THE PREPARATION
Mounting one of the most ambitious parts ofHarry Pottertook a lot of work and ingenuity.
We had to approach it as if the audience was watching an NFL game for the first time.
The rules needed to be absolutely clear.
By the time we got through those meetings, we all understood the game.
JK Rowling’s own vague descriptions are very informative, very detailed.
We took her instructions.
ROBERT LEGATO (visual effects supervisor):[Visual effects] was not what it is today.
I created a beat sheet of the beginning, middle, and end of the Quidditch match.
We had to figure out how to shoot it.
What’s in the frame?
How is the camera moving?
We tried to create the feeling, as Chris said, like you’re at the Rose Bowl.
COLUMBUS:The biggest challenge was making these characters look like they were flying a broomstick.
That could potentially come off as silly!
JOSEPH:And we didn’t want it to sound too buzzy or electronic.
The brooms themselves wouldn’t have anything like motors.
It should be like the air going through the twigs that constructed the broom.
I would’ve loved to have been able to do that in the year 2000.
CRAIG:The design of the Bludger was a real challenge.
It [required] quite a close examination of detail, with the reinforcing steel banging.
COLUMBUS:At its height of intensity, we had three Quidditch stages going.
I would hop back and forth.
It was motion control, so it took a specific amount of time to set up each Quidditch stop.
It was madness to see.
(In reality, the culprit is Professor Quirrell.)
CRAIG:The spectators needed to be up in the air with the play to fully appreciate it.
It’s a very distinctive look of tall square towers…
The spectators [were watching the game all around them.
That was interesting and exciting move to execute.
Bringing the spectators up in the air with the players.
LEGATO:If you just saw the foreground, it would be incomprehensible.
We had to know how we were going to shoot the live portrait.
[Even now], I don’t really know what’s real and what’s not.
They kept adding in extra players flying around!
LEGATO:We missed our deadline because we had to shoot the story of the movie.
It’s the way we had to [do it] because of the scheduling.
The kids could work for three hours a day.
That’s all you’ve got the option to get them for.
Every day [took] longer than the normal, original schedule.
JOSEPH:We didn’t get the final visuals until a relatively short time before it was released.
We couldn’t shoot the Quidditch match until June, and the movie had to come out in October.
It’s like a three-dimensional chess game.
When you put the mosaic back together again, it makes some sort of filmic sense.
We’re trying to keep the game going on, in sound terms.
If there was a cheer, we’d have you look to where the cheer was.
We wanted to use sound to concentrate on Harry having a problem and Snape doing something.
Those parts of the scene are being isolated.
COLUMBUS:Jo was very specific about those words [Snape was mouthing].
She wrote those for him always thorough.
THE ENDING
Harry wins for Gryffindor by catching the Golden Snitch…in his mouth.
CRAIG:It was a difficult concept, really, nothing quite like it.
[I remember] the relief when it all came together!
COLUMBUS:I do remember reading [the ending] and laughing out loud.
I thought it was so completely unexpected and typical J.K. Rowling.
She takes us to a place where we’re always surprised.
I was obsessed with ending the scene as written.
JOSEPH:We never actually see the Snitch go into his mouth.
So it was a little bit of a cheat.
I had to listen to those voices.
