Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis) battles outside the Great Hall in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." (Jaap Buitendijk / Warner Bros. Pictures)
THE LAST SPELL: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” closes out a decade of Hogwarts in Hollywood. Hero Complex is counting down to the release of the final film in the magical franchise with exclusive interviews and photos. Today: Production designer Stuart Craig on how he ravaged Hogwarts, why he changed the location of a crucial death scene and what he’ll hold onto from the series.
For every Harry Potter film, production designer Stuart Craig has referenced real-world structures to help bring J.K. Rowling’s elaborate vision of wizarding life to the screen. In “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,“ Craig faced a new challenge — how to destroy the castle-like buildings of Hogwarts for the film’s climactic battle scenes.
“We looked at ruins from World War II — Coventry, Dresden,” Craig said. “I looked at the profiles that were left of burning buildings. Ruined masonry has a very distinct pattern to it. We were very concerned to get it right.”
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Demolishing the existing Hogwarts would have been impractical for a number of reasons, Craig said — many sets are being preserved for Warner Bros.’ London studio tour, set to open in 2012, and the temporary nature of the buildings would be exposed if they were destroyed.
“You couldn’t just take the sets that existed and punch holes in them,” he said. “All you would do is reveal that they were made of thin sheets of plywood covered with a skin of plaster to give a stone texture. You had to re-conceive them as a huge new set or several sets and design ruins from the ground up that appeared solid and three-dimensional. Walls, where before they could be just a skin, now needed thickness and solidity —big stones on the outside filled with rubble in the middle. “
Craig said he took some creative license with a key death scene in the book.
“In the book [the character] dies in the Shrieking Shack. I specifically asked J.K. Rowling if she would mind if we transposed that to a boathouse. I felt it would make a very interesting, very theatrical set. There was a lot of glass in the design for the boathouse. Through the glass, you’re aware of Hogwarts in flames and the water inside the boathouse reflects the flames and you get a great sense of the height and the drama. It’s rather cathedral-like in a small way, a rather ephemeral structure. I think [the actor] was happy to die there and I was very happy to see [the actor] die there.”
Craig has won Oscars for his production design on the films “Gandhi,” “Dangerous Liaisons” and “The English Patient,” but this is the first time his creations will endure long after the film has wrapped, for the Warner Bros. tour.
“Often my sets are bulldozed, wrecked, taken to the fire and disposed of very quickly,” Craig said. “The fact that these have stood there for 10 years is remarkable enough. That they will continue to stand there for several more years — or until people tire of Harry Potter, which they don’t seem to be doing — gives this one a sense of permanence which none other of my films has had.”
With everything he has built for Harry Potter, Craig said he is not keeping any chunks of the set for himself.
“Ultimately what I have is the series of DVDs of all the films,” he said. “I’ve gotten used to the fact that all of this is very temporary and what remains is the movies.”
– Rebecca Keegan
RECENT AND RELATED:
Hermione Granger through the years gallery
The ultimate ‘Deathly Hallows’ photo gallery
Hiss like Salazar with Parseltongue translator
Matt Lewis: Neville becomes a resistance leader
Tim Burke: 3-D is ‘very, very good’ in final film
Quoth the Rowling, ‘Pottermore!’
Radcliffe: Reprising role would be self-defeating
Watson: Dance scene ‘divided’ the ‘Potter’ crew
VIDEO: Tom Felton gives tour of ‘Potter’ props
Phelps twins on life, death and Weasley courage
Comments
Print
Read Later
Our legion of super contributors is led by Hero Complex editor Gina McIntyre and 
Uh, wanna watch those spoilers. This is the first I've heard of what happens to Hogwarts. I've been on lockdown leading up to the film, but your headline was kind of hard to avoid.
its called reading the book….
The movies are good but the books are great. It's sad to see American children don't like to read they would just rather watch a movie. The books are classics and for future generations who like to travel to a world and experience the life of the Boy who Lived
Sorry you are mistaken regarding American children. They ate up the books like candy. My children and I read every one, went to midnight book release parties at bookstore and yes went to the movies. As anyone Brit or American will tell you the movies have NOTHING on the books. Too bad you were given the impression that "American children don't like to read" because it just simply isn't true.
So in other words, the title is a complete bait & switch lie. The actual sets are still there.
The title is "Destroying Hogwarts". Hogwarts gets destroyed in the STORY. So the Production Designer explained how they made that come to life on screen. "Harry Potter Production Designer on Destroying Hogwarts" makes complete sense. In fact, to destroy Hogwarts they had to create MORE sets. But that doesn't contradict the title of the article at ALL.
harry potter the best movie ever!! I rily love it..god bless!
@Jackie – then blame JK Rowling. Had she truly wanted them to remain a gateway for kids to discover the love of reading, she could have easily said no to Hollywood and remained a well-off woman from book sales & merchandise. But either her ego and/or desire to be very, very wealthy said yes and there your have it.
She said no several times, once to warners, then they came back and asked if it was about the money which it wasn't, she wanted them to stay true to the books which they did but towards the end they didn't. Dont blame JR Rowling, she deserves all the money she has and she dontaes to charitys and to people who ask for money if they were like her
I absolutly love the Harry Potter phenomenon, it has been a part of my life since i was 6, and have grown up having such an excitment for each book and then film to come out. The books are absolutly amazing, and are what got me interested in reading from a young age! However the films are also fantastic and have added a real vibe and realness to the books and the whole phenomenum, so i therefore believe the films was one of the best decisions (which she originally wasnt going to do) she ever made as i cant imagine life without them now and have had so much pleasure watching them! Fair play to her, yes shes become a lot wealthier and obtained a much higher status, but being able to see your own books come to life, with decisions down to your self, must be an amazing, and shes such a talented woman she deserves it! I really take my hat off to her and thank her for bringing so much to the world!
Can we say the name of who dies? I feel that after all these books coming out so long ago, if anyone was truly interested they could have read them, so I don't see why we have to be careful about not naming dead characters and stuff.