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"Half-Blood Prince" Set Visit Report and New Tom Felton Photo

HBP Film
Posted by: Sue
May 13, 2008, 12:01 PM

We have a real treat for you today, as there is a detailed report now available regarding a visit to the set of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Originally posted in our Leaky Lounge forum, TLC reader Tash kindly sent along a fantastic report of her visit to the set of the sixth Harry Potter movie, where she gives some tantalizing details about things we can see in the coming film. Of note are details about Weasley Wizard Wheezes (including U-no-poo!), an intriging case containing vials of memories, tidbits on the Sectumsempra scene, mentions of Knockturn Alley, Borgin and Burkes sets, the orphanage set and more. Also of note is this new photo of actor Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy. To read excerpts of this lengthy detailed report, scroll down for more (slight spoilers) or click here to read the entire report here in our forum.

Many thanks Tash!

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Excerpts of "Half-Blood Prince" set visit report:

I saw The Burrow both the inside and outside sets; the outside set had been burnt in a Death Eater attack. The inside of The Burrow was amazing, the attention to detail. I climbed up the stairs to Ron's room, the bedrooms aren't there but the corridors have doors coming off them with pictures and ornaments. One of the doors had a picture of mushrooms on it. Downstairs there were two clocks, one with the whole family's names on and scissors for hands, the other was smaller with a list of jobs to do. There were even postcards written to Ron on the bookcase, howlers (or just letters like blue paper aeroplanes), a wizarding newspaper on a coffee table and children's painting of magical creatures framed on the walls. The guy showing us around said that it was the hardest set to build because nothing was straight or regular sized.

...

We walked around Diagon Alley. Ollivanders had been destroyed, all the windows were smashed and it was trashed. The shops had complete interiors in case the camera caught a glimpse inside by accident. Quality Quidditch supplies had a Quidditch equipment display, uniforms on dummies and drawers full of clothing. Florean Fortescue's had fake ice cream sundaes lining the walls on shelves. Florish and Blotts had hundreds of books inside the doorway piled up and on shelves. The large books in the windows are actually Watford phone directories covered!

But WWW stood out in bright orange with a curved front door. It was the most wonderful place. It was like every dream you had as a kid. There were skiving snack boxes, puking pastels, U-no-poo, sweets from floor to ceiling. It had a set of stairs winding up the middle and was three floors high. The detail was amazing; the shelves were crooked with brightly coloured goods on every surface. It was truly breath taking. At the end of our tour we watched them filming a scene there. When you see the scene where Fred and George are talking to Ron on the stairs, he asks how much for an item, they say '5 galleons', Ron says 'but I'm your brother' and they say '10 galleons'. Well I am standing behind the stairs (out of sight) by the door! It took eight takes just for that few seconds and I was told they only complete 2 minutes of film a day.

...

We saw Knockturn Alley but the lights weren't on so it was by torch light! Saw Borgin and Burkes that way. The vanishing cabinet was in the centre of the shop, it was dark wood with a slanted roof. There were lots of skulls and creepy looking objects – even creepier due to the lack of lighting. There were wanted posters on the alley walls for Bellatrix and the Carrows.

We were taken to the tank where all the underwater scenes are filmed. We went downstairs and there was a large window looking into the tank. It is the deepest tank in Europe and the smell of chlorine stung my eyes. The water was bath temperature and there were scaffolding towers inside the tank. Next to it there were a row of wetsuits and breathing apparatus. The boat scenes in the cave with Dumbledore and Harry were filmed here.

We couldn't get into moaning Myrtle's bathroom because it was locked. They filmed the Sectumsempra scene there last week. They told me Tom had to lie in the fake blood and water for hours. He had a prosthetic chest on which pumped out fake blood and for each new take he had to get cleaned up and dry his hair before starting again. There are some pictures floating about of the scene and they look like Tom is lying dead in a pool of blood, very freaky for his friends to see!

...

The costume department was very interesting; I ran my hands over the invisibility cloak. There were a few and one had the velvet outside that we see on the films and another had green screen sewn into it. Saw Katie Bell's red costume, Bellatrix's, Snape's and well, basically everyone's. Luna's wardrobe was suitably eclectic. There were lots of black cloaks and Quidditch uniforms and pictures of the cast in their outfits with lists of their measurements hanging on the rails. They all have at least three of every item of clothing in case one is damaged. The stunt people's clothing is exactly the same as the cast's but in bigger sizes so that the protective pads can fit underneath. The actor who plays Neville is actually quite slim and wears padding to bulk him out.

They were filming a stunt on green screen that will take place on the millennium bridge. I saw Bellatrix's stunt double in place but they were waiting for more cloud by the time we got there and everyone had stopped for ice creams! There was a woman with black hair with a white streak through it and I was told she was the double for Narcissa (can't confirm that though, thought she was blonde?).

It was a beautiful day and most of the cast who weren't filming were enjoying the sun. Luna was having her hair plaited and other people were sitting about or playing sports. We were told that it's not always like that and sometimes it can be stressful (Ha!). Everyone there was so nice and took the time to say hi or tell us all about their specialist area. It was a truly wonderful day.

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Comments (93) | Average 3.5 (363 votes) Browse all Recent HBP Film News
1  2  3  4  5 
Bellaa

W-O-W-! can’t wait. gahh!

Posted by Bellaa on May 13, 2008 @ 07:01 PM
Libby

This is great! They’ve really kept a lot of the best storylines in without changing or dumbing it down! Let’s hope these things stay in the movie. Even Katie Bell! (then that finally ends speculation as to Cho being the attacked girl…so wait, why is Cho in the film again? Just Quidditch, right? I honestly can’t remember anything other than that).

I really really hope there’s a trailer coming soon! :) But this is nice, I can’t wait for Sectumsempra (I know it’s dark but it was one of those HOLY CRAP chapters at first read, and kinda sets off the action in the rest of the book)!

Posted by Libby on May 13, 2008 @ 07:28 PM
emilyD

I have a really urgent question about the Florida Con. I know this comment has no place here, but i post it in the article about the con and no one answered and i really need someone who could do it

so okay, i’m only going to be able to buy tickets for one of the three days; and i want to know if anyone knows which of the three days the HP cast is going to show up to sign for autographs.

I really appreciate if some answers it ASAP. thank you

Posted by emilyD on May 13, 2008 @ 07:37 PM
Kelsey

I believe it’s on saturday. (RE: Florida Con) Thats when I’m going, at least. I want to avoid most of the anime crowd, haha.

Posted by Kelsey on May 13, 2008 @ 08:14 PM
Cristipotter

I think Cho’s in the film so people who don’t read the books don’t go all…”where’s that girl Harry kissed in the last movie?” ...she’s just for…more known faces around…like the patil twins after GoF lol

Posted by Cristipotter on May 13, 2008 @ 08:17 PM
Shana

cool, can’t wait to see it ! the two finalists were picked for the amazon Beetle the Bard contest

Posted by Shana on May 13, 2008 @ 08:19 PM
allie

i cannot wait to see the u-no-poo sign and i really hope they have the throwing canaries scene

Posted by allie on May 13, 2008 @ 08:38 PM
allie

i cannot wait to see the u-no-poo sign and i really hope they have the throwing canaries scene

Posted by allie on May 13, 2008 @ 08:38 PM
Tegalto

Great attention to detail, Tash! I loved your report (and how you ran your fingers over the invisibility cloak. Jealous!), and now I’m even more excited for the movie to come out in November!

Posted by Tegalto on May 13, 2008 @ 09:12 PM
Ashley

@ Libby:

Katie Leung has said that Cho is in the movie in “a brief role,” mainly because “there’s still some jealousy with Ginny that needs to be resolved.” (If you want, I’ll dig up the article where she said that.) So as Cristipotter said, it sounds like she’s in the movie mainly to show that Harry has moved on from Cho and now likes Ginny, so that the casual viewer won’t be all, “Wait a minute, Harry likes Ron’s sister now? But what happened to that girl he kissed in the last movie? Does he not like her anymore?” And that kind of makes sense, I guess, since the Harry/Cho stuff was left pretty open-ended in the movie, much more so than in the book. I guess they feel like they need to give it a more definitive ending.

Posted by Ashley on May 13, 2008 @ 09:15 PM
Flourished Blot

That was so awesome I think I might just cry.

Posted by Flourished Blot on May 13, 2008 @ 09:19 PM
rococofied

Thank you for the elaborate and detailed set report, Tash! We all appreciate it immensely. This movie is just becoming too much of a torture to wait for now! Please give us the trailer as soon as you can, Warner Brothers!

Posted by rococofied on May 13, 2008 @ 10:28 PM
Leggers

Maravilloso!! :DDD

Posted by Leggers on May 13, 2008 @ 10:42 PM
kristen

wait, the weasley house wasn’t set on fire in the book. was this invented for the movie?

Posted by kristen on May 13, 2008 @ 10:52 PM
stitch

well.. if they DO give narcissa black hair, atleast she still looks VERY much like tom felton… he can get the white-blond from his father if they need her to resemble bella a bit more. she can share the facial features with her son.

Posted by stitch on May 13, 2008 @ 11:13 PM
Slither

They don’t give her black hair. :)

Posted by Slither on May 14, 2008 @ 03:01 AM
elkmaria

Wow, the news about the film gets better and better! I’m so glad that they left so much gloomy stuff in! And I’m excited about Sectumsempra! I hope Tom will be good at portraying Draco’s character from a different angle and showing how vulnerable and terrified Draco is! And I cannot wait to see Dan portraying Harry’s reaction!

It’s also amazing that they pay so much attention to detail, including the Wanted posters! And I couldn’t dare to hope they leave WWW in, and still they did!!!

YAY for WB!

Posted by elkmaria on May 14, 2008 @ 03:05 AM
alex

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! im so so so excited for this movie! Thanks for the report, it was so great to read and it got me even more excited!! Hope we have a trailer soon!

Posted by alex on May 14, 2008 @ 03:24 AM
Felipe

This report was awesome! I really wish we’d get SOMETHING official from WB! Why are they always so extreme? They pretty much gave us the entire movie online before OotP came out in Theatres and now we’re 6 months away and not even NEWS of when the TEASER trailer is arriving for HBP?! What the heck!!??

Posted by Felipe on May 14, 2008 @ 12:27 PM
Jessica

I’m so excited about this movie. The last one was honestly a let down. Mostly because they got a lot of their facts wrong, and put in some stuff that didn’t belong. I hope this one makes up for it. Only 2 movies left! I’m sad.

Posted by Jessica on May 14, 2008 @ 12:42 PM
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