Behind The Wand - Episode 26, Michael Seresin

This week I talk with Michael Seresin who was cinematographer for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. 

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
Hello, Welcome back to the thirdseries of Behind the Wand my name is
Blick Miles and if you don't know, I was Hermione's double in the Harry
Potter films. And for this podcast, I speak to other people who worked
on Harry Potter about their time inthe Wizarding World. I'm so excited to
be back for a third series,and I'm even more thrilled that for our

(00:31):
first guest we have managed to getMichael Sarasin. He was the cinematographer for
Prisoner of Azkapan, which you probablyknow is my favorite of the Harry Potter
films. I was so excited tospeak to him about how he worked with
Alfonso to take the series from thosegorgeous first two glossy children films to the
gritty, dementor ridden dark story ofthe third film. So this is me

(00:57):
speaking to Michael. Also, Ihave a little announcement the end of this
episode, so if you can staytuned, that would be great. But
yep, enjoy this is me speakingto Michael. What does a cinematographer do.
I guess what does they do?Well? It's putting words into images.

(01:22):
I mean we all have when youread a book, play. Whatever
you create often subconsciously images in yourhead. My job or cinematographer's job is
the interpretation of those words into images. Yeah, in concert with the director,
how you feel about it in termsof how it should look. Should

(01:44):
it be light or dark, orclose ups or wide shots combination. It's
an evolutionary process which sort of comesfrom the moment you read the script,
discuss it with a director, workingwith the production designer. Mostly that's the
three most important people. Yeah,that's it. The choice, I mean,

(02:07):
there are so many ways to filmstuff. Yeah, and you just
hope you've taken the right decision.I mean, specifically on as Caban Alfonso
and I decided to make it prettydark. Yeah, and it from others,
not me saying it's perhaps the mostcinematic of the series, whatever that

(02:28):
means. But getting back to youroriginal question, it is it's a combination
of lighting. You know, becauselights, even if we're not aware of
it, light to find so muchin our lives outside of cinema. Where
I'm sitting now is facing south.It's an overcast that you get soft single
source light from, you know,the cloudy sky. If it was night
time, there's lights all over theplace. It would be very different.

(02:50):
And you choose the light which youhope is appropriate for the scene. It's
an interpretation. I don't believe it'slight or wrong. It's just you hope
your decision is the works best forthe story, the performances, the locations,
et cetera. Yeah, So hadyou read or seen anything of Harry

(03:12):
Porter before? I guess was itAlons who approached you to come on board?
You hadn't no. What were yourfirst thoughts when you read the script,
because looking at your work beforehand,it's quite a different It's totally different
to what you'd like the life ofDavid Gail and Angela's ashes and stuff like
that. Initially I was not thatinterested. I thought sort of kids film,

(03:38):
even though I'd done one of thesort of definitive things with Bugsy Malone.
And that's when I was in NewZealand at alvignyad there and when I
read it. When I heard aboutit, actually when I got back to
London was when I read the script. It was about four or five months
before they started prep. I thought, I don't know, you know.
So I met Alfonso and we goton very well personally, and we still

(04:01):
do. We're very close friends,and so in a way, it was
us talking about it, and he'squite a seductive individual, and the sense
of enthusiastic about it because you know, it's two years of his life a
year and a half of mine,and we figured out and it was more
personal. We didn't talk about thefilm a lot, but enough to sort

(04:23):
of generate mutual enthusiasm, if youlike. And it's one of the best
decisions I've ever made, because Iloved working on It's hard workers all filmmaking,
is this one, particularly for allthe obvious reasons, working with children,
limited ours, big sets, long, long schedule, blah blah blah.
But I think probably I changed quiteradically from being negative about it or

(04:47):
just think, yeah, do Ireally want to do this, to loving
it and loving working on it,and the relationship with the key people on
the film. That's pretty much it. I think there was also another quite
sort of definitive thing is the previousfilm that he'd made was called E to
Mama Tambien. Now you could notget further away, And in fact,

(05:12):
when I first heard about it,before I was offered the film, somebody
said, oh, Quairn's doing it. I said, what are you talking
about. I just saw Eat MamaTambien No way as a directory does a
funky, sexy, low budget movielike that, going to do one of
the more probably the biggest film inthe world. Yeah, yeah, it
was all all right. It wasactually, I think, like just such

(05:33):
a great, great decision because Ithink like with the third film, you
see a real shift in the sortof darkness of the story, which is
then obviously reflected in how it's filmed, and obviously Hogwarts becomes like a lot
more of a dangerous place, andactually sort of the glossiness of the first
two films I think wouldn't have workedwith the story of the third film,

(05:56):
So sort of having that darker edgeto it was a great move. Oh
yeah, I agree. I neversaw the first two. I didn't want
to have fond so I did andhe said, do you want to see
him? I said not really,I said, because I don't want to
be influenced by them. And alsodifferent personalities, I mean, not the
key people, not the David Hayman, the producer, or the production designer.
But I just wanted to make itour film. I think Olfonso had

(06:20):
to see it just to see relationshipwith the kids and all the rest of
it, and he probably stored thataway and did his own thing. But
it was subsequently I've seen pieces ofthe other films, and I think after
ours one after ours, which Iwas going to shoot, then decided not
to add something else. And alsool Fonso has a very particular way of

(06:43):
working which I really like, right, and so selfishly I thought, maybe,
you know, I don't want tospoil the experience of Azkaban with something
else, which is a bit arrogantin a way, but I didn't mean
it to be. It's just Iwanted to keep that as its own entity.
Yeah, totally. So when youfirst got I guess I assume this
is how you work. That youreceived the script and you start reading through

(07:04):
and sort of like you said,in your head and working with Alfonso,
sort of piecing together how you thinkit may look. Was there anything that
stands out as like a big challengethat you were thinking like, oh,
I just don't know how we're goingto quite do that. Perhaps not really.
I have a very good crew.My gaffer been with me since probably

(07:26):
Midnight Express, so we had agreat working relationship and mutual respect. It's
a guy called Peter Bloor who's notretired. I think probably it was just
the size of it in a way. And also this is pretty much pre
CGI, or very very early daysof it, so it was pretty unsophisticated,

(07:47):
so we had to do a lotof stuff that now would be done
in CGI. Maybe one of thescenes and I can't it's a scene where
time goes backwards. Yeah, Andour Fonso said to me, like a
week before. It's where Harry andHermione are together, what's his faces and
ruperts and the beds, and she'sgot the little what you call it necklace

(08:13):
thing bro whatever, and the cameragoes into them very close onto this thing,
then pulls back and we go aroundone eighty degrees, so move around.
And I said, a few daysbefore, I'd like to do three
sixty Jesus. And that's a lotof work, because you know one eight

(08:35):
you've got room for all the filmmakingstuff. I said, really, I
said, what woul Chieva, who'sthis regular DP say to you? He'd
tell me to fuck off? AndI said, well, this is a
challenge and we did it. Luckily. We had a very good second unit
who worked a lot of stuff out. I said what we wanted. Then
they would work out all the stuffbecause we had other action going on outside

(08:56):
the hospital room. And then thecamera does it three sixty and then ends
up going through all the workings ofthe big clock at the end. That
was just a challenge. It wasdifficulty. Is I mean, he's a
demanding director and I like that.Yeah, I mean he and perhaps uniquely
one of the only what uniquely alreadysaid a director whose conception of scenes is

(09:22):
very, very different, and Ilove it. For example, in terms
of pacing, it's very easy tonot easy, but simply to make a
film wide shot, medium shot,close shot, reverses in all of that,
then an editor puts it all together, or you can do it as
our Fonso does forever and particularly onPotter as Caban, where the conception is

(09:43):
one shot. So you start superwhite like we did in the dining hall,
for example, we end up whereyou see everything like two hundred and
fifty kids or whatever, and thenthe cameras of huge crane comes in and
ends up a close up on akid's face. Now, in terms of
you can just blast it with lightand make it enough for illumination, but
I don't want to do that.So it's to make it dramagic and interesting

(10:07):
and appropriate for the scene. Butthat's in a way, it's a technical
demand, and I'm not a verytechnical cinematographer. The people much smarter than
me, you can work that out. I just want to know how something
looks, which is late yep.So other than that, I mean,
we got very lucky. For example, when we were up in Scotland,

(10:28):
they said we're going to go onMay because the long range forecast is going
to be one day of rain andthirty days of sun or we got thirty
days of rain. And the bestthing out of that was that there was
a massive amount of money in thebudget for posts for visual effects to get
rid of all the sun. Wellwe didn't have to do it because every

(10:50):
day was overcast and wet and perfectfor the scene. Yeah. So when
you go to somewhere like Scotland,because obviously when we were up there,
it's absolutely stunning, It's like beautiful. So is that kind of like a
gift does a cinematalker? Is thatgreat if you've just got all that natural?
I mean, the locations were chosenbecause they were you know, Alfonso

(11:13):
mostly me too, thought they wouldwork for what they scene required and then
all the CGI stuff that's added toit with the castle and so on.
But it's all designed. I mean, in the end, I guess the
production designer along with the visual effectsproducer and Alfonso, he says what he
wants, they come up with designs. Eventually they agree on it. Well
I look at it and say thisis what we can go on location,

(11:35):
this is what we have to do. Blah blah blah blah blah. So
I mean, in that sense,it was brilliant. And also, as
you know, and film is ahuge amount of artifice some of the stuff.
You know, you film one thingand when you see it in the
finished film, you see you dothat there. I think that's part of
the magic of cinema, I guess, and these it is even more so.

(11:56):
But back and that when we didthat, it was yeah, I
mean, to answer your initial question, not really. I mean, at
times was a bit frustrating when weran over a bit and we couldn't finish
the scene with the kids, butthat was just the law. You know.
The fantastic as system director had donethe first two so he knew how
to schedule everything Chrism not Chris Chris. And it was a very no I

(12:20):
thought. It's almost like the firsttwo films were for what we were doing
technically, not creatively, but technically. Yeah, it worked very very well.
And how did you find I mean, obviously you had done sort of
ashes and stuff which had children,But how did you find working with the
children, Because, like you said, I guess like the first film,
when I spent it was a realnightmare. It was Hermione standard. She

(12:45):
could follow any instruction, because whenI spoke to John Seal, he was
like a lot of children had likenever set foot on a step before,
on a step before. They didn'teven understand about like hitting a mark or
like he said, he had touse like lots of different cameras beause kids
would just start smiling like halfway througha scene for no reason. So he
could sort of like give options toin the edit. Did you find that

(13:07):
by the third film they had wehad one camera for everything. We don't.
I've never really worked like that.It's not the first time I ever
used more than one camera. Wasa film called City Hall with Pacino because
he changes lines every take so tohave a wider shot and the closer shot.
We never did that. I meansome second units sometimes had up to

(13:28):
twenty cameras doing stuff, but thatwas just because we got they got four
hours to film the night bus inthe middle of London, But no,
we never had any We were onecamera most of it. Occasionally very so
children. I don't want to imposeto not any act of too much technical
stuff. I mean occasionally we hadto by virtue of something that it's pretty

(13:50):
rare. No, I'm at theother no. Yeah, And then to
go back just a little bit aboutCGI. So but is it kind of
are you pleased that we sort offilmed Harry Potter then where there wasn't all
this CGI because then there was alot more actually physically there, Oh totally.
I mean, actually to do itfor real and you know in the
end, I've done things in TVcommercials where I started where like keeping the

(14:16):
camera out of the reflection on theside of a car, we did for
real. Now everybody says, oh, we'll get rid of it and post
don't worry about it. I likethe challenges of doing it for real because
it keeps you on your toes allthe time. Now you can just sit
say oh, it doesn't matter,We've got that. And I mean I'm
a friends of mine no names,but done massive movies where it's like six
cameras, some of the cameras areseeing the other camera, the director says,
don't worry, we'll get rid ofit, and post I sort of

(14:37):
think, you know what, okay, But I come from a generation where
you did it for real. Yeah, you made it work, and I
like the challenge. It made youwork harder, be more potentially more creative,
and often the results were brilliant,you know, because with CGI everything
can be predetermined or post, whereaswhen you do it for real and you

(15:01):
don't have an alternative, you justhope your choices are the right ones,
and when they are, I loveit, absolutely love it. Yeah,
no, I agree. I think, like, like I said, like
so many things were actually there tofilm and the sets are like so detailed,
and I think that just really addedto like well for me, just
like the excitement of being on afilm. And kids are very smart.

(15:24):
I mean when we did Angela's Ashes, I mean, it's got bugger or
to do with Potter. The kidshad never done it before and we had
like from a six month old babyup to like a nine year old,
four kids in a room and wehad one camera. Yeah, the film
was brilliant for what the kids did, absolutely incredible, and even most of
the kids had never done it beforeand there was all nobody else. But

(15:46):
is that sometimes exciting? Because Iguess if you're used to working I mean,
like you have with like big namesthat are on their sort of fiftieth
film or twentieth film or something,is there an excitement that sometimes children bring
when they haven't worked on films before. Because absolutely there's a sort of what
is it? There's a an unpredictablequality which when it works, is phenomenal.

(16:07):
And when you see what children arecapable of, I mean adults tend
to be a bit dismissive of whatkids are capable of, me included,
but I think the kids have gotso much more, and when they hate
it brilliant, they've got no life, very little life experience, acting acting
experience, because I think actually whenAlfonso came on, he treated us a

(16:30):
lot more I don't want to sayprofessionally, but as adult actors in a
way, which was quite nice.Well, he loves children, yeah,
he through the film and for maybeseven eight years after when we saw a
lot of one another socially, youknow, we go after Hyde Park or

(16:52):
they come over and have lunch ordinner or whatever, and he'd be sitting
next door with the kids, fallingaround with them while the adults like his
kids, his kid's mum and justsitting eating and drinking and talking. He'd
be rolling around on the floor withthe kids. And he's still like that
who he is. I mean,he's super close to his children, super
growing at what one's I think one'sjust eighteen nineteen this week, and the

(17:15):
other is you know, early twenties. But no, it's it's fundamentally who
he is. Yeah. So workingwith him as well as you experienced over
Mountains, is you know the samething. Yeah, he's a lot of
stress for children. Yeah, yeah, exactly, and like respectful of what
like you sort of said that childrencan bring, which I think sometimes could

(17:36):
be underestimated. So yeah, soI had that also that he likes to
storyboard a lot. Do you havehim put in this? I guess you're
looking at the storyboard. Are youworking on that? Really? I think
he I think he does storyboards whichare necessary for CGI, and so everybody
knows. For example, when you'vegot a lot of second unit stuff.

(18:00):
First unit, say, is workingwith the leads, but in the backgrounds
other stuff going on. So thestoryboard is there, so first unit know
what they're doing and second unit knowwhat they're doing, and so you discuss
image. Otherwise it could be abstract. So I could be saying, oh,
I want to see you with likesix windows behind you in a light

(18:21):
in a room behind you, andit could be left and now seeing you.
I know what it is. Ifit was a description, I interpret
it. So when you have thestoryboard, everybody knows. Especially when you
come you know, the CGI world, they say, we need a bit
more of this here, a bitmore. I mean, in those days
we had to keep the lighting contrastto a certain level for some reason.

(18:42):
When there was CGI. When therewasn't, we could do what we liked,
but it was I pushed the boundariesand occasionally they get a bit frustrated,
but it worked. But I think, Yeah, I mean, there's
films are quite complex, and asfar as I know, he does storyboards
mostly when there's other elements added tothe live action, right, got it?

(19:03):
Yeah? And then on second units. I actually don't know much about
second unit because I didn't work onthat unit at all. I was mainly
on the first few. Yeah,is there another cinematak grooper on the second
unit or you sort of somebody else. I think the biggest difference, which
did lead to a little bit offriction, was when our Fonso and I

(19:25):
talked about it and I found outhow they made the film and there's like
five units as a model unit,there's a second unit, there's blah blah
blah. And I said to him, and this comes from I like to
control stuff. I said, Ithink we should control everything, not let
second unit do their own thing,not let model unit do their own thing.
He said, absolutely, How arewe going to do it? I

(19:45):
said, we'll just choose who wewant. Now. The second unit director
contractually had to do it Peter McDonald, and he had his own DP,
and I wanted to use somebody else, and it lead it got a bit
unpleasant at one point, and Ijust said, up on, so I
need your help. This guy thatI want to use is brilliant and a

(20:07):
lovely, lovely person. Nothing againstPeter McDonald's guy, but I just said
I really would like to use thisguy, and in the end we've got
him. He So in essence,the look is controlled by me, the
action what the film and the directorasks. But I would see the model
units dailies every morning, rushes oursat high speed obviously, and okay,

(20:33):
and there's something I didn't like,not from action, because I get involved
in it, but I'm not decisivein that. I'd say, I'm sorry,
the lighting's too flat. We needmore contrast. The director, Pete
would say, oh, I thinkit's fine. I'd say, okay,
Peter, but I know it's justnot going to feel right in the scene
that we're shooting. And the cinematographerand Aussie guy, Peter Hannon, really

(20:55):
lovely guy, he's very, veryvery civilized. Quiet guy said oh,
I'm he said, that's how Peterwanted. I said, well, no,
it's not going to work, andyou know, I'd say, you
know, I want you to redoit please. In a way, it
was like a sort of pyramid,but me at the top, feeding into
all the others. So I hadto sign off on everything, which made

(21:18):
me one reason the film feels thatmuch more coordinated. Yeah, definitely not
what I mean all the various elementscome together as if it was. I
mean, we wanted to do everything, and then the producer said, no
way, can we afford you guysto do it? You'd be there for
five years. So yeah, totally. So I mean this actually I both
my mind because for me, obviously, being a child, my working day

(21:41):
would start at nine and I'd begone by seven, like out the door
at seven. That was like themaximum in that. So what would your
so would your day your day obviouslywhat time sort of does that start that
you'd sort of turn up. Iguess you just said you'd have to watch
like in the morning. I'm guessyou're having to I get there. See.

(22:02):
The thing also is the pace wasdictated by you guys, yes,
the adults. The hours you couldwork, the hours you could be on
the on the premises, the hoursyou could be on the set, your
scoring, your breaks, your mealtimes, everything, and the maximum you
could do without getting whatever the worldis it sort of allowance to do something

(22:23):
at night or whatever. So aswent that much longer. Also, there's
a massive amount of prep. Sowhen you guys turned up to rehearse,
eighty percent of the lighting was done, so the changes were just pretty You
weren't waiting for the process to start. It was already well underweight, sometimes
weeks in advance. Sometimes, forexample, i'd get second you to shoot

(22:45):
tests for me. I'd look atthem and say, that's great, thanks,
and that will be first unit stuffthey were testing for us. Yeah,
really, I don't know. We'dget out there about seven thirty eight,
I guess, and watch some rushesfor a while, and then you
know, we'd start our day.We'd rehearse for you guys turned up.
We know roughly what we're doing.We rehearse with you. Then then the
main cast to come and we'd rehearseand shoot and would you have a film

(23:08):
later into the evening with like theadult actors then or would it pretty much?
Really? I think we had aten hour working day. Yeah,
so that they've proven over the previoustwo films that it works and occasionally not
know not very much. I mean, Alfonso is super organized and the occasionally
with the there's a bit more interpretationwhen you were working with the adult actors

(23:33):
because you know, pretty high,very high caliber. So of course when
you get half a dozen of themtogether, it's also the interpretation of a
role and consistency and so on.So yeah, yeah, and then was
the time because I guess with HarryPotter, like one of the things I
always think is it's obviously not areal place Hogwarts and you know castle and
magic as we know doesn't exist,but you also have it is sort of

(23:57):
grounded in reality, like Harry putHogwartz. I always say, it looks
like it's somewhere that actually exists.If that makes sense. Is that a
challenge then lighting wise, to sortof have magic but also have that that
it has to look like it fitsin this real castle. Do you think
what I'm saying? Yeah, no, I do. I don't know that

(24:17):
it's a challenge. It's really youdo suspend belief a little bit. Yeah.
For example, when you are doinga scene having to allow for some
magic to happen within it, Yeah, do I have to do anything within
the lighting to make that happen?For example, I don't know. If
there's an explosion, you don't wantit too bright because you won't see the

(24:38):
explosion. You make it a littlebit darker. Also, if you've got
something flying through the sky, thecamera's got to be tilted up, which
without something flying through the sky lookscrazy, but with something flying through there
looks perfect. Yeah. Occasionally,I know we'd line up and our fonswors
say, and I know i'd say, come on, we've got to tilt
up a bit. I don't forgetwe've got Harry taking Lfael or whatever it

(25:00):
is. Yeah, yeah, Imean it's it's that's where storyboards come into
us. For example, like asyou're composed here, now, if he
had Harry flying above your head,we'd go a little bit wider and tilt
up more so the space a thirdof the frame would be above your head
for him to fly through or whateverit was. Yeah. Yeah, And

(25:21):
that's where storyboards are important. Andalso the effects guy on the brilliant guy,
Roger yet lovely, lovely guy.He taught me more about visual effects
and what I had to do toaccommodate that than any any others. He's
absolutely brilliant. And then did youhave a favorite set to because I don't
know, I feel like I rememberit that with like the shrieking shack,
that that was actually a set thatmoved was the absolutely I loved filming in

(25:47):
there, and that scene I thinkis like absolutely brilliant with like Harry Oldman
comes in and obviously snakes there andit's just a really, really fantastic part
of the film. But did youhave a favorite set that you that you
would film on. I mean,that was a challenge. In fact,
I'd forgotten about it till you mentionedit because it was not a big set.
It was maybe twenty and it wasdoing all this moving and our Fonso

(26:11):
loves wide angle lens, really whiteangle lenses. And two reasons I remember
the scene was we were rehearsing,We're waiting for the actors to come.
There's a bit of egos going on, of course, which is normal in
my film crew. Let alone peoplein front of the camera, the cast,
And he said, and the camera'sright back in the corner. And

(26:33):
I literally had like three feet eitherside to put any lights. And I
said, I could have said lot, let's go, let's do this or
that and the camera moved as well. And he said, oh, you
like a challenge, and he wasright, I did, and it worked.
But the thing was, there wasa really weird thing going on.
We had the camera sitting in througha hole on the side of the set
and I'm on the set looking atlights and walking around and whatever, and

(26:56):
I thought, something weird's going onbehind the camera, and our Fonsa walks
onto the set and he'd never doneit in the three four five months before.
I said, come on, whyhave you got that lights up there?
I'm sort of aware there's the camerasitting there, people like coming in
behind it, some things up,and all of a sudden they started seeing
Happy Birthday and Spanish Mexican. Itwas my birthday found out and all of

(27:22):
them and they filmed it. Itwas incredible. I don't know where it
is anymore, but it was becauseHappy Birthday and Mexican Spanish is like ten
verses. It went on and on, and he was standing next to it.
I was really moved. I burstinto tears. It was absolutely sad.
I liked that one because no disrespectto the kids, to you,
you guys. It was incredible performances, you know what I mean. And

(27:48):
it was the day one they'd allcome together and we were waiting. I
think Alan Rickman was the last,and there was the atmosphere was a little
tense, and Olfonso was very goodat Diffusia. I remember I went up
to and I said, I'll tellyou what we'd all funk off. You
just you just talk to them throughit. There's over there, and he
said no, So I hung backa little bit and slowly it fell into

(28:08):
place, and then you could seethe actors sort of becoming their characters and
being English actors. It's a job, as opposed to a lot of Americans
who they go through whatever. Itis no disrespect to anybody about anything,
but the English thing is it's justit's a job. You know, turn
up, you do it, andthat's it, and brilliantly most of the

(28:29):
time. Yeah, there was justa couple of egos and look, with
all of us, it's it's it'spart of human how we are, how
we're built. But anyway, itwas very Yeah, I like that as
much for performances, the sort ofethos within it. If that makes it
scene, it's not. You know, I think the kids were great.

(28:53):
They really were good. But ina way, being so young and relative
and experienced, the performances were withina sort of relatively narrow sort of what
is the word sort of band wasto watch the adults, even though the
characters were very strong, sort ofdevelop and evolve and so on, and

(29:18):
quite differently from the previous songs.I was told, as I say,
didn't see it, but no,the favorite scenes, nothing particularly, I
mean I like quite big scenes justto for example, when all the kids
are asleep mhm, and they're walkingthrough the Great Hall again, Yeah,
we end up end up very closeon Harry, and I think he'd asked

(29:45):
if he could there's some girly fancycould be in the bunk next to him.
And what we didn't know is ourFonso had got this remote control farting
machine. So it's Hugh a acouple hundred kids asleep. You're probably in
the middle of that oh what's hisname walking down the middle. Yeah,
the boomy voice and as the cameracomes and closed, this is a re
first rehearsal on Harry. This machinegoes this, Harry doesn't know what to

(30:11):
do. We go. That's soembarrassing though, like you know, there's
just like so many extras that arelike other thirteen year olds. Yeah,
oh yeah, yeah it was.It was a bit craweling away, bit
funny, but in the end wegot it. Yeah. No, overall,
I think it was most of thesets. I guess if I got
frustrated with anything more often than not. You're just getting close to get something

(30:33):
with the kids, and oh,sorry, they've got to go and at
lunch now I've got to go totheir lessons. But that was minor in
the end, after how many monthsor years or whatever we were on it,
it just yeah, yeah, Iremember that. It's like the breaks,
and they were really strict with art. They had to be. I
think when you do a film atthat scale with a major studio, it

(30:53):
was you have to do it.Yeah, just like going back to the
adult actss, just like as achild watched it. I do remember especially,
I think like with when Gary Oldmansort of entered the picture because the
other cast had kind of obviously beenin the other films. When he brought
it on, I just remember watchingand thinking like, wow, that's like
real acting. Wow, the waythey just sort of turn it on and

(31:17):
then it was I remember just beinglike thinking, wow, that's really so
impressive to see. I remember whenhe was in the cage. Actually he
was I we had to wait forsomething about what it was. So it's
just him and me on the setand he's sitting in there having a smoke
and I'm sitting outside nothing to dowith the film just life. Yeah,

(31:41):
they're great, and they're all reallygreat with the children as well, considering
you know, I'm sure they hadfrustrations. Yeah, it's a job,
you know, you taked that.It wasn't like it was laid on them.
Yeah, that's true. It wassort of you know, you go
into it, they read the script, they go into it knowing what to
expect. Yeah, and I think, I like, I think from what
the people have said is that alot of the British actors were really key
to do Harry Potter. It wasquite phenomenon, like they were wanted to

(32:05):
be part of it. Yeah.It's a lot of work and some money
and you know, associated with themore most successful franchises. Ever. So
once the film had finished, I'mguessing you what, I guess you watch
it through with the editor. Howdoes that the post production part work for
you? Well, well, Isaw bits and pieces edited occasionally, but
my involvement at that point was justcuriosity. And it was then once the

(32:31):
film had been and I used togoing to see visual effects and I were
going to look at visual effects andwe talk about it and it was yeah,
make comments and have to sometimes redoor rejig stuff a little bit,
but otherwise when the film was finishedis when I started grading, and that

(32:51):
took about four months. I guessthree months. It's a big job.
And it was that we wanted todo it digitally. In the beginning,
we're told not to, and thenthe studio changed the mind and we did
it digitally. So it was thebeginning of digital grading as opposed to physical
film grading film. But then itbecame digital and I think it was the

(33:13):
evolution of the digital world throughout thefilming. So when you finally saw the
finished version of the film, Imean, I guess this is a really
scheper question. Were you Were youpleased with it? Were you, yeah,
well, what's a lot of workand it's two years of your life?
Yeah, I mean to be.And ultimately I think the decisions were
the right ones. Do you knowwhat I mean? Because as I said
at the outset of this discussion,it's whether or not the decisions you've made.

(33:37):
When you said, what's the cinematographerdo, I tried, in a
very amphestic way to explain it isthat it's only at the very end when
it's all put together, because shotby shot, scene by seeing is one
thing, but how does it fitwith everything else? So it's very Yeah,
I think overall it was it was. It was a couple of other

(34:00):
people said, if you're going todo it again, would you do it
the same? I said, yeah, pretty much. So I can't think
of anything where I would change it. Yeah. Actually, well and funny
enough. I think the world,the film world's reaction to it was perhaps
the most positive in terms of business. I don't know how it did,
but I think most people call iteven the six seven are the most cinematic
of all of them. Yeah,i'd agree, and I think it's obviously.

(34:22):
I speak to a lot of peoplein the fandom as well, like
the fans, and I think moreoften not Prisoner of Azkaban is one of
their favorite, if not, they'rein their top three, like favorite Harry
Harry Potter films, just because ofthe I think it's a great story.
I think what as a book,as the story, I think, yeah,
I didn't read the books, butI think as you're right, as

(34:43):
a story, well, in theend, the story inspired of the script.
Yeah on me, so that thedeparture point was that, Yeah,
I think yeah, And it's justbrilliant story, and I think like,
also if you think like the audience. Obviously I'm not Sayingrry Potter isn't for
adults. I know adults watch itand enjoy it, but the audience sort

(35:04):
of are growing with the film.They were coming out so every year and
again, I think like the audiencewere ready for this like slightly more mature,
darker film, which I think islike great. I love the fact
that the first one is really glossy. It's very Chris Columbus. It's very
like, I don't know, brightlycolored. But I think like that wouldn't
have worked with this story, withall the mother at all. It would
have been counter to it. Iagree you're doing right. Do you think

(35:25):
like the dementas and stuff like that, that's actually really scary? They're actually
scary with your kid. My youngestkid was four or five at the time,
and he's now twenty four, andhe's very funny. Actual the opening
in London at this premiere, he'ssitting behind Harry. Yeah, and there's

(35:46):
a scene where somebody's creeping up ona mission. My sons is Harry darker
duck all that is anyway, andhe fell in love with Hermione too.
Yeah, one day I was onthe set. She got this envelope,

(36:07):
you know, he had give thisto Mishap and it was a photograph of
her sign like when you grow up, will you marry me? That's a
contract he's got on his broom upstairs. Yeah, as I say to you,
is Harry Potter one of the filmsthat your children sort of really enjoyed
the fact that you were part ofbecause it's still yeah, well the others
are older. I mean he's he'sI think so. Yeah, I don't
know. I've never asked somebody notthat, what's the favorite film of my

(36:32):
No, they like it, andI think, yeah, just by association,
I don't know. But no,it was pretty special overall. I
think I've been out of the countryfor a long time and I came back
to do that. Yeah, No, it was a good it was a
good, good experience. I lovedthat. And also the relationship with our
Fonsor, which endures this week sometime. But yeah, no, I think

(36:54):
the biggest scheme of things that andyou know, Gary Oldman's quite a good
friend, and so it's you know, yeah, yeah, that's the richness
of life. I guess I'm saylike a lot of people do actually say
the best part of because also Imean I speak to people who did were
on every single film, which Iknow it was like ten years of their

(37:14):
life. More they the film tofilm the film, they never started.
It was like fifty two weeks andyou never see them there on you know,
working ahead. Yeah, and thenthey went on to do Fantastic Beasts,
So that's like a big chunk oftheir career. It was in this
as well. But a lot ofpeople saying yet, Harry Potter obviously a

(37:35):
big story, already had a fanbase before we started filming the first film
and stuff, But actually it wasthe environment on the set and the people
who worked on it. How manyof them did you do? Three?
Three? Yeah? And then Iwent back to so it kind of got
to a point where I was doingI had to start doing my GCSEs.
And then if when you're working,so I don't know, it's probably not

(37:58):
even interesting, but like when you'reworking, you can only do certain hours
of tutoring. Obviously it's not thewhole school day, so you'd have to
reduce a number of exams. SoI kind of got to a crossroads where
they were like, do you wantto continue doing because a lot of people
who were sort of standings and doublesactually then ended up working sort of behind
the scenes. They sort of stayedin the film industry doing a various jobs.

(38:22):
But I think for me, Iwasn't one hundred percent sual what I
wanted to do, so I endedup back to school, which was like,
really at fourteen, you were like, I don't know, Like,
obviously doing Harry Potter was amazing,but then I guess it wasn't like it
It's not everything I think it is, you know. And it also when
you were busy, it takes yourlife out of you just don't have a
life. Yeah, And I thinkit's you know, life is important along

(38:44):
the film. I'm really honored thatMichael would speak to us about Harry Potter,
because he even said himself that hehonestly doesn't do many interviews about it
anymore. So for him to giveup and hour of his time to chat
to us is so special to me. So thank you, Michael Okay for

(39:06):
this little announcement. So this series, we're thinking of bringing you something a
little new in the way of abonus episode where you can send me your
questions that may have sprung into yourhead whilst listening, or it may just
be something that you've always wanted toknow and I haven't answered, and I
can try and answer them and putthat out as a bonus episode. So

(39:28):
it really can be anything, youknow. I hate it when I listen
to a podcast I have like aburning question that just never gets answered.
So I'm hoping, yeah, thatI can give you an even deeper insight
into behind the scenes of the HarryPotter world. I think the best way
for now for you to contact meis via my Instagram page, which is

(39:51):
at flick dot miles, So ifyou DM me there, I'm going to
try and answer as many questions aspossible, because honestly, after most episodes
I do get dms with questions,and your questions are so brilliant that I
can't believe I haven't thought to answerthem already. So I'm really hoping this
is going to be a really greatway to, yeah, just connect with
you guys and answer more of yourquestions. But back to the regular series,

(40:14):
and next week we have Jesse Schroederas my guest. Jesse worked as
a post production supervisor from Chamber ofSecrets onwards and she now has an amazing
job of being a VP at Pixar, So of course I had to ask
her if there was ever going tobe a world in which Pixar creates an
animated Harry Potter. So you canhear all about that next week, but

(40:35):
for now, have a magical week, and I'll see you on Friday for
the bonus episode and then next Tuesdaywith the regular episode. So that so love