books on his bookshelves

is a crazy amount but real-

ly, they are just old phone

books covered in leather

and dust! Something else

that is really cool is that in

the second movie when

Harry speaks parseltongue

to the door, the snakes

move by a motor and the

snakes follow a track

where the track leads to

the other side of the circu-

lar door.

“Welcome to the magical

and beautiful, Harry Potter

London Tour! Please if

anyone needs to, go to the

restrooms. And remember

no food on the tours so if

your hungry, eat quick.”

Anyway, back to reality. In

case you were wondering,

the reason for doing this is

actually because there is a

studio in London where

the films were taken

place. You go through all

the places and some sets

are filled with just props

and little knick-knacks

shown in the movie. What

I am about to tell you is

very top secret Harry Pot-

ter business (not really but

go with it).

One little fun fact is that

the Great Hall was made

in 2000, almost 3 years

before the first film was

announced to the public.

Another fun fact is that

there is a little container

that tells you the House

Points and there are little

beads in them, the colors

of the houses in each con-

tainer.

Diagon Alley, one of my

favorite places, is a wizard

street full of shops and

cobble. The mannequin in

front of the Wizard Wheez-

es shop, is actually just

made of white dyed felt.

Now, Dumbledore’s office

is the highest and most

magical floor of Hogwarts.

He is on the top floor be-

cause of his love for the

sky and Astronomy. You

probably think that all the

Remember when Harry

just got his wand and there

was a big scene of light and

smoke? Well, to make it

look so magical, the

filmmakers just slowed

down the film, blew a fan,

made some sparks and

lights come out of the wand

and BAM! You have your-

self the dramatic wand

choosing scene.

Something else quiet in-

teresting is that the Invisi-

bility Cloak is made by a

green screen but there are

several cloaks for many

different scenes and abili-

ties.

The grandfather clock in

the Weasley’s home is

made by a grandfather

clock with spinning and

moving gadgets on the

bottom of the clock, with

scissors as the clock hands

and pictures of the Wea-

T H E M A G I C I N T H E F I L M

Ask questions if you

have any and I will see if

I can answer them. I

might not know every-

thing but I have been

studying.

If you are really interest-

ed, than go check out

the set yourself. Ask

your parents if you can

take a trip to London

and see all the amazing

stuff they have waiting

for you there.

S O M E C O O L S P E C I A L E F F E C T S

T H E M A K I N G O F H A R R Y

P O T T E R 2-23-15

‘s on the scissor handle.

The Hungarian Horntail

was actually made into a

real size model that is

forty feet long and has a

seventy foot wingspan. It

can belch fire at a dis-

tance of thirty feet. It was-

n’t used a lot except for

the part when Harry Potter

first sees the dragon.

Daniel Radcliff who plays

Harry Potter, did some of

his own stunts. Once, he

had to fall of a wire forty

feet in the air. The Golden

Egg that Harry needed to

get was designed by

Miraphora Mina. If you

didn’t notice all ready, the

outer shell of the egg

has an ancient looking

city engraved on it. To

open the egg, you spin

the small owl head on

the top of the egg and

the shell springs apart.

When Harry goes to the

Prefect bathroom to find

out the egg clue, he is

amazed by all the differ-

ent colored water and

fountains. He also sees a

moving painting of a mer-

maid designed by Adam

Brockbank.

of everyone getting on

their outfit and looking

pretty, but this is one of

the movies that makes

peoples face’s ugly with

makeup.

There is also some ma-

chines in the film. Like

when you see Dobby,

there is a machine and a

mask and all this stuff just

for Dobby. Also, Hagrid’s

This is also something not

really in the category of

Special Effects but this is

still in the category of what

you see on film. Practical-

ly all of the goblins in Harry

Potter wear masks. Then

there is Voldemort’s face

that is pale so that had

some makeup jobs on it

too. But whenever you

think of a movie, you think

head is a big subject. He

has a robot head for some

scenes but we will get into

that topic more, later.

C O N T I N U E D

M A K E U P

Voldemort’s face. I hope

you didn't think that was

his actual nose. They put

a lot of small, colorful dots

on his face, and then later

they did stuff on the com-

puter to make his nose

vanish.

T H E C O S T U M E S

I know you guys might not

think that this is really in

the category of Special

Effects, but a lot of movies

do stuff to the costumes

on the computer like the

Invisibility Cloak. They set

up a green screen and

everything just for the

cloak. I am sure nobody

even notices anything

suspicious in the movies

the first time you saw it.

Another example would be

Page 2 T H E M A K I N G O F H A R R Y P O T T E R

Hagrid, to me, is one of

the most complicated

person they had to make.

First of all, it is really hard

to find someone so tall

and still gives the image

for Hagrid. So, there are

two actors for Hagrid.

When you see him walking

and you can see all of him,

then they used a really tall

man named Martin Bay-

field who is 6’10”. When

they shoot an up-close

scene, they use Robbie

Coltrane. Robbie is 6’1”

but still, I think, the best

actor for Hagrid. Now for

some reason, after all of

this, the filmmakers made

a Hagrid robot head. They

needed the head for when

they were shooting from

far away but could still see

his face. They just wanted

Hagrid to be spot on, and

he was.

ters in Harry Potter and try

to collect all the little stuff

and information in the

chapter. You can collect

chocolate frogs, and buy

all the supplies you need

for the year at Diagon Al-

ley. I hope you try it out

and get really interested.

If you aren't a Harry Potter

fan but want to be, than I

suggest you read the

I know some Harry Potter

fans are sad to see Harry

Potter leave, but J.K. Rowl-

ing is still making books.

Also, she has made a web-

site called Pottermore.

Inside you can get sorted

into a house by taking a

test and can see what type

of wand you would get.

You go through the chap-

books before seeing the

movies so you understand

better. I hope you en-

joyed!

H A G R I D

E X T R A S

Dumbledore. There was a

lot of members taking part

in Harry Potter and they all

did wonderful in my opin-

ion.

C A S T

Now I just want to throw in

a couple of facts about the

cast. There is never really

a lot of extras in Harry

Potter except for the Di-

agon Alley scene in Harry

Potter and the Sorcerer’s

Stone. But there is a lot of

characters that you know

about. You have the trio

which includes Harry, Ron,

and Hermione. Then you

have some Professors like

Snape, McGonagall, and

Page 3