American Cinematographer - August 2007 - 76

Post Focus Hogwarts headmistress Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton) is chased from the Great Hall by a supernatural burst of fireworks in a scene from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, shot by Slawomir Idziak, PSC. Visual-effects supervisor Tim Burke has something in common with young wizard Harry Potter, and it isn’t just an English accent: both have proven adept at magical effects. Burke has worked on all of the Harry Potter films, and for the latest installment, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, he supervised a team of visual-effects artists for 18 months; 1,400 of the resultant 1,800 shots made the final cut. Throughout this work, Burke’s collaboration with cinematographer Slawomir Idziak, PSC and gaffer James McGuire played a vital role in bringing Potter’s world to life. Idziak, a seasoned director of photography known for his creative and dramatic use of color and composition, had previously worked with Burke on Black Hawk Down (see AC June ’02), which helped them forge a strong rela76 August 2007 Harry Potter frame grabs courtesy of Warner Bros. Diagram courtesy of Light by Numbers. Adding Hocus-Pocus to Harry Potter by Iain Stasukevich tionship. Idziak and McGuire, who had been his gaffer on King Arthur and The Last September (AC June ’00), were brought onto Harry Potter three months ahead of principal photography. “Three months sounds like a long time, but it’s also a time where a lot of important decisions are being made,” says Idziak. “In Poland, the cinematographer is always one of the first people to be hired. Working on Hollywood films is always a different experience.” Of course, the preceding four films had well established the Harry Potter look, whose consistency Idziak attributes in large part to production designer Stuart Craig, who has worked on all of the films. “[Production] wouldn’t let you change the look of the movies, anyway,” he notes. “My ambition was to bring a slightly different color palette to it, and to make sure the transitions between in-camera effects and digital effects were as imperceptible as possible.” By the time Idziak was brought onboard, the film was completely storyboarded, and many of the key visualeffects sequences had been roughed out in CG animatics. One of the more challenging of these sequences involves the Weasley twins, Fred and George, and their plans to escape the wizarding school of Hogwarts once and for all. They intend to go out with a bang — literally. The scene takes place in Hogwarts’ Great Hall, one of the largest practical sets designed by Craig at Leavesden Studios, just outside of London. “[Director] David Yates described a series of small explosions that would culminate in one large event,” explains Burke. “The twins throw some fireworks into the air, and a big, dragon-shaped firework then chases and attacks the Hogwarts headmistress [played by Imelda Staunton].” Burke and Idziak began by conducting a series of practical fireworks tests. “We bought a lot of fireworks and went out onto the backlot at

American Cinematographer - August 2007

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