# How was the intro to "Watchmen" filmed/animated? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2017, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-the-intro-to-watchmen-filmed-animated/784369 "2017-04-13T09:52:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-the-intro-to-watchmen-filmed-animated/784369/1 "2017-04-13T09:52:34Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/h24D87SqaLQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Watchmen [2009] - Intro") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h24D87SqaLQ) It’s a look I haven’t seen anywhere else: hyper-real, almost a cross between filming of real persons and places and a glossy CGI look. The use of slow-motion is also really cool and hard for me to figure out. The individual scenes are to varying degrees slow-motion or have a kind of low-frame-rate look, but there is always something moving in each one. The rest of the movie has a somewhat similar glossy, comic-y look to it, but it’s extreme in this intro. I’m surprised this look hasn’t been more imitated, as bullet time was from _The Matrix._ Thanks for your insights on the above! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-the-intro-to-watchmen-filmed-animated/784369/2 "2017-04-13T12:12:21Z")
I don’t think there’s much to explain. It’s filmed in slow motion, like you noted, with a colour palette and lighting scheme designed to resemble a comic book panel, with a wide depth of field to keep most of the elements in the same degree of focus, as comic art commonly is. It’s what you might call a tableau, which is to say they’re staged to tell multiple parts of a story in a single image. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-the-intro-to-watchmen-filmed-animated/784369/3 "2017-04-13T15:35:49Z")
GL has it. Slow-mo filming plus specialized lighting plus CGI plus sheer genius in every aspect… easy enough. It’s one of the most “watchable by itself” title sequences I know of. A close second is the one for the remake of _Gone in 60 Seconds_, but it’s a miniature portrait (almost literally) compared to the Sistine Chapel ceiling that is _Watchmen_. (Don’t miss the Batman reference!) ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-the-intro-to-watchmen-filmed-animated/784369/4 "2017-04-14T00:06:55Z")
I agree that it’s genius. Wish Snyder could have put such genius into his other films. (Though I am rather indifferent about the film as a whole. Though that’s more a matter of the base story instead of the direction.) There’s not more to the intro’s look, tho? No special processing involved in getting that candy-coated look? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-the-intro-to-watchmen-filmed-animated/784369/5 "2017-04-14T00:25:53Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > There’s not more to the intro’s look, tho? No special processing involved in getting that candy-coated look? Not really. A digital colour grade, very good lighting and staging, and some CGI tweaks such as the backgrounds, but most of it is real and in-camera. As much as I despise Zack Snyder’s films, he was coming off _300_ when he made this, so was really big on carefully staged stylised effects. Then he went onto _Sucker Punch_ and got too self-indulgent, went way too far and has never come back. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-the-intro-to-watchmen-filmed-animated/784369/6 "2017-04-14T00:58:22Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Not really. A digital colour grade, very good lighting and staging, and some CGI tweaks such as the backgrounds, but most of it is real and in-camera. As much as I despise Zack Snyder’s films, he was coming off _300_ when he made this, so was really big on carefully staged stylised effects. Got it, thanks! > [@](#): > > Then he went onto _Sucker Punch_ and got too self-indulgent, went way too far and has never come back. Yeah. _300_ never interested me, _Watchmen_ to me was like a B- but showed some promise, but now his stuff for the DCEU has just seemed like a travesty. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-the-intro-to-watchmen-filmed-animated/784369/7 "2017-04-14T01:53:33Z")
The actual scenes play a big part, too–looking like dioramas or classical paintings (_The Last Supper_, for instance). It ends up looking both realistic and not-quite-real. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-the-intro-to-watchmen-filmed-animated/784369/8 "2017-04-14T01:57:57Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Not really. A digital colour grade, very good lighting and staging, and some CGI tweaks such as the backgrounds, but most of it is real and in-camera. I seem to remember someone saying that scenes like _The Right Stuff_’s or _Reservoir Dogs_’ “guys walking towards the camera in slow motion” were filmed in high speed, and cranked down to just below normal speed to give it a hyper-real feel, and extra detail. Am I completely misremembering something? And if I’m not, is that something that’s going on here?