Pottermore’s Guide to Movie-Making and CGI in ‘Fantastic Beasts’

The Pottermore Correspondent has released a guide to movie-making in Fantastic Beasts, giving us the details on how CGI is being used in the films to construct the New York City skyline of the 1920s, and the beasts featuring in the film.

The New York skyline was built at Leavesden Studios by production designer Stuart Craig, set decorator Anna Pinnock and a team of artists and craftspeople. This model includes Tina and Queen Goldstein’s flat, Jacob’s apartment, MACUSA headquarters and the cobbled Upper West and Lower East Sides. Pottermore tells us how the skyline will be added to the film during post-production:

“New York is a big, sprawling city. Sure, the Empire State Building wasn’t around till 1930, but there were tall structures that tickled the clouds even in 1926. To depict these in the film, green screens were placed above the set buildings. In post production these will be replaced with digital extensions that will not only increase the height of the set buildings but also extend the New York skyline – in some shots up to 50 blocks.”

Given that a lot of the magical creatures in the Harry Potter movies were constructions of the prop department, the use of CGI in the Fantastic Beasts is something we’ve all been excited to see.

Now that the film is in post-production, Newt’s beasts will be added to the film in a complex process that is becoming increasingly advanced. Pottermore gives us the details on how this transformation takes place:

“Elaborate puppets made and manipulated by puppeteers from the stage play War Horse were used for Eddie Redmayne to interact with. While something more simple, like a tennis ball on the end of a rod, gave the actors an eye-line and moved exactly where the beast will appear later.

As we’ve seen in the evolution of all eight Harry Potter films, CGI has become even more sophisticated over the years — used to blend real-life actors into imagined scenery and, of course, to bring extraordinary creatures to life.

The CGI team on Fantastic Beasts will render the creatures straight from J.K. Rowling’s imagination to the final cut of the film. This cutting edge CGI will make the Swooping Evil look as lifelike as an emerald-sapphire bird that flew right down from the sky. The definitely, absolutely real New York sky.”

We can’t wait to see the end results in November! Read the full Pottermore article here.