The Borrowers was a completely different kind of effects job — a miniature-scale fantasy comedy starring John Goodman, Jim Broadbent, Celia Imrie and, once again, Mark Williams, who was always great fun to work with.

The whole film depended on convincing the audience that the Borrowers really were only a few inches tall, and that meant working very closely with the art department and camera crew to make the illusion work practically.

We built and rigged oversized props and environments, created mechanical gags and carefully choreographed the action around forced perspective, scale and camera position. What surprised me most was just how much could be achieved without relying on visual effects. A huge amount of what you see in the film was done in camera, using clever construction, precise positioning and some very inventive filmmaking techniques.

For me, it was a real education. It taught me a great deal about how practical effects, set design and camera can work together to create something that appears impossible, without the audience ever really seeing the trick.

A very playful film to work on, but technically extremely precise — and one that gave me a much better understanding of just how powerful a well-designed in-camera effect can be.

Thinking back the shooting crew on this film were all nuts, so many really characters. I remember this film fondly.