Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey

Author: Bob McCabe
Year: 2011
Genre: Film
Reading Level: Adult

Summary: A detailed look at the making of all eight Harry Potter movies, from casting to production design to filming.  Includes hundreds of color photos and production designs, and interviews with the cast, designers, producers and writers. 

Red Flags: None.

My Rating: A
I admit that when I got this for Christmas a few years ago I was excited but also daunted by the size (it's over 500 pages and quite heavy).  Maybe that's why it took me so long to read it?  But really the size is a bit deceptive because there are so many images and the actual text is perfectly manageable. And aside from that, it's very interesting so the pages really just fly by.  

As often happens when I read or watch behind-the-scenes stuff, I was just AMAZED at the amount of work that went into these movies.  So many people, so much money (though cutting costs was always a goal) and so much WORK.  At the same time, it's very clear that the people involved loved doing all this work and had great experiences.  Even making the book was, I imagine, quite a lot of work because it covers so much ground.  Naturally it doesn't include EVERYTHING, but I learned quite a lot.  

These are all rather disjointed thoughts so here's the takeaway: 1) Don't be afraid of the size.  2) If you loved the movies, you'll enjoy this book.  3) I loved the movies and I enjoyed this book.  It's a great journey through all the years of hard work and love that went into those movies. 

Harry Potter Day

Today is Harry Potter's birthday!  As per tradition, we celebrated by having a full English breakfast for dinner.  

As per new tradition, we dressed Babyface up and took a lot of pictures.  Why wait for Halloween?  Not that he'll be Harry Potter for Halloween.  I mean, he might be...I don't know!  Except I do.  Ahem.  This is the picture I posted on Facebook...

...and here are some of the other cute ones.  (The onesie is another iron-on--which I have decided is the easiest way to make something awesome.)
 

 

 

 

Story: We took all these pictures and then I remembered the pair of black shorts I meant to put on him.  So I drew that scar on again and we took more! 

 

Happy birthday, Harry!

Retroactive

Almost four years ago I filled out this list.  It's rather like a little snapshot of my life at the time, so I decided that it's probably time to do it again, as a lot has changed in those four years.  Lists are still my favorite and my best, though they are also my bane.

(PS: Let's not talk about how it's been four years.  FOUR!  I'm going to vomit.)  


8 TV Shows I love to watch* (I would say "like" after the first 4):

1. Battlestar Galactica
2. Firefly
3. Sherlock
4. Veronica Mars
5. Project Runway
6. LOST
7. Survivor
8. House Hunters/International

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. Panera/St. Louis Bread Company
2. Thai Village
3. Cafe Rio
4. Bombay House
5. Imo's Pizza
6. Comalitos
7. The Blue Bayou
8. Tarahumara

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:

1. Gave a talk in church.
2. Made this strawberry cake (two thumbs up).
3. Finally watched the opening ceremonies, along with some diving and swimming.
4. Watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
5. Talked to the fam. 
6. Pitter pattered on Quinn.
7. Worked a little on some arts.
8. Made and ate this stromboli for dinner (also two thumbs up).

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. Watching more Harry Potter
2. Our third anniversary
3. Going to Las Vegas at last
4. The Hobbit
5. Our cruise! (This deserves its own blog post)
6. Seeing Spider-man again (right, husb?!?!)
7. Pumpkin foods in the fall
8. More summer

8 Things On My WishList:

1. Sky High: Irresistible triple layer cakes
2. Spider-man! 
3. A shiny new tablet
4. A really long trip to England
5. A spot on Goodreads
6. A day at the beach
7. More Sherlock!
8. ...Spider-man?

This is the part where I tag other people to fill this out for themselves, but since I'm not the boss of you, fill it out if you like!  It's fun to read later.

*Drewbles and I couldn't decide if this means current shows or any shows, but I went with any shows.  Apparently most of the shows I love ended a long while ago...

I'm not sure why this is so funny...

...but it is! *snort*

In a non-spoilery fashion, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was....

...amazing.
...overwhelming.
...hard to watch.
...a little puzzling at times.
...emotional.
...bittersweet.

Whew. I should probably go to bed.

A Land of Harry Potter

So, to pick up where I left off, during our big Florida trip we planned to spend a day at the Universal theme parks. I'd been there once before and even without Harry, I wanted to go for a day just to take Drew on Spider-man (long held as my favorite ride) and Jurassic Park. With the addition of Harry Potter land, there was no way we could pass Universal over. When the day arrived, the bus service picked us up at our resort (about a half hour later, mind) and off we went. It was a bit of a drive and everyone on the bus was a bit annoyed when we had to stop at Sea World to drop off TWO people, but in the end we arrived and we were gleeful and excited.

We could see Hogwarts from the park entrance, but, correctly assuming everyone would rush there and leave other areas deserted, we first went to Spider-man (and walked on). I loved that ride so much when I went before, and luckily it was just as much fun as I remember. We then went along to the Jurassic Park area, which is always awesome, and walked on to that ride as well. Unfortunately it wasn't *quite* as exciting as I remembered (I swear the t-rex used to move). BUT it was dinosaurs and stuff so I was hardly disappointed. I will add that it was also wetter than I remembered, which caused me some trouble with my bangs. They dried all flippy and weird. Exciting, right?

Anyway, our detour hardly took any time at all and soon we made our way to Harry Potter and it was just like a dream! Everything was so...REAL and right there. It was crowded, but honestly, I didn't even notice the crowds because it was exhilarating to be there. Seriously, there was nothing that disappointed. NOTHING.

The food: We ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks and for a bonus, our lunch was Cornish pasties and shepherds pie. It felt like being back in our beloved England. We tried both the regular and frozen butterbeer (regular wins), and naturally got the commemorative mug. We also bought a bottle of pumpkin juice that was DElicious (the juice, not the bottle). When we were in the Disney parks we were quite thrifty with our food. We refilled a water bottle the whole time and we brought a lot of snacks with us. But here? We were ready and willing to give them any amount of money necessary for such authentic fare, and the same went for souvenirs. Luckily the food was pretty reasonably priced, but really, I would have happily paid $20 for a cup of butterbeer. I mean, how often does the opportunity come along, right???

The rides: The family-friendly Buckbeak-themed coaster was fun. You go right by Hagrid's Hut and Buckbeak bows to you. The much wilder Dragon Challenge roller coaster is also fun. I went on it before, and really, not much has changed except the queue theming--which on its own makes the ride worth it. The real gem of the place though is the all new ride housed in the Hogwarts castle: Harry Potter and the Final Journey. No, that's just what I always THINK it's called--it's actually Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It's amazing and SO much fun. First, the line goes through the castle, which is a treat on its own, and you see classrooms, talking portraits (including the founders), the Fat Lady, the sorting hat, Dumblydore's office--so many things! The ride itself is an amazing concoction of characters, creatures and places and is also a mix of video, motion and actual creatures (I mean like things that are real that you could touch [if touching were allowed]. Is there another way to describe that?). Truth be told, my head was spinning a bit after but it's totally worth it.

The shops: There are bunch of very authentic shops to explore. You could spend hours just in the shops (we did) checking out all the goodies they have. You could also spend a LOT of money, very easily. We spent a tidy bundle ourselves, but again, how often do you get the opportunity?? They're very clever to sell a lot of things you never see anywhere else, which makes it seem all the more like you MUST buy it, haha. Naturally we both got wands at Ollivander's but we also got a set of playing cards, a magnet, a photo frame that looks like the mirror Erised and various other little goodies.

Okay, that's a lot of words. Time for pictures!

I would like to take this moment to say there was a total lack of anything BSG related! I made up for it by ding-ing the prologue music as we stood in front of the globe.

It's a pretty sweet entrance. What do they got in there, King Kong?

I'm happy to report that Drewbles liked this ride a lot too. So fun!

Hogsmeade! Do please note the shirts we bought in advance especially for this day.

Hogwarts!!!! Seriously, it was so exciting to look up throughout the day and see it there, looking down on us benevolently.

ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY.
Don't touch it! It's a portkey!
This makes me look like a huge Sirius fangirl, but really, I wanted to do this to pretty much everything. (Though also I just love Gary Oldman and this movie.)
Oh please take us to Hogwarts! Never mind, we can just walk there.
Little bitty Cornish pasties! Oh Harry Potter, you really are magical.
It just looks so real. I mean, it is real. But REALLY real.
Lemon drop!
ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY. (No, that second straw is not going up his nose.)
Drew tried on Voldemort's wand for size.
I was a little taken with Sirius's (again with the Sirius, but I mean look at it!).
In the end, we had to go with Hermione's and Harry's. How could we do otherwise?
(When we go again, I might definitely have to get Sirius's.)
We tried on some robes at one of the Universal stores. Not only do they assume you will, an employee will even offer to take your picture with other goods! Nice.
Ah, beautiful.

I'll admit that I was a little sad to not be going back to Hogsmeade the next day. But going on Dinosaur first thing did lift my spirits.
We took hundreds of pictures at Hogsmeade, many of which I've posted on Facebook. If you would like to see them and don't have Facebook, I would be happy to email the link to any interested parties.

Until next time, Harry!

Come On: Catch Up

Have you noticed that I'm not very good at doing follow-up posts when I say I will? I've left a lot of things hanging lately, and even now I don't want to pick them back up again. I have newer, better things to write about!

But. I decided to be methodical and finish a few things I recently started. That's what this post is for. The second prong of this two-pronged attack at blogcrastination will be a list on the sidebar of things I will post about next/later. It will mostly be for my own reference and motivation, but if you are curious, feel free to look at it and harass me until I post about vampire baseball. So, where were we?

Ah yes. The calendar game. Remember when I posted that picture of the Harry Potter calendar and wanted you all to try to figure out what was wrong with it? Well. Cami was the only one to spot it, but it's hard to tell from a little picture. Yes, the answer is that that is TOTALLY not Bonnie Wright as Ginny on the cover. Let's look at it again.

Can you tell yet? Probably not. Luckily for you, we found it again and took some pictures. They're kind of blurry but hopefully you still get the idea.

Do you see it now? Okay okay, so after looking at this picture I can kind of see it, but I think she definitely looks different, especially around her eyes and mouth. Maybe someone was just having a really good time in Photoshop, but surely it's not a coincidence that two HP experts were immediately flummoxed by her appearance.

Next. Surely you remember the Disney challenge, the one that clearly challenged you all to point of not trying at all. Well, now I will give you the answers and you will wonder at some of them, but most of them spun out of a few things: 1) their names sounded so weird I couldn't remember them 2) I didn't know their name and made up one based on a physical trait 3) their real name reminded me of another name/word that stuck in my head more. Now to the list, which is lengthy:

The Black Cauldron (the one that started it all):
-Eliwoniwoohoo=Eilonwy
-Flitter Flooven=Fflewddur Fflam
-Creepster=Creeper
-The Gurgle=Gurgi

The Rescuers Down Under (*Joanna noise*):
-Marihootie=Marahute

Pocahontas:
-Naima=Nakoma
-Coconuts=Kocoum

The Hunchback of Notre Dame:
-Clotile=Clopin

Mulan:
-Ping Pong=Chien-Po
-David Lopan=Chi-Fu

Tarzan:
-Curtains=Kerchak
-Saber=Sabor

The Emperor's New Groove:
-Poncho Libre=Pacha

Atlantis:
-Rosie Perez=Audrey (I really thought she did the voice)
-Roach=Rourke

Lilo and Stitch:
-Freeloader=Lilo (it started with "Frilo" and went from there)
-Sharkboy=Gantu
-Wazowski=Pleakley

Treasure Planet:
-Dogbert=Delbert (because he's a dog...get it?)
-Camelia=Amelia (because she's a cat...get it?)
-Rockface=Arrow
-Mlerf=Morph

Home on the Range:
-Queenie=Mrs. Caloway (She's Judi Dench!)
-Meggie Moo=Maggie (Ugh, Roseanne. I should have called her "annoying.")

So, there you have it. And now I'm two topics closer to posting about more fun things.

Hallow's Eve: It's Festive

I really like Halloween. There are a lot of good elements--fall, candies, costumes, pumpkins, spooky things. Also, Nightmare Before Christmas. But the costumes are surely my favorite part. I think I have dressed up pretty much every Halloween except for one year about 6-7 years ago when it was on a Sunday and there was no where to go and nothing to do. Anywhey, for the last long while I have been Hermione every year*, and you can probably guess that D-Rew has been Harry Potter for lo, these many years. So this year, after considering Jim and Pam for a while, we decided to join our magical forces for the first time. We were extremely accurate besides blatantly ignoring canon pairings, but Ginny was not an option. No.


We went to the local Trunk or Treat and we had both the best trunk and the best costumes. And then we ate pasta and Sticky Fingers at Wingers. Then we went home and watched Edward Scissorhands. Huzzah! (If you want a more detailed look at our Halloween festivities you can check out the Mister's blog. When he posts about it. Which he will because I'm watching him type it right now. I'm going to beat him to the punch though, haha.)

Anyway, on a final note, I realized that day that instead of our old English standbys, it would have been seriously awesome if we had been these guys instead:



Penny and Captain Hammer! It would have been awesome and hilarious and moderately obscure. If you don't know what I'm talking about, kindly investigate the world of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Now we have a whole year to get ready, and look out world, next Halloween we're going to be Penny and Captain Tightpants Hammer and it will be awesome.

*Three Halloweens ago I had just chopped off my hair so I consoled myself by being a pirate. And two Halloweens ago I was also Pam. That's about all my branching out since, oh, 2002.

A Little Mind Game

Here's a little puzzle for all you Harry Potter fans. The Mister and I were wandering about Shopko tonight before going to see The Time Traveler's Wife (Eric Bana: your hair was so bad. You know what I'm talking about.), and we spotted a new "World of Harry Potter" calendar. And then we spotted something else...


Can you see it? Even better, can you explain it??

A Few Things

I haven't been blogging very much lately...let's change that, shall we? Here is a little meme type thing for your blog-reading pleasure.

One picture, one poem, one song, one quote, one item of clothing, one place and one Disney princess.

One picture.

Still one of my favorite movie posters. Just another reason why Prisoner of Azkaban is the best.

One poem.

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work--
I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and the passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?

I am the grass.
Let me work.

--Carl Sandburg, "Grass"

One song.



One quote.

"It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule."

--Gandalf, The Return of the King

One item of clothing.

From RocknSocks

One place.

I just finished reading Persuasion so is it any wonder Bath sprang to mind?

One Disney Princess.

Belle! She was always my favorite, which is not so surprising since Beauty and the Beast is still my favorite Disney movie. She's a bookworm--how could I not relate and admire? Also, she has good taste in men. Hah.

Fire: A Story, with Pictures

Where were you on the evening of November 14th, 2005? I know where I was--Wal-Mart. My roommate and I went and I bought, among other things, a small heater and peach popsicles. As we pulled into our underground parking we heard a lot of sirens. "Those sound awfully close," we said. Why? Because our apartment was on fire, that's why.

Here is our laundry room. Apparently our third roommate heard what sounded like boiling water and opened her door to find the laundry room on fire. She ran out and called 911 and the rest is history. You can see pretty clearly where it started, and the heater is on the other side, behind the door. We figure the heater set something on the trash can on fire, but the firefighter people never made up their minds. They really tried to blame on the battery-operated sweeper/mop thing that had no batteries in it though.

Anyway, they had to redo that whole room and put in a new heater and water heater and washer and drying etc. etc. Also, apparently our cable and doorbell ran through that room so we lost our cable and the doorbell stopped working.

Other fun things about this experience: they had to repaint the whole apartment so we spent a night stacking up all of our stuff in the middle of our rooms. Then the painters threw other stuff on top of it, which was cool (they also broke the light in the dining room and got paint all over).

No heat! That's fun, right? Luckily I had my brand new little heater. I sat in front of that thing every night and did my homework. It served me well. Oh, and we had no hot water for a while too. We were kind of gross for a spell, but sometimes we'd heat up water on the stove to wash our hair.

I could go on and on about the wonderful things about fires* but instead I will list them all in bullet fashion:

• No cable. I really missed coming home and flipping channels.
  
• Soot gets evvvvvvverywhere. I still found it places almost a year later when I moved.
  
• Smoke smells bad. Which made us smell bad. We were very dirty, smelly, cold people for about a month. Oh, and we couldn't do laundry so our clothes smelled too.
  

There were some good things too. Truth be told, I get a little nostalgic about that long, cold, dirty month. Partly because I get nostalgic about everything and partly because we got Goblet of Fire as a reward for our trials. It was a good reward. Also, we got our rent cut in half for that month. I bought Dear Frankie with my fire money.

Finally, I will give you one last factoid. Today I happened to be wearing the same sweater I was wearing that night. The cuffs got rather blackened from walking around and packing up my stuff for the night, and they are still a bit dingy. Can you tell? They are, even if you can't tell:
*Just for the record, I know our fire really wasn't that bad. We didn't lose anything more valuable than our random laundry room items like soap and spare lightbulbs. Plus, we didn't have pay for any of the fixing. So really...it wasn't that bad. Just saying...I know I'm a lucky duck.

This is Not Exciting

Sometimes during the school year I think to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice to get sick, and not feel obligated to do anything productive for three days?" But then when I do get sick I remember how boring, frustrating and vexing being sick really is. Being able to watch four hours of The Office is not so much consolation when it feels like your body has turned against you. I will say that the most I have ever enjoyed being sick was two summers ago when I had a stomach bug and I spent two days rewatching the first season of Battlestar Galactica. Maybe that was because I got out of French class for those two days, but the world may never know for sure. Either way, as I lay here with my Kleenex, medicine, and one of the cats, I am thinking very fondly of those stomach flu days.

Since the theme for today is laying in bed with only Vera (ie, pink laptop) to entertain me, now would seem to be an appropriate time to introduce one of the best friends you could ever find on the Internet:

The Office! Firefly! Chuck! Ghostbusters! The Fifth Element! Buffy the Vampire Slayer! It's all there, it's all legal, and it's all brought to you with limited commercial interruptions! As an added bonus, I checked today and now you can watch all of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog! Awesome!

And on a final note, I just watched the new teaser for Half-Blood Prince and it was so great that I'll have to make a separate blog just about that. Sweet!

Oh, the Craftiness of Me!

Last night I found myself gluing buttons to a picture frame. It was very exciting, but even more exciting was gluing buttons to magnets (courtesy of La Dolcezza). Who knew there was a whole word of one-of-a-kind magnets, waiting to be made with only glue, buttons and my brain? This got me thinking about some of my other crafty exploits, and while they are not many, they are all pretty memorable.

First, here are my magnets. The heart magnet is fitting in very well with the crowd of wedding announcements on the fridge. And if I refer to the knight as "Sir Cadogan" well...is anyone surprised?
Now, here is something really special. Few people know that I like to make things with foil candy wrappers. In the past, "things" has always just meant legs that stand up, with the occasional full figure, complete with a Hershey Kiss paper scarf. This past Saturday I branched out and made myself some killer bling. Yeah, that girl on the TV is blown away too (if you know what I was watching I will make you a foil person of your very own. Except Marcue because she was there.).
As for the rest of my craftiness, well, it is pretty much used only to make Harry Potter costume accessories. My favorite is probably the Rita Skeeter bug that I made for the Goblet of Fire movie opening. Ingredients are as follows: a jar intended for painting, a fake plant from Wal-Mart, a fake bug from the Bean Museum, my roommate's acrylics, and superglue. Sadly, opportunities to carry this around are few and far between these days.
My latest bout of HP craftiness was for Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows. I had a friend who dressed up as Luna Lovegood, and of course she needed some earrings. The best part about these earrings is that the radish bodies are bells. Hello, pretty camera.
Now if only I had a picture of my Mandrake plant.

Also, if anyone knows the movie I'm quoting (in an adapted fashion) in the title, then you are very smart and smarter than all of these people (#3).