While parts of 300 annoyed me (even if I understand why they needed to be there), something I really enjoyed during the run up to actually watching it were the video journals that Zack Snyder posted about the production of the movie. More than all the marketing hype that surrounded it, what I really liked was how geeked out he was about actually being at the helm of such a sweet project. With that in mind, I’m almost even more excited about Watchmen now that he’s posted the first of twelve video journals about the production of the movie online. I’m really impressed by the level of set building that I’m seeing in this video. As much as green screen offers filmmakers, there are very few areas where it offers more visually than physical sets in my mind. Sky Captain is already looking dated, while Blade Runner looks as stunning as ever, especially in the new Blu-ray special edition. So, they’ve got started on the right foot in my mind. Now they just need to convince me that everyone that they’ve cast is age appropriate. They have 11 more journals to do that in, and I’ll be more than happy to accommodate the exclusion of Tales of the Black Freighter from the final movie (just film it and include it in the video release for fans to enjoy in a marathon 5 hour sitting. LotR has proved that we’re willing to do that).

This is accompanied by a series of set photographs with comparisons to the book posted on Slashfilm.

Video Journals will be released on the 6th of each month following today.

[Via ComingSoon.net & Slashfilm.com]