Extras on the set of the Watchmen

(via Pop Photo) There has always been a thin line between film and still photography for Hollywood phenom Zack Snyder. Director of last year's hugely popular Greco-Persian war story 300, Snyder has been taking pictures for most of his life -- inspired by the example of his mother, an artist/photographer who also planted the film seed by giving her son an 8mm movie camera when he was ten. "When I got out of college I started working as a director-cameraman for commercials," says the photographer, a graduate of Pasadena's Art Center College of Design. "I was using a Polaroid 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 pack-film camera as a way of checking exposure and previewing lighting, so I carried it with me wherever I went."

Snyder went many places, spanning the globe to make music videos and Clio-winning commercials for clients such as Jeep, Budweiser, and Titleist, and shooting Polaroids as he traveled. Why Polaroids? "I look at a photograph as something like a sand castle," he explains. "I like that it's a one-off." Snyder shoots Polaroid Type 55 black-and-white Positive/Negative film, as do many fine-art and documentary photographers, but unlike those photographers bravely throws his negative away.

Watchmen Video Production Blog

Video Journal #1: Sets and Sensibility
The first of 12 video blogs that we will be releasing during the next year to give you an inside look at the making of Watchmen. We'll launch one every month on the 6th, so keep an eye out for them as they will be premiering on various sites throughout the year.

Superherohype have launched the first of 12 video journals from set of Zak Snyder's graphic novel adaptation of Watchmen, hitting theaters on March 6th, 2009.

Here it is, the first of 12 video blogs that we will be releasing during the next year to give you an inside look at the making of Watchmen. We'll launch one every month on the 6th, so keep an eye out for them as they will be premiering on various sites throughout the year. With that said...

- Zack

A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the "Doomsday Clock" - which charts the USA's tension with the Soviet Union - is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed-up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes.

As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion - a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers - Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity...but who is watching the watchmen?

The Legitimacy of Graphic Novels

The Watchmen graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons stands out for many as the greatest example of the genre. Still, some people will always consider it a comic book and look over its literary importance.

Three graphic novels from the 1980s – “Maus,” “Watchmen” and “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns” - are being used by Nancy Frey, an associate professor of literacy who works with teachers and aspiring teachers at San Diego State University. Frey and others such as Rocco Versaci are part of a growing number of educators encouraging readers to see comics as a legitimate literary form.

Palomar College professor Rocco Versaci will teach a class on the subject, called “Comics as Literature. Versaci said comics invite students to think more broadly about literature and get them to talk in class.”

"When most people think about comics, their views are limited to newspaper funnies or thin, sometimes juvenile tales of superhero adventures.

But experts, including Palomar College professor Rocco Versaci, say comic books and graphic novels that are sophisticated, emotionally gripping and deal with complex subjects have been emerging over the past 20 years or so.

Still, some people don't know that award-winning titles such as “Maus,” “Persepolis” and “Fun Home” even exist.

Times are changing, however, and students are increasingly studying graphic novels in classrooms, said Nancy Frey, an associate professor of literacy who works with teachers and aspiring teachers at San Diego State University." (...continue)

Comic legend Alan Moore keeps true to roots

The BBC News sat down with iconic Alan Moore to take a look at his past successes and future endevours. Currently, Alan Moore's Watchmen is due to hit theaters in Feb. 2009.

"Watchmen author Alan Moore is revered across the world as being one of the most creative forces in the industry.

Books such as Watchmen, From Hell, League of Extraordinary Gentleman and V for Vendetta show that some comic books must be placed on the high table of literature.

But despite his fame, Moore still lives in his home town of Northampton, in a three-bedroom mid-terrace home similar to the one he grew up in.

As a youngster he quickly became fascinated by stories and books, he explains as part of a Inside Out documentary for BBC One in the East of England.

"I had joined the library by the age of five and I naturally gravitated towards mythology, fairy stories, Arthurian romances and the legends of the Greeks and Romans," he says." (...continue)

Charles Schulz’s "Peanuts" as The Watchmen

/Film found this great rendition by 22-Year-Old artist Evan Shaner who recreated the world of the Watchmen in the style of Charles Schulz's "Peanuts." The cast of the classic comic strip includes Charlie Brown as Doctor Manhattan, Linus as The Comedian, Schroeder as Ozymandias, Lucy as Silk Spectre, Snoopy as Rorschach, and Pigpen as Nite Owl.

First Views of Watchmen Character Pictures

Zack Synder has officially given us 5 of the characters in full costumes from the Watchmen movie. He updated the official Watchmen Blog with the images today and they are spectacular. We see for the first time a handful of the important characters from the Watchmen world. The Comedian, Nite Owl, Ozymandia, Rorschach, and the Silk Spectre.

Here we are, officially one year and counting until the release of Watchmen on 03.06.09. Being a fan that follows production blogs, I know that the time a film is in post can often seem like an eternity with interesting bits of information few and far between. So to help pass the time, here is your first look at some of the Watchmen characters.

-Zack

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian

Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl

Matthew Goode as Ozymandias

Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach

Malin Akerman as Silk Spectre

Watchmen's Black Freighter Confirmed

It’s been rumored for a while now, but Gerard Butler has confirmed to Empire that he will be lending his vocal talents to the animated Tales Of The Black Freighter short that Zack Snyder is planning as a companion piece to Watchmen.

The Scottish actor had been linked with a role in Watchmen for a long time, but when nothing materialized, it seemed likely that he wouldn’t be linking up with his 300 director on next year’s eagerly-awaited blockbuster.

But, when Snyder hatched plans to film the Tales Of The Black Freighter comic-within-a-comic that tells the tale of a castaway’s mental and physical deterioration and damnation as he tries to intercept a ghost freighter headed for his hometown, and include it on the Watchmen DVD, Butler’s name surfaced once more.

And, speaking to Empire just the other day, he told us that he had committed to the project.