If you get the Warner Brothers Newsletter you will have already seen their exclusive interview with Nicholas Hooper.  Nicholas is up for a Grammy for his work on the Half-Blood Prince soundtrack.  If not read below and click here for the full interview!

When do you make the final recording for the film – do you do it in segments or while the raw film is playing?
The scoring sessions are time to be at the end of the post production period although the film will probably still be going through some changes, even at that point. We work to the latest cut and record the music scene by scene. Often we will record the orchestra section by section. For example: 1. All the strings. 2. All the brass excluding the horns (which have a different color) 3. Then the horns etc. etc., until everyone has played. Normally percussion, choir and soloists would be recorded at a different session in the evening.

The HarryPotterFilm twitter has made a great announcement:

• To celebrate composer Nicholas Hooper’s Grammy nom for Best Score, we’ll be giving away HP6 soundtracks all weekend long!
• The 1st giveaway will be from 10-11am PST tomorrow.  Apologies, but US entrants only this time around, I’m afraid. 🙁
• Also, subscribe to the official WB HarryPotter.com newsletter to read an exclusive interview w/ Nicholas tomorrow! http://bit.ly/9Lnkjc

I highly recommend purchasing the soundtrack if you don’t win.  It is definitely one of the best Potter soundtracks!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has won THREE Richard Attenborough Film Awards!

As I posted earlier, Half-Blood Prince was nominated for Classic FM “Film Music of the Year Award”. The winners have been chosen and it won that award along with the Alan Titchmarsh show’s “British film of the year award”!

It also won Visit Britain’s “Best Use of UK Locations Used in a Film Award”

Thanks as usual to Oclumencia we have FOUR new promotional photos from the Half-Blood Prince character shoots.  See them all here in the gallery!

As I posted 2 weeks ago, Half-Blood Prince was long-listed for a few categories in the BAFTA Awards (Make-Up & Hair, Special Visual Effects, Sound, Costume Design, Production Design, Cinematography).  The full list of nominees is now online and Half-Blood Prince has been nominated in the following (the movies next to the title are what the film is up against and in parenthesis is who in the HBP crew would receive the award):

• Production Design (Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan) – Avatar, District 9, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Inglourious Basterds
• Special Visual Effects (John Richardson, Tim Burke, Tim Alexander, Nicolas Aithadi) – Avatar, District 9, The Hurt Locker, Star Trek

Sadly, Alan Rickman did not get nominated for Supporting Actor (he was long-listed)

The ceremony will be at the Royal Opera House in London, England on February 21st.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince received a Visual Effects Society nomination for Outstanding Matte Paintings in a Feature Motion Picture for the 8th annual VES awards. The movie is up against Star Trek, Avatar and Franklyn.

The ceremony will take place on February 28, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, CA.

Thanks to UHP!