Anonymous

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Write Up.

I listened to the commentary on the bluray. Roland Emmerich is always an interesting listen, regardless of what you might think of his films (plus he has a funky accent) and writer John Orloff makes an interesting foil.

It was actually a really great informative commentary. Not only about creating the story, which parts are historically accurate, where they took liberties, what the scholars think and all that kind of intellectual stuff, but also purely rom a technical point of view.

I did not know this was the first film shot on the Arri Alexa. They talk about testing it out and trying to push its abilities in low light, with entire scenes shot only in candle light. Obviously this has been done before, most famously by Kubrick, but they were impressed with the richness of colour they still managed to get from the scenes and it's true, it does look pretty great.

I also had no idea exactly how much of the film was effects. Like 300, this was shot almost entirely on greenscreen or with a modular set, here they used a few walls, doorways and arches which they would redress and rearrange slightly to create all of the rooms, castles, pubs, courtyards, bridges and houses in the film. He actually used all the effects to make the film cheaper. Only a man who is so versed in big budget filmmaking and use of fx would know how to do that.

They also show a lot of love for their actors, who are all really great but they don't ever shut up about them. But it was a really good listen and well recommended.