The movie “300” was shot in Montreal and I was hired to photograph a large quantity of the prop weapons for the special effects and animation departments. The requirements called for technical accuracy rather than artistic renditions of the props. The images would be used for the visual effects and animations. It took me several long days to photograph all the pieces – the rule being, “if it was used to hit, injure, cripple or kill anyone”, it required a set of photographs. At that point in the production I had been working on set a number of days also helping out a friend who was the stills photographer for the production. In the film there is a scene where a messenger holds up a group of skulls from expired adversaries, tied together and rattling them as an omen to the Spartan king. The skulls made their way to my shooting area and I decided to attempt a montage image of the prop. Over lunch break I took the time to photograph all the shots I needed for a montage. The prop was needed often on set, so my access was limited.
At that time I had a huge backload of montage images waiting to be processed and assembled. I completed the image months after the production had wrapped.
Throughout human history similar talismans have been used to ward off evil or to strike fear in adversaries and enemies. Fear mongering is an age old technique that has been perfected in our digital age – the political equivalent of image retouching is “retouching the facts”.
The prop was carefully hung from light stands and lit with studio strobes with some large 4X6 foot soft boxes on a Canon 5D using a 24-70 f2.8L lens. The final montage is comprised of about 125 individual images.
There are more montage images in the Cubist Montage Gallery
