"Half-Blood Prince" Set Visit Report and New Tom Felton Photo

HBP Film

We have a real treat for you today, as there is a detailed report now available regarding a visit to the set of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Originally posted in our Leaky Lounge forum, TLC reader Tash kindly sent along a fantastic report of her visit to the set of the sixth Harry Potter movie, where she gives some tantalizing details about things we can see in the coming film. Of note are details about Weasley Wizard Wheezes (including U-no-poo!), an intriging case containing vials of memories, tidbits on the Sectumsempra scene, mentions of Knockturn Alley, Borgin and Burkes sets, the orphanage set and more. Also of note is this new photo of actor Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy. To read excerpts of this lengthy detailed report, scroll down for more (slight spoilers) or click here to read the entire report here in our forum.

Many thanks Tash!

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Excerpts of "Half-Blood Prince" set visit report:

I saw The Burrow both the inside and outside sets; the outside set had been burnt in a Death Eater attack. The inside of The Burrow was amazing, the attention to detail. I climbed up the stairs to Ron's room, the bedrooms aren't there but the corridors have doors coming off them with pictures and ornaments. One of the doors had a picture of mushrooms on it. Downstairs there were two clocks, one with the whole family's names on and scissors for hands, the other was smaller with a list of jobs to do. There were even postcards written to Ron on the bookcase, howlers (or just letters like blue paper aeroplanes), a wizarding newspaper on a coffee table and children's painting of magical creatures framed on the walls. The guy showing us around said that it was the hardest set to build because nothing was straight or regular sized.

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We walked around Diagon Alley. Ollivanders had been destroyed, all the windows were smashed and it was trashed. The shops had complete interiors in case the camera caught a glimpse inside by accident. Quality Quidditch supplies had a Quidditch equipment display, uniforms on dummies and drawers full of clothing. Florean Fortescue's had fake ice cream sundaes lining the walls on shelves. Florish and Blotts had hundreds of books inside the doorway piled up and on shelves. The large books in the windows are actually Watford phone directories covered!

But WWW stood out in bright orange with a curved front door. It was the most wonderful place. It was like every dream you had as a kid. There were skiving snack boxes, puking pastels, U-no-poo, sweets from floor to ceiling. It had a set of stairs winding up the middle and was three floors high. The detail was amazing; the shelves were crooked with brightly coloured goods on every surface. It was truly breath taking. At the end of our tour we watched them filming a scene there. When you see the scene where Fred and George are talking to Ron on the stairs, he asks how much for an item, they say '5 galleons', Ron says 'but I'm your brother' and they say '10 galleons'. Well I am standing behind the stairs (out of sight) by the door! It took eight takes just for that few seconds and I was told they only complete 2 minutes of film a day.

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We saw Knockturn Alley but the lights weren't on so it was by torch light! Saw Borgin and Burkes that way. The vanishing cabinet was in the centre of the shop, it was dark wood with a slanted roof. There were lots of skulls and creepy looking objects – even creepier due to the lack of lighting. There were wanted posters on the alley walls for Bellatrix and the Carrows.

We were taken to the tank where all the underwater scenes are filmed. We went downstairs and there was a large window looking into the tank. It is the deepest tank in Europe and the smell of chlorine stung my eyes. The water was bath temperature and there were scaffolding towers inside the tank. Next to it there were a row of wetsuits and breathing apparatus. The boat scenes in the cave with Dumbledore and Harry were filmed here.

We couldn't get into moaning Myrtle's bathroom because it was locked. They filmed the Sectumsempra scene there last week. They told me Tom had to lie in the fake blood and water for hours. He had a prosthetic chest on which pumped out fake blood and for each new take he had to get cleaned up and dry his hair before starting again. There are some pictures floating about of the scene and they look like Tom is lying dead in a pool of blood, very freaky for his friends to see!

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The costume department was very interesting; I ran my hands over the invisibility cloak. There were a few and one had the velvet outside that we see on the films and another had green screen sewn into it. Saw Katie Bell's red costume, Bellatrix's, Snape's and well, basically everyone's. Luna's wardrobe was suitably eclectic. There were lots of black cloaks and Quidditch uniforms and pictures of the cast in their outfits with lists of their measurements hanging on the rails. They all have at least three of every item of clothing in case one is damaged. The stunt people's clothing is exactly the same as the cast's but in bigger sizes so that the protective pads can fit underneath. The actor who plays Neville is actually quite slim and wears padding to bulk him out.

They were filming a stunt on green screen that will take place on the millennium bridge. I saw Bellatrix's stunt double in place but they were waiting for more cloud by the time we got there and everyone had stopped for ice creams! There was a woman with black hair with a white streak through it and I was told she was the double for Narcissa (can't confirm that though, thought she was blonde?).

It was a beautiful day and most of the cast who weren't filming were enjoying the sun. Luna was having her hair plaited and other people were sitting about or playing sports. We were told that it's not always like that and sometimes it can be stressful (Ha!). Everyone there was so nice and took the time to say hi or tell us all about their specialist area. It was a truly wonderful day.