Today Warner Bros has given us the go ahead to tell you about part of SnitchSeeker’s visit to Leavesden Studios back in March of this year to visit the set of
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We spoke with Dan Radcliffe (who wasn’t scheduled to film that day but came in just the same – thanks, Dan!), director David Yates, actor Warwick Davis, who plays the dual roles of Professor Flitwick and Griphook the Goblin, and costume designer Jany Temime. You can read their interviews below. We also interviewed some other crew members, and we’ll have those interviews up shortly.
Although we did see some filming take place, we can’t talk about that yet, or share all of the excerpts from the interviews, because they relate to Part Two of the film. We did, however, get to wander through some of the sets, new and old, which we can tell you about. We saw the courtroom for the Muggle-born Registration Commission where Mary Cattermole’s trial takes place. It is circular and very dark as the walls and floor are covered in black tiles, similar to the green tiles used throughout the rest of the Ministry of Magic.
Speaking of the Ministry of Magic, we got a quick peak at the new Fountain of Magical Brethren. For those of you who’ve read the books, you’ll know that the fountain goes through an overhaul in the final book, becoming gigantic thrones built out of slews Muggle bodies locked together like puzzle pieces upon which a witch and wizard sits. The muggle figures, nearly 60 in all, were sculpted one by one and then cast and assembled to create the base of the chair. Art designer Nick Dudman told us that the figures were based on quick sketches done in a “Stalinesque approach” to help give the final piece a totalitarian feel. The witch and wizard will be added in digitally as they would be too large to create in real life.
The Great Hall was completely empty the day we were there, save for two things: the House Points counter and a white peacock.
I mention the House Points counter because it’s something that’s always there in the back of the room behind the teachers’ tables, but you never really get a good look at it. It’s a really beautiful piece made of glass and metal, and the PR rep for the studio told me that it actually works. When it was originally made, set designer Stuart Craig wanted to have it be functional in case any of the films' directors ever decided to shoot it up close on screen. Unfortunately, none ever did. The rep also said that when they purchased the beads to fill it, which by the way are just ordinary tiny plastic beads like
these, they actually caused a shortage in the U.K.
Those of you who’ve read the books may recall that there is a white peacock seen at Malfoy Manor in the very first chapter of
Deathly Hallows. In case you’re wondering what it was doing in the Great Hall, its trainer often takes it to different areas around the studio to get it used to the hustle and bustle of noisy, crowded film sets so that it will be able to focus on whatever tasks it’s needed to perform for the scene it eventually will be used for.
Dan Radcliffe interview
We asked Dan Radcliffe if he could go into detail about the Seven Potters scene, where Harry leaves Privet Drive for the last time. He said that while it took about three days to shoot the entire scene, which takes place at the Dursley home, the one particular shot where Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Fleur and Mundungus all drink the polyjuice potion took a staggering 95 takes – the most he’s ever done for one single shot:
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Could you talk a bit about the Seven Potters scene?
Dan Radcliffe:Absolutely. That was originally one of the most daunting scenes to do because it was a highly technical visual effects scene. A lot of it’s more just painstakingly slow than it is complex. There was one shot that was 95 takes because it was … yes, you may well recoil. Basically, if I’m here in the scene as the real Harry, then we filmed say, seven or eight takes of me playing the scene as me and the keep the camera – it’s a motion controlled camera so it’s controlled by a computer so it can create exactly the same move at exactly the same time, every time.
And so, I stand there, we do the take just me standing there, and then the camera continues its move, which is panning ‘round. At this point it’s panning around on empty space. Then we do the next take and the camera does the same move but instead I’m standing here, pretending to be Fleur or whoever starting to take the drink [polyjuice potion] and transform and the camera pans around us all. So basically we filmed it each time in seven different places. That was a bit of a half-baked explanation but it got the point across. That was how it was done, but at the end of the day we were then shown the very primitive version of what it was going to look like eventually.
After 95 takes, you’re crawling up the walls anyway. It was the most gratifying thing to see how good it looked because it really does look great. Because you know how normally in films if there’s a scene with one person playing two people you’re aware that the screen’s been split. They’re always like this far apart. But in this scene it’s great because everyone’s overlapping and it’s all arms and hands. It should be really effective. It did take a long time to get right because if I stood one inch too far to my left I was, in fact, standing on the feet of the ‘me’ that was then going to be visual-effects-ed in later. It was a tricky thing to do, but ultimately very, very gratifying. And fun to be able to do impersonations.
There was no middle ground. They were either were almost so subtle you will have no idea which character it’s supposed to be or so caricatured and exaggerated that you can be of absolutely no doubt which character I play. It’ll be very obvious which one’s Mundungus.
With a slight French accent perhaps [for Fleur]?
Dan Radcliffe: I didn’t because I don’t think they’re going with my voice. I think we established that polyjuice maybe doesn’t change your voice, or that has in other films but maybe this batch is weaker. (laughs) So I think it will still be Clemence’s voice coming out of me, which will be interesting. It’ll be very good. I was just delighted by how good I looked in Clemence’s costume. It was fantastic, like a David Bowie outfit. It was brilliant. (looks over at one reporter’s notes) Stop saying I look good in girl’s clothes. I’ve got to stop eluding to that. There are all these rumors already, jeez.
Dan also spoke a bit about the scene where Harry and Ron fish Gryffindor’s sword out of the pond:
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Can you talk a little bit about the nude scene?
Dan Radcliffe: It’s not really a nude scene. I’ve done a nude scene (refers to Equus). There’s a fair amount of stripping off, but it’s only down to the pants [underwear], really, at the very most. There’s one scene where I have to because I’m jumping into a pool of ice. I’m jumping into this icy pool and, obviously, have to be in my pants for that. Jump in, locket tries to kill me and then Ron saves me at the last minute. I dress in a hurry. It’s not big, it doesn’t really worry me. It’s fine, and this time around they even heated the water, which was pretty nice. You felt cold out of the water, but when you’re in it, it’s pretty nice.
Dan stated that his favorite film from the series is
Order of the Phoenix:
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Did you have a favorite movie?
Dan Radcliffe: Well, so far, the fifth. Hopefully, that will be overtaken by 7, parts one and two. But at the moment, the fifth. I was actually quite relieved in a way that it remained my favorite after the sifth because I was so tired every year when you guys would interview me and ask, “What’s your favorite film?” “Oh, coincidentally, the one that’s just come out.” (laughs) But it was always the truth. So when the sixth film came out I was, “Oh, I can actually seem pretty genuine when I talk about the fifth.” It was an exciting moment for me.
Dan said he doesn’t like watching himself as Harry:
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Do revisit the films?
Dan Radcliffe:I see every film, on average, generally about three or four times, but never after the premiere. I see it once before the premiere, then I might see it again with my parents so they have a look.
They can approve.
Dan Radcliffe:Yes, exactly. Approve me as their son (laughs). “No, you’re crap.” Or, “You’re still in the family.” One of my favorite Simpson’s lines is when Bart’s in a golf tournament and he goes up against Ned Flanders’ son and Homer goes, “Remember, son, if you lose then you’re out of the family.” Then I see it once at each premiere, and then that’s it. It’s not something I do go back to. I see occasionally clips of them, and that’s more than enough to put me off.
David Yates interview
Director David Yates described the graphic nature of the torture scene between Bellatrix and Hermione:
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How are you working with the actors to get these very emotional scenes out of them?
David Yates: There’s this torturing with Emma and Bellatrix. Emma was really keen to do this torturing scene. I said, "It will be really great. We have to be really careful of how we do it.” She completely gave herself to the process. What we did was we set up a couple of cameras and Helena got on top of Emma. Basically she was writing ‘mudblood’ on her arm. She was scoring it into her skin.
We just let the whole thing roll for about three or four minutes. In that three or four minutes there were some good bits, and some not so good. There were one or two really powerful bits where Emma was able to just let go a little bit and forget that she was acting. She’s still acting, but she lost herself in this process for a moment. The screams were quite horrible to listen to. You could feel it onstage; everyone felt uncomfortable. Everyone just sort of stepped back a bit. It was a very odd energy in the room because she was kind of exploring - exorcising demons really - and serving the scene in doing that. It was really interesting.
Yates also delved into the grittiness that makes
Deathly Hallows very different from the other films in the series:
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These kids are on the road. They’re very small in this very big world. They’re away from Hogwarts - this very big, familiar comfort blanket that they’ve grown up with. They feel surprisingly vulnerable and fragile in this big, muggle world. I’ve shot it in a way that it’s not very measured. It has more rawness to it.
The style of Part One suits Part One. We always say these films are slightly about coming of age, but when you take these iconic characters out of that framework of Hogwarts and you put them in this dangerous world and they have to bury their first body, for example … There’s a moment in the film where Harry and Hermione dance for the first time. It’s full of proper sexual tension because they’re both teenagers and they’re at that stage where Ron’s left and there’s a sort of intimacy between them. So there are all sorts of corners that you turn because they’re young adults. And turning those corners in the real world is actually quite fun and interesting because the verity just seems to suit that.
Warwick Davis interview
Actor Warwick Davis said, if pressed to choose, he prefers playing the character of Flitwick to that of Griphook, although he admits it can get confusing coming in one day as Flitwick and the next day as Griphook, and occasionally refers to himself as ‘Flithook’:
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Do you prefer playing Flitwick or Griphook?
Warwick Davis: That’s a difficult question. Both of them are good, and that sounds like I’m being diplomatic. But Griphook’s such a more involved character. He’s a sneaky character. He’s essentially a villain, which is more fun as a performer. It’s lovely to have a villainous character. They’re quite opposite ends of the scale ... to choose one is really hard work. Flitwick. If he was somebody I’d want to hang out with. I wouldn’t want to hang out with Griphook. You’d never know quite whether to trust him or not. So I’ll have beer with Flitwick.
How long does it take to get into makeup for each of your characters?
Warwick Davis: Flitwick is about three to three and a half hours, and the goblin Griphook is about four hours.
Jany Temime interview 
Costume designer Jany Temime went into detail about the special wedding dress she created for Fleur and Bill’s wedding:
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So, we have the first Harry Potter wedding … can you talk about designing that dress? Jany Temime: Yes, this is the first Harry Potter wedding. They are getting at an age where they start thinking about marriage. Before that, we never had that problem. So, he’s [Bill] marrying Fleur. Fleur is French so the idea was to have a wedding with a little French tone. So not a Weasley wedding, which would have been tragically bad taste, but to have a French wedding with style.
Fleur was somebody really liking of clothes and very coquettish and anti-Hermione and anti- every single girl of Potter. She really believes in clothes and in being beautiful and all that. So I wanted to design for her a real witch-princess dress. How princess can a witch be? But I also wanted to find a very witchy thematic so I thought of the phoenix. The phoenix being a bird, maybe not of love, but at least of rebirth, and because love is eternal it’s the same sort of idea. So I have the two phoenix here in the shape of a heart, and the black so it’s not really a white dress, which would have been not good for a witch wedding.
We created lace which was handmade and cost a fortune. Actually then when one was finished we had to make a second one because it was so fragile that one couldn’t do. We had to have another one standing by. So we had this lace made, and I also wanted the feeling that it belonged to the family since twenty generations. So it’s an old dress. The lace is all broken. Then we had to find the right fabric because I wanted something very dreamy-like. Actually the fabric came from New York. The only organza I could find worth getting was coming from New York. So we had to have the first forty metres, and then another forty metres, and then wait. It has been a nightmare. But it’s beautiful, so it’s worth it.
It’s funny because Clemence Poesy just finished a French film, which is called My Wedding, a French comedy. And when she heard that I was making the wedding dress for her, she called me and said, “I hope it’s not going to be the same because I just spent six weeks in a wedding dress. If I have to spend again two or three shooting weeks in a wedding dress, I want something different.” I said, “I’m sure that the one we are designing for you has nothing to do with the one you are wearing now. I don’t even want to see it. I know it will be different.”
She also spoke a bit about a few of the other characters whose outfits she designed for the wedding, including Bill, the Lovegoods and Hermione:
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Did you pair the style or colors with any other outfits? Jany Temime: Yes, we made it purple and black. The wedding colors are purple and black, which are very witchy colors. And the Weasleys, they all have issues you cannot believe. The only one who is slightly looking better than the others is the bridgegroom because, I suppose, that his wife must have tipped him and said, “If you look like a Weasley, I’m not going to marry you.” He looked very, very beautiful.
In the case of Luna … it was written in the book that Papa was in yellow, and I thought that’s a very good idea to have Lovegood in yellow. So I thought, “Yeah, ‘cause Lovegood’s in yellow, his daughter should be dressed up in yellow. Then they’re a yellow couple.” It’s quite nice. Quite lively in the wedding.
[Emma] went from a child to a teenager to an older teenager, but all the time she kept in mind that she was Hermione. She never asked me for more glamorous clothes. Even when we were doing our cocktail dress, the red dress – she knew that it had to be Hermione’s dress and not something that she would wear herself. [It] would be more simple, and it shouldn’t be as glamorous or as fashionable; something that Hermione would wear. She’s good, she’s a good girl.
We will have our
Deathly Hallows: Part Two report up, plus more interviews, closer to the release of the eighth and final film next summer.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 will be released November 19, 2010. SnitchSeeker is readying for the November release of part one via a daily photo countdown on our official Twitter (click
here to follow).
SnitchSeeker's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I full set visit report 
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Awesome Report!! Can't wait for the movie!!!
I loved it when he told the reporter not to include the part where he says he looks good in girl's clothing 
