The Oscars Official Website has been updated with a new interview with Bruno Delbonnel, who was the cinematographer for Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince. The film has been nominated for an Academy Award in that category.The ceremony will air next Monday, March 7th, from Los Angeles at 8:00pm EST on ABC.
What was your most memorable moment in this movie?
I guess that’s when I saw the dailies of this cave scene and when I saw the light disappearing on Dumbledore’s face just in themiddle of one of his lines. For me, it suddenly added some tension and drama only with the us of light in a simple way. But there was some other moment such as working with Stuart Craig, the fantastic production designer. We shared a lot of ideas and his enthusiasm was amazing. And walking on his sets is just something I never experienced before at such a level. There was many memorable moments…..
Watching the movie now, what are your thoughts about it?
That’s a tricky questions. I’m happy I’ve done it, I think it looks good but now I’m somewhere else. I want to try something else. That’s probably why I said no to the last Harry Potter when I was asked to do it. I think I was scared of repeating myself. Needed to move on.
What was the biggest challenge you faced on the movie for which you were nominated?
First of all I guess it was to be as good as the previous cinematographers who worked on HP: John Seale, Roger Pratt, Michael Seresin, Slaqomir Idziak. To be as good but different.
Some of the sets are there since the very first Potter. How could I light them in a different way? This question brought another one based on the series itself. It was Potter number six, the story was less about the big fights than the relationships between the characters. Nevertheless the drama is still there and I thought it would be interesting to have those very intimate stories amidst this very dark mood. As if the school was a dark character. That’s when I suggested to go for this (again) dark moody variations of grays. Fortunately David Yates, and the producers liked the idea.
Then in terms of technical challenge, I had this idea for the scene on the crystal island in the cave, to add this moving light. I wanted to have some kind of “dynamism” with the light. The scene is quite static in front of the crystal bowl on an island which was not that big. I thought it could be interesting and more dramatic if the light was floating, circling above the characters faces; sometimes lighting them, sometimes hiding them in a very random and unpredictable way.
For that I put a single 6kw softbox on a remora head at the end of a 50 foot Technocrane that I was operating. It was a challenging idea because it was my only light and there was no way back; I mean thats what was dark was really dark. But it was a really interesting challenge (maybe I’m the only one to think so…)
Today (or tomorrow for some of us), March 1st is Ronald Bilius Weasley’s birthday! Ron is turning 30 this year! He is married to Hermione Granger and they have 2 lovely children; Rose and Hugo!
If you guys remember, a few days ago I posted a video of the People Tree fashion show that had a behind the scenes video playing in the background. Now that video is online at the People Tree youtube and you can watch below!
Half-Blood Prince has been nominated in the Best Original Score category at the BAFTA video game awards. It is up against: Assassin’s Creed II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, PixelJunk Shooter and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
In an interview with ComingSoon Ciaran Hinds (Aberforth Dumbledore) and Rhys Ifans (Xenophilius Lovegood) talked about what it was like filming Harry Potter & the DeathlyHallows. Ciaran said:
“I was made to feel very welcome, but I was there for a specific part that required just one scene and then pop up once with a wand, but apart from that, it’s just one scene with a little dialogue to give some exposition about Dumbledore’s past life. I had the joy of sharing the scene with three… well, they’re not kids anymore… Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. They were very charming, very gracious, made you feel very welcome and you’re aware. Here I am at a certain age with all my experience and these kids really know what they’re doing, they know their characters and here I am saying, ‘Who the hell am I… apart from Michael Gambon’s brother?’ It’s a lovely experience and the director is a very soft Yorkshire man, he’s not one of these guys, ‘Come on!’ It’s very considered and thought about. I saw him working with the younger ones, giving them little pointers, never pushing, just suggesting about development, and here I am, part of what everyone has to offer. You really have to say they’re confident and they know who they are, they know what they’re doing and we have to ask if we’re alright.”
Rhys added:
“Harry Potter has a history. They’ve read the book and they’ve got kids to answer to, these people. That’s a different kettle of fish, it’s like being called up. You get a phone call, and they’ll say, ‘Listen, the Queen’s a bit lonely tonight. Fancy popping over in your favorite underwear?’ It’s like the call-up, and it’s so funny. You get on set and you see all these actors who you’ve either admired from afar or more often than not, actors you’ve worked with before, all sitting there, dressed up as wizards, having wand-offs, and then bitching about other actors who didn’t get the call-up. It’s just such a surreal situation to be in. I was really genuinely proud to have been invited to be part of that whole machine.”
In a new interview with ComingSoon Jason Isaacs has talked about the final parts in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! Spoilers ahead!
“They made the last book into two films, and it was a fantastic experience because everyone who is left alive is back… and even some of the dead people,” he said with a sly smile. “There is one long sequence where everyone who is left standing is there when the forces of good meet the forces of evil.”
“I think over the years that they’ve been adapting these incredibly popular and successful books, they’ve increasingly become more and more confident in their ability to make great cinema experiences out of it and where they need to change the book or the central thrust of the story, they do it now with real aplomb and with Jo Rowling’s blessing,” he continued. “Everybody is very savvy to the notion that this is a much-loved franchise and this will be the end of an eighth film, and it needs to have weight and substance and you need to feel drained by the end of it. It’s a ten-year roller coaster ride, not a two-hour roller coaster ride, and we all know it and we all felt it, and it was in the air while we were shooting it.”
“This franchise goes out in an epic way,” he concluded. “I think the end of the films will be a fantastically cinematic and visual feast and it will more than satisfy the readers of the books, but what you won’t get is the book on screen. You will get something more and different.”
“It’s very sad for me,” he admitted when asked about how he felt about the movies coming to an end. “I’m a particularly sentimental fool anyway so I was already nostalgic for the history of Harry Potter while I was still making it, and I knew the end was coming. I was always cognizant of the fact I was going to have to pack up my furry friend of a wig and stick it in a box and say goodbye to the cane and any magic powers. All the joy was tinged with sadness for me.”
