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What was your favourite childhood book, or books?
The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge. The tone is perfect; a seamless mix of the fairy-tale and the real. It also has a plain heroine, which delighted me beyond words as a child, because I was a very plain little girl and I hadn’t met many literary heroines who weren’t breathtakingly pretty. The opening paragraphs of The Little White Horse have stayed with me all my life. Goudge says that there are three kinds of people in this world: those who find consolation in food, those who find consolation in literature, and those who find consolation in personal adornment.
I know I read Little Women when I was eight, because we moved house shortly afterwards, when I was nine. Naturally, I whole-heartedly identified with Jo March, she of the burning literary ambition and short temper. My mother had everything Georgette Heyer ever wrote, so I whipped through those, too, when I was a pre-teen, and I FINALLY found a plain heroine there, too (Phoebe, in ‘Sylvester’, who also – hooray! - happened to be a writer).
Basically, I lived for books, and was sustained by literary characters with whom I could identify – I was your basic, common-or-garden bookworm, complete with freckles and National Health spectacles.
Ebooks - Nemesis or Genesis?The interview is available to read for free online beginning on page 6.
Genesis. There’s no point trying to hold back progress, but print will never die; there’s no substitute for the feel of an actual book. I adore physically turning pages, and being able to underline passages and not worrying about dropping them in the bath or running out of power. I also find print books objects of beauty, and I don’t speak as a precious, first-edition-mustn’t-crack-the-spine-type collector, but as somebody who loves a shiny new paperback, and the smell of second-hand books.
However, there are times when e-books are a Godsend. We forgot to pack my youngest a bedtime book when we were away last year, and I truly appreciated the magic of being able to download one in seconds! This summer will be the first time that I take away fifty e-books to read while we’re on holiday, rather than filling up my suitcase with print books.
Which word or phrase do you overuse – in writing or in life?
I’m not proud to say that it’s probably swearwords in every day life. Writing the Harry Potter books, I got sick to death of the words ‘passage’, ‘corridor’ and all others relating to my heroes’ endless movement around Hogwarts castle.
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What a fantastic, engaging interview. Dan is so incredibly intelligent, articulate, thoughtful, humble, and (in my opinion) gorgeous. When he speaks, I feel strongly inclined to agree with everything he says, just because of how well spoken he is. I'm actually around the same age as him, and can honestly say, in my experience of people in my age group, that it's rare to come across someone so articulate, cultured, and well-mannered as he is.
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7 March 2011Hi everyone
As you know, I love Brown and I love studying pretty much more than anything but recently I've had so much to juggle that being a student AND fulfilling my other commitments has become a little impossible.
I've decided to take a bit of time off to completely finish my work on Harry Potter (the last one comes out this summer) and to focus on my other professional and acting projects. I will still be working towards my degree... it’s just going to take me a semester or two longer than I thought : )
Hope you are all well! Thank you for all your continuing support.
Emma xx
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From TLC
Official details have been announced regarding the much anticipated Harry Potter Studio Tour at Leavesden Studios, which will open to the public in the Spring of 2012, WB said today in a press release. This tour of the sound stages and sets which comprise the world of Harry Potter on film will give fans "the chance to go behind the scenes of the most successful film series of all time and witness the intricate detail that goes into a working set to see first hand what the camera doesn’t show." Quoteage:
Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter will open in the Spring of 2012 at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the production home of the Harry Potter films for over ten years.
Tickets will go on sale later this year and must be booked in advance via a dedicated website http://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/ or through approved tour operators.
Featuring the authentic sets, costumes, animatronics, props and effects used in the production of all eight Harry Potter movies, the tour will showcase the British artistry, technology and talent that went into bringing this beloved film series to life.
Among a series of never-before-seen exhibits on the three hour long tour, visitors will be able to walk onto some of the most memorable sets from all of the films in the Harry Potter series including the iconic Great Hall, Dumbledore’s office and many others to be announced at a later date.
"Dark, SVP & Managing Director, Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden said, “While the Harry Potter film series reaches its highly anticipated conclusion this summer, its incredible filmmaking story and its relationship with Leavesden is set to live on with the launch of Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter. The tour promises to be one of the most exciting and memorable visitor attractions anywhere in Europe, delivering an experience never before seen by the general public."
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Below is a complete list of the bonus features exclusive to the Blu-ray release:
• An exclusive sneak peek of an opening scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2, which hits theaters July 15
• “Maximum Movie Mode”: An interactive journey through the movie hosted by Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy), and including other cast and crew, which also revisits important moments from the previous films to prepare us for the final battle.
• ”Dan, Rupert and Emma’s Running Competition”: Director David Yates provides commentary for the “hilarious rivalry” that the three leads engaged in while filming the escape scene from the Snatchers in Swinley Forest.
• “On the Green with Rupert, Tom, Oliver and James”: Cameras follow Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Oliver Phelps (George Weasley) and James Phelps (Fred Weasley) for a round of golf to profile the friendship they developed over a decade of filming Harry Potter movies.
• “The Seven Harrys”: A look at Daniel Radcliffe’s method for recreating the personalities of the different characters for the Privet Drive scene, as well as the visual effects.
• A plug for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter that includes footage of Radcliffe, Grint, Watson, and other cast members enjoying their first visits for the grand opening.
• A “Behind the Soundtrack” extra"Deathly Hallows: Part 1" will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the UK on April 11 and in the US on April 15.
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Warner Bros. today issued a press release announcing that London's Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square will both be the locations of the World Premiere of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2". WB also announced a date for the premiere: 7th July 2011.
London's Trafalgar Square has not hosted a red carpet film premiere before and WB writes
The cast, filmmakers and guests attending the final Harry Potterpremiere will begin the night on the red carpet in Trafalgar Square with the world’s media in attendance. Special areas will be reserved within the square for fans and competition winners from all over the world to see the actors and creators of some of the most beloved characters of all time. Cast and guests will then make their way to Leicester Square’s cinemas to watch the film.
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson is also quoted as saying:
For the last decade we've been gripped by the on-screen battle between Harry Potter and his arch enemy Lord Voldemort and this is one of the most eagerly awaited films in history. As befits a great British triumph, I can think of no better venue than the iconic surroundings of Trafalgar Square in which to stage the most spectacular of send offs for this dramatic finale
A quote from Josh Berger, President and Managing Director of Warner Bros. Pictures UK adds:
We are delighted that our plans for the finale of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will take place in such a spectacular venue. We pride ourselves on the creativity of our premieres and the space within Trafalgar Square will lend itself to being a magical experience for both guests and fans.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" is released in cinemas across the UK and Ireland on 15th July 2011.
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On the move towards a combination of partial sets and digital sets:
For Part 2, we’ve done away with Hogwarts. It was such a major job to stage the battle of Hogwarts, and we had to do it in different stages of production. We had shots with complex linking camera moves from wide overviews, to flying into windows and interior spaces. So we took the plunge at the end of 2008 and started rebuilding the school digitally with Double Negative. It’s taken two years – getting renders out, texturing every facet of the building, constructing interiors to see through windows, building a destruction version of the school. We can design shots with the knowledge that we have this brilliant digital miniature that we can do anything with.On the end of the Potter films:
We were on our own in a building that was being knocked down because Warners is turning it into a film complex. We left just before Christmas. I took a tour before the end. The sets were overgrown with weeds. I watched the diggers come in. The reality of leaving the studio where we made the films and seeing it knocked down was so sad. Now, I can’t think about it. I’m sure I will come summer, though, when I’m looking for real work. Hopefully, someone will say they’re starting up in the fall and I can take the summer off.On "Deathly Hallows: Part 2":
I think it’s going to be a roller-coaster ride. There’s an incredible pace to it. The audience won’t be able to take a breath. I hope it will be spectacular, as exciting as everyone expects.
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"This is the real me, but you won't be hearing from me often I'm afraid, as pen and paper are STILL my priority at the moment."
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LC: in reference to when you're doing all of these projects you've got the producer and the director, and in the case of Harry Potter, you've got the author, how does the involvement work? Who gets called in first? and how do you figure out the process and the collaborate of all those people together?
SC: the promise was made by the producer David Heyman to JK Rowling that we would be faithful to the spirit of the books, but she understood that we could never include everything that there would have to be huge omissions, and think she was very brave in allowing the films to be there own separate entities, she quite accepted from the beginning that books and movies could be separate and so we consulted her initially and she literally gave me a map of Hogwarts, a map of the world, where she did the drawing the first meeting in a hotel lobby and that became a massive aid direction help starting with her--so we consulted her throughout the series. When there were questions, the director producer relationship…the production designer would always address the director first. The initial conversation with the director to understand his priorities, and then i would prepare a sketch a model in the art department and go back to him and show it and then at that stage maybe introduce the producer to the idea so that they would obviously be in on what was happening, so it's really that dialogue between the director and the designer which is essential and which is …you follow that path wherever it leads…
LC: and so this after the script has been written and you're reading over the script. do you go back and whether it's Harry Potter or other movies you've worked on based on books or novels, do you read the novels over and over and over so you get a sense of some of the elements of novel or do you try to stick strictly to the script that's written--the screenplay.
SC: no. i think the background information is important as well. so quite early on the Harry Potter books were issued as spoken books as CDs so that helped. I would read the novel and then listen to it in the car on the way to the studio several times on the way to the studio.
LC: Oh, yes, they have such a life those tapestries so beautiful and very joyful which is a really nice element to those pieces…so in terms of the Harry Potter movies, has there been something where you've done everything and it's been filmed and you look at it and you realize it wasn't what you were after and you have to go back and change something?
SC: One big thing in the beginning the Sorcerer's Stone or The Philosopher's Stone, we were obliged to use existing locations quite a lot because we didn't have the time or the money to build the entire world. When we then would cut to a big exterior of Hogwarts those real places Gloucester Cathedral, Durham Cathedral, Christ Church College at Oxford all had to sort of be incorporated into the complex which was Hogwarts School. and this gave i must say not a very satisfying silhouette and i was at pains in subsequent movies fortunately the script had different demands and required different geography. If we had had all seven books from the beginning, then certain of those early decisions would not have been made those early choices didn't fit with the action in the later books. we didn't have that, so we used bits of cathedrals, bits of Christ church college, and then when obliged to make those changes in subsequent movies, i did take that opportunity to improve the silhouette of Hogwarts just to make it more magical. It was confused. and although it was always huge and complicated, it progressively get more elegant. nobody seemed to mind. they seemed to accept that it was part of a magical world and
LC: always changing
SC: yes things did change from film to film
SC: ..... The Lovegood house is a tower, JK Rowling says it's a black tower, in an empty landscape and that's exactly what it is, but i again take great care over the sculptural shape of that tower.
LC: but the interior is fantastic and crazy
SC: yes! and luna and her father both have eccentric tastes, we asked Luna--Evana, the actress to actually help us with this, she had painted, decorated the interior with painted decorations on the walls little murals and stuff so that was great!
LC: the actress actually painted that?
SC: yes, well she designed she proved herself very good at this, was it in Harry Potter 6 where she wore the lion's mask and she designed that, and we thought ah! we'll harness this ability again this talent again and ask her to do these wall paintings so she designs for them which we then reproduced.
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