Telegraph Magazine: Meet the Crew Behind Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
HBP Film
Posted by: sue
July 05, 2009, 11:56 AM
The Telegraph Magazine has a new indepth feature on the creative team behind the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In a lovely rare feature, the newspaper features the men and women who create the gorgeous sets, amazing props and effects seen in all of the Harry Potter films over the years. UPDATE: The article is now online via this link, which has interviews with many of the creative team where we learn more on the making of various things like Aragog (weighs a ton, 18 ft legspan), props like the smoking cauldron (20 new ones in Half-Blood Prince, each does a different thing), even wigs (Dumbledore's beard is made of 6 different pieces, over the edges they lay on 10 different hairs for authenticity). David Heyman also remarks on how emotional Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling was the first time she entered on set and saw Diagon Alley visualised before her eyes.
347 Points
Blimey, i’m exhausted after reading all that. I was really noticing that the stars wanted themselves to look nice, because Hermione’s hair got less and less bushier. Emma obviously demanded it to not be back combed and bushy, but just curly. The Michael Gambon thing made me laugh. “he’s a very impatient man, i had to learn to apply the beard in 45 minutes, otherwise he got bored and fidgety”
And what made me smile the most, was when J.K.Rowling entered the set of Diagon Alley for the first time and was all emotional because it was perfect to how she imagined. It’s good that she stays so close to the books, and gives direction to the process. Cheers Leaky :)
AARGH the mistakes in that article annoy me! JKR is not Scottish, she lives in Scotland, and Mike Newell directed GOF not David Yates.
118 Points
Terrific article! Those folks deserve all the accolades for the hard work they put into each film. I didn’t know Stuart Craig had three Academy Awards. He should get a fourth for his work on this series someday; if not for HBP. then definitely for DH. He is a genius!
I do take issue with one thing, though. Why on earth did they put such massive spoilers in this article? First, the photo of Dumbledore’s office that clearly shows his sleeping portrait; then, outright stating that Dumbledore dies.
There are people, some of them film critics, who have not read the books. It is, in my opinion, a mistake to put such a huge plot point in an article about a film that has not yet been released.
3rd… AWESOME SCANS!!