300 Movie

Cinematography
It goes without saying that this film is, and will remain, a seminal work in digital cinematography. The execution of digital visual elements are undoubtedly artistic, and technically advanced in the realm of film production.

The entire movie, start to finish, was recorded indoors. It could be argued that the movie might lose some of its verisimilitude by this deviation from reality, but in fact it benefits from it. The result is scenery, background, and animation that become "more real than reality" without losing any of their purpose value.

An important factor in the digital graphics of the movie is that computer hardware and software had already improved to the point that the quality was beyond the limits of human perception to distinguish from reality. Simply put, the technology involved was so good that people can no longer see improvements or flaws. For more information on what goes into the technical side of digital graphics, I recommend reading more from a comprehensive source with historical data.

The creative portion is critical to the appearance of the film as well. The graphic designers applied very custom visual techniques with the size, texture, color of nearly ever visible object they manipulated. Many times, the film emphasizes certain visual qualities of objects, while muting others. A prime exmaple of this would be the look of blood in the movie; it is saturated and shaded to a sickening hyper-real color and texture, but the viscosity, quantity, and movement of the blood seem inconceivable. A technique like this can be employed because viewers don't actually know anything about blood except for the color and texture, which become the only qualities restricted to consistency.

Acting
Casting
At the time 300 was filmed, none of the actors in the film were considered "superstars" by any means. Many of the main characters are played by actors with long filmographies, but the casting tends to be more based on the needs of the character rather than the status of the actor.

Physical Conditioning
All of the actors playing soldier roles in the film were taken through a rigorous physical training program before filming the movie. The program included dietary restrictions as well. The benefits of this process were manifold in terms of the movie's overall aesthetic.

First of all, the characters seem more true to the "impressive," elite nature of the Spartans that the storyline is supposed to include. Were the actors to look average, or bulky, or less-than-destructive, the audience would automatically tend to doubt their military prowess. The believability of these characters as super-human fighters is directly tied to appearance.

Secondly, the characters become more believable as people of the region and time period. Presumably, the daily tasks and eating habits of the Greeks would have been very similar to the program used for the actors. This is a subtle thing for the average viewer to absorb, but the body image coincides well with popular perceptions of ancient Greeks, even subconsciously. At the very least, the characters in the film do not look anything like the average person, nor even the typical motion-picture warrior.

Finally, as a form of method acting, the workouts and diet would have directly affected the actors' performances. Gerard Butler himself commented on how his self-image had changed to the point of making his portrayal of Leonidas more confident and fierce. Relating to the characters by physical and mental discipline shaped the movements of the actors into something they could support and audiences could believe.

Scripting
The script of the movie 300 is sparsely worded. In the early-movie scene between Leonidas and the Persian messenger, the statement "choose your words wisely" seems to highlight the viewpoint of the writers of the film. In 300, more is communicated in fewer words, which are more finely selected, and also easier for the audience to hold onto and remember.

It's important that the audience can take hold of, at least vaguely, what is said in any given scene. If the audience had no grasp of what was said, it would miss the evokative and beautiful moments when the script plays upon itself. There are several points in the film where particular lines are referenced or alluded to indirectly by another speaker besides the original. These allusions are usually ironic, being put in a totally different context to contrast the two situations where the similar statements can both apply.