sitemap
FOLLOW SNITCHSEEKER:

Email Us!

Members

There are 1141 users online including...
LindaBlulp , Evaxzf , Shawnxfb , FlixexNit

5 members
1136 guests.

Members in Chat:



If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   SnitchSeeker.com > Forums > Daily Prophet (News) > Harry Potter News


Harry Potter News Latest news and rumors about the Harry Potter world!

All News Forum Rules and FAQs apply. Click to view.

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
  #1 (permalink)  
Old 06-19-2019, 06:12 PM
masterofmystery masterofmystery is offline
 
Post Alan Gilmore discusses Universal Orlando Hagrid ride's creation, magical creatures

SnitchSeeker got the chance to speak with the art director of the Harry Potter film series, Alan Gilmore, at last week's opening of Universal Orlando Resort's Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, which he had a huge hand in creating from the start with Universal, Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling's creative team.

Gilmore chatted about how and why Hagrid - beloved by fans worldwide - was the focus of the thriller roller coaster - the immersive queue through Hagrid's 'ruins', the decision to feature specific magical creatures, and the thoughts of expanding the ride already. That can be read and watched below.


SnitchSeeker: When and how did you conceptualize Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure?
Alan Gilmore:
It’s a huge team effort – not just me. It’s a grouping of Universal Creations, the Warner Bros filmmaking team, J.K. Rowling’s team. We’ve all joined together in a very interesting way to help conceptualize this place. It’s new. It’s not in the books. There are snippets of this in the books. We’ve drawn from information that J.K. Rowling created. We’ve helped expand that and grow it. Our biggest idea here was Hagrid.

What would Hagrid’s world be? Where would he go outside of Hogwarts? So we created this new environment beyond his hut, a place that’s somewhere deep in the forest. It doesn’t have an identity. It’s an old architectural ruins, which are very common in Scotland – deep in mountainsides and hillsides. So we brought this ruins to life. It’s a place where only Hagrid goes. Most of the occupants of Hogwarts wouldn’t even know about this place. It’s been forgotten about for many centuries.

But Hagrid brings his students here and he educates them. He teaches them about creatures. He has his Care of Magical Creatures class here. The biggest creature he takes care of here is skrewt, which are something very new. It’s all about the skrewts and their existence. They’re very menacing, they’re very stange, they’re very alien. Hagrid’s being very strong with animals and creatures to nuture them. He wants to introduce them to us and show us this whole other part of the wizarding world that we haven’t seen before.

SnitchSeeker: With so many hundreds of rich characters in the series, why did you decide to focus on Hagrid?
Alan Gilmore:
We just felt he was the one to tell a story about. When we got together and spoke about what should the next place be, we focused on this little house on the edge of the world we created. Let’s look more at this little house. It’s an interesting place. And the more we looked into it, the more we found.

There’s a whole world here. There’s a whole world to explore. Yes, there are many characters with amazing stories, but we felt this was the one to tell right now. It’s the right time. It’s about ecology. It’s about nature. It’s about living simply. It’s about just getting to nature. Nature is so important, and I feel that we’ve brought nature into the theme park world here. We’ve created this very seamless place. In theme park parlance, you’ve got the queue and the ride, and we don’t really use words like that in the filmmaking world. It’s all one story. This is our own movie, in a way, and you are in the movie that we’re telling and creating about Hagrid.

SnitchSeeker: Can you talk about the queue and why you chose to feature what you did – even elements that weren’t in the books that you decided to add in?
Alan Gilmore:
Getting deep into the logic of what the place is, we looked at what these old ruins would be. They could be a college, they could be a university, they could be a functional place, a monastery … they could be a castle. What would they have? They’d have kitchens, they’d have halls – like Hogwarts, they have some of the similar spaces. So we brought those spaces to life.

You see inside, you meet Arthur (Weasley) at Hagrid’s in the … what in a sense looks like a Great Hall. It’s a very small version, a very medieval version, but that is what that room is. It’s dilapidated. There’s old furniture. Arthur has brought a bunch of muggle items in. He’s exploring, working on what’s going on with the motorbike. He’s trying to duplicate them, not sure how to. It’s a double act, in a way. It’s all about Hagrid, but Arthur is the one that he bounces off. They’re good friends. Arthur is very important because he’s the one that makes the motorbikes work, and that’s a huge part of this because it’s not just the magical creatures’ adventure, it’s a motorbike journey. So they join together with that.

SnitchSeeker: Tell us about the ride itself. How many times have you been on it? What’s it been like in both the motorbike and the sidecar?
Alan Gilmore:
For awhile now we’ve been saying that it’s very unique from each point of view, and it is actually very unique. I’ve ridden it many times and I love the motorbike, I have to say. I love the whole experience of holding the handlebars and driving.

It’s very ... the best word is visceral. You are engaged from the moment you leave this building and go out through the forest. It’s absolutely amazing. It’s so dynamic and so strong. In a blink, it’s over and then you go, “I’ve gotta go back. I’ve gotta ride again. I have to.” There’s so many things to see. You only see a fraction of what’s out there the first or second time. The third time, fourth time, you see more and more. You’ll have to ride this many, many times to capture it all.

SnitchSeeker: Compared to Forbidden Journey and Gringotts, this doesn’t have any screens so how does this ride compare to those?
Alan Gilmore:
Well it’s all physical. We’ve actually brought it all to life. Everything you see is actually there. You see Hagrid. You see the skrewt. You see the Devil’s Snare. You’re in all these spaces. They’re not media, they’re real. They’re there, and that’s very new as well. And they’re huge. They’re very enveloping. When you’re in there it’s like, “Wow, I’ve got to get out of this!” Luckily, the enchanted motorbike will get you out and save you. But yeah, it’s not about media as such. It’s a tangible, physical experience.

SnitchSeeker: Since this is an outdoor ride, what’s the experience day versus night?
Alan Gilmore:
I’ve seen both and I have to say night is very special because the lights of the motorbike illuminate the forest as you fly through. We’ve deliberately not put too much light here. It’s deep in the forest. There’s no technology. It’s not a habited place, so lighting is very minimal. The motorbike is your light. It guides you through.

SnitchSeeker: There are specific creatures on this ride and not on this ride – there’s no giant squid here – so how did you pick and choose which creatures to feature?
Alan Gilmore:
We worked with J.K. Rowling’s guys and started with the most important storytelling creatures. Again, it’s a story. Any story, you have to edit it and you have to tell the right story. This is the story we wanted to tell.

SnitchSeeker: Would you consider expanding?
Alan Gilmore:
You never know. We’ll see how it goes. We’re just about ready right now. As you know, we’ve been doing this for a long time. We keep doing more, so you never know what’s next.
Universal Orlando Resort's Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure is now open for the world to take a ride on.
Reply With Quote
Reply
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are Off



All times are GMT. The time now is 08:49 PM.


This Harry Potter and Wizarding World fan website and community is not endorsed by Hogwarts, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Quidditch, Deathly Hallows, Sorcerer's Stone, Wizards, Muggles, No-Maj, MACUSA, Newt Scamander, Video Games, Half-Blood Prince, Orders of the Phoenix, Goblet of Fire, Philosopher's Stones, Chamber of Secret, Pottermore, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Eddie Redmayne, Cursed Child, or any other official Harry Potter source.

All content is copyright ©2002 - 2022, SnitchSeeker.com unless stated otherwise. Privacy Policy

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
LinkBacks Enabled by vBSEO 3.3.2 © 2009, Crawlability, Inc.
Site designed by Richard Harris Design

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252