The obviousness of the broom (was Re: Chairs & MOVIE)

[caliburncy at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27336

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Kelly Hurt <klhurt at y...> wrote:
> I agree that some things had to be changed for filming reasons -- 
> for example, the students don't wear hats during classes (doing so 
> would have caused shadows on faces and made it difficult to 
> distinguish one from the other, etc.) -- but there doesn't seem to 
> be any reason for changing the color of Dudley's knickerbockers or 
> the broom obviously being a broom or....

As a pending (it seems everyone remains unconfirmed until Nov. 
16) member of S.A.D. (which was a great acronym, Cindy, because the 
"apologists" thing is really quite accurate: in a perfect world, I 
wouldn't make the changes, but I understand why they have to in this 
non-perfect one), I will state that there may be a reason for the 
broom obviously being a broom.

The first possibility, which I have hoped isn't the case, ever since I 
first saw this scene way back when, is that they decided to shorten 
the scene for time considerations by making Harry open it at the 
table, skipping the note and the going up to the dormroom and all 
that.  They would then have decided that the expense that this results 
in for McGonagall's characterization was an acceptable evil, rather 
than cutting for time elsewhere.

The fact that I think this is a lame reason and that they could have 
worked around such a scene's length without having to change it does 
not alter the fact that they may believe they have a legitamite reason 
for the change.

Also quite possible, if they aren't changing the scene for reasons of 
length, is that there was a logistical problem for the owl.  It sounds 
like it was an absolute nightmare for him to carry that package just 
for reasons of weight, and they almost didn't think they could pull it 
off.  Putting the broom in a box, as I seem to recall it was in the 
book, would only have exacerbated their difficulty in making it 
possible for the owl to carry it.

-Luke