300!

[DjVoyager]

Although I'm not a big fan of graphic(violence/gore) movies 300 has one of the most tantalizing imagery I've ever seen. What's interesting is that it looks CG but still...very captivating.
Check out the teaser trailer (recommend high def). The site also has production videos.
http://300themovie.warnerbros.com/
Enjoy! :)

[laxman]

I saw the trailer for that a few days ago. I love the highly stylised video. It seems like the backgrounds are extremely perfect and the light is nice and soft to give the surfaces a delicate feel. On the other hand the people are extremly gritty. Watch the high def trailer and you can see all sort of little details like the edges or the dirt on the skin. The style of the footage is perfect for this kind of movie. Plus the story of 300 spartans holding off a million persians is very interesting as it is. This should be at least a decent movie.

[DjVoyager]

Yeah, I noticed that too. It's a good balance between the graphic plot of the movie and the stylized imagery. The guy who did Sin City also wrote/illustrated this comic book.
After looking further into 300, the story doesn't seem that appealing, unless one is into tons of bloody battles. It looks a lot like Troy and Gladiator, except this is much more fictional.

[laxman]

The movie will probably be very fictional with a love story and all, but the story is true. 300 spartans acctaully did hold off the entire persian army. How can you like stuff like LOTR and not be drawn into a story like that?:)

I personally love the stories that are all epic and all, but have very little evidence stating exactly what happend. I like trying to reconstruct the most likely series of events once I read all about it and seen the movies and such. I mean in troy, did Achilles destroy entire armies by himself? Probably not, was he a great warrior? Had to have been or no one would tell his story.

Maybe its just me, but I love trying to get into someone head and figure out not just what they did, but why they thought they should do it. Stories like 300, gladiator, LOTR, etc are great in terms of that.

And I know i'm not alone on this one, but I also like trying to figure out how I would do the special effects if I had the time and inclination. at least for that, I know we all do it:)

[glick_c]

Frank Miller is an awesome writer. Sin City was transfered beautifully from page to movie, and it seems 300 could possibly be better.

[tallacus]

hehehe, i was there at the conference at this year's comic con, covering it for my friend who is a die hard Gerard Butler fan, i love the compositing work, tis amaing!

[CubePusher]

I'm still gleaming that they're even making this movie, everything looks perfect.

[kunal2]

WOHOOO.....man this is totally awesome.....I'm ablazed by this...I wonder if they have shoot it on digital 35 and add grain on post

[DjVoyager]

The movie will probably be very fictional with a love story and all, but the story is true. 300 spartans acctaully did hold off the entire persian army.


The battle of Thermopylae? The Spartans lost to the Persians despite their heroic stand off of 2-3 days...actually the main army(Greek) pathetically retreated leaving Leonidas and his men behind. So if this movie stays true to the event it's gonna be a sad ending. Nevertheless, it's a great epic.

I studied Greek mythology earlier this year. Greek myth fanatics hated the movie Troy, saying it was not true to the myth and more of a present day Hollywood version. I agree...if you read Homer's Iliad not only it's much more interesting than the movie but also the intervenion of gods and goddesses make it seem like a family feud than a battle fought amongst these powers. Posiedon motivates the Greeks with an assistance of Hera (Zeus' wife)...result; Zeus stops Posiedon and so on.
There's also a river god somewhere. He gets pissed cuz Achilles keeps throwing the bloody Trojan bodies into the river causing it to choke. So he thrashes him with waves and tries to drown him, at which Hera and Hephaistos attack him with fire(alright!). Now I'd like to see that scene played out. :headbang:

[laxman]

I suspect that they some sort of rotoscoping, and then added the grain to only certain area, that way they can control how much grain is added where (for example add grain to only the people).

Also, I don't think it is just grain, I think they made the picture very sharp using a filter to accentuate the edges then multiplied the sharp image back over the original, so they have sharpness in only certain areas. Really cool.

[DjVoyager]

Yup. The whole movie is shot infront of a green screen, great advantage. They can go back and add flowers on the soldiers' helmets and it'll still belong, lol...just saying. There's also the advantage of this being a dark epic. There're tons of things you can get away with darker hues.
I googled Frank Miller's work and some ppl are comparing 300's shots to the comic strips, so far the movie's loyal :).

[danlefeb]

I'm a huge fan of Frank Miller's work -- so regardless of reviews, I'll be sure to go see this one!

[laxman]

true, they all died, but i'm sure they find a way to get a love story in:)

[DjVoyager]

That's gonna make it even sadder. It's probably between Leonidas and Gorgo, his wife. Now the question is who's gonna kick the bucket first? I'll take a guess and say Leonidas cuz that famous phrase 'Return with the shield or on it' was spoken by Gorgo to Leonidas. After that what man would want to return a failure :p.

Danlefeb, you've read the comic?

[McGergs]

I know this is a review section about movies, but I am so stoked about the graphic novel inspired movie of the "300" battle at Thermopolie.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/300/hd/

Is it me or are movie trailers becoming a feature presentation themselves also. This is a damn good trailer!

The history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae

[Shogunato]

very impressive work !!!
Can't wait :D

[McGergs]

I guess it is the same director that did "Sin City".

[danlefeb]

Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez or Quentin Tarantino? I believe 300 is a Frank Miller novel isn't it?

[McGergs]

Okay correction. It is directed by Zack Snyder. He did "Dawn of the Dead". Frank Miller did the graphic novel for it as well as "Sin City"

[danlefeb]

Cool. I haven't read 300, but I've read the Sin City novels....great stories.

[firstblood]

this movie looks graphicly amazing. what software do you guys think was used to create the movie?

[tallacus]

possible Shake, everyone in the industry still uses it along with Lustre for the color correcting and the color correction plays a huge role in the look development of the film here

[DjVoyager]

Dang, this movie's been discussed twice previously
http://www.digitaltutors.com/chit_chat/showthread.php?t=2353
http://www.digitaltutors.com/chit_chat/showthread.php?t=2818

Goes to show how much it's anticipated, but also, please search the forums before creating a thread :). Thanks.

P.S: Even though I've said it I am sure that some one will definitely post another 300 thread when the movie comes out :P

[devilman13]

This movie looks amazing. I loved Sin City and a big fan of Frank Miller work. So I'm super stoked about this movie, can't wait to see in theaters.

[McGergs]

devilman were you bored this morning or something. You replied to like 20 posts.

[devilman13]

No, no, only like 13. I had some free time and needed to post my 2 cents on a few things. Plus no one has post in while,

[Liliana Maia]

Fantastic trailer, i would like to see it here :rolleyes:

[devilman13]

Yes someone posted, See it does look cool right!

[McGergs]

I find it interesting how it was all filmed on a green screen set. They must have some crazy mat painters and environment artists.

[danlefeb]

Kinda like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, eh? That was a beautiful movie as well.

[devilman13]

Sky Captain was awesome, 50 style with Flash Gordon heroes and giant robots. It you liked that check out
http://www.godangerranger.com/

Funny stuff

[WynterNyght]

here a interview i found on the making of it and what they used

http://www.xsibase.com/articles.php?detail=130

[DjVoyager]

Awesome! thanks WhynterNyght.

I checked out couple of clips from the movie. The acting is not that great, except for Gerard Butler, and even his character seem weak at points, making him more like a modern day guy rather than a historical warrior. So the emphasize is on CG, which makes it wonderful for us CG artists :)

[WynterNyght]

I actually saw it this afternoon, it kicks so much ass haha. I highly reccomend it. The visuals were perfect, and breathtaking, Def made me proud being a cg artist, and encouraged me to get better and better. Honestly i didnt find the acting all the bad.

[DjVoyager]

Yeah, I haven't seen it, yet. Gore and violence is not my thing but that darn amazing CG is pulling me in. Good or bad acting, I'm gonna check it out over the Spring break :)

[WynterNyght]

haha you wont be dissappointed man.

[Grafos]

I will refrain from posting an opinion, as I have only seen the trailer (waiting for IMAX version coming next month here in Melbourne).

From the trailer though, it seems that many things are different from the actual historical events. King Leonidas for instance, was supposed to be an old man, and along with the 300 Spartans fought 700 Thesprees. That's ok as long as the deviations from the original story do not become too annoying, as they were in Troy and Alexander.

If any of you are interested in the epic battle of Thermopyles, check the amazing novel "Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield. There had been rumors of that book becoming a movie in the past, dunno if there is still such a project or not though.

[DjVoyager]

Oh yeah, there are definitely changes in the story. It's been altered to suite today's audience's taste. There's tons of exaggeration, those mutilated monster type things, the oracle...considering the battle of Thermopylae is dated around 480 BC, goodness knows what creatures existed back then. I'm half expecting a dragon to pop in there somewhere ;)

[Captain_Cow]

Please don't forget that this movie was based on a graphic novel and it is not supposed to be a documentary. Frank Miller was inspired by the movie 300 Spartans when he saw it as a kid. It's entertainment and a really good one at that. I love it!!!

[DjVoyager]

Yes, we know. It's a historical fantasy. We've been on about this movie for ages now :D.

There are only a few surviving Greek stories left, and Frank Miller isn't the only one taking advantage of their content. As a Greek mythology student, I can say for sure that even the surviving Greek epics are full of the most amazing things imaginable. The battle of Troy might've been an actual event but in the epic there are gods and goddesses involved, complete with a river god that fought Achilles. Greeks actually believed them, worshiped them.

I haven't seen 300 so I'm not sure if it's got something like "Based on true events" at the beginning.

[DjVoyager]

From the man himself:

Snyder admitted he was more interested in creating visually compelling shots than he was recreating historically accurate fight scenes. "It's bulls---," he said of some combat elements, "but it looks good."

:D

[brandeil]

Saw 300 last night, Blood Blood and more blood, and some nice T&A. Story is very simple, the main emphasis is one big slaughter. I give it 3/5. Graghics was great, sets were very simple (I thingk 3 in total and 1 real wheat field). If your into the blood (reminded me actualy of watching a japanes type slashem movie) then youl probably like it, if not then might want to watch something else. Dont know the real story of 300 so cant comment on the accuracy. The 2 hours went by reasonably quick so I wont say it was booring.

[DjVoyager]

Saw it.


............silence...........


Well, I give it props for best use of color scheme and fluid effects.

It's a great super bowl season movie though :).

[tallacus]

yeah, it is, though the gore effects were not very realisistic

[danlefeb]

I saw an interview with Zack Snyder and he said he tried to make it basically the comic book movie. And I must say, he did a great job. I read the comic books a few times couple months ago in preparation, and there are quite a few scenes that were exact representations of the comic book panels. It's great! True, it's not historically accurate - but it's not supposed to be. It's off the comic book, and for that it did a great job. Great movie!

[DjVoyager]

Haha, you know they will, Dan. Even before the movie had come out there were some articles saying, 300 is based off of an actual event in history. The battle of Thermopylae..., and much emphasize is given on the historical event rather than Miller's fictional comic.

Btw, I think it's a lot easier to convert a comic book into a movie. It's practically a detailed storyboard, when you think about it. All one needs is a good pair of eyes to compare the 3D scene with the comic book strip, "The glow in the back is a bit too white compare to the comic. Add a bit of yellow to it." Up pops the Attribute channel...:D

[danlefeb]

Indeed, comics are good storyboards :) Yeah, the Battle of Thermopylae is a true event that the original 300 Spartans movie was based off of - after the 300 Spartans movie, Frank Miller based his comic book off that - and this movie is based off the comic book. But the real Spartans didn't have many written laws, so exactly how accurate the events are is all just based on theories...regardless, it's an entertaining tail of some brave souls! I really liked how they made the blood look like it did in the comic :)

[DjVoyager]

According to my Greek mythology professor/Greek mythology believer, who didn't like the movie, Sparta was a military state, known for their wars.
About them chucking babies to death who were unfit to fight, high possibility. If they weren't fighting with the outsiders, they were fighting amongst themselves. They needed strong man power, so to speak. It wasn't about the freedom as it was more about the land. Women were second class citizens but they also served as priestesses and supported the military.
I am not sure about the thonged armor though :laugh

[danlefeb]

Yeah I'm no professor in Greek mythology but from what I've read about 'em, they were a very strong military power for a period of time and were eventually absorbed into part of the Roman empire. I think, actually, both their men and women were naked quite a bit - and they were big on fitness because of that. Definitely a different time! :)

[devilman13]

300 is the epic movie of the year. It gave me chill down my back with wonder and amazement. It was such an awesome movie!