RS: I think what were trying to do as filmmakers is make a big, gritty, raw, epic movie and within that show things graphically in a way that they havent been seen in that world before. It was really nice to find new ways of telling the story. Everything in there comes from the story. All the visual effects, all the ideas come from us asking how do we show the mirror man? What does the mirror man like? What does he mean to the character of the Queen? What does that character mean to him? And just more rich tapestry you can build of a world.
One of the first things that I did was I went out and found a group of fifteen contemporary artists around the world and Id give them an idea and theyd start to sketch it. Id call them again, we kept up this kind of constant accumulation of imagery in which we created a bible. And then I made everyone who came into the film read the bible, understand the world and understand the mechanics of the world, the physics of it, why the dark forest is what it is, why the enchanted forest exists. What is the spell? What are the three drops of blood? Whats the symbolism? Whats the mythology? So once everyone had that, I think they really were able to go into a very rich world that was already kind of designed for them. Knowing that as an actor is like getting into costume. Once you know the world you know how your character fits into it.