Producing extra features for a DVD can be as complex as making the film itself. Such was the case with "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," which arrived yesterday on tape and DVD (Warner, 161 mins., rated PG).
"We started very early in the production process with a huge collaboration involving 50 to 60 people," says Paul Hemstreet, Warner Home Video vice president of special features. "That was eventually narrowed down to a core group of five or six people, who met for nearly two hours every day." The DVD staff continued work during the shooting and postproduction of the second feature based on J.K. Rowling's super-selling novels about the education of boy wizard Harry at the ivied castle Hogwarts.
Hemstreet says that when the first "Potter" film hit DVD last year, feedback indicated some fans found a few features took too much time to navigate.
"This second disk is more direct, especially in getting to the deleted scenes," he adds.
The double DVD has a memory test and tours of the Forbidden Forest and Diagon Alley, with witches wandering through shops. There are also cast interviews and a long chat with Rowling and screenwriter Steve Kloves; even the author of the book, Hemstreet says, had input into the DVD menus.
Thanks to
NY Daily News for this intersting article.
