The Style of ’300′

I’m not sure how many of you saw the movie 300. It’s the epic tale of how 300 Spartans stood up to overwhelming odds when Xerxes brought his massive Persian army down to conquer the Grecian Peninsula.

The movie is one part Braveheart and one part Sin City. Not for the faint of heart either as the violence is intense and throughout. But it’s also the ultimate underdog’s story set to a fantasy backdrop; more fable than history in this telling. If you can stomach the violent scenes, I recommend it.

What’s so dramatic is the movie’s design style. StudioDaily does a piece called Stylizing Sparta in 300 which does a wonderful job showing what the team did behind the scene did to create the distinctive flair of this film.

I was curious if I could create the same effect on a single frame. So I selected an image from Flickr.

Opened it in Photoshop and went:

1. Change mode to Grayscale
2. Change mode to Duotone with a sepia-like color
3. Added some Gaussian Noise
4. Adjusted the Levels to emphasize the highs and lows
5. Tweaked the Curve a bit
6. And finally increased the Contrast

It’s not spot-on but a close facsimile. Of course, they had fabulous scenery, camera work and special effects that when put together created an otherworldly feel. It’s a very fresh style that worked amazingly well for this kind of movie.