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Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix
Leavesden Studios - 2006
So again it was back to the tin sheds at Leavesden Studios for another six months of wizardry. This is the one where Harry kisses Cho Chang, and a new director, David Yates, was hired to illuminate JK Rowling's words. David, an unassuming occasionally giddy character, the obverse of Mike Newell, was more like working with an anonymous uncle dressed like he had just walked off his allotment speaking in hushed tones. We had to use a radio scanner to find the radio microphone channels of the actors so we could hear anything going on. Anyone can do this if you have a UHF radio scanner near any film studio and it's something that has occasionally caught out unsuspecting actors. While working on 'Charlie & The Chocolate Factory' we could not listen into Johnny Depp's radio microphone because he had hired his own sound technician to provide a personal radio microphone that was on a scrambled military frequency that only the production sound mixer could receive. Clearly a previous experience of eavesdropping had bitten him badly?
I recall overhearing Dame Maggie Smith, who really was as cranky and fearsome as the character she plays, commenting to Imelda Staunton in dissonant tone about the mumbling direction she was given by David, who had a low-fi personality, far removed from the booming presence Mike Newell commanded. However his enthusiasm to translate the script into images was not in doubt and his occasional childlike skip across the set was I think an expression of the coiled energy he plowed into every corner of the production. During one promotional interview Emma Watson described director David, as an: “actors director” which of course begs the question what were the other directors? I'm afraid if he truly is then he was peddling up a steep hill with the three lead actors. The former James Bond, Roger Moore has often declared that he had three expressions to offer up and they were, right eyebrow up, left eyebrow up or both eyebrows up! Well, I hope this not too cruel but my observation was that Dan had refined it down to two; mildly worried and: “I think I've left the gas on” worried.
Rupert, as I think is widely accepted could roughly muster up a broad range of grimaces, all of which looked like he had just stepped in dog crap. Emma was probably the most dynamic as she had quite a repertoire covering the theatrical rainbow from haughty disdain to: “who do you think your talking to you idiot!”
I think to Dan's credit he remained such a valiant ambassador for this iconic screen character, but perhaps sacrificed his own embryonic personality in the process; but look, Sean Connery eventually shrugged off being Bond?
I sometimes thought Michael 'Dumbledore' Gambon was just phoning in his performance with little preparation but clearly feasting on the pantomime dame part he was gifted. Always on standby were 'idiot boards', large cardboards sheets with his lines written in bold capitals that were brought out at his request when he couldn't get through the scene. I was strictly told not to film when the boards came out, no doubt to avoid embarrassing Gambon, however even Marlon Brando was known to use these during the filming of, 'Apocalypse Now' so it's no great movie secret.
Despite having done media interviews for these promotional documentaries for the past six years or so, Rupert remained consistently vague answering a question as if the words had entered his ears but managed to bypass his brain virtually unscathed. I was tempted to explain to Rupert that the answer is woven in the question and as the question is edited out all he should do is repeat the content of the question as if he had thought it up himself, but that would have probably seen me booted off the movie. I sometimes want to tell some of the adult actors that trick because this was not exactly a House of Commons select committee hearing and the answers required were just to motivate a clip.
There were often great chasms of down time while camera setups were altered and the 150 or so Hogwarts students in the Great Hall would be marched out of the set to classrooms for a couple of hours of education, so I would move between stages to find second unit, or stand and do the Guardian G2 quick crossword with the sound recordist! On one occasion we exited the stage through a fire escape door only to find Dan, his dresser and a couple of the floor runners all having a crafty smoke. Dan said: “don't you dare film this!” but I explained I was on his side and would never do that. I had no idea he smoked, I wondered if Alan knew. At least it was not going to inhibit his growth.
I would have thought his dresser who had been with him since he was ten years old would have paternally steered him away from such activity but now believe it was him who probably got Dan started. He has always said he regarded this person as his best friend but I have no idea why Alan allowed him to continue the relationship as he always struck me as obnoxious. He no doubt inveigled his way into Dan's evolving ego and was never going to be the smoke in that honey hive. Unsurprisingly Dan now admits to being addicted to nicotine, not a great idea; I have always been against the practice, my spoof documentary, 'In View' made all those years back attesting to this.
Although I was asked to come in to the studio to film the day Dan was going to kiss Katie Leung I was bemused when stopped from going on set. I did point out this was one of those key moments in the life of Hogwarts students and there was already a huge film camera, a camera operator, a focus puller, a stills photographer and the director already ogling events? I eventually was allowed on set for the last take having allowed Dan and Katie to warm up their lip action.
The winter months rendered the studio interior little more than cold storage sheds. The studio began life as RAF Leavesden in 1940 and consisted of a 1000-yard runway now used for parking, and flight sheds for aircraft manufacturing which by the time the factories closed in 1950 had built 700 Halifax bombers and 1,476 Mosquitoes for the RAF during WW II.
However without insulation we may as well have been filming outside it was so cold. Respite came at lunch when for an hour the crew could retreat to the warmth of the canteen and it was heartening to see that on the whole both cast and crew all joined in this communal event. I was surprised to even see perennial nasal misery Alan Rickman still in his Snape drapes sat having lunch with us muggles. Rupert and Emma too would have lunch here, each commanding their own table; Rupert with the twins Jamie and Oliver Phelps, and Emma with Katie Leung or Evanna Lynch. The only one who never seemed to join in was Dan? Instead his dad, Alan would come down from his dressing room collect a plate of food and a can of cola and disappear. I never found out the reason for this, maybe special diet, maybe line learning, it certainly wasn't anything pretentious because that would not be Dan's style but it remained a mystery.
So as with the mythological Phoenix this one drew to it's long end only to rise from the ashes as the filming of JK Rowling’s sixth book just over a year later, and just enough time to slip in another movie for Warner Bros. An American Christmas comedy film produced by Joel Silver, the man who gave us Die Hard and starring the spud faced Vince Vaughn.
It was to be shot at Pinewood Studios, about 25 minutes from home so a comfortable day out; however it proved to be one of the most unpleasant, unedifying farces I have ever been involved with.