdated. Right. So 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:15.759 Scott steps in and directs a series of highly 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:18.670 inventive mini films for them. He treats a perfume 00:07:18.670 --> 00:07:22.269 ad like surreal fantasy cinema, prioritizing 00:07:22.269 --> 00:07:24.389 seduction, mystery, and shadow. Just totally 00:07:24.389 --> 00:07:27.970 changing the vibe. Completely. He entirely reinvigorates 00:07:27.970 --> 00:07:30.009 the brand just by changing the atmosphere around 00:07:30.009 --> 00:07:33.089 it. But there is a ceiling on what you can achieve 00:07:33.089 --> 00:07:35.649 selling bread and perfume. Right here. Scott 00:07:35.649 --> 00:07:37.990 realized that if he wanted to test this visual 00:07:37.990 --> 00:07:41.009 philosophy on a massive scale, he needed a bigger 00:07:41.009 --> 00:07:45.069 canvas. Which leads directly to the 1984 Apple 00:07:45.069 --> 00:07:47.769 Macintosh Super Bowl commercial. This is a total 00:07:47.769 --> 00:07:49.750 watershed moment in the history of advertising. 00:07:49.970 --> 00:07:52.689 Oh yeah. Apple gives him an unprecedented budget 00:07:52.689 --> 00:07:55.230 for the era. Nearly a million dollars for one 00:07:55.230 --> 00:07:57.550 ad. Unheard of at the time. And he builds this 00:07:57.689 --> 00:08:00.670 chilling dystopian future modeled heavily on 00:08:00.670 --> 00:08:03.930 George Orwell's novel 1984. Right. He fills a 00:08:03.930 --> 00:08:06.189 massive auditorium with these gray drone -like 00:08:06.189 --> 00:08:09.269 men all marching in sync, staring blankly at 00:08:09.269 --> 00:08:11.949 a giant screen where a big brother figure is 00:08:11.949 --> 00:08:14.269 lecturing them. And that screen represents the 00:08:14.269 --> 00:08:17.949 conformity of IBM, basically. Exactly. And then 00:08:17.949 --> 00:08:20.709 suddenly, a vibrant English athlete, played by 00:08:20.709 --> 00:08:23.670 Anya Major, springs down the aisle wearing bright 00:08:23.670 --> 00:08:26.839 red shorts and a white Macintosh tank top. It's 00:08:26.839 --> 00:08:29.620 such a striking image. She is chased by riot 00:08:29.620 --> 00:08:33.940 police, winds up, and hurls a sledgehammer dead 00:08:33.940 --> 00:08:36.919 center into the screen, shattering it in this 00:08:36.919 --> 00:08:39.190 huge explosion of light. I mean, commercials 00:08:39.190 --> 00:08:42.009 really were his ultimate training ground. In 00:08:42.009 --> 00:08:44.889 a 60 -second ad, you physically do not have the 00:08:44.889 --> 00:08:47.190 time to let a character deliver a three -page 00:08:47.190 --> 00:08:49.470 monologue explaining their motivations. Or the 00:08:49.470 --> 00:08:51.750 history of the world, right? Exactly. You have 00:08:51.750 --> 00:08:54.190 to explain why this universe matters by relying 00:08:54.190 --> 00:08:57.509 entirely on visual shorthand. You use the silhouette 00:08:57.509 --> 00:08:59.610 of the riot police, the oppressive gray lighting 00:08:59.610 --> 00:09:01.730 of the drones, the sudden burst of red shorts. 00:09:02.309 --> 00:09:04.169 You force the audience to feel the narrative 00:09:04.169 --> 00:09:06.929 instantly. And armed with this unmatched ability 00:09:06.929 --> 00:09:09.309 to communicate massive ideas efficiently through 00:09:09.309 --> 00:09:11.909 visuals, he finally transitions into feature 00:09:11.909 --> 00:09:14.789 films. Right. And he fundamentally alters the 00:09:14.789 --> 00:09:16.950 trajectory of the science fiction genre. Oh, 00:09:16.950 --> 00:09:20.149 completely. Up until the late 1970s, cinematic 00:09:20.149 --> 00:09:23.070 sci -fi was largely defined by pristine, clean 00:09:23.070 --> 00:09:25.789 aesthetics. Think of the bright, sanitized bridges 00:09:25.789 --> 00:09:28.690 of Star Trek. Very clean, very utopian. Exactly. 00:09:29.370 --> 00:09:32.590 But Scott decides to make the future look lived 00:09:32.590 --> 00:09:36.639 in, grimy, leaking, and terrifying. And he really 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:39.399 initiates this shift with Alien in 1979. He takes 00:09:39.399 --> 00:09:42.440 a standard B -movie concept, basically a haunted 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:44.720 house story, but set in space and completely 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:47.899 grounds it. The spaceship, the Nostromo, it feels 00:09:47.899 --> 00:09:50.559 like a dirty working class trucking rig. The 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:52.519 crew complains about their bonuses. They drink 00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:55.059 bad coffee. Crucially, and this traces back to 00:09:55.059 --> 00:09:57.740 the influence of his mother, he makes a massive 00:09:57.740 --> 00:10:01.220 genre -defying narrative choice. The script originally 00:10:01.220 --> 00:10:03.899 featured a standard male action hero. Yeah, a 00:10:03.899 --> 00:10:06.700 typical leading man. Scott actively chooses to 00:10:06.700 --> 00:10:09.440 flip that gender role, casting Sigourney Weaver 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:12.440 as Ellen Ripley. And Ripley becomes an absolute 00:10:12.440 --> 00:10:15.220 cinematic icon of resilience and survival. A 00:10:15.220 --> 00:10:17.139 total legend. And you know, speaking of Alien, 00:10:17.299 --> 00:10:19.480 he also directs the infamous chest -burster scene 00:10:19.480 --> 00:10:22.350 with actor John Hurt. By keeping the actors slightly 00:10:22.350 --> 00:10:25.710 in the dark about the sheer volume of fake blood 00:10:25.710 --> 00:10:28.090 that was going to erupt on set. Which is terrifying. 00:10:28.250 --> 00:10:31.190 He captures genuine, visceral horror and shock 00:10:31.190 --> 00:10:34.330 from the cast. He proves he can master psychological 00:10:34.330 --> 00:10:36.990 tension just as well as he masters set design. 00:10:37.350 --> 00:10:39.929 And then his next film, Blade Runner in 1982, 00:10:40.750 --> 00:10:43.789 pushes his visual philosophy even further. He 00:10:43.789 --> 00:10:46.710 basically invents the cinematic look of Cyberpunk. 00:10:46.789 --> 00:10:49.070 Yeah, he sets the template. For those unfamiliar, 00:10:49.389 --> 00:10:51.970 Cyberpunk is that specific blend of high -tech 00:10:51.970 --> 00:10:55.389 futures and low -life street culture. He gives 00:10:55.389 --> 00:10:58.509 us an immersive neo -noir dystopia, constant 00:10:58.509 --> 00:11:01.570 acid rain against the windows, towering shadowy 00:11:01.570 --> 00:11:04.450 buildings lit up by massive animated neon billboards, 00:11:04.990 --> 00:11:07.289 flying police cars. All while exploring deep 00:11:07.289 --> 00:11:10.309 philosophical questions about what actually constitutes 00:11:10.309 --> 00:11:13.590 a human soul. But here's the crazy part. It is 00:11:13.590 --> 00:11:15.789 universally recognized as a masterpiece today, 00:11:15.909 --> 00:11:18.610 right? But upon its initial release, it was a 00:11:18.610 --> 00:11:20.669 commercial disappointment. A total flop. And 00:11:20.669 --> 00:11:22.669 the critical reception was notoriously divided. 00:11:23.190 --> 00:11:25.210 Pauline Kale, the legendary critic of The New 00:11:25.210 --> 00:11:27.570 Yorker, wrote this brutal review calling it a 00:11:27.570 --> 00:11:29.909 suspenseless thriller. She argued that the film 00:11:29.909 --> 00:11:32.610 was a victim of its own imaginative use of hardware 00:11:32.610 --> 00:11:35.169 and miniatures, and that Scott was so obsessed 00:11:35.169 --> 00:11:37.600 with the set design... that he completely forgot 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:40.360 to care about the story. Which is a devastating 00:11:40.360 --> 00:11:42.740 critique. He was deeply wounded by it. He actually 00:11:42.740 --> 00:11:45.440 called it four pages of destruction. Interestingly, 00:11:45.659 --> 00:11:47.980 though, he framed those pages and kept them hanging 00:11:47.980 --> 00:11:51.220 in his office for three decades. Wow. Yeah, as 00:11:51.220 --> 00:11:53.460 a daily reminder that the only critic whose opinion 00:11:53.460 --> 00:11:56.299 actually matters is your own. And he completely 00:11:56.299 --> 00:11:58.720 stopped reading reviews after that experience. 00:11:59.139 --> 00:12:00.799 But wait, let's look at Pauline Kale's review 00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:04.240 for a second. Was she completely wrong? Um, whoa. 00:12:04.759 --> 00:12:06.620 Because if you look at the original theatrical 00:12:06.620 --> 00:12:09.539 cut of Blade Runner that audiences saw in 1982, 00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:13.600 it features this incredibly clunky, monotone 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:16.419 voiceover from Harrison Ford explaining everything. 00:12:16.460 --> 00:12:19.320 Oh, it's so bad. And a bizarrely upbeat ending. 00:12:19.480 --> 00:12:21.960 So in that specific version, Scott's obsession 00:12:21.960 --> 00:12:24.360 with the visual density did kind of bury the 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:26.379 narrative, didn't it? That is a very fair critique, 00:12:26.379 --> 00:12:28.639 and it points directly to one of Scott's most 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:31.039 significant contributions to the film industry, 00:12:31.559 --> 00:12:34.970 championing the director's cut. Ah, right. Because 00:12:34.970 --> 00:12:37.950 his visual worlds were so overwhelmingly dense, 00:12:38.590 --> 00:12:41.409 studio executives often panicked. They worried 00:12:41.409 --> 00:12:44.009 audiences wouldn't understand the story just 00:12:44.009 --> 00:12:46.070 through the imagery. They didn't trust the audience. 00:12:46.309 --> 00:12:50.669 Exactly. So they interfered. They forced that 00:12:50.669 --> 00:12:54.029 voiceover onto Blade Runner to schoonfeed the 00:12:54.029 --> 00:12:56.049 plot to the audience. It's like an architect 00:12:56.049 --> 00:13:00.129 spending years designing this sleek, moody, gothic 00:13:00.129 --> 00:13:02.950 cathedral. and the studio comes in at the last 00:13:02.950 --> 00:13:05.490 minute and bolts fluorescent exit signs over 00:13:05.490 --> 00:13:07.529 all the stained glass just to make sure the audience 00:13:07.529 --> 00:13:10.029 doesn't get lost. That is exactly what happened. 00:13:10.250 --> 00:13:12.389 The version Pauline Kael reviewed wasn't the 00:13:12.389 --> 00:13:14.450 pure Ridley Scott vision. Right. But because 00:13:14.450 --> 00:13:17.149 of the rise of home video and DVD formats, Scott 00:13:17.149 --> 00:13:19.309 was eventually able to go back into the archives. 00:13:20.009 --> 00:13:23.179 In 2007, he released the final cut. a digitally 00:13:23.179 --> 00:13:25.279 restored version where he had total control. 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:27.860 Nice. He removed the studio interference, stripped 00:13:27.860 --> 00:13:30.120 out the voiceover, and finally allowed the narrative 00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:32.919 pacing to match his original atmospheric visual 00:13:32.919 --> 00:13:35.679 ambition. And that restored version is what ultimately 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:38.840 proved his genius to the world. 100%. So... Having 00:13:38.840 --> 00:13:41.620 completely mastered the claustrophobic, intense 00:13:41.620 --> 00:13:44.679 detail of deep space and rainy dystopian cities, 00:13:45.240 --> 00:13:48.480 he takes all of that highly organized storyboarded 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:50.700 energy and applies it to a completely different 00:13:50.700 --> 00:13:53.519 challenge. Right. The sprawling chaotic historical 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:57.230 epic. Yes. In the year 2000, he tackles the sword 00:13:57.230 --> 00:14:00.110 and sandal genre. Right. These were the massive 00:14:00.110 --> 00:14:02.730 cinematic spectacles of ancient Roman Greece 00:14:02.730 --> 00:14:05.789 that had largely been dead since the 1960s. And 00:14:05.789 --> 00:14:08.830 he revives the entire genre single -handedly 00:14:08.830 --> 00:14:11.799 with Gladiator. Such a massive movie. It wins 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:14.360 Best Picture, it earns Russell Crowe the Academy 00:14:14.360 --> 00:14:16.720 Award for Best Actor, and it even pushes the 00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:19.799 boundaries of early visual effects by using CGI 00:14:19.799 --> 00:14:22.360 to complete the performance of actor Oliver Reid 00:14:22.360 --> 00:14:24.740 who tragically passed away before filming finished. 00:14:24.899 --> 00:14:26.769 Which was revolutionary at the time. Yeah. And 00:14:26.769 --> 00:14:29.669 from there, Scott just unleashes his world -building 00:14:29.669 --> 00:14:32.190 on massive scales. He directs Kingdom of Heaven 00:14:32.190 --> 00:14:34.950 set during the Crusades, Robin Hood, ancient 00:14:34.950 --> 00:14:37.809 Memphis and Exodus, Gods and Kings, and his highest 00:14:37.809 --> 00:14:40.789 -grossing film to date, The Martian. Which fittingly 00:14:40.789 --> 00:14:43.370 features another highly competent female commander, 00:14:43.570 --> 00:14:45.830 played by Jessica Chastain. Bringing it all back 00:14:45.830 --> 00:14:49.169 to his mom. Exactly. But what is truly remarkable 00:14:49.169 --> 00:14:52.429 about these massive epics is understanding how 00:14:52.429 --> 00:14:54.889 he actually shoots them. Yeah, the logistics. 00:14:55.210 --> 00:14:57.919 Right. We talked about him acting as an industrial 00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:00.379 architect in pre -production, but once he steps 00:15:00.379 --> 00:15:03.120 onto the physical set, he operates like a master 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:05.570 general. much like his father commanding troops 00:15:05.570 --> 00:15:08.490 in the Royal Engineers, or even his own cinematic 00:15:08.490 --> 00:15:11.909 subject, Napoleon. Completely. He is commanding 00:15:11.909 --> 00:15:15.370 sprawling armies of crew members, stunt performers, 00:15:15.889 --> 00:15:18.929 and hundreds of extras. It's a huge operation. 00:15:19.129 --> 00:15:21.669 And his directing style is famously relentless 00:15:21.669 --> 00:15:25.429 and fast. He utilizes a minimum of three cameras 00:15:25.429 --> 00:15:28.570 simultaneously, and for complex scenes, he might 00:15:28.570 --> 00:15:31.370 run up to 11 cameras at once. 11 cameras. 11. 00:15:31.690 --> 00:15:33.649 And he rarely does more than on two or three 00:15:33.649 --> 00:15:35.990 takes. He's been quoted describing his process 00:15:35.990 --> 00:15:38.730 as simply yelling, action, running two takes, 00:15:38.929 --> 00:15:40.950 asking if everybody is happy, and if they say 00:15:40.950 --> 00:15:42.909 yes, immediately moving on to the next setup. 00:15:43.169 --> 00:15:45.529 OK, wait. On the surface, that sounds counterintuitive 00:15:45.529 --> 00:15:47.470 to getting a good performance. It does, yeah. 00:15:47.750 --> 00:15:49.690 You would think that putting an actor in the 00:15:49.690 --> 00:15:52.470 middle of a Roman Coliseum surrounded by an armada 00:15:52.470 --> 00:15:54.830 of 11 cameras and hundreds of crew members would 00:15:54.830 --> 00:15:57.009 just swallow them whole. You'd think they'd just 00:15:57.009 --> 00:15:59.360 freeze up. Right. You would assume the subtle 00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:01.799 humanity of the acting would get crushed by the 00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:04.879 sheer machinery of the production. How do you 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:07.559 deliver a nuanced emotional performance when 00:16:07.559 --> 00:16:09.860 you feel like you're standing in the middle of 00:16:09.860 --> 00:16:13.139 a military operation? And this is the brilliant 00:16:13.139 --> 00:16:16.539 paradox of Ridley Scott. By running 11 cameras 00:16:16.539 --> 00:16:19.539 at once, he is actually creating unprecedented 00:16:19.539 --> 00:16:22.940 freedom for the performers. Really? How so? Well... 00:16:22.889 --> 00:16:25.309 In a traditional film shoot, an actor performs 00:16:25.309 --> 00:16:27.990 a highly emotional scene for a wide shot. Then 00:16:27.990 --> 00:16:31.309 the director yells cut and the crew spends three 00:16:31.309 --> 00:16:33.409 hours moving heavy lights and cameras to get 00:16:33.409 --> 00:16:35.730 a close up angle. Oh, right. So the actor has 00:16:35.730 --> 00:16:38.190 to sit around in their trailer and somehow manufacture 00:16:38.190 --> 00:16:40.789 that exact same emotional state all over again 00:16:40.789 --> 00:16:44.129 hours later. That sounds exhausting. But because 00:16:44.129 --> 00:16:47.269 Scott is capturing every conceivable angle simultaneously, 00:16:47.669 --> 00:16:50.490 the actors never have to stop and wait. Exactly. 00:16:50.570 --> 00:16:52.649 They get to live entirely inside the moment. 00:16:52.779 --> 00:16:56.440 He lights the entire 360 degree space so the 00:16:56.440 --> 00:16:58.440 actors can just run the scene continuously, almost 00:16:58.440 --> 00:17:01.000 like a live stage play. Oh, wow. Performers like 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:03.220 Russell Crowe and Charlize Theron have highly 00:17:03.220 --> 00:17:05.960 praised this method. The focus remains entirely 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:08.380 on their continuous performance, allowing them 00:17:08.380 --> 00:17:11.400 to keep their humanity completely intact amidst 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:13.940 all this meticulously storyboarded spectacle. 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:17.220 So he builds the entire universe, lights the 00:17:17.220 --> 00:17:19.539 whole thing, and then just lets the actors inhabit 00:17:19.539 --> 00:17:22.599 it. Yep. We are looking at the incredible arc 00:17:22.599 --> 00:17:24.759 of a man who took his art school sketches in 00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:27.640 the industrial skyline of his childhood and turned 00:17:27.640 --> 00:17:31.019 them into a cumulative $5 billion worldwide box 00:17:31.019 --> 00:17:33.680 office legacy. It's staggering. And his work 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:36.720 ethic is just unmatched. Seriously. He has received 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:39.019 two knighthoods, one from Queen Elizabeth II 00:17:39.019 --> 00:17:41.900 and a second from King Charles III. And well 00:17:41.900 --> 00:17:44.359 into his late 80s, his output is relentless. 00:17:44.440 --> 00:17:46.829 Oh, he's not slowing down. Not at all. Gladiator 00:17:46.829 --> 00:17:49.670 II released in 2024. He is deep into directing 00:17:49.670 --> 00:17:52.170 a Bee Gees biopic, and he has a thriller called 00:17:52.170 --> 00:17:55.509 The Dog Stars lined up for 2026. He refuses to 00:17:55.509 --> 00:17:58.349 stop building worlds. So for you listening, the 00:17:58.349 --> 00:18:00.990 next time you sit down to watch a film, any film, 00:18:01.329 --> 00:18:04.630 whether it's sci -fi, a historical epic or a 00:18:04.630 --> 00:18:07.529 modern thriller, I want you to look at the edges 00:18:07.529 --> 00:18:09.549 of the frame. That's good advice. Pay attention 00:18:09.549 --> 00:18:12.450 to the lighting. Notice the weather. Look at 00:18:12.450 --> 00:18:14.940 the architecture of the room. Consider how much 00:18:14.940 --> 00:18:18.059 of the story's emotion and history is being communicated 00:18:18.059 --> 00:18:20.720 to you before a single character even opens their 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:23.740 mouth. Right. because that intense visual language, 00:18:23.960 --> 00:18:26.440 that reliance on the atmosphere to do the heavy 00:18:26.440 --> 00:18:29.400 lifting, was heavily pioneered by Ridley Scott. 00:18:29.839 --> 00:18:31.720 And to leave you with a final thought, consider 00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:34.480 the underlying philosophy that connects so many 00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:36.980 of these disparate worlds he has built. OK, what's 00:18:36.980 --> 00:18:39.200 the connection? Well, artificial intelligence 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:41.660 is a constant recurring theme in his work. Oh, 00:18:41.660 --> 00:18:44.359 absolutely. From Ash in Alien, to the Replicants 00:18:44.359 --> 00:18:47.400 in Blade Runner, to the android David in Prometheus, 00:18:47.900 --> 00:18:50.539 his synthetic characters are always testing their 00:18:50.539 --> 00:18:53.480 human maker. They are constantly probing to find 00:18:53.480 --> 00:18:56.039 out what actually separates a machine from a 00:18:56.039 --> 00:18:59.039 man. Exactly. They often reference the Turing 00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:02.460 test, the idea of a machine conversing so naturally 00:19:02.460 --> 00:19:04.900 that it successfully fools a human into thinking 00:19:04.900 --> 00:19:08.380 it is alive. Right. Or they explore philosopher 00:19:08.380 --> 00:19:11.220 John Searle's Chinese room thought experiment. 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:13.359 Oh, I've heard of that. The one with the room 00:19:13.359 --> 00:19:16.000 and the symbols. Right. So imagine a person locked 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:19.700 in a room who doesn't speak a single word of 00:19:19.700 --> 00:19:23.430 Chinese. but they have a massive perfect rule 00:19:23.430 --> 00:19:26.230 book. Like a cheat sheet. Yeah. So slips of paper 00:19:26.230 --> 00:19:28.430 with Chinese characters are slid under the door. 00:19:28.890 --> 00:19:30.750 The person just matches the symbols using their 00:19:30.750 --> 00:19:33.130 rule book and slides the correct response back 00:19:33.130 --> 00:19:36.250 out. So to the outside world, it looks like the 00:19:36.250 --> 00:19:38.509 room completely understands Chinese. Exactly. 00:19:38.690 --> 00:19:40.630 But inside, there is no understanding at all. 00:19:40.750 --> 00:19:43.009 It's just a mechanical matching process. Right. 00:19:43.049 --> 00:19:45.190 There's no meaning behind it for the person doing 00:19:45.190 --> 00:19:48.470 it. And Scott uses these concepts to ask. Are 00:19:48.470 --> 00:19:51.250 his androids truly feeling or just running a 00:19:51.250 --> 00:19:54.029 complex set of programmed instructions? And he 00:19:54.029 --> 00:19:56.190 extends that question to humanity itself, doesn't 00:19:56.190 --> 00:19:59.390 he? He does. Scott has openly questioned his 00:19:59.390 --> 00:20:02.109 own beliefs regarding our origins. He has asked 00:20:02.109 --> 00:20:04.369 whether human evolution is just a long series 00:20:04.369 --> 00:20:07.710 of biological accidents or if there is a controlling 00:20:07.710 --> 00:20:10.670 decider behind our grand experiment. Wow. He 00:20:10.670 --> 00:20:12.730 literally asked the question, who is behind it? 00:20:12.769 --> 00:20:14.930 So it's like a macro version of his androids. 00:20:15.329 --> 00:20:18.700 Exactly. So... Ponder this. If Ridley Scott views 00:20:18.700 --> 00:20:21.359 his own cinematic Android characters as desperate 00:20:21.359 --> 00:20:24.319 creations trying to understand their maker, is 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:27.500 his entire 60 -year filmography really just his 00:20:27.500 --> 00:20:30.920 own massive visual storyboard? Oh, man. Is his 00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:33.319 relentless drive to build all these complex, 00:20:33.579 --> 00:20:35.859 sprawling universes just his way of searching 00:20:35.859 --> 00:20:38.579 the stars to figure out who or what directed 00:20:38.579 --> 00:20:41.359 us? Building entirely new worlds just to find 00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:43.500 out who built ours. It's a massive thought to 00:20:43.500 --> 00:20:43.819 chew on.