Magic tricks of Harry Potter effects wizard (movie spoilers)
Tennant Stuart
publicising the premiere yesterday of the second movie.
} Magic tricks of Harry Potter effects wizard
} By GRANT ROLLINGS
} THE magic of the Harry Potter movies is down to a triple Oscar winner
} who most of the film's fans will never have heard of.
} Production designer Stuart Craig is the technical wizard who brings
} the character's world to life for the blockbusters - marshalling his
} team of artists, construction workers and computer boffins.
} Here he gives us an exclusive preview of some of the studio trickery
} he has conjured up for the new £65million film Harry Potter And The
} Chamber Of Secrets.
} Stuart, who was nominated for an Academy Award for the first movie,
} Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, says: "I've been in this
} business 35 years and I haven't done a film like Chamber Of Secrets
} before, with all its technical complexity and visual effects."
} One of the most impressive special effects in the sequel is the
} Chamber itself, described by Potter author JK Rowling in her book as
} "impossibly tall, absolutely cavernous".
} Leavesden studios, near Watford, where both Potter movies were shot,
} had two problems.
} First the crew could not build a high set because the roof of
} Leavesden - an old factory where Rolls Royce made helicopter engines
} until the Sixties - is quite low.
} Second they could not dig a hole to represent the Chamber because the
} studio is above a Tube line.
} Stuart, 60, says: "The Chamber really was the biggest challenge
} because of the restricted height at Leavesden. It's not really a
} proper film studio, it's a disused factory. To get round it we built
} the Chamber as big as we could then flooded the set so this enormous
} underground cavern appears to go on beneath the water. We had to get
} the water to be completely still so it reflected everything above it.
} The reflections worked beautifully."
} But Stuart laughed: "We only used a foot of water because we had to be
} careful we didn't flood the Tube!"
} Stuart's team includes 23 architectural draftsmen, 300 construction
} workers, four set-dressers, four sculptors, two scenic artists, five
} portrait artists, 20 propmakers and many other specialists.
} Telling how his ideas were made real by his talented crew he says:
} "I'd prepare rough sketches of the sets and draftsmen would do the
} architectural drawings. They then became the blueprints we would give
} to the carpenters, plasterers and propmakers who would bring the ideas
} to life. There was also a set-decorating department, which made the
} small props such as wands, and a graphics department of three people
} producing stuff such as labels and the signs in the bookshops. Even
} with these small things in the films you are looking at more than
} two-and-a-half-years work. We even had a broomstick factory - a girl
} called Tracey spent months and months making wall-to-wall broomsticks!"
} Creating the stunning sets, such as the Hogwarts' hospital wing,
} Professor Dumbledore's office and Professor Lockhart's classroom, took
} six months of preparation and six months of shooting.
} The Chamber set itself took four months to make, while giant Hagrid's
} hut was finished in about eight weeks.
} But not every visual effect is created in the traditional way.
} Animatronics - electrically-operated puppets - and computer-generated
} images are also used. In Chambers, new character Dobby the house elf
} is brought to life with computers.
} Stuart says that in a typical scene with Harry (Daniel Radcliffe)
} and Dobby, Harry would be filmed separately then married up with the
} computer image of the elf, so it looked as if they were "acting"
} together.
} He also reveals how computers were used to create Quidditch - the
} flying ball game wizards and witches play on broomsticks.
} He says: "We make our technical, scaled drawings and issue the
} blueprints. But instead of taking them to the carpenters you take it
} to the visual effects department who then build the bits to be shown
} in the film - like the goalposts or part of the tower - in the
} computer. In the three-headed dog scene in the first movie we made his
} paw with animatronics so the actors could interact with it. There was
} an animatronic version for use on the set with the live actors and,
} for the more sophisticated stuff, we used a computer-generated
} version. We also did that with the phoenix that is in the second movie
} and also the huge snake. But sometimes we would have to use a stick
} with a light on the end, which represented the eyes of whatever exotic
} creature it was. That way the actors had some idea of the physical
} space occupied by whatever creature we were creating and where their
} eyes should be focusing."
} Stuart, who was born in Norwich, started his career in theatre design
} after art school.
} His first assignment in film was as a junior in the art department for
} Casino Royale, a spoof of the James Bond movies.
} He won his first Oscar in 1981 for Gandhi, a second in 1988 for
} Dangerous Liaisons and his third in 1996 for The English Patient.
} After so many years in the movie industry Stuart still worries about
} not finishing ambitious projects on time.
} He says: "You start with an air of panic and want everything to be
} ready on the first day but the truth is it doesn't have to be. We were
} still building sets for Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets right
} up to the end of shooting. But I've learned to pace myself."
} Because of the huge popularity of the Harry Potter films, the props
} are worth a fortune.
} But Stuart has never been tempted to take any home as keepsakes.
} Instead they are all stored to be taken to a movie museum.
} Stuart says: "I think in the past a lot of stuff from older films was
} junked so it's nice that these things are being saved. Plus it would
} be very difficult to take home something like the Chamber Of Secrets
} set which is 250ft by 120ft."
} Only a real wizard could manage that.
} Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets is out on November 15
Ref: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/1,,2002502636,00.html
Tennant Stuart
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