S.W.O.O.N.ing and production scheduals

[Ali Wildgoose]

Hi...been a while ^_^

Pippin wrote:
>LOL! I thought the same thing. Maybe, should the fine day come,
>we could ask the mods to set up a separate list for people who
>just want to gush over their favorite hottie. I'd call them
>S.W.O.O.N. s but I can't think of an acronym...;-)

Silly With Oogling Onscreen Nummies?  *evil grin*

Mr. Goat wrote:
>OTOH, don't film crews *always* work with pretty draconian deadlines? Even
>if they don't have to ship the film by day X, they still have only so much
>time with their actors, film crews, equipment, etc. I should think that the
>creative process involved in mustering and marching a whole army through a
>film shooting is a very different from the sort involved in giving birth to
>a book.

Ho-kay....as the resident film student, I feel somewhat obligated to comment 
on this one.  ;}

There are three stages of production - pre-production, production, and 
post-production.  Normally, the first of those is the longest, sometimes 
lasting as long as a decade while the filmmaker tries to find someone to 
finance their movie.  This stage encompasses everything that needs to happen 
before they actually start shooting - development, script, casting, 
storyboards, that sort of thing.  A good producer or director will try and 
make sure that all the kinks are ironed out of their story BEFORE production 
begins, particularly on big-budget movies where reshoots are prohibitively 
expensive.

So the first problem with the SS movie was that this stage was rushed.  
Though the rights were bought and the script commissioned before Harry had 
really hit it big here in the States, once the whole thing was green-lighted 
everything moved at lightning speed.  Had there been more time, the story 
and structure problems we're all complaining about now probably wouldn't 
have been as much of an issue.

Then there's the actual production....which is nearly always hecti by 
necessity.  It costs phenomenal ammounts of money per day do shoot a film 
even in the best of circumstances, and the added complication of child 
actors and massive use of special effects couldn't have helped any.  I don't 
think the time they spent at this stage was all that unusual....any problems 
with how the film looks probably have more to do with lack of planning time 
than anything else.  (I don't really like how it was directed, visually, but 
that's just how Columbus decided to do things)

The second BIG problem has to do with Post.  They had NO TIME to finish this 
film.  Even a run-o-the-mill romantic comedy usually involves months and 
months of post-production.  Aside from just EDITING the thing, there's the 
score, sound design, titles, ADR (replacing dialogue that can't be heard 
properly,) the occational reshoot....just LOADS and loads of stuff.  And 
that's for a normal film.

Harry Potter's post-production involved all of that, as well as a phenominal 
number of visual effects.  We're not just talking about Quidditch and Fluffy 
and cgi stunt-doubles, either....remember all that scene where Harry and 
Hermione were talking to Hagrid outside his hut, and you could see the 
castle in the background?  Remember how wonky it looked?  That's because it 
was a composite shot - the castle wasn't REALLY in back of them, they had to 
be added in - that was obviously rushed.  There are loads and loads of these 
kinds of shots in the film....practically every outdoor shot on the Hogwarts 
grouds involved some kind of composite or other visual effect.  And then 
there are the moving portraits and the enchanted ceiling and the staircases 
and...well...jeez, just a LOT.  Some of this could have been started while 
the film was still being shot, but not much.....

So...yes.  Film shoots are always crazy, even at the student level.  But the 
degree to which this production was rushed is absolutely insane.  A 
big-budget, effects-laden, 2 1/2 hour movie in under a year?  GAH!  I 
tremble at the very thought! O_o

Ali
(who apologises if there are any typos....she just doesn't have time to look 
back over all that rambling nonsense again ;)

http://home.nyu.edu/~amw243 :: Diagon Alley
Harry Potter for Slightly Older Folk


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