300, Zack Snyder's blockbuster next-gen adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel, comes to DVD (single disc and widescreen two-disc Special Edition, $15.99 and $34.98), Blu-ray Disc ($34.99) and HD DVD/Combo ($39.99) from Warner Home Video on July 31, 2007.
"We didn't do a whole lot of super groundbreaking visual effects," 300 vfx supervisor Chris Watts recently told VFXWORLD. "There was a lot of it, and it was done in a style that maybe no one's ever done before. The big achievement in this movie from a visual effects point of view was creative...The production design of the movie, the way the movie was put together, the story, the fact that it was based on a comicbook, the skill with which Zack directed it and the corners that we chose to cut or not to cut, I think came together in a special way that I think will be difficult for many other movies to duplicate."
Among the 10 vfx houses working on 300's more than 1,300 shots were Montreal-based Hybride doing the bulk of the work with Australia-based Animal Logic, Hydraulx, Meteor Studios, German-based Scanline VFX, Buzz Images, WB Internal, Pixel Magic, Screaming Death Monkey and Lola Visual Effects splitting the rest of the shots.
The single disc version includes commentary by Snyder, screenwriter Kurt Johnstad and director of photography Larry Fong. The two-disc version includes the same commentary plus deleted scenes of the traitorous hunchback and never-before-seen giant warriors, "Frank Miller's Vision Realized on Film," "300 Spartans - Face or Fiction?: The Shocking Life of a Spartan Revealed," "Who Were the Spartans?: How the Actors Built Their Characters Based on Spartan Customs," webisodes, a photo gallery and more.
"Preparing For Battle: The Test Footage," which is Snyder's animatic pitch, is included as an Easter egg on the DVD version, but is easily accessed on the HD DVD/DVD combo and Blu-ray versions.
The HD DVD / DVD combo disc, meanwhile, feature a bluescreen picture-in-picture version of the film with "pre-CGI" clips alongside the finished product, an exclusive game titled VENGEANCE AND VALOR, web-enabled downloads and an app that allows you to assemble your favorite clips and "create your own montage."
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
