Green Screen Work and Miniatures

There were over 5o green screens built at the Sony Studios.

However, Tim Burton didn't like green screen and wanted to use blue screen because he thought it would be "less problematic, pshchologically, but Alice was wearing blue so we had to let that go ." Working with the green screen environment was an exhausting time for the cast and crew. Tim Burton resorted to wearing special glasses that had violet lenses to help ease the intensitity of the green screen. The actors also suffered from headaches due to the chroma green coloring.

To help merge the world of green screen to the virtual environment, realtime playback of the 3D models were generated. "We created MotionBuilder environments and composited those on set using live playback from the camera. If Tim wanted it, he could see rough versions of the digital environments while we shot the live actors moving through them." said Ralston

To help navigate through the 3D environments, several tracking systems were used by filmmakers and director of photography Dariusz Wolski to connect with his Panavision Genesis digital camera system. The system was programed with the functions of panning, tilting and focal length allowing, Burton to have complete control of the camera with the CG environment be tracked similtaneously as if it were a real set.

The use of miniature models helped also with shooting shots such as Alice shrinking and growing in the room to help give a more convincing preformance. They also aided Burton in planning camera angles.

Since there was such a tight schedule, turn around time for shots of Mia Wasikowska, who plays Alice, interacting with different scaled performers were difficult. An on set compositing tool was used to help scale the performers to proper size need for the scene. Wanting to keep a cretain energy to the performance, actors were placed with each other on the green set instead of traditionally replacing them with tennis balls. For example when "Alice is eight and half feet tall holding the normal-size Hatter's face, talking to him one on one...Burton filmed Wasikowska on a paltform to elevate her eye-line and approximate the correct height."

Visual Development

Alice's concept design challenge was given to Robert Stromberg, who worked with James Cameron on Avatar for four years. Stromberg met up with Tim Burton and Rick Carter to discuss the look and feel of "Underland". Rick Carter worked with a team on character design while Stromberg focused on the environment.
"I took some of the color of Tim's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the darkness of his Sleepy Hollow just to see what would happen," said Stromberg about creating the classical world of Lewis Carroll into a twisted manifestation of Tim Burton. After showing Burton the illustration of the caterpillar sitting on the mushroom in the forest as Alice approaches him, Burton was pleased with the image, bringing Stromberg in on the project in London.

Pre production lasted for five months, with a scheduled two week on location shoot in England and then in Culver City, California at the Sony Pictures Studios there would be a 40 day studio shoot. Unfortunately because of the strict time constrants , Tim Burton's desire to build actual sets could not be done pushing for the creation on environments to be completed afterward. Because of this character design went into full swing, several citizens of Wonderland were created but some did not make the cut and since a majority of the characters would be digitally done, costume designer Colleen Atwood collaborated with Burton to create their wardrobes.

Conceptual artists were hired from an online database, CGPortfolio.com by Ralston. Some of these artists included Bobby Chiu and Micheal Kutsche who were important to the development of important characters. Gentle Giant Studios was commissioned also by Ralston to create 2D renderings that would become 10 in tall urethane maquettes. The program Z Brush was was used to to sculpt out drawings into digital models. "Then we printed out physical maquettes and painted them in house to match the key art. Those maquette served as visualization tools that allowed Ken and Imageworks to finalize the characters." said Karl Meyer President of Gentle Giant.

Behind the Scenes

Alice In Wonderland

Wonderland in the world of CGI

1. Introduction

The use of technology, imagination, and live action combined has been able to bring to life films that were never before possible. In 2010 Disney released the film Alice in Wonderland, directed by the dark and eccentric director Tim Burton. The film was a storybook brought to life by the magic of Hollywood’s visual effects, producing an artistic masterpiece that lived and breathed. However, even though the film created a seductive treat for the eyes, another noticeable fact is that the film lacked story and was sometimes weakened by its overload of CGI.

2. The Background of Alice in Wonderland

A. Alice in Wonderland was written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson better known as Lewis Carroll 1865 based on the story that he told the young Lindell daughters, Lorina, Alice and Edith as they rowed up the River Thames. The three girls were the daughters of Henry Liddell, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Dean of Christ Church as well as headmaster of Westminster School. Alice enjoyed the story so much that she asked him to write it down in a book for her. After nearly two years, Carroll made good on his promise and delivered Alice a handwritten manuscript

B. Lewis Carroll's story was being prepared for publication he expanded the text by adding episodes such as the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Tea Party. The book was finally published in 1865 under the title Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with illustrations done by John Tenniel.

C. The story had become an instant favorite among children as well as adults. Queen Victoria was also a fan of the book and even went as far as to suggest that he dedicate his next book to her.

D. Alice in Wonderland has remained as one of the most beloved children classics over the years and has never gone out of print. The book has been published in multiple languages and has had its fair share of adaptations. The most popular being Walt Disney's 1951 animated feature which combined both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass events as well as characters. Disney once again returned memorable story to the big screen in 2010 with director Tim Burton and his vision to create a Wonderland that has never been seen before.

3. Tim Burton took on the undertaking of creating a new version of Wonderland for audiences. Burton is know for his dark fairy tale type themes with some acceptions such as Sweeney Todd and Planet of the Apes. For the film Burton desired to use the power of CGI to harness his wild imagination and bring it to life. Shockingly the majority of the movie was filmed in an enclosed soundstage shrouded in Chroma Green backdrops. It was important to Burton that he avoided the use of motion capture believing that having genuine performances by the actors was the key to giving Wonderland life.

4. The new generation of Wonderland was to be presented to audiences in Disney 3D while trying to transform the character of Alice into a stronger character Burton comments that he "always hated Alice on screen. She's a very annoying, odd little girl. I wanted to make her into a character I could identify with: quiet internal, not comfortable in her own skin, not knowing how to quite deal with things, being both young and having an old soul." He concludes his thoughts saying that "its a simply internal story about somebody finding their own strength. She has been battered around by real life and has never quite fitted in." AMY GABRIEL, The Guardian "Tim Burton: 'Alice is a very annoying odd litte girl"