Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Hi, I'm Chris Columbus...

...director of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

And I'm gonna give you a little guided tour through the movie...

...give you some information about some behind-the-scenes stuff that happened...

...and walk you through some scenes.

We're starting here at the beginning of the film...

...where Harry has now been--

If you remember the first film, Harry was in the cupboard under the stairs.

And now, he's been given Dudley's second bedroom.

So he has a little more space to exist.

And we're basically starting this film where we ended the first film...

...with the photo book that Hagrid has given to Harry.

And there's a photo there that we hadn't seen in the first film.

And this is--

Hedwig makes his first appearance here in the film.

And the thing about Hedwig is we had trained several owls.

We had an entire-- What's wonderful about the Harry Potter sound stage...

...is that if you came to visit, you would see slews of owls being trained.

And it was like going to the zoo for kids. It was fantastic.

And we would have school groups come every week, every couple of weeks...

...and come and visit these various owls and animals.

And it turned into a little petting zoo for children.

Anyway, everyone has grown a little bit in the second movie...

...including Dudley here, who is-- We had a great time--

We always had a great time dressing Dudley.

We always found him to be one of the more humorous characters in the film.

So this little bow-tie number that we came up with...

...making him look exactly like Uncle Vernon...

...it's really one of my favorite shots in the film here.

We have a new cinematographer on this film, Roger Pratt...

...who has worked with Terry Gilliam, among other great directors in the past.

And Roger really-- We wanted to bring out a more--

The first film was more of a storybook sort of feeling...

...when Harry enters Hogwarts and the wizarding world.

In this film, we wanted it to be a little darker.

And you'll notice that it's a slightly darker, more desaturated film.

Petunia, when the Masons arrive, you will be...?

In the lounge, waiting to welcome them graciously to our home.

- Good. And, Dudley, you will be...? - I'll be waiting to open the door.

Excellent.

And you?

I'll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending that I don't exist.

Too right, you will.

With any luck, this could be the day I make the biggest deal of my career...

...and you will not mess it up.

This is an interesting sequence in the film...

...because we wanted to create the character of Dobby...

...by utilizing completely CGl--

By creating a completely CGl character.

And what we did with Dobby is, I wanted to find the perfect voice of Dobby.

And I had seen this actor in a play that Kenneth Branagh was directing...

...called The Play What I Wrote.

His name was Toby Jones.

And I really hadn't seen much else of him on screen or on television...

...so I cast him as Dobby because he had the perfect voice.

Perfect combination of what I thought Dobby's character should be.

As a result of that, he's now gone on and done the voice of Dobby...

...for the subsequent Harry Potter films. And he's also been--

He was also Truman Capote.

A wonderful performance in that film.

And Toby just brought a very real quality to this character.

And a very sympathetic quality to Dobby.

I wanted the audience to immediately fall in love with Dobby...

...with his humor as well as really seeing if we could get away...

...with having the audience fall in love with a completely CGl character.

So I think-- I actually was very, very happy with Dobby.

When he's banging his head against the wall, against the dresser here...

...the audience, I remember-- I couldn't even hear the audience's reaction...

...because I couldn't--

There were times in the cinema...

...where you couldn't hear the dialogue throughout the scene...

...because of Dobby banging his head.

This was actually one of the more comedic scenes...

...that we filmed for the Harry Potter films.

We actually did this, as you can imagine, with a little green tennis ball...

...that Dan Radcliffe had to follow around the room.

He had no other reference.

We had a little Dobby mannequin that's still in my office...

...which looked very much like Dobby.

And we'd move him around the room for rehearsals.

Then for the actual sequence, we'd have to take him out...

...and bring in this little tennis ball on a string.

And it's a testament to Dan Radcliffe, his second film as Harry Potter...

...that he was able to do this performance with, basically, a tennis ball...

...and the voice of Toby Jones.

--School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year.

There is a plot...

- Okay, I understand. You can't say. - Don't make me talk. I--

- Dobby. Dobby, put the lamp down. - Bad Dobby.

So when they arrive at the ninth hole...

Give me the lamp.

Dobby, stop!

- Let me go. - Get in there and keep quiet.

What was exciting about doing the second film...

...was that we never really had time...

...to sit back and think about whether the first film--

First of all, about the reviews...

...about whether the first film was gonna open for an audience.

None of those things were in our heads, we were preparing to do the second film.

So Harry Potter 1 opened on a Friday in November...

...and we were shooting Harry Potter 2 on the next Sunday.

So we really had three days...

...to just prepare for the beginning of shooting Harry Potter 2.

So it was great to get back into this world.

The kids were now-- if you could call them seasoned actors.

They had been on a film set for 150 days, so they were well prepared to do this film.

And we were all-- All went into it with a tremendous amount of excitement.

And particularly on that Monday...

...when we knew that the film had been embraced by an audience...

...we really had a tremendous amount of excitement and energy.

We celebrated by going in...

...and starting to make the next Harry Potter film.

Now. - No!

Dobby, get back here.

I can't. Hogwarts is my home.

Then Dobby must do it, sir, for Harry Potter's own good.

It spread as far as the eye could see, all over the floor.

One plumber said, "Look at all that water."

The second plumber said, "Yes, and that's just the top of it."

You're never going to see those freaky friends of yours again. Never!

Here we have the first view of the Weasley home, which is...

Which I always found in the books to be one of the most charming...

...fun elements of J.K. Rowling's writing.

Because she talks about all these little magical elements in the Weasley home.

And we talked about how we were gonna do this...

...when we first got into the world of Harry Potter.

And we actually decided...

...as opposed to making it a completely CGl environment...

...where nothing felt very tangible...

...we wanted to make everything very real.

So we built the clock, sort of the wizarding version of GPS...

...telling Mrs. Weasley exactly where her children are at a particular time.

And we-- This knitting, self-knitting thing...

...was actually a machine that we built that actually worked.

It actually could knit little sweaters and jumpers and things.

And I wanted the audience to feel that these things really, really existed.

So the Weasley house has a feeling of-- Sort of a handmade quality that--

You know, when you do so many CGl effects in a film...

...you sometimes lose the soul.

And we really wanted to actually create those things.

The house was built as very close to the description of the house...

...in all of the Harry Potter novels.

And again, Julie Walters returns as Mrs. Weasley.

One of my favorite actresses, I think, that I've ever worked with.

And here is an interesting thing for the Harry Potter fans of the world.

It's the first time that you really see...

...that Ginny Weasley has this incredible crush on Harry Potter.

And I just loved her expression...

...when she realizes that Harry Potter is sitting at her table.

And this basically sets up their relationship for the subsequent films.

And for the film--

Particularly the last two films that are coming up.

And you have the introduction of the Weasley father here.

And again it was always trying-- We tried to find an actor...

...that sort of felt as if he could actually be the father of Rupert...

...and the Weasley twins and the--

And you really had to have an actor who had that sense of charm...

...and excitement and sort of youthful exuberance...

...that Mr. Weasley always had in the books.

Oh, sorry, sir. I'm Harry, sir. Harry Potter.

Good Lord. Are you really?

Well, Ron has told us all about you, of course. When did he get here?

This morning.

Your sons flew that enchanted car of yours to Surrey and back last night.

Did you really? How did it go?

I mean-- That was very wrong indeed, boys. Very wrong of you.

Now, Harry, you must know all about Muggles.

Tell me, what exactly is the function of a rubber duck?

Oh, um...

Fetch it, will you, Percy, please?

- Errol. He's always doing that.

Oh, look, it's our Hogwarts letters. They've sent us Harry's as well.

Dumbledore must know you're here. Doesn't miss a trick, that man.

Oh, no. - This lot won't come cheap.

- The spell books alone are expensive. We'll manage.

There's only one place we're going to get all of this. Diagon Alley.

Right.

Here we are, Harry. You go first, dear.

But Harry's never traveled by Floo powder before, Mum.

Floo powder?

You go first, Ron, so that Harry can see how it's done. Yes.

In you go.

That's it.

Diagon Alley.

You see? It's quite easy, dear. Don't be afraid. Come on.

Come on.

In you go. That's it. Mind your head.

That's right. Now, take your Floo powder.

That's it, very good.

Now, don't forget to speak very, very clearly.

Diagonally.

- What did he say, dear? - Diagonally.

I thought he did.

You're a mess, Harry. Skulking around Knockturn Alley? Dodgy place.

Don't want no one to see you there. People will think you're up to no good.

I was lost, I--

Hang on. What were you doing down there then?

Me? I was... I was looking for Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent.

They're ruining all the school cabbages.

Harry. Hagrid.