How many students at Hogwarts?

[ameliagoldfeesh]

No: HPFGUIDX 46471

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "hp_lexicon" <hp_lexicon at y...> 
wrote:
> > --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
> > 
> > > As a side note: They use about 600 extras to film the 
Dining Hall
> > > scenes in the movie. 
> > 
> > Do you know this for a fact? As I recall, our best guess back 
when 
> > the first film came out was that there were between 300 and 
350
> kids 
> > in the Great Hall scene. Has someone found an official 
number from 
> > the call sheets or something?
> > 
> > Not that the film is canon anyway, of course.  <Big Snip>

By coincidence, a few nights back I was looking at the Nov. 
Architectural Digest magazine (it mentioned HP on the cover) at 
work.  After seeing this thread reappear I went back and took 
notes on the article since it was an interview with the set 
designer of both of the MTMNBN, Stuart Craig.  Following are 
some, hopefully, pertinent bits from the article.  

----
"Rowling was particularly helpful with matters of quantification: 
'We talked about the size of the school.  She reckoned that there 
were 100 students each year at Hogwarts; following the English 
educational system, which, starting from age 11, comprises 
seven years, this would bring us to 700 students. Our Great Hall 
ended up seating 400, which seemed quite enough.'"
  
"Rowling also drew up a map of the world, the school, the 
railroad station, the Forbidden Forest, the lake.  She ratted off 
dozens of place and product names ("she has a fantastic 
inventory of names," Craig observes, "it's really amazing"), but 
the she stepped back and let the designer do his job."

---

However I don't see how she comes up with that large of a 
number either.   Perhaps she'll explain it in OOP :  "Harry gazed 
around the castle, thinking for the first time his year seemed 
rather small.  He resolved to ask Headmaster Dumbledore 
about it the next time he saw him, until deciding that 
Dumbledore's time was too  valuable to be wasted in answering 
trivial questions."     Or not....


Another interesting thing to come from the article is about the 
Slytherin common room.  "Other sets Craig made for the 
Chamber of Secrets include the Slytherin common room, which, 
Rowling reminded Craig, was under the lake and lit by lights 
filtering in through the water;..."


I can't believed I actually posted on the "number of students at 
Hogwarts" thread (which I normally skip through)-  geez- next I'll 
be weighing in on Ron as the Seventh Son... ;)

A. Goldfeesh 
   who has been enjoying all the Beatle filking- you all are 
talented.  "Rubeus" was great- I could hear John's voice singing 
it *L*   Makes me wish I had the filking talent- I'd like to combine 
"Grandma's Featherbed" with the Invisiblity Cloak uses..."and a 
Norbert we took for Hagrid..."