Elements of Design in the film 300 - Essay Example

This paper is a literature review of the film is called 300. This is an American fantasy action film that was released in the year 2006. The film is based on a 1998 comic series also named 300 by an author called Frank Miller. The film is revolves around the story of the battle of Thermopyle. There were many artists who were involved in the film’s production. These artists include the director, the production designer and also the art director.The director of the film was Zack Synder. Zack Synder was hired to direct the film especially so because earlier before, he had attempted to produce a film that was based on Miller’s novel.

His main role was the planning and directing of the film ensuring that the shooting went smoothly. At some point in the production of the film, he photocopied panels from the original comic book then used this to plan the preceding and succeeding shots. The production designers of the film included; Gianni Nunnari, Frank Miller, Mark Canton and Jeffrey Silver. Their main role in the film was to acquire the film rights of the movie then proceeds to produce it. Frank miller acted as the consultant and the executive producer in the film production since the whole idea of the film revolved around his novel.

Hence his output and opinions were highly sorted. Michael Gordon is the one whose task was to write the film script. The art directors of the film were Shaun Smith and Mark Rappaport. Their main task was the designing of the different look of every individual character in the set. They also designed and produced the prosthetics, the props, the weapons and also the dummy bodies needed for the production. The film was shot indoors against a blue screen. The cinematographer was Larry Fong and he devised an efficient and effective method of integrating overhead and key lighting which made it easy to do faster and more efficient shooting.

This method made it easy for the perspective to change by simply turning and reversing the lighting. This was made easier because all the lights were pre-mounted hence all one had to do was just to flip a switch. The film producers choose the blue screen over the green screen because the film has a lot of red. The problem with the green screen was that there is bound to be production of a yellow edge when one has saturated red on the green screen. The amount of light bouncing back off the blue screen is different from that of the green screen.

More light bounces off the green screen than the blue screen. This results in the production of a screens that are brighter and not suitable for the shooting of the film (Hanson, 2007). The setting of the film is ancient Sparta and the battle site of Thermopylae where the Greeks, the Spartans and their allies were able to hold a large mass of invading Persian army led by their king, Xerxes who was deemed as a god king. The Persians invaded in 480 BC and the 300 Spartans and their allies met the invading Persian armies at the narrow mountain pass of Thermopylae.

The pass was wide enough for only one chariot and a few number of warriors at a time, hence the Spartans choose it to hold their ground. The small Spartan army and its allies was led by King Leonidas of Sparta. The Spartan culture was primarily military. the Spartans were completely dedicated to a military life. This was their entire way of life. The Spartans started their training from birth where only the only physically strong babies were allowed to live. The boys were then taught reading and writing which was necessary for their basic needs.

Then after that all their time and knowledge was dedicated to training for fighting (Hanson, 2007). The costumes were designed to suit every individual character in the film. The flowing red cape worn by the Spartans was preferred because of ease of movement over the common leather strapped skirts worn by the ancient Spartans. The weapons used were also carefully chosen to fully present the actual weapons used by the ancient Sp