300 is Visually Amazing

A few days ago I posted 300 seconds of 300, and made a comment about how 90% of the film was created in an old train station in Montreal. Trav thought I was kidding around, but then saw this article that tickled his fancy and proved to him once and for all that The Mayor is not a lying son of a bitch:

The blockbuster movie "300," based on the legendary Battle of Thermopylae, was actually filmed in an abandoned industrial warehouse in Montreal using a few dozen warriors battling it out in front of a "blue screen."

With the creative computer work of Quebec-based Hybride Technologies, those dozens became an invading army and the warehouse became the towering cliffs of Sparta.

"Everything was shot in front of a blue screen," Philippe Theroux, the 3D supervisor for Hybride, said in an interview.

"We had to create everything else. . . . All the landscape, everything in the background, was done by computer."

I've had the pleasure to work with the boys from Hybride, and I can tell you that their work is nothing short of magical.

The blue screen that they used was most likely pretty small, as blue screen/green screen studios generally are. I'm assuming that since this was in an abandoned warehouse/train station, that my theory on the screens is correct. The magic of the work comes with the editing and the graphic package. Many scenes in this movie you'll see hundreds of warriors at one time, figure in your head that they tape 12 at a time (approx). You can figure out the editing involved in something like that.

I know the movie somewhat bastardizes history, but you know what? It's not too far off track and it's one of the best movies (action wise) I've seen in a long time. Go see it, shell out the $12 and treat yourself.