MuggleNet's Deathly Hallows - Part 1 London Junket Report

The penultimate film for the franchise has not shown a single sign of slowing down over the past decade. Rather, fan hype seems to be at a fever pitch.

With excitement building, MuggleNet was happy to be in London recently for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 press junket.

While in London we also also attended the World Premiere of the film where fans had camped out for over a day in order to meet the stars (J.K. Rowling, Dan Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint to name a few).

The films have what we can describe as two groups of fans: those who have read the books and hope to see their favorite scenes played out on screen, and those who haven't read the books and simply going into the film with the information they had acquired from the earlier films.

My first question to Director David Yates at the junket (mere hours after the World Premiere and cast/crew afterparty, as Yates tiredly noted) was how he decided what went and what stayed in the first film to only cover half of a Harry Potter book:

"I tried to avoid as much exposition as possible. For example, in the book they take a big portrait out of Hermione's bag and it gives us an enormous amount of information about what's happening at Hogwarts. It's scenes like that that we tried to pull out. We tried to keep the film as much as we could in the moment. But it was nice to include more rather than less because some of the fans were really upset that we didn't have Quidditch in the fifth film, and when some of the memories weren't included in the sixth film. So it was nice to include a bit more in this one. Basically I also felt like we needed to cut down the big camping sequence in the middle, because it goes on quite a lot longer than we do in the movie. So we've trimmed that down, distilled it down. They travel for months [in the book]. We travel for a few days [in the film]."

Since fans likely have higher expectations for these two films in terms of the adaptation, I tried to keep track of what was and was not loyal to the book. Despite having an extra two and a half hours to tell the story, there are still a number of times pieces of plot in the film aren't explained like they were in the book. For example, in the film Harry takes a look at his piece of the two-way mirror a couple of times. At no point is it noted where he acquired the mirror, what it does, or who he is seeing in it.

A second example occurs when Pettigrew lets Harry and Ron out of the dungeon in Malfoy Manor. Pettigrew's hand does not choke him to death like it does in the book. Rather, in the film a spell is sent at Pettigrew and it knocks him over - giving Harry and Ron the opportunity to sneak upstairs. I'm pretty sure this spell did not kill Pettigrew.



On the flip side, a small scene that was added to the film not found in the book was one where Harry and Hermione share a dance in their tent after Ron leaves. Yates explained how he came upon this song by artist Nick Cave:

"I listened to so many pieces of music for that dance, hundreds in fact, because I needed a piece of music that was poignant and tender but oddly uplifting. And I came across Nick's piece and I loved it immediately. It has that capacity to lift you up and break your heart at the same time. So we found Nick Cave and he said he'd be happy for us to use it."

Dan Radcliffe too was a fan of the song:

"When the Nick Cave song came on, I said to my friend, "That. Is the coolest Harry Potter has ever been." And then my friend said "Yeah, but that's not." When I started dancing in the scene. It was something David made up on the spot pretty much, and Emma's quite a good dancer, so I had to sort of muddle through. But Harry shouldn't be a good dancer. He should be kind of crap, which he was. But next year on Broadway I hope to see a large improvement in that."

Emma Watson agreed Radcliffe's dancing was less than great:

"As much as I love Dan, he's not a naturally gifted dancer. I think he knows. But it was perfect for the scene. It was meant to look silly and spontaneous. I love to dance. "

This is the first film directed by composer Alexandre Desplat, who has a wide range of films under his belt already. One reporter asked Yates how they went from Nicholas Hooper to Alexandre Desplat. It led Yates to also talk about their attempt to bring John Williams back for Part 2:

"Nick basically needed to have a lie down after the first two films. He was exhausted. I'm such a noodler when it comes to music, and I don't sort of say 'Right, here's the film, go and score it.' I sit with the composer and change things and we move things around and I get them to do several drafts of something because it's so much fun and it's such an important part of the storytelling. And Nick, who's my dear friend, I wanted him to come back. And unfortunately he said 'I'm too tired'. And Alexandre, who's lovely, stepped on board. He'll be doing Part 2. I was hoping to get John Williams, and he wanted to do it, but the only way he could do it was if he scored a rough cut because of his schedule. So I would've had to have given him a rough cut and I need to get the film in a proper state before I present it to anybody. I'm a huge fan of John Williams. I grew up on John Williams. He's a God to me. The thought of showing John Williams a rough cut is "ugh, I can't do that". And so unfortunately even though he wanted to do it and I wanted him to do it, the schedules just didn't fit."

Looking ahead to Part 2, Yates told us what the final shot in the franchise was for the Trio to shoot and how it was a special moment:

"We shot a scene on a viaduct outside of Hogwarts, and it was really beautiful, really sunny day. It was all beautiful backlit. And it's a very tender scene where they reflect on everything that's happened. All the battles and everything. And they hold hands. And the camera pulls away. It's a really tender and lovely scene. And Emma particularly.. I said 'look guys, this is the last scene we're going to do with you three together. so it's not just the last scene with these three characters in the movie, this is your last scene in this series of films. That's what today is about.' And it infused it with a kind of emotion which is really moving actually.'"

That won't be the very last scene in the film, however. As fans know the final scene will be the Epilogue found in the book. Tom Felton, who plays Draco, told us what it was like meeting his film son for the first time:

"That was kind of weird. That was kind of weird actually. What happened was they brought me in for the casting, for me just to sit down and talk to the child and interact with him to see if we get on or whatever. I didn't think anything of it, but then I walked into this room that I had walked in ten years previous, sat on the same couch this young kid was, and was asked almost the same questions that were asked of me. I didn't know what to say. I just sat down, shook his hand and stared at him. If you told me eleven years ago one day I'd be sitting in here casting my son I wouldn't know what to say. But yeah, needless to say I got over that and we had a good son."

One of my favorite scenes in the film is when Bellatrix grabs Hermione and starts etching 'mudblood' into her arm as Hermione screams in pain. I'd been excited to see it since Yates told us about the scene on the set back in March. I told Emma Watson what Yates had said to us about the scene making the cast and crew feel very uncomfortable on set because it had felt so real:

"It was very weirdly affecting to do that scene. It was quite horrible. Helena said to me afterward, 'I really didn't enjoy doing that. I really didn't.' And usually she really gets into that quiet of stuff but I think she felt really uncomfortable. The mudblood idea actually wasn't written in the script - it was something Helena and I came up with. Because I was like, 'Well, if she's just kind of doing a spell on me then it - I mean obviously I can make it look painful, but it'd be powerful to have something the audience could physically see.' So we came up with 'mudblood'. We sat there on set designing what Bellatrix's handwriting would look like for 40 minutes. And we thought that's what she would write like. So we had a lot of fun with it."

Watson continued explaining the weird feeling on set while the scene was being shot:

"Everyone did feel very awkward. My great friend who did my makeup and hair for the movie, she bolted for the door. She really wanted to come in and save me. I only did one take. David let the camera roll for two minutes and kind of just left me there screaming. So when I looked at it later I was like, 'Well fair enough you can't have two minutes of me screaming.' But when I saw the final cut I was like, 'Aw, I did that a lot longer than was certainly shown.' I think it was quite disturbing for the crew. Which I was pleased about because it showed I was doing a good job. But I think it wasn't a fun day."

Watson is currently studying at Brown University for a History major. She told us why she chose Brown and about the difficulties balancing work and academics:

" A friend of mine went over to University in the States. And he was telling me he was able to study more than one subject at a time, and it was much more open and broad. That was really appealing to me. And also I'm more anonymous in the States. I needed a change. I needed a fresh start. Somewhere I could go and really reinvent myself. That's what Brown has been for me.

It's very exhausting trying to balance the two (film and school). I'm missing two weeks of school because I'm doing this. But you just have to be really organized with your time. I told my Professors in advance I'd be leaving for this period of time and I hope they'd understand. I have to work hard to earn that kind of trust and respect that they'd allow me to do that. I have to show them that I'm a hard worker and I take my studies seriously otherwise they wouldn't let me do it. So the beginning of the semester was all about me getting good grades so they'd be like 'Okay, you can go off and do whatever it is you have to do.'"

Watson became slightly emotional at one point when asked about the inspiration behind her first scene in the film: Hermione has to erase any memory of her being part of the family. That includes erasing her parents' minds as well as any appearances in family photos. Watson tells us:

"It was a challenge. I don't want to get too heavy, but being from a family that's been split up I know what it's like to walk away, and cutting in to two separate families. So I did the scene with that in mind."

This scene was part of a lengthy montage at the beginning of the film, which I thought was a very exciting way to kick things off. The Dursleys are a part of this montage sequence, but unfortunately they only get a few seconds of screen time.

There's no doubt the cast and crew are proud of the work they've done on these final two films. Part 1 was another great Potter story and it's a major departure from the stories and settings you've seen in the past. It was a refreshing change that I think all fans will enjoy.

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