300 will mccabe

The director of 300, Zack Snyder has created a great film full of visual sensations, and testosterone filled battle scenes. This film is unlike anything I have ever seen. It combines old mythmaking with modern cinematography techniques. He uses a common 35mm film camera to capture all the light and contrast. But there’s more he shoots a lot of the film in slow motion, this amplifies each blow from the Spartans, making my jaw drop at the action. Slow motion may be harder for the actors and cameramen because everything must flow, however this was not an issue in 300. A scene I like is with horsemen coming up over a ridge, you see there feet gallop in slow motion, and zoom out to the riders in front of a bright sky, full of clouds and an intense sun, and a vivid mountainous landscape in the background. One more scene that I thought was unique was the scene with the Spartans looking over the cliff at the Persian ships being tossed about during the storm. It is like it is a comic strip or a Greek painting on a wall, very artistic and clever.