TinkerBell and the Secret of the Wings

TinkerBell and the Secret of the Wings

Cast: Timothy Dalton, Lucy Hale, Megan Hilty
Genre: Animation, Action, Family
Rated: G
Running Time: 75 minutes

About the Production

When director Peggy Holmes began developing the concept of exploring the winter world of Pixie Hollow for Tinker Bell's next adventure, she imagined the Winter Woods of Pixie Hollow as a mysterious realm where the warm-weather fairies, including Tinker Bell, are forbidden to visit. However, as everyone knows, Tinker Bell is inquisitive, thus a story was born.

Tinker Bell is fascinated by what's on the other side of her boundaries, and for the first time she watches as the warm animals cross over into winter. The magical and mysterious sights drive Tinker Bell to explore the Winter Woods. When she decides to investigate this thrilling world, she finds a beautiful realm of sparkling ice and reflections. More importantly, she also meets a frost fairy-Periwinkle. They are instantly and completely captivated by each other, learning quickly why-they are sisters!

Peggy Holmes pondered the story conflict and realised that Tinker Bell herself should be the one to ultimately bring the two worlds of warm and winter fairies together. "I had watched the previous Tinker Bell movies and found that we had used the different seasons as backdrops for the stories," director Holmes recalls of the early gestation of the film. "One was spring, another was summer, but they hadn't dealt with winter. The question that came to my mind was, Why is winter separate? It gave me the idea to tell a love story in which ultimately the two worlds would be brought together."

The Winter Woods borders the Autumn Forest where Tinker Bell lives. It's possible to cross over from one world to the other, but it's very dangerous. If a warm fairy, such as Tinker Bell, were to cross the border, she would experience extraordinary cold and run the risk of having her wings freeze.

Likewise, for a winter fairy to venture into the warm world would be like taking a piece of ice and setting it in the middle of the Sahara. It's bound to melt. Therefore, there are rules against the fairies crossing from one world to the next.

The winter fairies' wings will wilt in summer, and warm fairies' wings will crack and break if they cross over to the cold side. This was a conundrum that gave Holmes the opportunity to explore the reality of the winter world in terms of how the fairies there live and what their talents are and how they have fun in a climate that is totally foreign to the fairies of the warm world.

One of the primary challenges for Peggy Holmes was creating a story about bringing the two worlds together that did not have a negative backstory.

"We didn't want a story about upheaval or wrong-doing in Pixie Hollow," Peggy Holmes continues. "What we needed was to have the two worlds wanting to be together but the weather makes it impossible for them to do so. Creating a sister for Tinker Bell and thus extending the mythology to reveal that she has a sister, Periwinkle, a frost fairy who Tinker Bell wants to be with, made this a reality. Tink enters the Winter Woods because she feels an immediate connection. Their friendship starts a remarkable chain of events."

With "Secret of the Wings," Peggy Holmes becomes the first woman to direct a Disney Fairies film. Sisters have always played a major role in Peggy Holmes ' own world-she has 3 of them (and 3 brothers, too!). Therefore, her understanding of the importance of sisterhood comes from a very profound and loving family influence. "With my sisters and me there is an unspoken connection and we just know that at any moment or at any time in our lives we'll be there for each other," Peggy Holmes says of the value of having sisters. "It's a connection that runs very deep, and we don't even have to talk about it. It's unspoken."

"I didn't necessarily bring my sisters' personalities into 'Secret of the Wings,'" Peggy Holmes explains, "but there is a moment when Tink and Peri have to hug and say goodbye which was very relatable for me. I was probably seventeen years old, and my older sister had joined the Air Force and was leaving very early in the morning. I remember going to the front door to give her a hug and becoming overwhelmed with emotion. That taught me about deep connections with someone. And so, when Tink and Peri have to say goodbye at the border, and Peri finds the strength to run back for one last moment to make sure that Tinker Bell knows how much she loves her, that was a very real-life situation, an absolute parallel moment."

Peggy Holmes remembers that one of the biggest challenges was creating a way for Tinker Bell and Periwinkle to instantly recognise how special they were to each other. Early on it was suggested that there might be a particular sound that they both hear which would establish their sisterhood. But, as Holmes and co-director Bobs Gannaway were on their way to a meeting one morning, a new idea popped up. "Bobs Gannaway said, 'What are we thinking? This is a visual medium! Let's make it a sparkle!'" Peggy Holmes says. "All of a sudden it became this fantastic visual moment when neither character had to speak. It was undeniable that they were connected in a special way because their wings began to sparkle. Story discoveries like that made this magical but believable."

The gravity of doing something as intense as expanding Tinker Bell's world and revealing that this iconic Disney character has a sister was a huge undertaking for Holmes and for the studio. "We really wanted to make sure that we found a way to connect Tinker Bell and Periwinkle, so that it felt organic to the fairy world," Peggy Holmes says. "We needed to make sure that we rooted this in a place that worked with the mythology, and that we weren't just giving Tink a sister without explaining how it happened. It all came from the idea that I wanted to connect those two worlds in a way that was undeniably emotional and would bring the two worlds together."

As Peggy Holmes imagined how Tinker Bell and Periwinkle came to be such good friends she says, "I was thinking of a situation such the first day of school, where there's someone in the classroom that you just connect with and you don't exactly know why, and then ultimately you find it's because you share a kinship," she says. "Your respective values are the same, or you complement each other in different ways, but there is that one person you identify with." But in creating this genuine friendship between Tinker Bell and Periwinkle, Peggy Holmes realised that the emotional stakes weren't high enough for the story that she wanted to tell. There had to be a stronger reason for Tink and Periwinkle's connection.

To help solve this challenge of bringing Tinker Bell and Periwinkle together in an organic and authentic way, Peggy Holmes availed herself of other creative members of the DisneyToon story trust of directors. "Several directors got together to think about my movie and the story and to see how they could help me realise the emotional elements I was striving for," she says. "This is a collaborative place, and Klay Hall came up with the idea of why Tinker Bell and Periwinkle form such an instantaneous bond. I had been saying that they were 'like' sisters. Then Kla Hall said, 'Why don't we just make them sisters ... born from the same laugh?' In that minute we knew it would drive forward a lot of the other story decisions that we wanted to make. This heightened the emotional stakes and became a much stronger story."

Introducing Periwinkle
Periwinkle is a frost fairy that has never known any other season but winter. Curious, bubbly and fun, she makes amazing frost swirls and loves to go ice-sliding on frozen waterfalls with her friends, Spike and Gliss. But while Periwinkle loves winter, she burns with curiosity about the warm seasons of Pixie Hollow. She, too, often sneaks to the border to watch the animals migrate into winter and pores over books for tales of summer, butterflies and the Pixie Dust Tree.

Periwinkle evolved continuously over the course of producing the film. During the early stages of developing Periwinkle's character, she was a frost fairy who wasn't very good at her talent. Tinker Bell went to the Winter Woods to help her, and they became friends. As director Peggy Holmes relates, "Tinker Bell and Periwinkle were separated at birth by the fate of the wind. Periwinkle's wisp, instead of going into the Pixie Dust Tree, blew into winter and landed there. It was just one of those moments of fate. Periwinkle's wisp landed in winter because ultimately we wanted to solve the problem of the two worlds being together. It was destiny."

"From a writing standpoint, the conflict could have been that Tinker Bell meets Periwinkle and they find that they're exact opposites. There could have been hilarious consequences," notes co-director Bobs Gannaway.

"However, research showed that when twins separated at birth find each other, there's a sort of instant bond. But Tinker Bell meeting Periwinkle and getting along right away is not fraught with conflict. So the solution was that they want to be together... but the world is pulling them apart."

"Love is a bridge that can bring people together," notes producer Wigert. "It can bring cultures together. And in our film, it's bringing worlds together. Tinker Bell and Periwinkle, through their love for each other, help remind others of their own love. Working through the issues that separate them, they can bring about a happy ending."

Casting the Film
Working out the story was just one of the many daunting challenges for the filmmakers. Finding the perfect voice for Periwinkle was another. Creating a voice for animated characters is, of course, a discipline all its own and requires actors to utilise different aspects of their talents and training.

Director Peggy Holmes and her team set out to find an actress who could not only hold her own with Mae Whitman, the talented voice of Tinker Bell, but one who had a similar vocal quality because, after all, Tinker Bell and Periwinkle are siblings.

"We had to find a voice that had the bubbly vivaciousness that Mae Whitman brings to Tinker Bell," director Peggy Holmes says. "That was the big prerequisite, but then we needed someone who also had a little bit of fragility in her voice because she was indeed the wisp that went off the other way.

"It was a big casting process," Peggy Holmes notes, describing how she found the right actress for Periwinkle's voice. "We listened to many voices and compared them with Mae's Whitman- because most of their scenes are together to determine how the voices would play against each other. When we heard Lucy Hale, we knew we had our Periwinkle!"

However, Lucy Hale (star of ABC Family's award-winning series "Pretty Little Liars"), had never done voice-over work before. "Voice-over is a completely different world of acting," Hale says of her debut portraying an animated character. "I felt like a kid again. It was so much fun. You have to have a lot more energy to do voice-over, because you have to bring a character to life with only the use of your vocal cords. It's almost more acting, if that makes sense. Periwinkle is really bubbly and excited about life and is very curious. I had to make sure that I honed in on those characteristics."

"She was immediately so welcoming to me," exclaims Lucy Hale of working with Peggy Holmes. "I could tell the first time I met her how enthusiastic she was about the project and she had a vision. She knew exactly what she wanted. That was especially good for me because I was completely new to this."

For the lead role of Tinker Bell, young actress Mae Whitman, who has been steadily working in live action and animation since she was 3 1/2 years old, vividly recalls her audition for "Tinker Bell" (2008). "My agent knew the job had something to do with Disney's fairies in general, but that was really the most information that they would give us. I read for the role and then I got the call telling me I had the part. It was extremely exciting. It was a double dose of excitement; being cast in the first place, and then for something as iconic as giving a voice to Tinker Bell. It was really a great honour."

"Mae Whitman brings heart and an emotional element to her dialogue that comes through beyond what you're seeing on the screen," enthuses producer Wigert, who understands how much talent and effort are required of actors working on animated projects. "Just hearing her speak, you can imagine a beautiful fairy yearning for something more in her life. Mae Whitman's talent has only grown and increased since she began performing this role. It's been a tremendous opportunity for us to witness that growth. It's such a pleasure to have somebody of her calibre on this project."

In Mae Whitman, the filmmakers recognised not only her acting talents and her connection with Tinker Bell but also her sense of humour. As the young actress says of her audition, "All you can ever bring to the process is whatever your absolute best is. You can't try to fit into some category of what you think they want to hear. So I just gave it my absolute best with my essence and who I am."

For the role of Periwinkle, the exciting new fairy character in Pixie Hollow, Lucy Hale says that there's more of her real voice in Periwinkle's because they have similar personalities. "In real life I am very bubbly and excited about everything, just like Periwinkle. It was almost just bringing myself into the character. I wanted her to be really bright and a happy, curious little character."

For several of the veterans of the Tinker Bell movies, such as Academy Award® winner Anjelica Huston, Emmy® Award nominees Lucy Liu and Raven-Symon, and Tony® Award-nominated Disney legend Jodi Benson, all of whom have enjoyed animation voice-over roles in the past, their continued association with Disney, and Tinker Bell in particular, is a labour of love.

For Anjelica Huston, who plays the beneficent Queen Clarion, the moral tone of the Tinker Bell movies and the messages for children are among the most important aspects that draw her to work on these films. "For 'Secret of the Wings' we're showing that, ultimately, we're responsible for who we are and that our actions bear consequence. The film offers ways to explain to a child why they should share, why they should respond in kindness if somebody attacks them, and why we have to uphold the laws of nature, which I particularly like. So I love doing Queen Clarion. And it doesn't require hair and makeup."

Coincidentally, both Anjelica Huston and Megan Hilty, who voices the role of garden fairy Rosetta, also star together on the hit television series "Smash." "There's a strong theme throughout all of the Tinker Bell series, and it's about working together and celebrating our differences," Megan Hilty says. "Each of the fairies is so incredibly different, and yet they all come together and help each other get through whatever debacle they've gotten themselves into. It never works out when one is trying to do something one way. But when they all work as a team, everything turns out all right."

Raven-Symons, who stars as Iridessa, adds to Anjelica Huston's levity, "I get to work in my pajamas!" she says, only half joking. "I also loved that Iridessa was part of a group of fairies within the Tinker Bell brand, because Tinker Bell is so popular with all generations. And she's cute!"

Raven Symons admits that she always wanted to be a fairy or Tinker Bell. "So this role is really close," she says. "Yes, it's the best job ever! It's definitely fun to do voice-overs."

With a twenty-six year association with Disney, starting with her indelible and now iconic role as Ariel in the Academy Award®-winning animated classic "The Little Mermaid," Jodi Benson was eager to accept the role of the Healing Fairy in "Secret of the Wings." "She's a very matter-of-fact, no nonsense kind of lady," Jodi Benson says of the character that provides medical attention to Tinker Bell following her visit to the Winter Woods.

"I wouldn't say she's sarcastic, but she's very to-the-point and rather blunt," Jodi Benson continues. "She has a dry sense of humour. It was fun for me because she's totally different from the roles that I normally get to do."

Because Jodi Benson had to be on the East Coast at the time of the recording, she received direction on her role by phone. "It was a lot of fun because Peggy Holmes is a great director. We've worked together before, and we really know each other well, so it was easy to work with her over the phone because I knew exactly what she was doing," Jodi Benson says. "I could envision her. I could close my eyes and see her moving about, acting everything out physically, because she's very theatrical in the way that she directs.

Having worked with her face-to-face for so long on 'The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning,' it was really easy to get into her head and know what she was doing, even over the phone. I said, 'I can sense what you're up to-although I can't see you! I can envision that you're moving/dancing around right now!'"

Pamela Adlon, an Emmy® Award winner for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for her role of Bobby Hill on the hit animated television series "King of the Hill" as well as many on-screen performances, remembers how she became the voice of Vidia. "It was one of those kind gifts that happen," Pamela Adlon says. "I was first involved with the Tinker Bell movies because I did scratch for that character for about two years. Scratch is when an actor comes in and they lay down the dialogue so the animators can start drawing. So I was doing that for the character of Tinker Bell. And then I started doing it for Vidia. Then one day my agent called me and she said, "Guess what? They're making you Vidia!" I'm an actor who's been straddling two worlds for a long time. I have an on- camera career, and I have my animation career. And because I consider myself kind of a journeyman actor, it was such a big deal when Disney took a leap of faith and made me Vidia. I was thrilled beyond belief."

The character Terence is sweet and sensitive, and he always wants what's best for Tinker Bell. He always has her back. According to Jesse McCartney, who performs the role, "I think Terence secretly takes to her [Tinker Bell]. He's extremely fond of her, and I think he may, secretly, be in love with her and foresees a future with Tink. They have a great rapport. He's full of adventure. The entire series is an adventure!"

The roles of Bobble, Clank and Dewey belong to two legendary voice-over actors: Rob Paulsen (Bobble) and Jeff Bennett (Clank and Dewey). Both have worked non-stop as voice-over stars for more than two decades, and each has contributed a great deal of work on many Disney projects.

As producer Michael Wigert points out, "Jeff and Rob have such amazing resumes of work. If you watch an animated project-any animated project that you can name- they probably had a voice on it. One of the things that I love about them is that they bring both humour and heart to a character. And that's a hard thing to do. They have a wide range of voices that capture the spectrum of emotions. And they can do so many different characters. We're so lucky to have them for Bobble and Clank ... and now Dewey."

The New Kids on the Pixie Hollow Block
Tinker Bell movies have taken audiences to spring, summer and autumn. In this latest adventure, Tinker Bell gets to explore winter in the world of the Winter Woods. "Building on the established characters and designs, we expanded the world of the Pixie Hollow fairies with a new class of fairies," notes animation supervisor Yuriko Senoo. These are fairies with a whole new set of talents based on their winter environment. We have fairies that specialise in making snowflakes, covering trees with snow, and creating frost. Even their stunning outfits are made from organic materials such as leaves and feathers. Just like the warm-weather fairies, their clothing designs come from their personalities."

When director Peggy Holmes was inspired to create Periwinkle and the Winter Woods, she wanted to develop a world that would show us Periwinkle's life before she met Tinker Bell. "We wanted her to have fun with two energetic frost-fairy friends, so Gliss and Spike came into being," she notes. "Gliss is a glass-half-full kind of girl, and Spike is the opposite. We wanted to put a lot of energy around Periwinkle, so we gave her a fun group of girlfriends."

Debby Ryan, who voices the role of Spike, notes, "In every group of friends there's usually someone who is perky and happy, and there's another who is pragmatic and keeps the others in line. Spike is a mix of the two. I love Spike. She's a bit like me actually, but she's low-key and more pessimistic than I am. She brings that vibe, but she's also kind of edgy. She's very cool."

"Because winter is a place we haven't seen before in the Tinker Bell movies, I was able to design the characters to fit well into our expanded winter world," director Peggy Holmes says. "I really wanted to make them a little hipper and contemporary. So we went into the designs with the idea that the Winter Woods is an angular place with snowflakes and crystals. We reflected that in their clothing and the cut and the lines of their dresses and the lines of their hair. The important thing was to make them relatable for our audiences, that maybe they would wear the dresses or the boots we designed. I just wanted them to look hip and pretty."

In Pixie Hollow all the characters make their own clothes out of things in their environment. The same was true for the winter frost fairies, so director Holmes worked with art director Ellen Jin Over and Ritsuko Notani, the character designer, to bring the wardrobe to life. As Holmes explains, "We wanted to make sure that the characters weren't bundled up in winter coats. They don't need to be. They were born to be in winter. They're used to that weather. We were determined not to put them in snowflake outfits."

Still, the costumes had to have texture. Special plants were brought in for the animators to study and use as sources of reference. One favourite of the garden, Lamb's Ear, is a beautiful ground cover, the texture of which can best be described as fuzzy or velvety. Lending further interest to this foliage is its silvery colour. The filmmakers also used such things as the down feathers of a winter owl, and because the mountains in the Winter Woods are probably filled with minerals, they accented Lord Milori's cape with mineral beads and little crystals. All of these things would have come from the Winter Woods, and they could have become part of the fairies' outfits. Peggy Holmes reminds us that "Winter is not a season; it's a place. Some people live in winter their whole lives, so we wanted to capture that feeling."

Trust the Process
For producer Michael Wigert ("Chicken Little," "Bolt," "Meet the Robinsons"), whose career at Disney has involved him in both live action and animation, the long road traveled to bring a film from thought to form can be an arduous one. However, Michael Wigert and his colleagues are guided by the wisdom and principles of Oscar® winner John Lasseter, chief creative officer, Pixar and Disney Animation Studios.

"John Lasseter tells us to 'trust the process,'" Michael Wigert notes. "It's all about improving every step and stage of the film, from the initial concept pitch to the storyboards, to animation, to colour. Each process is going to make a film better. Sure, there will be times when you may feel a little lost, but trust the process of the team and your peers helping to support the project and make it better. That's the process that Disney is about. It's about collaboration and support. It's how we make great movies, because we do trust the process and we do trust that everybody around us will help us make it better."

"Disney, and to an extent, Tinker Bell, has a huge legacy and expectation for us to live up to," notes Michael Wigert. "I'm fortunate that I get to work with a fantastic team that shares that expectation with me day in and day out, to do the best work they can and to rise up to challenges. The fact that everybody is committed to doing the best work they can to tell the most interesting stories makes that job so much easier. I don't feel that I'm pulling a team up. Instead, we're behind each other, giving full support. The responsibility is shared, and that makes it really feel that we're all in it together."

As co-director, Bobs Gannaway further explains, "John Lasseter and Ed Catmull brought some of the inspired Pixar culture to Disney, things that worked well for them in the past. For instance, we have a story trust, which is made up of all the directors. When we each show our movies, we show them to our peers. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, so their feedback is incredibly valuable. We get their notes and as directors, we're empowered to make choices about how to address the notes, or move forward. It's not that we're making films by committee, but it's good to have fresh eyes see the work. These are people who want you to succeed. We get to listen to our peers. So it's an incredibly healthy creative environment."

Periwinkle's Hair Design
Director Peggy Holmes had always looked at winter as an opportunity to push the design of the fairies. She wanted the winter world to be a little edgier and to have a more modern aesthetic to the characters and designs. Character designer Ritsuko Notani, who has designed all the new fairy characters in the Tinker Bell films, was up for the challenge, working with Peggy Holmes to create Periwinkle with inspiration from winter, including the sleek but beautiful natural design of frozen flowers and icicles.

"John Lasseter talked to us about some of the challenges of creating Periwinkle's hair and that we had to be very aware of every angle of her design," Peggy Holmes recalls. "So I wanted to bring in a specialist specifically to help refine the design of Periwinkle's hair."

She used the opportunity to work with one of the most noted stylists in Hollywood, Ken Paves, to complement Notani's character design with a unique Periwinkle hairstyle.

When the two met, they immediately connected. "I thought to myself, 'He's the one!'" Peggy Holmes remembers. "Ken Paves does a lot of work around the world for women's causes and this is a movie about sisterhood, and the project interested him very much."

To begin the process, Peggy Holmes discussed Periwinkle with Ken Paves, providing Notani's character drawings and providing an idea of what she hoped the character's hair might look like. She explained that it had to look unique from every angle. "I said, 'Periwinkle has to look good from all sides, as if she's walking a red carpet,'" Peggy Holmes recalls.

Paves, who is far from a stranger to creating styles for talent gracing the red carpet, having created imaginative hairstyles for many of the most celebrated women in contemporary film and fashion including Victoria Beckham, Jessica and Ashlee Simpson, Eva Longoria, Lady GaGa, Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion and Fergie, knew exactly what was required.

"She was looking for someone to do live hair styling for the three-dimensional work for a new character," Ken Paves recalls about his initial conversations about the character. "She (Peggy Holmes) and I talked and we hit it off right away." Ken Paves started his work with a real- life model who resembled Periwinkle in a realistic way. Her wig was all one length- nearly down to the middle of her back when he began-and was silvery, with a hint of lavender colour. He started cutting and kept working while director Peggy Holmes and producer Michael Wigert and animators watched as Periwinkle came to life before their eyes.

In preparation for his unique assignment, Ken Paves says he wanted to understand Periwinkle's movements. "She has a lot of energy, and I wanted to research how the fairies move around and know the angles at which they're illustrated," he says. "One thing Peggy told me on the phone was that she wanted to work with someone like me because I've created looks for women from a 360-degree angle for red-carpets events and such. The 360-degree look was something that she really wanted me to take into consideration, because she said we'd be seeing Periwinkle in every angle that they illustrated. I do think about that for red-carpet events or personal appearances. I walk around my clients a few times and look to make sure that the style has a great flow.

"I watched all of the Tinker Bell movies and paid attention to the way that the fairies flew and what happened when they landed. I wanted to create something that was organic to the character and the storyline in the movie that also went along with her movements," Ken Paves continues.

Paves worked diligently to create fluidity in Periwinkle's hairstyle. "I wanted organic movement. And the wigs! I forget how many wigs I had prepared, and they were all in variances of shades," Ken Paves says.

"Ken Paves actually hand-dyed these wigs at home in his bathtub," Holmes says with a bit of awe. "We brought in a model to wear the wig, and he cut the hair and styled it so that our digital artists who were actually building Periwinkle could literally see how to put the hairstyle together. So it was a fantastic collaboration."

"When Peggy and I talked, we discussed how Periwinkle's hair would be icy, but it wouldn't be silver and it would be kind of transparent," Ken Paves says. "So I spent days trying to get the right colour. I think the shape was most important, because to me, it felt like her hair almost froze into that shape when she was flying around. It had to have a natural and organic water-drop feel but with the solidity of ice."

"Periwinkle's hairstyle is absolutely part of her character," notes producer Michael Wigert. "It's fantastic. What Ken Paves was able to do with this sort of swooping up of the hair and with the bangs framing her face is great, she just looks beautiful. We're very impressed and so happy with how the character appears and looks. We can't wait for everybody to see her, because she's a breakout star."

About the 3D Stereo Design
"Secret of the Wings" is the first movie in the Disney Fairies franchise to be produced in 3D. To create the "Secret of the Wings" 3D experience, director Peggy Holmes enlisted the services of expert stereographer Vladimir Sierra. Sierra came to Disney with a background in aerospace.

Creating scientific visualisation in stereo for the ambitious James Webb Space Telescope (which is set to launch in 2016) provided him with the tools and experience to become a valued member of the production team. "I have aerospace and engineering degrees, but I'm also an artist," Vladimir Sierra says of his multiple talents. "I've always wanted to work in a field where I can create beautiful imagery. I also went to film school to formalise my interest in art. It became the right evolution for me to be in entertainment as an artist."

Peggy Holmes and Vladimir Sierra met to begin the filmmaking process, discussing different styles of 3D. "Vlad did a fantastic presentation to sort of teach me about 'screen space,'" Peggy Holmes says. "You can either come out of screen space or go deeper into screen space. I particularly love going deep into screen space. It feels like the movie comes to life, like a diorama," Peggy Holmes notes as she indicates her preference for 3D that is very subtle.

"The process of creating 3D 'stereo' for a computer-generated film involves shooting every scene with two side-by-side cameras in order to emulate the way that we experience the world visually. In other words, the way we perceive depth in the real world is a result of our having two eyes, so likewise, to perceive depth in a movie, we must shoot it with two cameras," Vladimir Sierra says.

"Secret of the Wings" being the first Tinker Bell title to be designed to be a stereoscopic experience, it became Sierra's task to create the tools and procedures needed to design the film in 3D. "I had to do this in such a way that our resulting model would be put to use for subsequent movies and that the entire studio could benefit from it," Vladimir Sierra says. "Before I ever touch a single scene, I watch the entire movie as it was designed in storyboard format, and based on the emotional beats of the movie, I come up with a 'depth script,' which is a rough sketch of how I believe stereo will best serve each scene for the length of the film. At this stage I work closely with Peggy Holmes to ensure that the stereo decisions that I make enhance the story she is trying to convey in every possible way. In this sense, stereo is no different from any other department. Together with art direction, animation, editing and all the other vital members of our team ... for all of us, our primary job is to come together to tell a story in the best possible way we can."

Among the many challenges the filmmakers faced in creating three-dimensional computer-generated characters was to stay true to the original 2D designs. "We spent a lot of time and effort making sure we did not lose any of the appearance and charm of the concept development artwork when we built the 3D CG characters and environments," says animation supervisor Yuriko Senoo. "It was essential that each fairy, sparrowman and animal's performance be based on their personality. We were careful to grow and explore the performances of the characters that people are familiar with while introducing the newer characters in the story."

It was of paramount importance to the filmmakers that the new characters feel as though they belonged in the same world as the classic characters, like Tinker Bell. Holmes, with the help of the art director, Ellen Jin Over, and character designer Ritsuko Notani, pushed the design of the new characters. "Our stereographer, Vladimir Sierra, adds another dimension to the movie so we can experience the world of fairies in 3D stereo," Peggy Holmes says. "From the perspective of our fairies and sparrowmen characters, the world is a vast environment. The stereo 3D effect helps bring us into their world and see through their eyes. I think viewers will enjoy seeing the details of the fairy world close up. We will all get to experience what it feels like to be a fairy or sparrowman."

Making sure that the 3D experience enhanced the special moments that take place between the characters required particular attention for Peggy Holmes and Vladimir Sierra. During these moments, they wanted the audience to take in the world presented in front of them in such a way that they feel physically and emotionally closer to the characters. Vladimir Sierra says, "It was very important to our director that our audience develop an emotional connection to the characters, and to this end, creating our movie in stereo allowed us to bring our audience literally into the wonderful worlds we've created. I can't wait for people to see what we've done in this film."

Many technological advances are being made not only in terms of presenting a truly amazing visual stereo experience on screen but also in the way that audiences can view the imagery. There is an enormous amount of creativity that goes into making a pleasurable 3D viewing experience. Making a movie in stereo involves a lot more than just looking at the world through two cameras. As stereographer Vladimir Sierra says, "I believe that the more the creative teams think about how to use 3D to tell their stories, the better the resulting 3D experience will turn out to be. Soon enough, people will be able to talk about 3D with the same degree of know-how that they do today when they talk about CGI in general. And when the technology makes it easy to look at movies in stereo without glasses, it's hard to imagine why movies would not all be in 3D in the future."

continued: www.girl.com.au/tinkerbell-and-the-secret-of-the-wings-part2.htm