Snyder and vfx supervisor Chris Watts are grateful for the lessons the production added to their filmmaking arsenal. Watts notes that because of the budget, he got to try things he normally wouldn't try. 

"The second sequence is highlighted by the Oracle herself. This was a huge challenge on a few levels. A lot of her shots were shot 'wet for dry.' The actress was submerged in a water tank and shot against bluescreen in extremely slow motion. First, we had to recreate the practical set in 3D as well as the sky and other environment elements. The comp was difficult because underwater light behaves a bit differently as it plays off the skin, so to get her to match from the wet to the dry shots was tricky. Couple all of that with the semi-transparent clothing she was wearing and you have a tough key to pull. Wayne Shepherd, the lead compositor, did a fantastic job. Finally, the sequence called for her to interact with the smoke she uses to go into her trance. The smoke had to look real but move and envelope her in specific ways. We started the R&D with particle effects but couldn't get the wispy smoke that was needed and didn't have the control necessary. From there we shot a bunch of practical smoke elements and they looked great but again, didn't have the control we needed. We finally settled on 3D geometry with a cloth simulation morphed through a bone chain. This gave us the movement of smoke and the ability to animate it so that it could interact with the Oracle. We topped it all off with practical smoke elements that we shot to fill it all out and add a bit more realism.

"The third sequence is pretty brief but reveals a major plot point. Other than sky and environments comps (which nearly all of the shots required), the unique part of this scene was a shot of extremely slow motion coins raining down in front of camera. Because the coins needed to hit an exact mark to reveal the face of the coin and then speed ramp up into real speed as the camera tilts down, it was decided that CG would be the best way to achieve this very specific choreography. Modeling an ancient looking gold piece that had to match practical props was fun. And it was slightly different than other work we did on this project because it was the only thing we did that I would classify as totally photoreal. All the skies and environments that we did for the other shots had a painterly style added to them."

The Battle Won
With 300 already receiving advance praise for its unique vision and incredible visuals, Snyder and Watts are grateful for the lessons the production added to their filmmaking arsenal. "I'm a lot more fearless now than I used to be," Watts says of his 300 experience. "And I've learned if you photograph a bunch of people standing on a slope, you can make them look like they are standing on flat ground by simply moving the horizon," he cracks. "We shot this movie in 60 days, so we were a little more daring in terms of stuff that we were going to find. We only shot one motion control shot. If this was a bigger budget movie, I might have done some things with more of 100% of a chance of success the first time out. But because we had to shoot it fast and it's the kind of movie that lends itself to a little roughness, we got to try things we normally wouldn't try. I learned a lot more because of that, of what works and what doesn't. I'll take those tricks with me to the next movie and hopefully they will allow me to be even cleverer."

For Snyder, the lessons were more philosophical. "I learned that you can't get out of the way, necessarily, of a thing you love. I love Frank's work and my job as a director is to expose the audience to [it] -- to his vision. You are a filter and shots go through you and they come out the other side... different, but hopefully they aren't worse. I learned that I can still look at the Frank frame and enjoy it and look at the frame that I put in the movie and enjoy [that too]. In some ways, they are the same, but they are different. 300 meets my expectations, but the truth is -- you are never done. Are there things I would change? A couple, absolutely, but I won't say what," he smiles. "There are things that just need to be tweaked a little bit, but overall I'm very happy with the way the movie turned out."

Tara DiLullo Bennett is an East coast-based writer whose articles have appeared in publications such as SCI FI Magazine, SFX and Lost Magazine. She is the author of the books 300: The Art of the Film and 24: The Official Companion Guide: Seasons 1 & 2.