All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S09E01.The.Kids.are.in.Charge.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BTN_track4_[eng]

- Of all the
blockbuster movie franchises...

- Shh!

- There's a lot of secrecy
around this.

- ...only one came into being

not because of
a Hollywood executive...

- And I had no idea
how huge it was gonna be.

- ...or an inspired filmmaker...

- Set and action!

- Chris Columbus was
the master.

- ...or even
a brilliant author...

- It was the purest stroke
of inspiration

I've ever had in my life.

- ...but because of children.

- You're Harry Potter.

- Every kid knew about Potter.

- Overnight, it was everywhere.

- We're bigger than the Bible.

- It started with a first-time
author's debut novel...

- I'm a what?
- A wizard.

- ...and became not just
another movie franchise...

- It's sort of exciting,
isn't it?

- It really was like a family.

Mark.

- ...but a temporary home
for three unknown kids...

- Dan, Rupert, and Emma--

they were committing to
10 years.

- ...who had no idea...

- Quite a few of them
had never done film before.

- ...they were on their way
to superstardom...

- And what are you doing
down here, Weasley?

- At least I'm not the only one

who is completely out
of their depth.

- ...in no fewer than
seven blockbuster movies.

- It was gutsy.
- It was so exciting.

- You're always pushing
the boundaries.

- It was crazy.

- This is the story
of the adults in the room...

- The studio was worried
that it's gonna be too scary.

- It was never a done deal.

- They were caught between a
rock and a hard place.

- ...who listened to the kids...
- Who are gonna tear you apart.

- Swish and flick.

- They wanted people
to believe in the magic.

...and may even have
occasionally acted like kids.

- They sacked everyone.

- And they actually put
a baseball bat on the table

and said,
"You know what this is for?"

- Because they were willing to do
whatever it took...

- We were pushing
the boundaries,

and, unfortunately,
I suffered a spinal-cord injury.

- ...and found a way
to cast a very special spell...

- I've always wanted to use
that spell.

- None of us knew
how it will be received.

- I mean, it made $7 billion.

- The stuff
that dreams are made of.

- ...that created the
only kids movie franchise...

- They're your best critics.

- ...demanded by children...

- His daughter was
very insistent

we should make a movie
out of it.

- ...made by children...

- They ended up having to get
permission from the parents

to shave him at 11.

- The actors
are now getting older.

Their acting is changing.

- ...and watched by
the whole world.

Meet the wizards
behind the wizard...

- We're doing things that
you've never done before.

- The cost was astronomical.

- Oh, it was a nightmare.
- It's a terrible idea.

- ...on "Icons Unearthed:
Harry Potter."

- It is a magical thing
that they've created.

- It's Harry Potter.

- Harry Potter, the orphaned,

treacle-tart-loving,
wand-waving,

Quidditch-playing junior wizard.

- Nice to meet you.

- The fact people actually play
Quidditch nowadays tells you all

you need to know about
this teenage wizard's

remarkable influence.

But before the Golden Snitch
made way for box-office gold,

the story of the story
of Harry Potter

begins not with the boy Wizard
riding a broomstick,

but with a young mother
riding a train.

Not the Hogwarts Express.

Rather, all stops
London to Manchester in 1990.

- I was a single parent,
very, very broke.

- This young mother of one named
Joanne might not have had money,

but, all of a sudden,
on that train

between London and Manchester,
she did have an idea.

- And staring out of the window,
and the idea

just fell out of nowhere.

It was the purest stroke
of inspiration

I've ever had in my life.

- She just sat there
and sort of ruminated on

the idea of this 11-year-old boy

and all the strange things
that were happening to him...

- You're a wizard, Harry.

- ...until he finally finds out
that he's actually a wizard

and that all of these strange
things were part of that.

- But strange things would soon
be happening to Joanne Rowling

once she turned her idea
into a book.

- She finished the book.

- It was turned down
by three publishers.

- As it happens, "Harry Potter
and the Philosopher's Stone"

was lost on publishers.

- It was longer
than most people wanted

children's books to be.

- But it was
one British publisher

who saw a little bit
of potential in this document.

So they paid just a little bit.

- Bloomsbury,
a British publisher,

decided to buy the British
rights for £2,500.

- Which, to me at that time,
was a fortune.

- But the cost to Joanne Rowling
was vast.

She lost her name.

- Bloomsbury thought
that boys would not be

interested in reading
a book written by a woman.

Joanne Rowling then became
J.K. Rowling.

- It was because trying
to hide my gender, definitely.

- But soon enough,
everything would change,

because in June 1997,

"Harry Potter
and the Philosopher's Stone"...

- 3, 2, 1!

- ...hit bookshelves.

It was huge.

And it did feel, overnight,
that it was sort of everywhere

and everybody had heard about
this boy wizard.

- Can I have "Harry Potter"?

- As children switched
from devouring candy

to devouring literature,
inevitably,

it didn't take long until...

- There was film interest.

- And with it,
interested film producers,

one of whom was this chap.

- My title at the time
of "Harry Potter"

was president of production
at Warner Bros.

- Meaning Bill was a big deal.

And soon, he would be attempting
to make a big deal

with British producer
David Heyman.

- He started Heyday Films
and he had

a first-look deal with
Warner Bros.

- We said, "Be our guy, go find
material in England and Europe."

- And David Heyman brought
Bill a doozy.

- I hadn't read the book.
- But he liked what he heard.

- I just thought it was
a good idea.

I just loved the story.

I loved the story
about this young boy.

- You're the boy who lived.

- His parents were killed,
and then he was a wizard.

- I can't be a-a-a wizard.

- It was literally a
five-minute conversation,

and I said, "Let's go ahead
and buy the book."

I told him, "Don't spend
too much money."

- Because, after all,
"Harry Potter" was a hit,

but only in Britain.

For this wizard to make it
across the pond,

he'd need American guidance,
meaning...

- They wanted control.

They wanted to be
able to take her characters

and do whatever they want
with them,

not necessarily just do things
that are based on the books.

- And Bill had one more thing.

- And I also added, "Make
sure we get the merchandising."

- Nice one, Bill.

But J.K. Rowling had powerful
negotiators on her side,

the British children.

- Her book is becoming more
and more popular,

which means she has
more leverage.

- Thanks in part
to a small-but-colorful figure

no one in America had heard of.

- When I won the Smarties,
that was the one

that really boosted sales.

- Right, Smarties.

It was this colored
candy-covered chocolate

that sponsored
a major book award.

- That's voted for
entirely by children.

- So that definitely bumped
up the sales.

- That was the big change
in my life.

- Harry was officially hot,

and his creator
wasn't going to sell

the filming rights
to just anyone.

- The only control you have is to
sign the contract with someone

you truly believe will make,
you know, the right film.

- Half of Hollywood
thought they could do that.

- She's got Warner Bros.
interested.

- Let's go ahead
and buy the book.

- Along with all the big players
from DreamWorks.

- Not gonna be DreamWorks. Oh!

- But they were dreaming.
So, how about Disney?

- Or Disney, as a matter of fact.
Can we not put that on there?

- She's sort of using these
to play off each other

to kind of get herself
a better deal.

- It was nothing
Bill Gerber hadn't seen before.

- I just was
immediately intrigued.

- But only, of course,
if Warner Bros. had...

- Control.

- Joanne Rowling
had given up her name,

but she wasn't prepared
to give up that.

- She wanted to have
control over her characters.

- "You can't make up anything.

They have to be based
on my books.

They have to be faithful."

- Which is not something
that happens all the time

with authors.

- So, it seemed that, henceforth,

it would be J.K. Rowling
who was in...

- Control.

- So she made a deal with
Warner Bros.

And unlike that
first book deal...

- £2,500.

- Which, to me at that time,
was a fortune.

- ...this time...
- Don't spend too much money.

- ...uh, well...

- It was not
an expensive deal whatsoever.

Low-range development fee.

It wasn't even hundreds
of thousands of dollars.

- Oh, and as for...

- Make sure we get
the merchandising.

- Well, Bill got that, as well.
Nice one, Bill.

But as for J.K. Rowling,
she also got what she wanted.

She would have a say
in what characters

stay and go and even casting.

- So, she ended up getting
an 18-month option from them

on the first four books.

- And as far as J.K.
was concerned,

the first four were
just the start.

- From the start, I'd envisaged
it as a seven-book series,

which would see him
through wizard school,

and then he'd be a fully
qualified wizard

at the end of it.

- The whole thing
was going to be renegotiated

with the fifth book.

- Meanwhile,
Harry's first book,

with "Sorcerer" swapped for
"Philosopher" in the title...

- The sorcerer's stone.
- The what?

- ...finally hit American
bookstores in 1998

under the publishing
house Scholastic.

- This book was off the charts.

- And it certainly seemed that
Bill Garber and Warner Bros.

had something big
on their hands.

In fact, it was bigger than big.

- It was a phenomenon bigger
than anything in my lifetime,

other than, you know, the Bible.

- Harry Potter had landed
in America,

and there was no escaping him.

- I went into a bookstore,
and the display in the bookstore

was just massive,
and it was all "Harry Potter."

I turned to my colleague,
who was at Warner Bros.,

and I said, "That's crazy."

What's this about?

And they go, "Oh,
that's a book we just bought.

They're thinking about
a series of movies."

- Warner Bros. had
bought themselves a phenomenon.

- The book--
it blew up fast and huge.

You know, it was the
biggest thing in the world.

- When the "Harry Potter" movies
were announced,

I think all of Hollywood said,
"Look, this is gonna be big."

- Just how big
depended on solving

an age-old Hollywood problem.

- How do you take it
from the book,

which is fantastic,
and translate that

into something
that you can now film?

- The development process--
in this case,

it was really about a writer.

- But not this writer.

To make a movie,
you needed a scriptwriter.

Enter veteran scriptwriter
Steve Kloves.

- He understands characters.

He just stepped forward
to get together with J.K.

and really find a way
to craft a script

that sticks very true
to the original book.

- With the filming rights
to a legit phenomenon,

Hollywood was starting
to feel the mounting pressure

of expectation,
but not from within the studio.

- The very first time
I heard about "Harry Potter"

was from my daughter.

- Producer Michael Barnathan
and his longtime collaborator,

director Chris Columbus,
were both hearing rumblings.

- Simultaneously,
Chris' daughter

was also being read the book.

And his daughter mentioned

we should make a movie
out of it.

- Even in the upper echelons
of Hollywood,

"Harry Potter" was a phenomenon
driven by children.

- His daughter was very
insistent and really pushed him.

He read the book and flipped.

And he said, "We got to find out
if we can get involved."

- But, of course,
Chris Columbus' daughter

didn't make the decisions
at Warner Bros.

- Every major director
was asked

if they were interested in it.

- But there was one name who,
let's be honest,

would be at the top
of anyone's list.

- Steven Spielberg was
interested.

So it was kind of like,
"Okay, too bad.

He's the perfect person
to direct it."

- Perfect, but only
if he actually wanted to do it.

- Spielberg said,
"I don't want to direct it.

It'll be like shooting
ducks in a barrel."

- Well, as they say, never work
with children... or ducks.

So it looked like
Steven Spielberg was out.

- Chris was like, "Wow. That kind
of changes everything."

His agent had said,
"I can get you in for a meeting,

but there's about 10 directors,
all A-list directors,

who are having meetings
with Warner Bros."

- Chris Columbus sprang
into action.

- And he started looking at
Steve Kloves' script,

making notes,
and kind of figuring out

what he would do with the film.

- But he also had
a plan for the pitch.

- And he said,
"Just get me the last meeting.

I want to be the last director."

- They say timing is
everything,

but Chris also had
his annotated script.

- He goes,
"Should I show them the script?"

I said, "No, do not show them
the script.

Tell them you did it.
Do not give it to them."

He was there for about an hour
and a half pitching

and he got to the end
and he pulled a script out

of his briefcase and he said,

"By the way, everything that
I just told you is in here."

Put it back in his briefcase,
stood up, and left the room.

And we had heard later from
David Heyman

that everyone was like,
"Oh, my God, that's crazy.

We have to get our hands
on that.

How do we get
our hands on that?"

- Well, there was one way.

- He said,
"Offer him the movie..."

...and, you know,
you'll get it all."

- The plan worked.
- I'm up here, you morons!

- And Chris' experience
working with children

didn't hurt either.

He was hired to direct
the first "Harry Potter" film...

and possibly more.

- I'd envisaged it
as a seven-book series.

- Warner had said they
were hoping to make all seven,

as long as she wrote them
in a timely manner.

- Chris wasn't just taking
on a huge production.

He was taking on a legion
of passionate adolescent fans.

- A book like that,
the fans are so dedicated.

- And even if most of them
were kids,

they were terrifying
to these adults.

- You know,
if you don't get it right,

you're always aware that
there's this network of fans

who are gonna tear you apart.

- Chris was always
thinking about the kids.

You know,
having obsessed over this book,

he didn't want them to see the
movie and go, "What is this?"

- And the pressure
was only mounting

as the legion of fans expanded.

- In the time of deciding
to make the movie

and prepping the movie,
the book series just

continued to grow and grow.

- In fact,
when Chris turned up for work,

three books were already out,

and Warners
was playing catch-up.

- We could not get
every single thing

in the book into the movie.

- But no matter what made it
to the screen,

it needed one
particular quality to be true

to J.K. Rowling's
"Harry Potter."

Chris really wanted
it to be magical...

and for people to
actually believe in the magic.

- That was bloody, brilliant.
- Oh, thank you.

- Production designer
Stuart Craig knew the best way

to get people to believe was
to become a believer himself.

- Stuart Craig,
the production designer,

really took it upon himself
to read the books

and study the history
both of magic,

magic in the British Isles,
magic in the world.

- Stuart Craig
assembled a crack team

to create everything,
from pointy-eared bankers...

- Ahh!

- ...and talking hats...
- Very difficult.

- ...of Harry Potter's world.

- Welcome to Hogwarts.

- And one of his first hires
could not have been

more excited.

- I turned down
"Harry Potter" three times,

and it was a case of,

"I only want to do this
if I can put my mark on it."

I had no idea what
I was getting into.

- Nick was worried he might be
working with a bunch of Muppets.

And he was kind of right.

- Just so you know,
we're also talking to Henson's.

- That's Jim Henson's
Creature Shop.

- Henson's
wanted to do various characters.

You know, they're saying,
"Well, Henson's want to do

the unicorn."

"I want to do the unicorn."

"They say you could do
the snake."

"I don't want to do the snake.
I want to do the unicorn."

And it was going around.

Anyway, we arrived at
a place where both

Henson's and I were happy.

And we did get the unicorn.

- But the challenge
of creating the unicorn

was nothing compared
to the most important decision

in the history of the potential
"Harry Potter" franchise,

that being casting.

- To select the characters
in the book's one heck of a job.

- And to make matters
even more complicated...

- She wanted to have control
over her characters.

- ...J.K. Rowling would need to
sign off herself.

- Jo Rowling really wanted
a largely British cast.

- She wanted the film
to have British roots.

- Especially when it came
to the most important decision

in the entire franchise--
who would play Harry Potter?

- Whoever was gonna
play this kid

had to live up to the words
on the page.

- This boy will be famous.

- It was a massive,
massive decision to make.

- Casting for "Harry Potter"

would be unlike any movie
before it.

- The team on the film
understood what the audience

was going to want
out of this movie.

They really wanted
Harry and Hermione and Ron

to have a relationship
that they could connect with.

- That's the important bit,
especially Harry.

- And it wasn't just one choice
they had to get right.

They were looking
down the barrel

of potentially seven movies.

- Chris Columbus knew
he had to have characters

that would be able to go right
through the whole seven films.

- Kids are the hardest thing
to cast.

- The producers decided
they needed to ask the fans.

They went to every single
school, it feels like,

in the UK.

- Struggling to find just
the right cast for Harry Potter,

Chris Columbus cast
a very wide net.

He even asked
British schoolchildren.

- They said, "Look,
if you're a 'Harry Potter' fan

and you like acting,
write to us,

send us a photograph
of yourself."

- Chris Rankin knew he had
the right hair, if nothing else.

- Red hair and a
hand-me-down robe?

You must be a Weasley.

- There's only one part, really,
a 16-year-old ginger could play.

- Alright, Percy.
- Percy.

- Percy Weasley, that is.

- Hmm.
- Ron's older brother.

- And I thought, "Why not?
What have I got to lose?"

- Gryffindors,
follow me, please.

- Chris was just one of many
young, hopeful redheaded actors.

But it wasn't his hair

that stood out at
the audition with the director.

- So, we did Percy taking the
first-years to the common room.

- Password?

- Caput Draconis.

- Chris Columbus was reading
the other parts.

Almost "Mrs. Doubtfire"-esque
voice.

- Euphegenia Doubtfire.
- Going, "Password."

And I'm going, "Caput Draconis."
"Yes."

I think the third time
through...

- Password?
- ...I went "Caput Draconis,"

and he went,
"No, the password has changed."

The color must have
just drained from my face.

But, like, a light bulb switched
in my head.

"Dumbledore would have told me
if the password had changed."

And there was
this sort of ripple of laughter

from behind the camera.

And, yeah, two days later,
they rang and went,

"Yeah, you got the part."

- As for the young actor who'd
play the main Weasley, Ron...

- I'm Ron, by the way.
Ron Weasley.

- ...well, he was a natural--
redhead and talent.

- Rupert, I think,
was one of the most natural

actors I've ever seen.

He was just a kid who walked on,
became Ron.

- Anything
off the trolley, dears?

- No, thanks. I'm all set.

- He was the most comfortable
of them all.

He was just a funny kid.

- You've got dirt on your nose,
by the way. Did you know?

Just there.

- 10-year-old Emma Watson...
- I'm Hermione Granger.

- ...picked for Hermione,
was the youngest of the three...

- It's the
more serious one of that lot.

- ...and seemed to have
her character ready-made.

- You're saying it wrong.
It's levi-osa.

- You know, a really good
student, very focused on school.

- Kids weren't just being cast.
Some were doing the casting.

- When my kids said, "You know,

they're making a film
of his, Dad."

They said, "You should get
your agent on to it."

So I was like, "Alright, okay."

And I said, "Which part?",
hoping they would say Snape.

He was the cool, swell,
sinister character.

I thought, "Yeah.
Yeah, that's me."

- Clearly.

- They said, in unison,
"No, no, Dad.

You're a Filch."

- Show yourself.

- And, indeed, he was...
- Go on, make way, make way.

- ...after some advice
from his daughter

helped him clinch the role.

- My daughter decided I should
play it like that, you know?

I auditioned for Chris Columbus.

There was one line,
taking the kids out

to the forbidden forest.

- Got to have your wits
about you.

- One of the kids says,
"There's werewolves in there."

- There's more than werewolves
in those trees, lad.

- "You can be sure of that."

And my daughter said,
"No, it's not 'that.'

It's tha-t.'"

- You can be sure of tha-t.

- Chris Columbus laughed
and other people in the room

laughed just at that one word.
- Nighty-night.

- I'm convinced
that got me the gig.

- Our caretaker, Mr. Filch.

- But Warner still
hadn't found their Harry.

- Chris had told the studio,

"I'm not starting
until we get the right kid."

- So while Chris Columbus
struggled to find his Harry,

he had no troubles casting
other roles from the ranks

of British acting royalty,
from Dame Maggie Smith...

- Professor Dumbledore would like
to say a few words.

- ...Richard Harris...
- Silence!

- ...and Alan Rickman...
- Oh, that's Professor Snape.

- ...to Robbie Coltrane...
- Whoa!

- ...as Hagrid the Giant.

- Keeper of keys and grounds
at Hogwarts.

- Production designers
discovered the casting

of Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid
had given them a big problem.

- How do you make
Robby Coltrane 8 feet tall?

- Well, here's how.

- Why don't we just get
the biggest bloke we can get,

put him on stilts,
and turn him into

a scaled-up version of
Robbie Coltrane?

Half your cast
is under 4 feet tall.

If you just had the lower half
for half of your shots,

and there's no visual effects.

It's all just practical.

- No one could deny
that sounded very practical.

- Let's go.

- But if there was one thing
"Harry Potter" needed,

it was visual effects.

- I wanted to do as much
as we could in the UK.

But at the time,
the UK visual-effects business

just wasn't big enough to handle
that scale that was needed.

- Producers found
their man in the U.S.

- So, they were the ones
who kind of came to me

and said,
"Would you be interested?"

- Robert was used to dealing
with titanic

visual-effects briefs.
- I'm flying!

- And I had done "Apollo 13"
and "Titanic."

- But even compared to "Titanic,"

what "Harry Potter" needed
in vision effects

was truly titanic.

- "Harry Potter" -- that might
have 1,500 visual-effects shots.

- So many,
it was easy to lose count.

- My memory of it was like
1,600, 1,700,

which was outrageous.

Like, you know,
"Jurassic Park" was 60.

- There's a dinosaur.
- Uh-huh.

- "Apollo 13" was, I think,
150 shots.

"Titanic" was 500 shots.

- "Harry Potter" was shaping
up to dwarf all previous epics.

- We had a very short period
of time to pull it off.

- Top of Robert's list
was something

every "Potter" fan
wanted to see...

- Rough game, Quidditch.

- ...turning a game millions
of kids

had imagined into a match
worthy of the name, Quidditch.

- The Quidditch match became one
of the most difficult things.

- Quidditch is great.
Best game there is.

- Hogwarts' favorite sport
was a form of polo

that looked like...

Well, how did it look?

- How to make
broomstick flying look real.

-

- Because broomstick flying
on film had a bad reputation.

- All the witch movies with
witches on broomsticks

looked so hokey.

- It's just a bunch of
hocus-pocus!

- Hokey-pocus?

- Oh! Ooh!

- How are we gonna
make it look good

and how are we going to
shoot it?

- This would require
some blue-sky thinking.

- Everyone was trying
different ideas about.

- Which began with
some real blue-sky thinking.

Suddenly, it come to mind,
"Why don't we do skydiving?

- Mm... that would be
rather impractical.

- That got quashed
very quickly.

There'd be no people jumping
out of planes on this film.

- What can you do?
It's like, at some point,

you can't do anything.

It's a kid. It has to be safe.

It has to be something
that they can accomplish.

- Grip it tight. You don't want
to be sliding off the end.

- We had to completely reassess
how we did effects.

- Whoa!

- Visual effects had
many big calls to consider.

But, by far, the most important
decision of the whole franchise

was still to be made.

- Chris didn't see anybody
for Harry.

- Until...
- He saw "David Copperfield."

It was the first and only
movie Dan Radcliffe was in.

And Chris thought he was
fantastic,

had just that innocence
that he wanted.

- There was just one problem.

- And his parents were both
in the movie business.

One was a casting director,
one was an agent,

and they weren't interested
in having Chris meet him,

auditioning, nothing.

- I think his parents were
just worried

that it would have been so much
and so little time off.

But Chris kept saying,
"I want Dan Radcliff.

I want Dan --"
You know,

and it was like
a broken record.

And it was like, "Okay, Chris,
we're not getting Dan Radcliffe.

Just leave it alone."

- But then David Heyman,

the man who brought
"Harry Potter" to Warner Bros...

- Let's go ahead
and buy the book.

- ...this time, brought
"Harry Potter" to

Chris Columbus.

- David Heyman had gone to the
theater one night and ran into

Dan's parents and did a whole
sell on Chris, really.

- Heyman managed
to get the Radcliffes to agree

to meet his director.

- Yes!
- The door was opening.

- Chris talked about...
- Hello.

- ...working with kids
and how we worked with kids...

- And these must be the cherubs.

- ...that he would never
push anybody to do something

they were uncomfortable with,

and they have to be treated
very especially,

which Chris has always been
great with kids.

They agreed to let
Dan do the movie.

- And action!

- That's a dragon egg.
- What is it?

- That's what that is.
- What is that?

- A dragon egg.

- A screen test proved all
11-year-old

Daniel needed was a pair
of round glasses,

and he would be
studiously perfect.

Chris Columbus' casting mission
was accomplished.

- They found kids who pretty
much already were the characters

they were going to play.

- And even though the
pint-sized professionals

were now working for Warners...

- We also knew

that we were going to have
sometimes 30 to 100 kids.

- In reality, the filmmakers
would be working for them.

- They were going to need
schools, cafeterias.

They were gonna need places
to rest.

- Warners had never seen
a production so big

for so many little people.

- I don't think there was
that much stage space available.

- Begging the question, where
would they shoot the movie?

- So much of this
has to be custom-designed

for the specific needs
of this unique movie.

It kind of made more sense
to try and create it ourselves.

- Behold Leavesden Studios,
formerly a factory,

now the home
of a brand-new franchise.

- When we first saw it,
it was like,

"Wow, this is where we're gonna
build everything? Okay."

- It was a dump at the time.

- The Leavesden was
the bare bones of a building.

Used to be an aircraft factory
in World War II.

- Couldn't believe that we were
actually shooting

in this hellhole.

- It was diabolical.

- It was so run down.
- Leavesden was awful.

- The windows let the wind in.

- There was leaks.
There was no heating.

- We had to wear thermal jackets
on set.

- The suffering began
immediately,

when production started
filming the smallest

but most important
castle in the UK.

- The 24th-scale miniature.

- Which got off to a shaky start.

- Every now and then,
there was a shake on the camera,

and no one could actually
sort of understand why that was.

After a few days,
we realized that

Leavesden Studio was built

over the main
London Euston train line.

- Leavesden may have looked and
felt like Victorian London...

- No, it was a nightmare.

- ...but it was still a workplace
for hundreds of children.

- I remember
all the discussions about

how we were going to have
to shoot this film

because of the children.

- And Warners
were careful to make

sure "Harry Potter" didn't turn
into a Dickensian epic for kids.

- By law,
they only had a few hours a day

they were allowed to work.

- But Warners still
had to keep things moving

with industrial efficiency.

The answer was, partly at least,
me...

I'm Flick Miles,
and I was Emma Watson's

body double for the first three
"Harry Potter" films.

...and this boy.

- My name's David Holmes,
and I was the lead stunt double.

I doubled for pretty much all
of the young child cast.

- Using doubles like David and I,
the production was

able to stagger a roster
and keep filming at pace.

They could use me for
four hours

and Emma for four hours
in an eight-hour day.

Whilst I prepared,

Emma Watson was meeting the
grown-ups for the first time...

along with her classmates.

- That first day of
the table read,

Emma Watson looked so terrified.

And I remember both of us
kind of

just stopped,
looked around the room,

thinking, "What the hell
am I doing here?"

- Dame Maggie Smith.
- Alan Rickman.

- Richard Harris.
- Robbie Coltrane.

You know,
the list just went on and on.

- And that was
before anyone had even spoken.

- When Alan Rickman opened
his mouth

for the first time as Snape...

- I can teach you
how to bewitch the mind

and ensnare the senses.

- ...hearing that voice in front
of you for the first time,

you go, "Oh, my God."

- Fame isn't everything.

- Little Emma said, "Oh, my God,
that was awesome"

to Alan Rickman,
and it broke Alan up.

He couldn't handle it.

I don't think any actor has
ever said or done that to Alan.

- From Alan Rickman to a legion
of young novice actors...

- Because they were
new to acting.

- ...everyone boarded
the Hogwarts Express,

or, in other words, began
filming, in September of 2000,

beginning with the
very last scene.

- We're not allowed
to do magic away from Hogwarts.

- When they're traveling back
towards the end of the movie.

- The chemistry was instant.

- It feels strange to be
going home.

- Chris was happy
with what he saw.

- And with Christmas
approaching...

- I'm not going home.

- ...it all seemed
like a Christmas miracle.

- Not really.

- For a Christmas,
we had a two-week hiatus.

- But when they got back
from holiday?

- They started shooting, and he
said, "Oh, my goodness.

It's like starting from scratch
again with the kids.

They've forgotten everything
that they've been learning."

- Well, it's not very good,
is it?

- It just took forever to do.

- While the children
had forgotten their lessons,

some of the adults
were forgetting their manners.

- They immediately
were stepping on toes.

- And Rob Legato I had
a little problem at one stage

with the rowing across the lake
to Hogwarts.

- Director of photography
John Seale was coming to grips

with the latest
digital technology.

- Onwards is hundreds of feet
in the air.

You can be looking everywhere.

- There was a new system
came out that allowed

the blue screen to have an image
on the director's monitors.

To do that, it had to be lit
in a certain way,

and those lights didn't allow
me to light the scene the way

I thought it should be lit.

- Whatever the camera is,
he'd be here.

- But Robert needed those lights
to make his plan for CGI work.

- They could do something that
to their eye appears to be okay,

but it's not.

When you comp it together,
you'll discover what it is.

- Cut.
- Alright, reset, please.

- Each man tried
to make the other see the light.

- I felt that we had to pull
lights out of the ceiling.

- Where I didn't agree
with the plan.

- I had to pull rank.

- And so they did the stuff
that to their eye looked good.

- And we were able to then light
it the way I wanted to light it.

- And it doesn't work for me.

- But Robert and John

weren't the only two
having problems on set,

because Nick was facing
one very big, pointy problem

with that unicorn he
so desperately wanted to create.

- It's a dead unicorn.

-

- But we built this thing.

- And after having wrangled
the creature from Jim Henson's

Creature Shop, now perhaps it
was Nick who felt like a Muppet.

- It weighed so much
that it had to be hung on wires

on a massive steel frame
on wheels.

We had realized
that this metal frame we'd built

was about 4 inches higher than
the only door out of the room.

Very quickly, one of my guys
got a sledgehammer

and knocked out the top
of the door, completely,

bricks everywhere,

so we could get it out
of the department.

- In another corner of Leavesden,
the shoot was on fire.

- The candles in the main hall
were all live candles.

- These floating candles
all had burning flames,

all hung on little wires,
looked great.

- Lighting them
was a logistical nightmare.

I think there were
about 1,600 candles.

- 450.

- I stand corrected.

- We started filming.

The one thing
we hadn't banked on

were the holes in the building.

And it was blowing the flames
of the candles onto wires

that the candles
were hanging on.

- No. They're moving.

- 10 minutes in, the first
candle fell on the table.

- It was worrying.

- Within minutes, another one
fell, and then another one.

And the terror was
that it would hit somebody.

- Move again!
- Okay.

Cameras will move again.

- Oh, my God,
the candles in the great hall.

Absolutely an error.

- The solution was as simple as
extinguishing a candle's flame.

- They didn't last long.

- And then I remember them
suddenly all being gone.

- Visual-effects guys said,
"You know, look, we can do it.

It's not that hard."

- We CGI'd them,
which always annoyed me a bit.

- When it came to safety on
set, the adults were in charge.

But when it came
to the canon of "Harry Potter,"

the kids laid down the law.

- When I met children,
they would say,

"Is this scene
still in the film?

Is this scene?"

And I realized that they
wanted to see the book on film.

- And the kids were about
to make their voices heard.

- Harry Potter may have sold
more books than the Bible,

but for the kids, these books
basically were the Bible.

And for
these dedicated followers,

there was no artistic
interpretation allowed.

- Chris loved having
kids come to the set.

- Susan Bones.

- His daughter, Eleanor,
was at school in London,

and they would have
class trips come to the set.

And they came one day
and they see this set here,

and they're all like,
"What's that?"

Chris is like, "Well, that's the
Potter cottage.

And they were like,
"Potter cottage?

There's no Potter cottage
in the book."

Chris explained
that there was something

that Jo Rowling had
written that took place

in the Potter cottage and ended
up cutting it out of the book.

And the kids all thought
this was a terrible idea.

- The children had spoken.

- "Why would you do this?"

Dang, Chris was really
disturbed by it,

thought about it all night,
came in the next morning,

said, "I don't think
we should do the scene."

- Kids on set were ready
to police every detail

right down to the makeup.

- I was there on set
with my son.

We were shooting the first time
you see his scar.

Joe, my son,
started pulling on me.

I said, "What? Shh!
What, what, what?"

And he said,
"The scar doesn't look right."

And I was like, "Okay, Joe..."

And Chris overheard,
you know, a little commotion.

He goes, "What's going on?"

I said, "Joe doesn't think
the scar looks right."

And he looks at it and he goes
over and looks at the scar.

He goes, "Joe's right."

You know, he stopped shooting,
took a half-hour,

had all the makeup
people come on, rework the scar.

He's like,
"Who knows better than the kids

who obsessed on this book?"

- They're your best critics.

They know what they believe
and what they don't believe.

- While the kids seemed
to be speaking with one voice,

it was the filmmakers
who couldn't agree.

- And there was some air
of suspicion.

Everybody was kind of nervous

and covetous
of their particular area.

- That was something
learned by the man charged

with piecing "Harry Potter's"
many parts together.

- My name is
Richard Francis-Bruce

and I was the picture editor
on "Harry Potter 1."

- Richard was cutting
"Harry Potter" at Leavesden

while filming was taking
place below his suite.

That was good for Robert,
who decided he had his own ideas

on how to edit the movie.

Ideas that have been
good enough for other directors.

- When I do the stuff
with Cameron and Ron Howard,

I discovered there was
an editorial sort of trick

to give something impact, and it
worked and everybody liked it.

And so I was like,
"Well, that's one of my tricks."

And so I normally was free
to go, "Oh, well, this,

if we cut it this way,
this will look better."

- We came back
from lunch one day,

and one of his people was in our
cutting room doing some stuff.

You know,
changed settings and things.

And my assistant was like,
"What?

You know,
you just changed everything.

What are you doing?"

- I was used to kind of
being a part of that.

- While his visual-effects
supervisor clashed

with his editor,

Chris Columbus maintained
total control on the set.

- Every line
of their performances,

especially in the first movie,
was Chris pulling it out.

- The number of takes.

Sometimes, you could spend
a fortnight on a two-page scene.

- His cast was
naturally learning on the job.

- I'd never been in a film
before.

I was so unaware of
how things happened.

We just didn't know what we
were doing. We were kids.

- But the director had
them learning fast.

- Okay, relax, relax.

- He has this knack
of getting genuine work...

- Everyone knows it's
the dark arts he fancies.

- ...out of kids without
even realizing they're acting.

-

- Yeah, it was so much fun
to film.

- It's miraculous we managed
to get anything done.

There was a lot of,
like, messing around.

Producers had already learned
messing around

was actually the only way
to get things done.

So every adult actor came
to play.

- Percy, in the first years,
meet Peeves.

- And none played harder
than a man cast

as a poltergeist named Peeves.

- Rik Mayall,
a brilliant comedian.

- My mom was like,
"That's Rik Mayall."

I was thinking, "Who?"

- Audiences around the world
know him for "Drop Dead Fred,"

but Rik Mayall came and stood
behind the camera for five days.

And he was just
so gloriously naughty.

I think it's safe
to say I learned a few words

I'd not used before
when I worked with Rik Mayall.

- Rik Mayall wasn't the only
adult using colorful language

as the crew struggled to capture
the children's

natural-but-fleeting
performances.

- It was totally necessary to
calm the kids

as well as we could.

- They used so many cameras.
- Try it again.

- Because they couldn't do
more than a line of dialogue.

- Shooting was taking so long...

- You could spend
a fortnight on a two-page scene.

- ...the crew were literally
watching the children grow up

before their very eyes.

- Dan's voice got deeper,
'cause he was getting older.

In the sound mix,
we had to tweak it a bit

to make it consistent
all the way through.

-
Why didn't I see it before?

- Not only did his voice change,

but he started
to grow a mustache.

And he ended up having to get
permission

from the parents to shave him...

- Alright.
- ...at 11 years of age.

It was very tricky
keeping it consistent.

- But the closest shave of all

was being saved
for the very end of production.

And there, things
were definitely getting hairy.

- Working on the
all-important Quidditch,

visual-effects supervisor
Rob Legato was feeling

as discombobulated
as a boy on a broom.

- The work was
not coming out the way

I would be the most proud of
because I didn't have a kid,

you know,
on the blue screen to work with.

- And as both
visual-effects supervisor

and second-unit director,

Rob Legato had a lot
of responsibility.

- It was the scene at the zoo
with the snake that talks.

- Can you hear me?

- But for some, Robert had
perhaps too much responsibility.

- In a room packed full
of people,

producers, he decided
to show a version of that scene

that he thought was better.

- I've never talked to
a snake before.

- He didn't consult me
beforehand

that he was gonna do it.

He just did it.

- The editor was offended
that I cut it.

- It was very firmly told
to him

that, no, we'll keep it the way
it's intended to be.

- They want to do it
this particular way,

even though it doesn't
necessarily deliver the goods.

- Robert Legato's
position on "Harry Potter"

was growing tenuous.

- It was just hard.

And so I became frustrated,

and I'm sure I was
not fun to be around either.

- Every department head
had problems...

with him.

- For Robert,
the situation was as miserable

as the English weather.

- So I really wanted to come
home.

I was terribly homesick.

I was in England for
like eight months,

and it was dreary
and the sun never came out.

- Yes,
he decided to go back to L.A.

Yeah, it was a bit of a relief.

- A relief for Richard,

but Warners has had
a new, unforeseen problem.

- The Quidditch match,
and I wasn't there to shoot it

or supervise the shooting of it.

It made it harder for me to do
what I kind of was hired to do.

The only way I can do it
is I have to pre-cut the scene

before we actually
photographed it,

essentially pre-directed
the motion of it,

which felt to be restrictive,
and I think I got criticized,

like, "Well,
why would you do that?"

It's like, "'Cause I had to."

- With Robert back in L.A.,

there was a new
second-unit director

ready to play Quidditch,

but he had to learn
the rules fast.

- Probably the toughest sequence
to do in the film.

- Scared, Harry?
- A little.

- There was a bunch of innovation
that went into creating these

very fantastic motion rigs,
sort of a mechanical bull.

- They used to tilt and dip.

- A lot of the Quidditch match
was motion control.

Motion-control cameras
have to be programmed.

They were so restricting
in what they can do.

- An absolute challenge, I think,
to any cameraman

to get that right
for the movement

without throwing the kids
off the brooms.

- The dangers, you know,
choreographing it, you know,

very tough at times.

- And Warner Bros.
were like, "Well,

how come we're doing it
this way?"

It's like, "I had to produce
the stuff in advance

so that we can make
the release date,

and that was the only way
I can accomplish it."

- I don't like this at all.

- Where are we?

- Production was
in the homestretch,

and now it was just a matter

of moving the final pieces
into place.

- It's a chessboard.

- We felt it was such
a classic scene in the book.

We really wanted to
replicate that.

- We're gonna play our way
across the room.

- The set was
absolutely incredible.

So much of what you see
is actually there.

And all the parts were
moving.

- We had to build
radio-controlled chess pieces

that we could drive across
and 'round the set.

- And they did actually
explode.

It was, like, dark.

It was, you know,
like filming, like, a war scene.

- I used very,
very high-pressure air

to blast pieces apart.

- But the real battle
was happening over in L.A.,

where Robert was about
to go to war

with Warners over his
behind-schedule visual effects.

- Quidditch match
was really hard to do.

I had the first what amounted
to 4 minutes of it.

- 4 minutes of Quidditch
was good,

but what it cost
to make was another matter.

- It was not really
budgeted correctly.

We budgeted it at like
$9 million.

They put in the budget
$4 million.

It was like,
"Well, you're overbudget."

It's like,
"No, you just misbudgeted."

- Now it was a simple case
of "You do the maths."

- It can't come down 'cause
it costs what it cost to do it.

- Or rather redo the maths.

- And to do a 1,700-shot movie...

- 10 times 1,700 equals...
- It's a guess.

- ...well, a lot more than
Warner Bros. was happy to pay.

- Now it's all my fault.

- And with a release date
looming,

time and money we now a problem.

- If I stop working on it
to try to come up with something

back to $4 million,
you won't make the release date,

and some executive stood up and
said, "Are you out of your mind?

You'll lose your job if
we don't make the release date."

It's like, "I don't think my job

is the one you're
worried about."