How will the megalith be created?

In my previous blog entry I raised the question of how the megalith will be created.

Since I’m only a student without funding from a major studio or organisation I don't have the finances or resources to build a full scale megalith. Nor would it be practical to transport a large set piece to a location or even get it inside the University of Tasmania’s small studio.

Even large scale productions with millions of dollars in funding don’t create everything at full scale, instead they use scale models called “miniatures”. Wikipedia defines a “miniature” as “A physical model of a larger object used to represent it in filmmaking”

The miniatures are created by a team of designers, and then filmed against a blue or green screen so they can be composited into a scene during postproduction (I.e. when the footage is edited together). The Wikipedia “Bluescreen” article will tell you more about this.

Image sourced from the Coronado DVD
"Digital Effects: Before & After"
© 2003 DEJ Productions Inc

So why use a miniature rather than completely designing the megalith in a 3D modelling program?