300: The Set Visit!
It's been over a year since ComingSoon.net/Superhero Hype! visited the Montreal set of director Zack Snyder's 300, based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller. In that time, Snyder has kept busy doing all of the editing and computer processes used to recreate the distinctive look and feel of Miller's original work. For those who hadn't been following Miller's career at the time, he created „300“ during a break from his „Sin City“ mini-series, basing the tale on the mythical story of the 300 Spartans who held off an army of thousands of Persians at the Hot Gates at Thermopylae.
Back in December ‚05, we weren‘t really sure what to expect. It would be months before we'd see any of the trailers or footage pop up at San Diego Comic Con and on the ‚net. At that time, Zack Snyder was primarily known for his remake of Dawn of the Dead, a fun little gorefest, but it seemed very ambitious to try to bring Frank Miller‘s 300 to the screen, especially so soon after the success of Miller's own Sin City earlier that year.
Using that film as a blueprint, Snyder decided that the best and cheapest way to capture the look of Frank Miller's work was to have all the actors shoot their scenes in front of a green screen and then add the backgrounds later using computers. He hired actor Gerard Butler to play Spartan King Leonidas, who leads his men into a seemingly impossible battle, and Lena Headey as his wife Queen Gorgo.
Over the course of our day on set- -day 41 of a presumably grueling 60-day shoot- -we were escorted around the huge complex, being allowed into every corner and facet of the production process, as well as seeing one of the film's fantastic battle sequences being shot right in front of our eyes. The attention and respect the entire production was paying to Miller's work was evident by the numerous copies of the graphic novel that we would see in every department we visited.
Before our tour began, we were shown a few examples of how the film would be produced. Two panels from Miller's graphic novel were on the wall next to their respective storyboards, a picture taken of the scene on the green screen set, and then a final scene after the computerized visual treatment.
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