Freckleton worked with Snyder for two years on 300 (above). The trusting relationship they developed has made it possible for Freckleton to work on Ga'Hoole while Snyder is wrapping up Watchmen. Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Production Designer Simon Whiteley has spent a lot of time in Tasmania and had wanted to use it as the inspiration for Ga'hoole's kingdoms from day one. The walls of his office were covered with holiday photos he'd taken of Tassie forests, lakes and mountains, as well as macro shots of its flowers and plant life. The thing that strikes you about Tassie is that it is vast, rugged, full of natural beauty and perfect for a fantasy setting. Also... it's not New Zealand! After Lord of the Rings, so many fantasy films shoot in New Zealand and we were keen to do something different.

So in late 2007, Simon and Digital Supervisor Ben Gunsberger organized a helicopter shoot using the new Red One camera. They flew from Hobart to Strathgordon, over the Arthur Ranges and Port Davies in Tassie's southwest. They came back with six hours of 4K footage on two 500 Gig Lacie drives. That was cut down into a three-minute sizzle reel of Tassie locations, which are completely untouched by humans. No roads, no farms, just wilderness all the way to the horizon. And from an art director's perspective, what was cool is that the footage not only moved, but you could freeze it at any point and grab a 4K, uncompressed, grain-free and sharp still frame. These hi-res stills have been invaluable in producing concept work for our environments, and later on in production we plan to do a few more shoots to grab elements for matte paintings and FX shots.

BD: This is obviously still an early stage, but tell us about the demands of gearing up right now at Animal Logic and what that entails for a production of this scale.

GF: The earlier you are in the process, the [fewer] people there are and the more hats you wear. In development, there was no screenwriter or director, so it was a process where a handful of artists got together and not only created artwork, but also wrote story treatments and character profiles and talked about how to adapt Lasky's world to the screen. As the project progresses, it becomes a process of removing a lot of hats and learning to delegate to your team so that you're utilizing each artist's strengths.

We're still in preproduction, so the emphasis is still on designing our world and characters, as well as a lot of R&D as we try and solve both creative and technical problems. How does an owl put on a helmet? What does an owl helmet look like? And how do we deal with feathers interacting with that helmet? We've still got a lot of slots to fill in our crew plan, so I still find that my day might swing between theorizing a cultural history for owls of St. Aegolius one hour, to discussing the second joint in a barn owl's hallux [i.e., big toe] the next. One of the joys of crewing up for a project is getting the team together, especially new talent, and seeing what each new artist brings to the table.

Bill Desowitz is the editor of VFXWorld.