Few film sagas are as much an undertaking as the Harry Potter films (see also: The Lord of the Rings), and the decade long production process has been chronicled a number of ways: video interviews, extensive production featurettes, and “Ultimate” editions of the DVD and Blu-ray editions that break down every conceivable part of the process. However, there is one aspect that electronic mediums can’t do justice: concept art. Digital extras come to a grinding halt when it comes to still photos and so therein lies the best argument for the long lost form of “the book”. Harry Potter: Page to Screen has concept art, character visualizations, full-color photos of sets and props in construction, actor profiles, location analyses, and so much more. For the fans that have followed the production process closely from start to finish, some of the stories in here may be old news, but the book as a whole is a work of love, compiled into a 532-page behemoth of fan-love.
Broken up into three parts, the book starts with production stories and photos from each film in order. Almost everyone you could conceive of having a hand in making these films gets to say their piece on the series, and obviously some are more interesting than others – but not always for the reasons you’d think. For example, most people would naturally gravitate to anecdotes by Daniel Radcliffe or Gary Oldman as they talk about filming a scene or adjusting to their character, but the truth is that passages where producers discuss striking the right tone and creative feel of the franchise are every bit as interesting. Perhaps more so when you remember how brilliantly cohesive the style of the series is as a whole despite being helmed by four different directors (Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Newell, David Yates). With so many people collaborating to get J.K. Rowling’s series just right on screen (which didn’t always happen), it’s something of a small miracle to consider that the majority of the films are a resounding success.
Moving onward, the second part has the real meat of the book with content that’s easily the most interesting from the creative standpoint and also because it represents the portion of the book that many people have probably never seen. Admit it, we’ve all seen at least one or two behind the scenes pieces for the Harry Potter saga, whether on television or as pre-feature entertainment in a movie theater. But have you seen the concept art for Grawp (Hagrid’s half-brother) or the various stages of evolution Dobby went through before he looked the way we saw him on the screen? Probably not. It’s the kind of thing audiences don’t naturally think about when they see the final product in a movie theater, and it’s usually not one of the production assets studios are quick to proffer up as part of the in-depth fangasm experience.
And yet, that inquisitive eye isn’t focused solely on the characters, but the signature locations of the various films as well. Location examinations don’t go into quite the same detail when depicting how the sets evolved from their literary form to what the actors interacted with (scenes like The Hall of Prophecy or The Veil Room being two of the exceptions), but small nods to the otherwise unfilmed parts of each book can be found when every trinket is given a thorough glance. For many, it may be harder to get excited about behind-the-scenes notes on the sets, but for the fans who’ve pored over every frame and obsessed about every detail that made it into the film (and those that didn’t) it’s often in the intricate sets where some satisfaction can be found – but only if you really look. When watching the films where the focus is on the characters, the painstaking efforts taken to add some authenticity to the sets are often overlooked because what may have taken an artist days to do passes by the camera in a blur, never to be in focus again. Page to Screen remedies that artistic injustice, somewhat.
Finally, the appreciation shown to the characters and locations falls upon the film’s many props, creatures, and special effects. Here the book becomes a bit more “Bonus Features” in content, but once again you get to read stories and see photos not previously available. Articles like the step by step artist rendering of Remus Lupin’s transformation into a werewolf or the rising of the Infieri (the ghastly skeletal creatures protecting one of Voldemort’s horcruxes) make for worthwhile reading. Even if you weren’t a fan of this film series, Page to Screen makes it quite clear how intense was the attention to detail by everyone who worked on the film.
The films were a reverential love letter to the world J.K. Rowling created, and Page to Screen is essentially the book of drafts that love letter went through in order to properly convey its sentiments. If the quantity of content inside the book wasn’t enough to make fans seek it out, the quality should more than make it a necessity.
