Warner Brothers promotes 300 in Second Life

Warner Brothers promotes 300 in Second Life


SLNN.com


March 25, 2007



by Minerva Jackalope



Author of 300 Frank Miller appears in SL.

SILVERSCREEN - To celebrate the worldwide premier of the US box office hit 300, Warner Brothers opened an exhibit located on Silverscreen to the public after hosting a press conference for journalists all over the world.

Stars and the driector, along with legendary comic book writier Frank Miller (FrankMiller Oh in SL) whose graphic novel by the same name inspired the film were on hand. Director Zack Snyder (ZackSnyder Oh), and actors, Gerard Butler (Gerard Butler Oh), Lena Headey (Lena Headey Oh) , and Rodrigo Santoro (RodrigoSantoro Oh) also appeared. The actors and director were in London and Miller joined in from Los Angeles all via streaming audio.

The sim Silverscreen is designed with a main area in the middle with four nodes extending from it. The main area is the auditorium, while the four nodes contain a gallery with stills and art work from the movie, a re-creation of the Spartan village from the movie, a theater, and a reading area where visitors can pick a readable in-world excerpt from the book 300: The Art of the Film and listen to music from the soundtrack. Extensive clips from the movie can be watched in the theater.

While visiting the Spartan Village residents can exlpore the re-creation of the well, the place where one of the more dramatic moments of the film take place. Be sure to fall in the well, where besides a freebie gift from sim builder Liam Kanno, CEO of The V3 Group, another surprise awaits.

Adam 'n Eve desginers created detailed Spartan costumes along with an intricately rendered spear, shield and helmet. These are free and are available in the Spartan village.

At the press conference, Snyder said that the opportunity to promote the film in Second Life was an "interesting" and "innovative way to market films and talk about films."

The making of 300 combined live action with virtual backgrounds, using a tecnique often referred to as bluescreen meaning the action in the movie is shot in front of a blue or green screen and the backgrounds are set in later. Many of the sceneries in the film were computer generated and were created specifically to look like the graphic novel."

While critics have disagreed on the historical accuracy of the film, director Snyder claims historians have deemed it 90% faithful to what is known about the battle. Miller was compelled to create what were first a series of comic books called 300 after watching the 1962 film version of the battle.

Miller gave agreed that for the most part, Snyders rendering of the film was accurate to his vision but stressed that besides history, like all comic books, the story is indeed partly fantasy.
One such fantasy character that will appear as bonus footage on the DVD, Snyder revealed, are albino giants with elves riding on their backs shooting arrows at the Spartans. Other potential footage includes some test shots where the actors shoot arrows at the Warner Brothers logo. Both Snyder and Butler seemed eager to have the footage included in the DVD, but contractual limitations with the actors who appeared in the scene may cause it to be left out.
Asked if he fears running out of story ideas, Miller said that quite the opposite was true. He said that as a child he began creating stories and that as he matrured it "just became a matter of walking down any city street, seeing the rectangles of buildings that could represent comic book panels with a myriad of stories behind them." In reality, for him it has become "refliectingly and compulsively grabbing them [stories] as they presnt themselves."

The press junket was fun and relaxed with a varying array of questions from members of the press. When asked whether she would use her Second Life avatar for personal use, Headey said "No! Personally, I think [it would be] a little bit weird."

Snyder replied, "Surely you should experiment before you say that, right?" In which case Heady jokingly conceded, "Right… yes... I will experiment tonight."

In fact all those present seemed happy with the appearance of their avatars and jokingly commented that Miller's avatar was a bit more handsome than his real life appearance.

The director also addressed the more serious issues surrounding the film, such as the Iranian response to the portrayal of the Persians. In the post 9/11 era and what some U.S. citizens and press regard as President Bush's hints at invading Iran, critics have argued that the movie over-glamourizes the bravery of the Spartans, while associating negative attributes with the Persian Empire.

Snyder responded by stating that, "The truth is, you know, we weren’t trying to make a movie that was trying to be mean to anybody or make a film that was denigrating to any race… it just happened to be the way the story was rendered. And I hope that people who were offended by the movie realize our real intentions."

Snyder also discussed his upcoming project, "Watchmen," which is another movie based on a graphic novel. Snyder states, "We are definitely in the look [and] development stage where we are trying to figure out what the characters are trying to look like. I mean, we are trying to stay as close to the graphic novel as possible. The problem is that because of all the superhero films that have muddied the waters, you have this problem with viewers’ sophistication levels when it comes to the outfits the superheroes have worn in the past. It’s a thing you can’t ignore completely because you want people to take the movie seriously..."




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