- Warning, Here be Trivia
The film was shot in 60 days.
Post production took almost a year. The film was edited on an Avid, with an HD cut also maintained in Final Cut Pro The 3D was made using Maya, XSI, and Lightwave The 2D composites were made with Shake, Inferno, Fusion, and Combustion. The filmmakers prefer Macintosh, but large portions of the movie were made under Linux. Asset management was handled by custom software written in the Panorama development environment, made by Provue. Color management was handled by Truelight software. The film was scanned on a northlight scanner and was recorded on the arrilaser. Most of the film was shot at high speed, between 50 and 150fps. Normal film is at 24fps. The film was transferred to HD SR tape and quicktime, and HD quicktimes were the basis for the HD preview cuts. The working resolution for the film was 2K, at a working aspect ratio of 2.11:1 and a projected aspect ratio of 2.39:1.
The film was shot on blue and green screen in Montreal.
There are 1,523 cuts in the film, with 1,006 visual effects shots.
The work was photographed completely in Montreal, with the exception of two days of insert shooting in Los Angeles.
Ten visual effects vendors contributed to the film, spread over three continents.
The filmmakers used bluescreen 90% of the time, and greenscreen for 10%. They chose blue because it better matched the lighting paradigm (green would have been too bright) and because red garments (a la spartan capes) look better when shot over blue.
There were two days of location shooting, which were for the horses that were shot for the ‘approaching Sparta’ scene.
The script demanded that most of the male cast spend the majority of their screen time bare-chested, as per Frank Miller’s original graphic novel. Therefore, in order to adequately present themselves as the most well-trained and marshalled fighting force of the time, the entire principal cast underwent a rigorous and varied training regime for 6 weeks prior to shooting.
Sienna Miller and Silvia Colloca were each considered for the role of Queen Gorgo.
Footage from the film was shown at the July 2006 Comic-Con Convention in San Diego. Viewers were so impressed by the clip that they requested to view it three times.
The makers showed a 90-second test of the movie to Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov, the executives from Warner Brothers, who then greenlit the project.
The song that can be heard in the various trailers is Nine Inch Nails’ “Just like you imagined” from their 1999 double album “The Fragile” (Halo 14, Left CD, Track 7)
Shortly after its release, Iranian bloggers and journalists were outraged by the movie. With headlines like “Hollywood Declares War on Iranians”, they chastised the movie for it’s monstrous portrayal of the Ancient Persians, ancestors of modern Iranians. A cultural adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called it, “American psychological warfare against Iran.” Thus far, no mention has been made of the opening or closing scenes, which reveal that the Persian’s portrayal is a result of the story being told from a Spartan’s point of view, rather than an omnipotent, contemporary viewpoint.
“We will fight under shadow” is also used by Greeks today as emblems on soldier uniforms. The Greek ancient phrase used is “Ypo Skii.
Warner Bros. originally pushed Zack Snyder to direct this film with a PG-13 rating as the goal. Snyder refused and ultimately the WB brass agreed to make an R-rated movie.
Queen Gorgo had, indeed, said the line: “Because only Spartan women give birth to real men” but not to the Persian messenger. According to the Greek historian Plutarch (in book III of his Moralia, called “Sayings of the Spartans”) she said this phrase to an Athenian lady who asked her “why can Spartan women speak amongst men”.
Leonidas’s individual body count numbers 33 Persians, 1 Persian messenger and 1 wolf. This number does not include Persians that King Leonidas shielded off during battle sequences.
Body count: 585
When the narrator describes the Persian confusion with the troops at the rear wishing to advance and those in the front line wishing to retreat, he uses lines from the poem “Horatius” by Thomas Babington Macaulay, written in the 19th Century about a small Roman force which held a narrow bridge against a much larger army. From the poem: “Was none who would be foremost to lead such dire attack: But those behind cried ‘Forward!’, and those before cried ‘Back!'”
The quote, “Then we will fight in the shade,” is an actual one from history, spoken by the Spartan warrior Dienekes when warned about the enemies’ arrows.
The flowing effect of the Oracle dancing scene was accomplished by filming the actress under water.
The word ‘Sparta’ and its derivatives (mostly the term Spartans) are used a total of 72 times. This means the word Sparta is used at least .62 times per minute.
Zack Snyder’s son plays young Leonidas in the child fight training scene.
The line “Come back with your shield, or on it” was a common phrase said by Spartan women to their sons and husbands. It was common Spartan practice to bear the dead soldiers on their shields.
According to an interview with IGN.com, Director Zack Snyder says that fighting styles and formations (particularly the Spartan’s phalanx) were purposefully changed – making them historically inaccurate – so they’d “look cool” and work better for movie purposes.
The movie never claims to be historically correct. It is based heavily on Frank Miller’s 1998 comic book mini-series. Changes from history were made by Miller and Snyder so as to appeal to a wider audience and create a more exciting and visually stunning action movie, rather than a typical historical epic.
Frank Miller was inspired by the original Battle of Thermopylae after viewing the 1962 film The 300 Spartans (1962) as a child. His perception of the ‘hero’ concept changed greatly after seeing the Spartans make their sacrifice.
The actor who plays Leonidas’ father in the film (Tim Connolly) was also Gerard Butler’s stunt double for the film.
Some weapons used in 300 are actually weapons from previous war epics like “Alexander” and “Troy.” They were used in this film to cut costs.
In calling the site of the battle “the Hot Gates”, the film uses the literal translation of the name “Thermopylae” (“hot gateway”).
The line “- Come and get them!”, said by Leonidas in response to the Persian demand for the Spartans to surrender their weapons, is also a historical quote (according to ancient historian Herodotus), which was adopted as the motto of the Greek Army 1st Corps.
+ Source IMDB.
