Was there much reference to the original series? Starbuck's a woman in this one for instance?

Yeah there is, we put a lot of the ships from the original series in the all CG museum we did for the show, as well as the original Galactica and Base-Star. Most of the designs were based on the original to an extent as well, but then updated to feel more modern.

Tell me a bit about creating a set extension.

We planned out most of the set extensions in the show before they were shot. We recorded beginning and end positions for the shots, distance to objects, lens info etc. We also marked how the lighting was used in the practical sets so our extensions would live in the same world. We used Boujou and 3D Equalizer to track the shots. One program worked better than the other for certain types of shots. The style of the show was hand held camera work, so we never had the luxury of slowly moving or locked off shots, so we prepared as best we could for all of the set extensions.

What are you working on at the moment?

A movie for Universal called "Serenity" which is a big budget version of the TV show Firefly, with the same cast. It is going to be awesome!

When will Serenity be on the screens in the US?

Serenity is slated to be released on the big screen on September 30th of 2005. We finished shooting a few months ago and are in post production right now. Firefly was a TV show created by Joss Whedon, (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Writer of Toy Story, etc.) The show was his baby, one he had always wanted to do. The series aired on Fox, and because of poor timing and the World Series pre-empting it multiple times, Fox killed it before it caught on. It garnered a HUGE following prior to the DVD release and once that came out it became the best-selling DVD on Amazon for months. Universal then officially picked it up to do a big budget version at that point.

Is Serenity Zoïc's first feature film project? Is it yours as well?

Zoïc has worked on several features since forming, including Spiderman 2, Day After Tomorrow, Van Helsing, etc. Serenity will be the first show we are doing 99 per cent of in-house with Rhythm and Hues and Illusion Arts picking up a handful of shots from us. The first feature I worked on was called "The Jackal" with Bruce Willis, ironically enough, with the work farmed to us at Foundation Imaging from Illusion Arts.

Are there any differences between working for the big screen and working for TV (apart from the pixel size and aspect ratio, of course!)

Totally! The models must be much more detailed. We are painstakingly UVing all of the ships with extreme care so they look appropriate to the big screen. We have to deal with Look Up Tables, (LUTs) for film, match clips, colour space, etc. In essence, it is a whole other world. Albeit one I love!

Thanks for chatting with us Emile and I look forward to seeing Serenity when it comes out next year! For more info on Zoic you can visit their website.