this is sparta
zack snyder's 300 is full of amazing
shots from the grotesquely violent
to the exquisitely beautiful
but this shot
is both visually striking and
technically challenging
snyder and his team found a fresh and
stunning way to shoot action
without traditional editing
how exactly did they pull this shot off
this is
how they shot it
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as we run through this shot we'll be
using studio binder shot list feature to
fully populate our shot specs
zack snyder had the idea to film this
one er with speed ramps and zooms in and
out of the action
but the timing and choreography of that
would be extremely difficult
their first idea was to use a crazy
horse rig named after a tv film that
used a unique camera rig for these
special effects shots
the crazy horse rig used two cameras one
with black and white film the other with
color
using a beam splitter both cameras could
capture the same exact image
simultaneously
mixing the black and white and color
footage to create this unique effect
but snyder's plan was to use a similar
rig for an entirely different purpose
to shoot three different shot sizes at
once
the original plan for the crazy horse
shot included two cameras mounted above
pointing down
and one mounted normally pointing
forward
seen here
but there was an issue with the focus
that required them to find another
solution
instead of the crazy horse inspired rig
they simply mounted three ariflex 435 es
cameras as close together as possible
all pointing forward
each camera would use a different focal
length lens shooting three shot sizes of
the same tape
according to dp larry fong these were
approximately 21
50
and 100 millimeter lenses
shooting wide
full
and medium shots simultaneously
then in post-production they could
create an artificial zoom between each
focal length precisely when they wanted
to we zoom
in and out between the three cameras
that's how you get this single take
but that
renders this concept of
all three different sizes you're able to
go in and out
without cutting because it actually
physically is the same take
all the action matches
this shot also uses a technique favored
by snyder called speed ramping where the
frame rate changes during the shot
for this the cameras rolled at 100
frames per second
this allowed the editors to have
complete control over when the shot
would shift between slow
normal
and fast motion
to keep the camera movement smooth a
dolly ran parallel to the action
vfx were used to composite the
foreground actors with background
performance
and the blood thankfully is pure cgi
in the end we have a balletic and
visceral single take set piece
what shots should be covered next time
drop your suggestions in the comments
the crazy horse shot is a perfect
example of when creative vision meets
technical innovation and detailed
preparation
and preparation is studio binders
specialty
write
schedule
shot list
and go crazy horse with your next
project
be like leonidas and come to battle
fully prepared prepare for glory
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