SheKnows has posted a new interview with Harry Potter director David Yates where he discusses a lot of his decisions for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I.  There are spoilers in the interview, so be cautious if you don’t know how they filmed things.

SheKnows: We talked about how the film ended, but can you talk a little about your decision of how the film began and the close-up on Bill Nighy’s eyes? David Yates: I really wanted to break away from the elegant openings of the past. I think you start to predict how the first two scenes are going to be in a Harry Potter movie. You go through the “WB” and then there will be elegant transition. And I said, “Oh God, let’s break that.” I thought, “It immediately grabs your attention.” I love the idea of the Horcrux in the sand, and if I could make it even louder I would. I love the idea of everyone sitting in the dark, being denied only images, feeling this horrible thing around them and then suddenly [snaps his fingers] there’s this weird pair of eyes. It was an attempt to break the rhythm of how the last two movies started, and jolt the audience into a sense of, “Oh, this is different than how we’re used to starting.” The ambition behind that was to make it more surprising and visceral and odd — to be slightly uncomfortable.