Harry Potter Film Wizardry

The last few Harry Potter companion books that I read were sadly underwhelming, but this one won me back into the fold! Designed by the Minalima team (who are also responsible for all of the graphic design for the film series itself), this book is a literal playground that allows readers to fully immerse themselves back into the visual imagery of the films and be inspired all over again by the story’s whimsy. Packed with stills from the films, behind the scenes imagery, and design artwork, I doubt that it would be possible to pack anymore information in - and yet, the writing team also held their own. Interspersed into the well-placed layouts are text panels that (for once) stay neatly contained alongside their visuals, and give us show more just the right balance of narration to retell the story. Much of the text is also woven with memories and personal stories from the actors and design team, so we get a real glimpse behind the scenes into the personalities of the Harry Potter world. Blended so artfully together, the book feels like a unique family scrapbook and really stands out amongst the plethora of other Potter publications that have been released over the years. Sure, we don’t get the depth of some of the speciality books (the art and design tomes are some of my favourites), but this book played the magical tone so perfectly that I am hard-pressed to think of how it could actually be improved. show less

This book describes the making of all the Harry Potter films, except the last one which hadn’t been released yet when the book was published. I’ve found it interesting not only from the standpoint of a HP fan, but also as a window into the modern movie-making process in general (at least, if they have a huge budget).

One of the things that struck me when reading this book was how much actors are apparently expected to put up with. For instance, in the third film there’s a scene where Harry’s Aunt Marge is floating away and his Uncle Vernon tries to anchor her and ends up lifted in the air too, with her eager-to-help dog latching on to his leg. When I watched this scene I was sure most of it was done via computer animation. But show more it turned out that Pam Ferris who played Aunt Marge was actually wearing a huge body suit, and as Richard Griffiths who played Uncle Vernon explains, “I was tethered to Aunt Marge, and we were lifted 30-40 feet in the air… and Ripper the dog was just hanging on with his teeth – to my ankle! And, boy, were they strong teeth! And as we got higher in the air, I was thinking, ‘I just want to die now!’” In another example of a rather cavalier treatment of actors, in the fourth film, there’s a scene where Harry steals an artificial egg from a dragon and falls down the castle roof in the process. Once again, when I was watching this, I was dead sure I was watching a computer-generated sequence. But as Daniel Radcliffe recalls, “Some of the stunts were a bit scary. I was on a wire, and I fell, I think, 40 feet very, very fast. That was terrifying… it was really scary!” OK, so he was on a wire. Was there no chance at all that something would snap or slip? Or that he would hit the side of the castle while hanging from this wire? It seems to me from reading this book that filmmakers sometimes forget that what they are doing is entertainment, make-belief, and just because a character was bitten by a dog or fell from the roof doesn’t mean that the same should happen to the actor.

Another thing that surprised me was how much time, effort and money gets spent on props for minute and/or unnecessary scenes – props that the film audience doesn’t get to see in any amount of detail anyway. For instance, for the first film “the props department minted a small fortune in Galleons, Sickles and Knuts.” Well, in any film, when a character walks into a store and buys something, do you ever notice what kind of coins he pays with? Similarly, for the second film “the graphic arts and props department joined forces to create the complete works of Gilderoy Lockhart.” I’ve recently watched this film again on DVD, and the scene where Lockhart gives Harry the stack of his books is shot from the side, so that even the cover of the top book isn’t visible. It could have been a stack of any hardcover books. Or take the one-third-sized model of the Weasleys’ home, The Burrow, which required six months of painstaking effort to make, just so that it could burn down in six minutes. Was it absolutely necessary to have this scene of the burning house which was later rebuilt by Mr. Weasley? Couldn’t they simply return home to find it in ruins or some few still burning rafters? And what about a one-third model of Draco Malfoy created so that Hagrid could lift him and take him to school after Draco gets injured by a hippogriff, without it becoming obvious that Hagrid is not of half-giant size? Well, couldn’t Malfoy’s friends manage to get him to the hospital wing, as he was pretending to swoon? (But at least Tom Felton was lucky that the hippogriff was played by a model and computer animation, and so he didn’t have to get injured for real.) I could really go on and on. The one other artwork I can’t refrain from mentioning are the individual wands with all sorts of embellishments created for various characters. In the books, all wands are supposed to look like simple wooden sticks. The woods differ, the lengths differ slightly, and the magical cores differ; none of this would be obvious in a film. What’s impressive about a wand is what it, or rather its owner can do with it, not how it looks like. My favorite is definitely Bellatrix’s crooked wand made to resemble a claw – because if she’d had a straight wand, we’d never have noticed that she’s “crooked,” apparently. Wands are meant to aim, and aim accurately in a nick of time, and obviously a bent wand would be a lot harder to aim, except at an object sitting still right in front of one, and would put its owner at a severe disadvantage. So what sane wandmaker would make a bent wand?

If all this makes it sound like I didn’t appreciate the art that went into the creation of the Harry Potter films, that’s absolutely not the case. I loved all the Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, Burrow and Privet Drive sets, all the magical creatures, and all the props that are actually seen and make sense, from the Horcruxes to Rita Skeeter’s fancy green quill. And I was happy to learn (from an article in Entertainment Weekly) that after the completion of the last film, the sets and props are to be set up in a Potter museum due to open in 2012.

The book itself is very informative and beautifully done, with lots of fabulous photographs. All the important settings get a spread, and all the actors get a page or two, except for the actors who played Tom Riddle in the second and sixth films, who don’t even get a mention! This unexplainable omission is the only reason why I gave the book 4 rather than 5 stars. show less

I'm torn between giving this book three or four stars. Keep in mine this book focuses solely on how the movies are created. I loved this book, they have tons of interesting things shoved in there from labels for potions bottles from Slughorn, to Educational Decrees from the Ministry of Magic, they even have a copy for the Marauders Map. They go into detail about character development, casting, set creation, etc. I never knew half of what I do now after reading that book. The attention to detail as far as set design goes, I always knew was great but finding out just how much time and effort was put into costumes alone was very impressive. I also liked how they decided what bits and pieces from the books would make it into the actual show more movie. My only wish is they would've included more things from the Deathly Hallows part 2. A nice book with some great things to play with if you're a true Harry Potter fan! show less

Packed to the brim with trivia and behind the scenes bits from each of the eight Harry Potter movies. The book also includes recreated piece of memorabilia, like the marauder's map, a brochure from the Weasley's joke shop, and a letter from Hogwarts. I loved learning more about how each of the different directors approached the story.

Simply spectacular. The photos, the interviews, the director's notes, everything you want to know about the Harry Potter films and then some. The best part is that almost half of the spreads include an "extra," generally a prop from the movie reproduced and made removable. Off the top of my head, there's the Maurauder's Map, a Weasley's Wizard Wheezies catalog, a Borgin and Burkes catalog, a Ministry of Magic ID card...the list goes on and on. I was most delighted by the section about how they film the scenes in Hagrid's hut (did you know that there are actually two?). Loved, loved, loved it. So glad I bought it.

A detailed look at the production design of the Harry Potter movies. The producers, directors and actors give insight on working with special effects, costumes, make-up, prosthetics, explosives and animated characters. Members of the production design team -- sculptors, builders, graphic artists, costumers, set design - discuss their roles and show what goes into making the world of Harry Potter look real on film.
Topics covered : how they make the Quidditch players look like they're really flying, the whomping willow whomp, the Ford Anglia fly and Moaning Myrtle come twisting up out of the u-bend.
My favorite sections were on make up/ prosthetics and graphics. Did you know that they are unable to make Ralph Fiennes look like he has a show more snake nose with make-up and prosthetics? They have to digitally alter his nose in every one of his scenes. The amount of graphic art work, much of which will only be on screen for a second, if at all, is staggering. They've printed thousands of copies of The Quibbler, and have shown 2 or 3 on screen. Not to mention the labels, boxes, books, proclamations and wanted posters.
Which reminds me - the extras. Included in this book are a mini marauders map, a Yule Ball program, a Weasley Wizard Wheezes catalog, labels and more. I've had to fight the urge to label things in my kitchen cupboards with stickers for lacewing flies and boonslang skin.
The book is predominantly graphics; photos/stills from the films/ filming and set building, story boards, artist and costumers drawings. Recommended for fans of Harry Potter or those interested in film production design. show less

A scrapbook-like book about the making of the Harry Potter films. This is very attractive graphically and includes a lot of loose extras, like booklets, stickers, a mini-version of the Marauder's Map, and Harry's acceptance letter to Hogwarts, etc. It has (very) short anecdotes from the actors, directors, and other production staff, as well as some details about the process of producing the different movies. It is very cursory, though, so if you are a die-hard HP-fan, I would suggest getting Harry Potter Page to Screen instead, since that one is much more detailed than this one. This is still a very pretty book since the emphasis seems to be on the graphic design and the extras, so it'll stay in my bookshelf even if I won't be reading show more it cover-to-cover again. show less