Production and Marketing Techniques of Harry Potter
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Units 25,26 Task 3 Lauren Rosenfeld Production and Marketing Techniques of Harry Potter 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 Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts 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 David Heyman, and stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson as the three leading characters: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. Four directors worked on the series: Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell, and David Yates. 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 Wizarding World. 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 Hertfordshire, 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.