Behind the Scene with the Production of A Harry Potter Scene

When you watch Harry Potter movies, you probably only watch the movie and not think about the production behind it. David Yates is the director of many of the Harry Potter films, and he put a great deal of his time into every scene, most of which are only a couple of minutes long. Today, for The Hillwood Herald, I am going to watch -- and annotate -- one of the scenes of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, where David Yates turns a coffee shop into a tense battlefield.

You can watch this scene, with Mr. Yates narrating it, on The New York Times. Throughout this whole scene, there is a coffee machine running in the background to make the setting sound more suspenseful.

In this part of the scene, Mr. Yates tries to make this part of the scene feel uncomfortable, cold, and harsh. He positioned the cameras to be above the characters' heads to make the room feel awkward and claustrophobic.

As the men approach our heroes with wands, the coffee machine grows louder to indicate a battle arising.

In this part, a.k.a the battle, the director tries to remind the audience how dangerous magic can really be.

And, finally, in this part of the scene, Mr. Yates tries to make it as moving as possible. We are seeing the three wizards that we watched grow up throughout all of the movies do something very invasive. They're obliterating the death eaters' memory. He says that the whole movie is basically about all of them breaking out of innocence.

Harry Potter in a Hillwood-Made Video

This video I made was about the new Harry Potter movie, Deathly Hollows Part 1. I decided to make it because I was very wrapped up in the description of the movie. You can read my post about the film's director's efforts to create a tense moment here.

Also, here is a link to Animoto, so you can make your own video about Harry Potter or about anything else.

Harry Potter: No Where Is Safe

This new phenomenal Harry Potter film will without a doubt capture the hearts of thousands of viewers. In the beginning, there is an amazing music piece.

In the film, three little eleven-year-old wizards are now young men and women. They start on an epic journey to save the world and are determined to finish it. On this journey, there is no more supervision no more safe Hogwarts and now that Voldemort is back "no where is safe."

There is no turning back now that they have embarked on a dangerous journey to find the many horocruxes (parts of Voldemorts soul) and to kill Lord Voldemort himself.

Will they succeed on this tremendous journey? When they are on this quest all they have is each other.

Post your comments about the film in the comments section after this post.

Harry Potter: Scene Anatomy

Last night at midnight Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows opened in theaters.

In one scene Harry, Hermione, and Ron are in a coffee shop in the muggle world. They had just escaped Death Eaters (Lord Voldemorts followers) and are planing what to do next. In this post, I will guide you through the scene with pictures.

In this picture, Yates, the director, is trying to make it uncomfortable and cold. You can see that the camera is looking down on them. This is because it makes it look kind of frantic and claustrophobic. For The New York Times, Yates created an anatomy of a scene, in which he talks about why he did and why in the film.

Here (below), there are to Death Eaters dressed as muggles. They turn around and start a battle. Yates wants to emphasise that magic can be dangerous and this fight is more like shooting guns than spells.

In the image with Hermione, we see that she just shot a spell at one of the death eaters, and he is collapsing on the door. The bright light is the glass exploding.

Yates is trying to symbolize blood with all the red. The red doors, the red tables and so on.

In the scene with Ron, Harry and Hermione, they are standing there looking at a knocked out Death Eater. Hermione has to obliviate or erase the memories of the Death Eater which is very dangerous. Yates is trying to show the ending of innocence and having to use magic dangerously, and the wizards we knew when they were eleven are growing up in to very educated young men and women.

The Anatomy of a Film from Harry Potter's Latest Adventure

Student: Clara and Aylsen

Watch this video clip from the latest Harry Potter film on The New York Times. The director, David Yates, explains what his is trying to do -- both in terms of music, scene, and feel -- with this moment from the film. Write an article about what his says. Grab several screen grabs from the video clip, and caption them as part of your story. Each image should walk your reader through your story.

A Preview of Harry Potter

Student: Rubina

Write a preview of the latest Harry Potter film. Use The New York Times as your source for information. What are your predictions for the film? How do you think it will compare to the book? How old should a student be to see this film and why? And, finally, what do you think of the soundtrack?

Remember to include images about the film and/or book, as well as links to the Times and to a video clip from the film.