Image courtesy of Pottermore
The Pottermore Insider has posted a new interview with a member of the Pottermore creative team.
In the interview, the worker revealed some interesting new information about the making of the third installment of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. She talks about the “Red Caps” being the most difficult animations they’ve created so far, what she thinks fans will be most excited about in the chapters, and more.
From the interview:
Q: Describe your role in Moment production at Pottermore
A: I work within the creative team and together we come up with ideas for Moments, then discuss and develop them with our artists. Once our artists have sketched them we provide feedback on what should be changed in order to make sure that the Moments look beautiful and that they’re completely fictionally accurate before we take them to colour. We also work on trying to fit as much interactivity, animation and life into the Moments as possible.
Q: When you were re-reading [the ‘Prisoner of Azkaban book] and thinking about these future Moments, what were you really excited about creating?
A: The Moment I was most excited to create was ‘Exam Time’ because in the story it always seemed such a fun scene. It’s really rich in description and so different to the sort of thing you normally associate with taking an exam! It’s also one of the Moments that wasn’t visualised in the films, so we really wanted to include it on Pottermore.com. The books are packed with detail and it’s always so nice to be able to show something that hasn’t already been covered.
Another Moment that I was excited to create was the full moon scene with Sirius and Lupin fighting, as it is a really iconic scene from the third book. As soon as we started talking about it we knew we could make it look very striking and beautiful.Q: You’re now applying the finishing touches to the final Moments of Book 3. Which of the upcoming Moments are your favourite?
A: Personally, I think the Moment that looks most beautiful in this instalment is ‘The Committee’. It depicts the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures approaching Hagrid’s hut at dusk, and a whole host of other things. I think it’s such a lovely Moment; it was really well executed by the illustrators. As a reader you return to this particular scene more than once in the third book and, likewise on Pottermore.com, our users will be seeing this Moment more than once, so I’m glad it’s turned out so well.
Q: Is there anything that was particularly challenging, but that you were passionate about getting right?
A: Red Caps, in the ‘Exam Time’ Moment, are the most complicated animations we’ve created so far. Red Caps are little dwarf-goblin-type creatures who are quite malicious. In the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, we learn that they live in potholes and clobber people to death with clubs and that they like to hang around on battlefields or wherever human blood has been spilled. In mythology it’s said that their hats are dyed in human blood… they are not pleasant!Q: What was it about the Red Caps that was so complicated?
A: One of the most difficult aspects was getting the animation of their gestures right. In the books, Red Caps are Dark creatures so we wanted to create this gruff, threatening persona. At the same time we wanted people to have fun with the Moment so we didn’t want it to look like a horror film. We had to work hard to get that balance right, and not make them look comic in any way either!
For this Moment we did two separate pieces of work: we worked with the artists to create the background artwork; then created concept art for each of the creatures separately, so that when we placed the creatures in the Moment we were 100% happy with how they looked.Q: Speaking of the new writing from J.K. Rowling, the final instalment will contain even more exclusive information from the author. Which piece do you think the Pottermore community will be particularly excited about?
A: I think fans will be most interested to read the new writing on Remus Lupin, which describes how Lupin and Tonks fell in love amongst other things, and which includes a description of Lupin’s childhood and how he became a werewolf.
Q: If you could only collect one of the collectibles in the next instalment, which one would it be?
A: There is one collectible that I hope everyone will love, which is hidden in Lupin’s office. I don’t want to reveal what it is because I want it to be a surprise, but I hope the community find it as funny as we did when we thought of it.
If you want to read more of the interview, click here — there’s a lot more left to read.
Are you excited about the Lupin backstory? Can you guess the collectible object in Lupin’s office? We can’t, but share your predictions in the comments below.
