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Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld

Production and Marketing Techniques of

Harry Potter is a fantasy film series, with eight films beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and culminating with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011). It is based on the fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels follow the life of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends and , all of whom are students at School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is the third highest-grossing film series with $8,539,253,704 total worldwide gross. It had a $1.2 billion budget, meaning it made a profit of over $7 billion.

The series was mainly produced by , and stars , Rupert Grint, and as the three leading characters: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. Four directors worked on the series: Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, , and . It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, with the main story arc following Harry Potter's quest to overcome his arch-enemy Lord Voldemort. A spin-off prequel series began in 2016, consisting of five films, starting with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The Fantastic Beasts films mark the beginning of a shared media franchise known as the .

It is part of the fantasy genre due to the use of magic, mythical creatures such as goblins, three headed dog, dragons and trolls, in a setting that does not exist. Through a high budget, successful marketing techniques and a niche story, Harry Potter managed to garner a global audience. Six of the series' eight films are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the highest-grossing film in the series and one of 31 films to gross over $1 billion. This essay explores the different techniques used, and how effective they were in captivating an audience over 10 years.

Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld

Much of the technology used to film the movies remained the same throughout, with the best equipment possible used. In 2001, the production company - Heyday Films, chose to film using 35mm with the Panavision Panaflex Millennium, rather than switch to digital technology when it became more readily available and common. However, in 2011 for the last film, the Arricam LT was used, still with 35mm film, because it was the best camera available. The film was then digitally transferred, in order to be edited on computers. Editing on computers was much more efficient and effective, even with the technology in 2001. Special effects were also available, via different computer softwares, which gradually improved over 10 years to be even more realistic. They also wanted to have the best quality shown in cinemas, so it was digitised and turned into 2K/transcoded for IMAX.

Digital movie cameras were becoming more readily available and popular in the 2000’s, when Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was being filmed, however the technology was still relatively new. This meant that crew would not have been as familiar with it as they were with the old equipment, and finding people who knew how to use the new equipment would have been difficult, thus they were better off using the old technology. Also, since the beginning of the 2010s, digital movie cameras have become the more dominant type of camera in the motion picture industry, therefore, it was too early during the Harry Potter films to make a switch. Whilst other industries such as television and music were quick to adapt to new technologies, much of the film industry still use 35mm today as many say it appears vastly superior to HD.

John Seale began as the cinematographer for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and for the sixth film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Bruno Delbonnel took over and got the film nominated for an oscar for Best Achievement in Cinematography. He decided to keep using 35mm film, despite comparing it to several different digital cameras. Eduardo Serra, cinematographer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Part 2 also kept with film due to it being more dependable and technically accurate. Although Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld much of the technology remained the same, David Yates, the director of the last four Harry Potter films, incorporated different techniques and equipment such as hand held cameras and wide camera lenses, due to the variety of locations.

Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the application of computer graphics to create or contribute to images, and was used throughout the entire Harry Potter series. Despite the film being part of the fantasy genre and in a different world, the producers didn't want to use too much CGI, as they wanted to make it as realistic as possible so it would be relatable for their audience. There were also other reasons why CGI wasn’t used a lot, such as CGI was relatively new and expensive in the early 2000’s. Thus, it would have cost a lot of money to have the software and hire experts to use it effectively. Also, due to the CGI technology being new it didn’t look very real, therefore, for the first film, the director Chris Columbus originally planned to use both animatronics and CGI animations to create mythical creatures, such as the three headed dog - Fluffy. For Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), the director Alfonso Cuarón wanted to move away from CGI towards puppetry, however, it became clear that it was going to be too expensive, and thus Cuarón turned back to CGI.

For the later films, even though CGI was more available, not much was used and physical sets were built, to remain consistent with the previous films and realism. For example, for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), for the inferius attack scene David Yates (director), spent months making them look more realistic. Also, Dumbledore’s ring of fire needed to look more realistic. As CGI is not a prominent part of the film as much as it could have been, it helps the film to appeal to a wider audience in the future when the technology that could have been used would now look outdated and old. This is due to new CGI technology constantly being created and looking better than the last. Thus, the old CGI technology would not look as Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld good and may deter modern audiences in the future from continuing to watch the films. There are several instances where sets were built at different studios, such as Leavesden by production designers, instead of CGI, such as The Great Hall. They were also originally going to film in an old street, however they decided to build their own Diagon Alley based on Tudor, Georgian and Queen Anne architecture. For the sequels, new elements were also creates, including the Burrow, Dumbledore’s office, Borgin and Burkes and the Chamber of Secrets. This all adds to the realism of the film, as it feels more like a real location for the audience, and helps to immerse them into the scene.

However, digital techniques had to be used with Voldemort. Paul Franklin, who was the visual effects supervisor, had to be edit out his nose, frame by frame, over the whole film, and the snake slits had to be added and tracked very carefully using dots put on his face for reference. Another difficult visual effect was Hagrid’s half-brother, Grawp, a 16ft high teenage giant in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). Due to it being early days creating digital characters, it was difficult for the crew, especially getting Grawp to look good and show emotion so that the audience sympathise with him.

Hogwarts in the early films began as a physical miniature model, however as technology developed over the 10 years, the production designer (Stuart Craig) for the last two films decided to use a digital model instead, in order to embrace the new technology. As technology improved, different processes changed, such as designing the set. For the first films, they would sketch ideas on paper, which would be given to a professional architectural illustrator for concept art. Then towards the end, the sketches would be given to the VFX team instead. Thus, many methods had to become digitised due to the whole production scale of the Harry Potter films increasing over the decade.

Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld

Leavesden Studios is an 80-hectare studio complex in Leavesden in , and was the main filming location for the entire Harry Potter series. By 2000, Heyday Films had acquired use of the site on behalf of Warner Bros. for what would be the first in a series of films, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. By November 2010, Warner Bros. completed its purchase of Leavesden Studios and announced plans to invest more than £100m into the site they had occupied for over ten years, rebranding it Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden. It is the only Hollywood film studio with a permanent base in the United Kingdom. The full scale refurbishment and renovation of the production facilities were completed and the studios reopened to film and television work in 2012. They also created two entirely new soundstages, J & K, for a permanent public exhibition called the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter, which was opened to the public in early 2012.

The whole series was filmed almost entirely in the UK, including Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, Glencoe, Scotland and King's Cross and St Pancras Stations, London (Platform 9 ¾). All these locations and more saw a surge in tourism, with many having Harry Potter tours for fans. The producers wanted to use a lot of real life locations so that audiences around the world can recognise/visit them, and adds to the believability of the Harry Potter world, and is good tourism for the films. The only filming location outside of the UK was in Ireland as the Cliffs of Moher, for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The uses and gratifications theory can be applied to this, with the audiences’ need for surveillance. Many people around the world, especially outside the UK can see different locations inside the UK and find out what's going on.

However, sometimes it wasn’t possible to use locations, such as Privet Drive, where the Dursley family reside. They began filming in Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld

Berkshire, on location at a real house, however, filming took longer than expected, disrupted the residents and was expensive as they had to be paid. Thus, the street was recreated as a set at Leavesden Studios. This street was chosen as it was represented a normal suburban area, which was real and the audience could familiarise themselves with it. Real locations were also used because it attracts a global audience. Many countries see Britain as a historical place with grand architecture and buildings, as seen in the films. Bearing this in mind, the producers tried to incorporate as many popular locations as possible. This also acts as further encouragement for viewers to believe that the Wizarding World is real.

Costumes were iconic during the Harry Potter films, they had the role of bringing a character together and making them come to life mentally and physically. The costumes varied from robes to gowns, and different colours symbolise different aspects of characters. For example, Voldemort, Severus Snape and Bellatrix all wore black, representing them as evil. Whilst other characters such as Dumbledore, wore grey and had a white beard symbolising his wisdom.

Several props were created throughout the entire film series of Harry Potter, which made the film more magical and realistic for the audience. Much time was spent on detail for the props, as they were a major part of both the books and the films, and thus the producers needed to make the audience satisfied. One major prop was wands, each one different for each character, to reflect their personality, and each wand in the Harry Potter films was developed with its fictional owner in mind. For example, Snape’s wand is slim and spare, with no embellishments, while Bellatrix Lestrange’s has a curve in it, like the talon of a bird of prey. These different wand designs, meant that each audience member could find a wand that they could relate to. The producers wanted to remain as authentic as possible to the books, and during the making of the first film, Daniel Radcliffe wore colored contact lenses, however, they began to irritate his eyes and had to settle with the fact that his eyes would have to be blue. Despite small aspects Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld like this not being correct, they made up for it with the actual production, to mirror the books.

Chris Columbus directed the first and second - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He was chosen to direct the first film in the series as he was and still is an established kids film director in both the UK and USA, and knew how to work with child actors. He was well known for films including Home Alone (1990), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) and Stepmom (1998), and thus a global audience were likely to see Harry Potter. After he directed the first two films, he stepped down as director as the films were changing to a darker style, and this was not his genre to direct. However, he stayed on as a producer for the consecutive films. David Heyman was the main producer of all the films in the series. The author, J.K. Rowling also stepped on as producer for the final two films - The Deathly Hallows.

Alfonso Cuarón directed the third film, Mike Newell the fourth and David Yates the fifth to the eighth. As the directors changed, the style of the Harry Potter films developed into darker and the chosen directors specified in different approaches. For example, the final director Yates was chosen by producer Heyman because he was "a big fan" of Yates's television work and said that "actors in David's television projects give their best performance, often of their career. It's important to keep pushing the actors, particularly the young ones on each Potter film. This is a political film, not with a capital P, but it's about teen rebellion and the abuse of power. David has made films in the U.K. about politics without being heavy handed”. Overall, Steve Kloves was the main scriptwriter for the films, but ultimately Rowling had the final say and had to approve scripts, which showed the dedication to the books and pre existing fan base.

Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld

The top billed cast for the first film were all very well established British actors, including Richard Harris (Albus Dumbledore), Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall) and Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid).These actors were present in the first film particularly because of the secondary audience of parents. Due to the films being for a young audience, the parents would be the ones to take their kids to the cinema and buy DVDs, and thus parents would more likely take their kids to see the films if they had an actor or two that they liked and had seen in films before. The famous names also helped to attract a global audience. The older generations would have seen the established actors, such as Richard Harris is Gladiator (2000) and Unforgiven (1992).

Whilst the child stars were the main characters (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint), they were not yet established or well known in the industry. However, over the course of the eight films they began to make a name for themselves. The audience also grew up with the child actors and made a connection with them, as they saw them progress over the course of 10 years. This is part of the uses and gratifications theory of personal identity. Blumler and Katz believed that some people may choose to consume media texts as a source of personal identity. The consumer could choose to watch or read something that helps to reinforce self values and behavior. In the Harry Potter films case, the young audience could see themselves in the young actors. Thus, as the audience grew older, as did the films and the main three actors. This helped to create a strong and dedicated fan base over the course of 10 years.

Harry Potter began with a huge budget for the first film with $125,000,000. This was partly due to a pre existing fan base, through the books, which were released in the UK and had success and went on to having global success. Thus, the producers knew that they had a passionate audience. Over the course of 10 years, the budget gradually increased, with the total of all eight films costing $1.2 billion, due to a larger Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld cast, crew, equipment and special effects. However, as this increased as did the revenue at the box office with a total of all eight films amounting to $7.7 billion.

Marketing is the action of promoting and selling products or services to an audience. When the first Harry Potter film was released in 2001, marketing was still necessary despite a fan base from the books, in order to reach a global audience. One major marketing technique was changing the films name from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This was done mainly for the USA, as it sounds more magical and exciting for the American audience, and thus more people would want to see it and a global audience would be reached. For marketing, the main three cast members would go on extensive press tours, leading up to the next film.

Despite Harry Potter ending seven years ago, today the biggest marketing technique that remains is the Warner Bros. Studio Tour. It opened to the public in 2012 and since then has welcomed up to 6,000 visitors a day from all over the world. It is quite possibly the only permanent filmmaking exhibit of its size in the world, and TripAdvisor reported that The Making of Harry Potter has been the highest rated attraction worldwide every year since the tour opened. It has developed a reputation as a must-see attraction for anyone visiting London. There is also The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios theme parks, which opened in 2010, which appeals more to American fans, as they may not be able to travel to the UK, although global fans can also visit. There is also a Universal Studios Japan which has a Harry Potter park.

Synergy is releasing a brand across different platforms. It is a successful marketing technique which reaches different audiences. Harry potter began as a series of books in 1997, which reached a variety of audiences from young to old. In 1999, J. K. Rowling sold the film rights for the first four Harry Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld

Potter books to Warner Bros. for $2,000,000. At first the film was at the cinema and on DVDs, however, a few years later Blu-ray became available and another platform to view Harry Potter. The DVDs also contained extra features such as behind the scenes and deleted scenes. Online streaming and digital download also became available. Due to the films being major successes, the franchise turned into a series of video games, on several different platforms, including PC, Mac, PS1, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS. There were many games from LEGO series, Wonderbook series and Harry Potter for Kinect. With more access to technology for audiences, a website was created, which contained information about the films, allowed audiences to purchase merchandise, view trailers and find out the latest news regarding Harry Potter. Soundtracks were also released for all the films, which was yet another way for audiences to have Harry Potter.

Also, in 2000 AOL and Time Warner merged in order to promote the first Harry Potter film. Adverts were shown on both HBO and WB, which reached mass American audiences. Articles about the film appeared in magazines and newspapers owned by Time Warner. AOL’s internet service was offering merchandise and ticket promotions for the film with subscriptions for AOL’s service. There were also many Harry Potter parodies and web series’, with the franchise holding the record for the most fan fiction parodies, at over 900.000. Major comic TV shows, such as Mad, The Simpsons, South Park, Saturday Night Live and Robot Chicken, have also parodied (intertextuality) Harry Potter several times. After five years without Harry Potter, a spinoff series was created with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016). It is a part of the Wizarding World franchise, and the first of a five film series. These different types of media synergy were very effective in capturing a global audience, as there were several different platforms, which each attracted a different sort of person to the films.

Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld

There were also several different forms of cross platform promotion for audiences to purchase, including personalised Hogwarts acceptance letters, toys, clothing, Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit, Harry Potter Cluedo, wands, pens, food, jewelry and more, which each attracted a different audience. These were all very successful in attracting their target audience of teenagers and kids. Live action role playing (LARPing), was yet another cross platform promotion. It put Harry Potter fans into the position of the characters themselves, so they can act out scenarios and pretend that they are in Hogwarts. One of the most popular LARPing events is the College of Wizardry in Poland, where fans can become a student witch or wizard and attend classes about the magical arts. They also explore the castle and meet the magical creatures that roam the grounds. Fans also LARP Harry Potter by playing quidditch, which has become a recognised sport of two teams of seven players each mounted on broomsticks played on a hockey rink-sized pitch.

Over the years, the advertising (marketing), become more digital rather than physical. Posters were a prominent marketing technique over the 10 years, with each one being released for each film. Fans could buy these posters for themselves, but they were mainly exhibited in public areas where a lot of people could see it in order to promote the new film. The poster was released in different languages all around the world in order to appeal to as many people as possible, and the style changed a lot from the first to the last film, with the first few appealing to a more child friendly audience and it progressing into a darker style and tone. For example, for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, it appears as fun and magical to kids, especially with the child actors prominent. Whilst the poster for the last film - Harry Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld

Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is darker, more sinister with action more prominent, again appealing to a now older audience.

To attract more audiences, advertisements appeared in newspapers and magazines, especially as this can reach kids, adults and seniors. The physical advertisements were most likely very prominent in the early years, as later on as more technology emerged adverts would have been online on different websites. This could appear on a range of websites from IMDB to Youtube, where the poster or banner of the film would show at the top or side of a page. This was an effective way of advertisement, as if the person was interested they could click the advert to find out more and learn about the film that way, rather than just an image in a newspaper or magazine. Many people, more specifically teenagers would have seen the advert around as the internet and social media was a growing platform.

Several trailers and teaser clips were released for each film, including theatrical trailers, which are longer than an average trailer. Normally, teaser trailers are released first to both make the audience aware of the film and tease what's to come, whilst the theatrical trailer details the plot. As the films progressed into a darker style and tone, as did the trailers, which informed the audience of the change from a kids film into more young adult. For the first few films, the trailers would have been released and shown on television and at the cinema, whilst short sound clips would have been played on the radio. However, for the last few films, the trailers would have been released in several places online, for instance on Youtube and on social media platforms. An online buzz would have been created, possibly trending on Twitter in order to reach a wide number of youngsters. The release online would have attracted a younger audience (teenagers), whilst on Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld television it would have attracted more adults. The trailer shown at the cinema would have reached even more people who possibly didn’t see the trailer on television or online.

Film reviews are a major part of media today and even in 2001. After each film, critics would state their views on the film via a different platform, whether it be newspapers, magazines or online websites. For the first few films, reviews would have been more prominent in newspapers and magazines, whilst the last film reviews would be widely available online. Specifically in the early years, the review would have caused conversation and audiences would express how they felt about it to their friends. Online reviews are more common nowadays, as it is more accessible for the general public to view, thus people can read several reviews on a film and decide if they want to watch it for themselves, rather than just going off one critics opinion, as everyone's opinion is different. Nowadays, there are also several movie apps, such as IMDB and , which allow for both critics and users review of films, with two general consensus scores of a film one from the critics and one from the users. For Harry Potter, all films are rated fresh by both critics and users, which shows the general view of Harry Potter to the public.

To conclude, several different marketing techniques were used and developed over the years to attract different audiences to view the films from around the world.