With the DVD and Blu-ray release of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland the Disney company offered up many of the artisans behind the film for interviews. Here then are conversations with four of them.

Q: How did you get involved with Tim and the film?

Dermot: I've worked with Tim in the past on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but there was a big team of concept artists on that, and I never actually met Tim himself. He knew my work, so he asked his assistant to track the guy who did that type of stuff on the other film down, and he wanted to have a chat. It was a dream come true for me, because I'm a big fan of Tim Burton, and I'm a big fan of Alice in Wonderland. And the bonus was that, while I was having a chat with Tim, he said, "Well, where do you want to work? You can work here in editing, or from home or..." and then he said, "You know Arthur Rackham?" And I'm like, "Yeah, of course." Arthur Rackham is the 19th century illustrator of Alice in Wonderland, and I'm a huge fan of his work. And Tim was like, "Well, I bought his studio. Do you want to work in the studio?" So that was where I ended up working for almost a year. I was literally up in the attic like the artists in the garrot. It was great opportunity.

Q: Looking at one of the early pieces, could you the construct of Alice, as she is first approaching Wonderland?"

Dermot: What I did was I did a very quick sketch for Tim of what I felt the woods should look like, the feel for them which he really liked. And then I took distance from an edited sequence and there was nothing in it. It's important to me to have -- with all the things I design -- contrasting forms. Alice is running straight into the woods on a straight path and crossing her path is this straight tree and then off that you have these very curved shapes that the trees, twisting trees and twisting ferns. Of course, when you work for Tim Burton, you attempt to find spires and excuses for drawing them everyplace so that was the thinking there. And very dark and lines... menacing out in the field I wanted to go for. I did a much more detailed visual of the same shot and when Tim saw it he was like "Yes, that's cool" but he didn't need me to do that. He wanted me to do very impressionistic... I don't want to say simple, but minimalist illustrations. Before I arrived on the film there wer a lot of beautiful t-frames illustrated by some of the guys at Sony. And I think the problem with that is their's are so finished and beautiful it's a little distracting. So Tim asked me to come in and just do these strong concepts for the shapes and things she'd see in Underland.

Q: Can you talk a bit about incorporating the live action imagery into your artwork?

Dermot: Because the sequences were already edited, I had the luxury of working on what was going to be in the film which is very unusual. It's because I came into the production quite late I had that luxury. Again it's quite simply done. The painting of the various elements around her are very, very carefully placed. All these little elements, I tried to place so that it's a very kind of pleasing composition. When I design, I like to leave a lot of creative input to the person next along the line.

Q: Is the Hatter a concept piece?

Dermot: Yes that's purely a concept. It's just a moment that Tim was trying to think about the hat which was on top of the May pole... a symbol of what has happened. That didn't end up in the film, but that's quite a conversational piece. I love drawing to engage in a dialog with Tim on what he's thinking about the scene, rather than the previous image which was very directly drawn to guide the animators. Tim had in mind what he wanted for that sequence where the Mad Hatter's village is being burned out, it was very, very tricky to get what he needed because it needed to be quite minimal. I was looking for symbols to put across what had happened. Do you see that little skull under there? That would have never had made it in a Disney film. Maybe a Tim Burton one, but... I don't know what I was thinking there.

Q: You also did some design work on props?

Dermot: Very little. My role kind of became whatever Tim would throw at me. If he needed me to do a prop I would do the prop. In fact, I did another exact visual of the dodo carrying the flamingos in the croquet caddy, and I completely got it wrong. I had it that the pelicans were full of energy, trying to burst out of the caddy, and the dodo was being crushed by the weight; it was completely a different take. Tim came in, looked at it, and doesn't say an awful lot. He just went, "Ohh, ahh, no like this..." he drew what you're looking at very quickly. What's wonderful about working for a director who can draw is that he can explain himself. He doesn't need to say anything, he can just do a quick sketch.

Q: What can you tell us about the red queen looking down at the floating heads?

Dermot: That's quite an interesting one because I wasn't familiar with all of the script and everything that was happening. I mean I read the script and forgot some of it, but when Alice was jumping across the heads I got it wrong. I thought she was jumping across giant heads and not that she was tiny, which was kind of stupid of me to think that. So I kept drawing the heads quite big and then Tim would come in and go, yes they need to be a little smaller. And then I'd keep making them smaller and smaller and eventually I was like, "Are these supposed to be human sized heads?" Yes, yes, yes, but because he doesn't say an awful lot it took me redrawing it, and redrawing it, and redrawing it, but I was really pleased. Because it's a lock shot, it was almost exactly like that in the film. That's what Ken Ralston's team did, which was amazing; really beautiful.

Dermot: The shot where she's jumping across is a more finished illustration because Tim was going to the San Diego Comic Con and they wanted some artwork to show; so that was a more simple illustration I tightened up a little bit. It's quite important to Tim, when I'm doing these visuals, that I don't bring it up to a level of detail that's trying to mimic the film. For my own personal way of designing I don't see the point in that. I think designers are trying to inspire and help get to the final vision. I'm not so sure you need ever to pretend that the frame is the final shot, film sequence. I think Tim appreciated the fact that I paid a lot of attention to the kind of light and the mist and everything. You don't look at that and think oh this is a frame from the film. It's still quite painterly, which he really likes.

Q: How about some the early Jabberwocky images?

Dermot: They're actually very late Jabberwocky images, because they already had it done and were well on their way. Tim gets notions and ideas and he just wants to explore them and he said "Oh, have a go." I think what happened is the Jabberwocky that ends up in the film is very similar to a traditional dragon and there was decision made at some point by Tim that it wouldn't fly that it would walk through the woods. And then he was wondering if he needed to change the design completely. So, to help him think about it, I just did a couple of drawings. The one on the left is very much based on the Jabberwocky from John Tenniel's 18th century illustration from the original book. When I looked at that illustration, I looked at it as if it was a puppet on strings. So when you look at that, it should be hanging there as if the loose head and limbs have been held by strings. That's the kind of look I was going for. Also, because every dragon has been done, it's so difficult to come up with a new one. I just thought I wouldn't do a dragon; I'd do something completely different. And the one on the right, again, it's more like a demon or something. I think Tim liked them, but then they went with the original design anyway. Fun to do, though. Great fun to do.

Q: Can we talk a bit about your work on The Oraculum? That was a pretty important prop.

Dermot: Again this was one of those things where I was chatting to Tim about it and just said, "Well if you want me to I'll bash it and have a go." Originally we talked about doing it in a kind of John Tenniel style. Part of the problem is doing illustrations from a book work in the context of the book, but it's weird when you try to ape that style for something like the Oraculum. It didn't quite work. So what I did was I said Okay this thing is going to end up being a foot and a half or two feet tall by I don't know maybe 8-10 feet. It's going to be huge, so I'm not sure how much time we have. So I started on the sequences that I knew the camera was definitely going to be focused on. Obviously where Alice is looking at the Oraculum and the sequence where she's fighting the Jabberwocky. The idea was that it should look like an illustrator's version of events and not an exact copy of it. I could have taken the actual green screen sequences and traced the Oraculum illustrations over it, but Tim wanted it to look like it was an artist impression. So I did very detailed illustrations of the main part, and then for the left and right just illustrated whatever. I just randomly picked scenes or characters from the film and just kind of illustrated them in there in a way that the Oraculum doesn't stop at that point that you're looking at. It was really enjoyable to do. Then, late in the process, it was decided that maybe we should have a 3D element you can separate out the different layers of the scene. Which meant that the Oraculum took, I don't know, three times longer to do because I then had to cut out Alice and the Dodo and the mushrooms and put them on a separate layer and then illustrate everything behind her. So there's layered versions of the Oraculum where you can switch each character off and there are details behind, which was great fun to do. Again this project gave me a chance to do every kind of style that an artist is apt to do.

Q: And Oraculum artwork is also used as the basis for the Blu-ray menus?

Dermot: Yes. To have something drawn for the film which can have another life outside of it is kind of a rare opportunity for me. To tell you the truth, it's fantastic.

Q: Working with Tim Burton as many times as you have, are there any sort of things you automatically know to do, or is each film a different beast?

Colleen: Every film Tim makes is a new experience, there are no givens. Tim is one of a kind, he is really an artist and visually gifted. I'd say a graphic sense would be the strongest continuum. The collaborative process with Tim is a rare gift in the world of film.

Q: When you took on Alice, did you aim to separate these costumes from the Disney animated classic?

Colleen: I really didn't look to the animated version as much as I did to the Tenniel and Carroll illustrations; then I moved on. It was a challenge but really exciting to take Alice into a new Wonderland.

Q: How many dresses did you make for Alice and what inspired them?

Colleen: Alice had around eight looks, and multiples of most of them, so there were around 20 hand-made costumes. The script and idea of Alice as an exploring spirit really inspired me.

Q: What was the inspiration for the distinct red and white worlds of the two queens?

Colleen: For the Red Kingdom it was the playing card motif, and for the White Kingdom the inspiration was more Nordic meets Louis XIV.

Q: How close did you make the costume designs to Tim Burton's original sketches?

Colleen: I usually see the sketches later, as Tim does not just stick a drawing in front of me.

Q: How do you prepare to find the clothes for a movie, and why the right costumes important?

Colleen: Inspiration comes from everywhere: books, art, people on the street. It is an interior process for me. The right costume determines the character, helps the actor feel who he is, and serves the story.

Q: Which costumes did you find the most challenging to design?

Colleen: The technical side of Alice's shrinking and growing were very challenging. Stayne was originally not a real costume, but we couldn't quite get it right, so we ended up actually making it in order for it to work.

Q: What were the challenges of making costumes for computer generated and oddly-shaped characters?

Colleen: I love an odd shape, so all the bodies in Alice were wonderful fun for me. The CG element was interesting because so much of my process is in the actual draping on a body. I swatched all the virtual fabrics, trims, and buttons to help in the visual process and give continuity to the world.

Q: Can you tell us anything about your upcoming projects?

Colleen: I am really looking forward to Dark Shadows.

Be sure to read Michael's Alice in Wonderland (Blu-ray) review and listen to Judge Clark Douglas' Sounds and Sights of Cinema episode dedicated to the music from various movie incarnations of the tale.