Graphic artists Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima opened up about the amount of input J.K. Rowling had in the Harry Potter film series' designs, at this week's launch of Harry Potter: The Exhibition in Paris.

SnitchSeeker correspondent Ana was in attendance, and asked, along with a few others, about MinaLima's experience in the series, including their favourite sets to create (the Weasley twins' shop was one), and how the author of the Harry Potter series loved their copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard - the one Hermione owned in Deathly Hallows - so much she kept a copy for herself.

MinaLima, when asked by SnitchSeeker's Ana about their upcoming work for the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them films:

Did you have some help from J.K. Rowling? She wrote a lot of things beside the books…
Miraphora Mina: Like Pottermore? Unfortunately that was before…

Eduardo Lima: Would be nice to know some of these things before.

Miraphora Mina: Occasionally we had to ask her, when we designed the tapestry for the Black Family, we only had a few of the relatives identified, we didn’t have the genealogical tree so we had to ask her for that. It was really nice because she straight away came back with it; she obviously knew it and didn’t put everything in the books.

Sometimes we need to ask, but sometimes just to show like when we did some key props like the Marauder’s Map, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the Daily Prophet, the Potion Book, we showed those to her but only a few props just to say, “Is this OK?” With Beedle the Bard she actually took a copy away we actually hadn’t finished it…

Eduardo Lima: Yeah she came to our studio and [producer] David Heyman said, “This is my favorite prop Jo, you need to see it,” and then she said, “Oh I need to have one,” and we said, “It’s not ready yet, you need to wait until we finish the book.”

She said OK and gave back the book and after two seconds she went back and said “I'm really sorry but I need to take one now,” and she gave me a massive big hug and then everyone was like, “What?” (laughs) She’s lovely.

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Miraphora Mina: (About Dumbledore’s biography by Rita Skeeter) J.K. Rowling wrote a very brief note.

She said, “I want this biography to be something like a cheap airport book,” and we were absolutely stunned because, in this world, how could we print something so artificial? And then we realised that actually that’s because the character is so…

Audience: Cheap ? (laughs and agree)
Miraphora Mina: Yeah, she’s sensational, so with the design of this book we choose to do that by using really artificial colors, techniques and finishes and the paper is really thin and you can see through the page, and the same with her notebook.

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Is there anything J.K. Rowling said no to, because it's not good?
Miraphora Mina: She was very detached from the actual film production, I think she was only shown things if the producers felt there was some questions

Eduardo Lima: She was very happy, she trusted us.

Miraphora Mina: We felt like Stuart Craig was our Dumbledore, and if we were not quite sure about how to finish this design etc. he had always an answer.

Eduardo Lima: He never gets angry either.

Much more to come from MinaLima's interview, including some of their best and favourite props and art to work on for the Harry Potter series.

Casey O

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