Special Effects

Is bigger necessarily better? 

2006’s ‘300’ challenges the notion that “epic” and “grand” movies require an “epic” and “grand” budget.  Shot almost entirely on blue and green screen back drops, ‘300’ established not only its place in pop culture, but revolutionized the movie industry with its distinct and unique look that has been copied and mimicked to the length 1999’s ‘The Matrix’ changed Hollywood with its now commonly seen “bullet-time”.

“300”, based on Frank Miller’s 1998 graphic novel about Spartan King Leonidas leading 300 Spartans into battle against Persian "God-King" Xerxes and his army of one million soldiers at the Hot Gates of Thermopylae. At the time of its release “300” was controversial with the possible excess of VFX (special effects) and computer animation in the production.

Some of the critics did not put in place the historic facts involved during the time of the Greek/Persian conflict.  For those who did not watch the “300” movie, or the first version “The 300 Spartans” (1962) or are unaware of the historic event before and after the Thermopylae conflict may not understand the importance. If the Spartans did not take a stand against the Persian Empire then, we could possibly be speaking an ancient Persian language today.

Even with the historic importance of the conflict, the critics never took into consideration that the movie “300” was not only about history. With 90% of the shots created inside the studio, “300” required a lot of "special retouch and post-production work", VFX and CGI. Although the director Zack Snyder had more interest to explore the VFX/CGI capabilities (developed by a total of ten special effects companies), he had to incorporate the historic plots into his version of the epic.

To match the feelings of Frank Miller’s graphic novel of the same name, Snyder used a sepia effect called “The Crush”, a coloring filtration process that “crushed” the blacks in the image and saturated the colors to change the contrast of the final product. The sepia effect required the inside studio shot scenes to be filmed on a blue background instead of the actual green or black used to produce the super-imposition chroma key technique due to light bouncing back and other composing edge reasons. The director worked with lighting and the acting scenes on the blue screen before they went to post-production.  Zack Snyder also used pieces of the novel taped on the sets and with slow motion capabilities to capture the fury of the fight scenes by "spraying blood" after each sword stabbing to depict the graphic scenes portrayed in the novel.  This is what made “300” a piece of art.

Although a lot of the film’s visuals would be created by using a computer, the director with the creature FX department developed realistic creatures as the black wolf and horses used in the fight scenes to interact and support the acting in the studio. Also a conventional make-up department was involved in the project to work with the hunchback Ephialtes, the make up of the Persian king Xerxes, played by Brazil's Rodrigo Santoro and others. The make-up department had a large scar library that was catalogued for each actor on the sets.

The movie “300” will not be labeled as a great motion picture for those that expected an epic movie like “Gladiator” or “Brave Heart” with scenes of vivid landscapes, real castles, and a love story. “300” with its graphic novel look, full of VFX (editing and computer processes special Effects), CGI content, had developed epic scenes with giant CGI elephants and rhinos reproducing a distinctive look and feel of Miller's original novel.


post by Sergio Melicio and Awni Issa
Greenad.com