Win a Free Trip to Wizarding World of Harry Potter
(Article from http://www.hpana.com )
Have you ever thought of attending one of the many Harry Potter conventions, but because of locations, expenses, or time restraints you just couldn’t make it? Well, here is the opportunity for you to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Introducing PotterCon 2012, an entirely online, Livestream-based Harry Potter convention — your ticket to experience nearly everything that traditional Harry Potter conventions offer, and you won’t even need to leave your own home. The weekend will be full of courses, both academic and in-character, live wizard wrock shows and live screenings of fandom productions such as The Final Battle, The Warlock’s Hairy Heart and others. Even if fans aren’t able to make the conference live, the programming is being recorded and will be made available for attendees for three weeks following the conference.
With over 130+ hours of live programming spread over one weekend, attendees from around the world will join together and collaborate over their views on the Harry Potter series, as well as partake in Hogwarts classes. Live programming will be held at times convenient to all time zones around the world to benefit an international audience and will truly show how fans can connect together from all areas of the world with one incredible experience.
The conference is English-speaking and will take place September 7-9, 2012. It is hosted by www.WizardingLife.com, an online, fan-made American spinoff of the Daily Prophet.
To celebrate this announcement, PotterCon 2012 is offering the chance for any US attendee who signs up to win a trip for two to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida, complete with airfare, park admission and onsite hotel accommodations. Only the first 2,000 registered attendees are eligible for the drawing.
Registration is now open, and the cost of the conference is only $20, but you can save $5 by using our coupon code: HPANA. Proceeds from the event are benefiting the Harry Potter Alliance, a non-profit organization complimented by JK Rowling, which has built a library in New York, placed books in the hands of thousands of needy readers and sent five cargo planes of medical supplies to Haiti, among other noteworthy accomplishments.
The Day Has Finally Come
I feel like I’ve been waiting for this day for the past 10 years, the day this epic story will finally come to a close, it’s oh so bittersweet. No more books or movies to look forward to, no pondering about how the director will shoot each scene, how the adaptation of the book will reflect the screenplay, how different will each actor look as they grow older within the films. It will all be over. Although I’ve been looking forward to putting this saga to rest since I began the first book, back in 4th Grade, the excitement and anticipation will be missed. Harry Potter will always be a fond memory of my childhood (and now early 20′s).
Hope you all have tickets to the Midnight Showing tonight! My husband and I will be standing in line dressed in our robes and best Harry Potter attire. Hope you all enjoy tonight, I know I will!
HP Visual effects wizard Tim Burke Talks About Final Film
Daniel Radcliffe in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ (Warner Bros. Pictures)
THE LAST SPELL: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2” closes out a decade of Hogwarts in Hollywood. Hero Complex is counting down to the release of the final film in the magical franchise with exclusive interviews and photos. Today: Hero Complex‘s Noelene Clark chats with visual effects supervisor Tim Burke. Spoilers ahead for those who haven’t read the books.
NC: You’ve been working on these films since “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” And your job was still in full swing long after the cast left. How does it feel to be at the end of it all?
TB: It’s starting to feel a bit weird. We finished filming last summer, and that’s when most of the crews left, being the end of production. So watching them all leave was quite sad. But we were so busy finishing “Part 1,” and we’ve been just straight into “Part 2,” and it’s only now as I’m sitting in a room full of cardboard boxes. We’re basically packing up all the equipment, and it’s all going back to Warner Bros., and you know, in another few days, that’ll be it. It’s sort of slowly dawning on me that this is the end of an era.
NC: So you were working right down to the wire.
TB: We were past the wire, actually. We really pushed it right way to the end of any possible time on this one. We had the big conversion to 3-D as well, and that sort of added a massive complication. So yeah, we’ve used every second we possibly could.
NC: How is the 3-D?
TB: I think it’s good, actually. I think people are going to be really pleased. I know everyone’s a little nervous and skeptical of 3-D these days, but the work has been done very, very well. We’ve done over 200 shots in 3-D and in the visual effects as well, because so much of it is CG, so the results are very, very good. I think everyone’s going to be really impressed with it, actually.
Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione enter the Lestrange vault at Gringotts in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2.” (Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros. Pictures)
NC: Is there a particular sequence you’re most proud of?
TB: There’s so much work. I think, hopefully, it will all be good. There’s some great stuff very early on with the dragon in Gringotts. There’s some great fun in that. The battle sequences are epic, and just continuous. It’s almost wall-to-wall work, that’s the thing. So it doesn’t really stand out as being one scene. We did a lot of the design for the school itself. And the school has been completely rebuilt as a CG model. In the previous films we’d always used a miniature model to do that part of the work. But in order to give ourselves sort of a lot of flexibility and scope with the actual battle sequence itself, we decided to rebuild it all as a CG model, and the surrounding sort of Scottish landscape, models so we could put the camera wherever we wanted. And because it’s all these different action sequences happening in the landscape, and in parts of the school, we needed to be able to link these together, and some of them were on practical sets. … We were able to basically build this whole environment in the computer, and then link all of these different things together in CG in this kind of virtual world. So that in itself was a massive undertaking. As soon as they get back to Hogwarts and the battle starts, every single shot is an interior or an exterior Hogwarts set-piece, and so it’s an environment that we’ve done something to. It’s just the sheer volume of work, and that environment work, and then the animation on top of that. It’s really worked as a whole piece. It’s not just one individual little thing. It’s an amazing amount of work.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ (Warner Bros. Pictures)
NC: It sounds very challenging.
TB: Well, the logistics of that were massively challenging because we’re also sharing a lot of work with different companies around the world. One of the most challenging things was sharing the shots between the different companies and making sure that everyone could actually work together. We’d have one company creating backgrounds and environments, and another company creating animation to go into those environments, and then on top of that, we’d then have to do them all in 3-D in stereo, so that became quite a complex logistical management thing to make sure that all worked. Technically, there were some big challenges throughout the film. There’s a stand-alone sequence called the Room of Requirement where we had to do an awful lot of fire dynamics, and we had to create creatures out of fire. That was fairly complex and very time-consuming. But overall, you’d have to say it’s just the sheer volume and diversity of work that’s been the biggest complex thing on this film.
NC: Were there any surprises along the way?
TB: What we do is we try to plan as well as we can. We were still working on “Half-Blood Prince” — it was the beginning of 2009 — and we started doing what we call pre-viz animations, where we do simple animations and animatics, and we started designing all of the final battle sequence. We spent nine months basically designing shots and sequences. That ended up being over 30 minutes’ worth of material that we just created that allowed us to understand, and [director] David Yates and everyone else to understand, what was going on. Because the problem, as I was sort of mentioning, is that none of these places existed. You’re dealing with a huge action sequence where you can’t go to the location to film it. So you’ve got to understand how all these pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fit together. We were sort of trying to help everyone not be surprised, if you see what I mean, by illustrating to everyone how this all worked, and how it all fitted together. So thankfully we managed to sort of give everyone a clear picture of how things worked, and there weren’t too many surprises when it came to actually filming, because the preparation had been thorough enough. But I suppose surprises always came along in the form of new shots. Very late in the process, we kind of redesigned the way Voldemort was going to die, which was an interesting sort of challenge. That was something we had to get into very late in the game. That was quite a challenge.
NC: Didn’t you have to make last-minute changes to the final scene when the kids are all grown up?
TB: Oh, yeah, they actually had to re-shoot that. I’d even forgotten about that already. Because they were re-shooting it, they couldn’t go to King’s Cross, where it was staged. So they shot it with green screen, and we had to put King’s Cross in. So that was a surprise. I’d forgotten it all. And then they did some sort of makeup for the aging. But then at the very end, after the audience screening, they asked us to start enhancing it to make the kids seem older. So that was another surprise. See, you just forget these things. I think it’s called therapy. You just try and blank them.
NC: You mentioned this is the end of an era. Do you think these changed film?
TB: From a visual effects side, over here, it’s basically been the background of the growth of an industry. I’ve been working for 24 years in this business. We didn’t really have a visual effects industry in the mid-’90s. I was at one of the early companies. And the “Harry Potter” films came along in 2000. On the strength of the work that the facilities in the U.K. have been producing in the last 10 years, there’s been a recognition that the U.K. is a world leader in visual effects now. And it’s been illustrated through the “Harry Potter” films, to the point where the big studios in America are all bringing their work over to London to do it. That’s been a major achievement for London in particular. Also, it’s a global market. We’ve been working with companies in some of those four different continents on these films, and we’ve found ways of working where distance isn’t a problem. I can work with Australia in the morning, London during the day, and America in the evening. You can literally do the whole world, and distance doesn’t become an issue. It’s really been a fascinating development in our industry. It really has just helped everyone the companies over here develop to a very high level of work.
NC: Your other credits include fantasy and genre projects, including “A Knight’s Tale,” “Gladiator” and “Merlin.” Will your next project be in the same vein?
TB: It’s just the way it’s happened. It’s funny. I don’t know what would be next, to be honest. I’m going to take some time off. I’ve been promising myself that, so I’m definitely going to take some time off. And then, you know, looking into the next film, whatever that will be. I’ve got a couple of things that I’m talking to people about, but it’s very early days. It’s perfect timing. Take the summer off, have some holiday time, and then maybe start working something in the fall, hopefully.
– Noelene Clark
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/
A Look Back On Harry Potter Over the Years
Funny “Mysterious Ticking Noise” Edited Clip
Daniel Radcliffe Broadway Clip
Very Cool!
Emma Watson Art
Renowned artist, Mark Demsteader, has created a stunning collection of portraits of Emma.
The collaboration came about when Emma contacted Mark about buying some of his work as a present to herself for her 21st birthday.
“There is a gallery in Oxford that I used to look in after school which exhibited Mark’s work”, says Emma. “His paintings were always my favourite. For my 21st birthday I decided to contact Mark to buy some of his work. When he asked if could paint a series of paintings of me, I was a bit nervous about the idea at first but obviously incredibly flattered – it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. I am Mark’s biggest fan and I am hugely grateful.”
The collection, which is to be exhibited at the Panter & Hall Gallery on Bury Street in London in June 2011, will comprise 34 portraits of Emma in different mediums – charcoal and gouache drawings, ink paintings and oils.
Mark Demsteader was born in Manchester where he still lives and works. He studied art foundation at Rochdale college and Oldham college, but he is largely self taught having spent many years studying the figure at life drawing classes and developing a unique style through close observation of the human form.
In recent years Mark`s reputation has flourished, such that he has become one of the most popular figurative artists working in Britain today. His powerful depictions of the female form in clean and assured lines of pastel and gouache have sparked a renaissance of interest in traditional life drawing amongst the art collecting fraternity. This immense technical ability is tempered by the natural sensitivity with which he imbues each subject.
Some of Mark’s previous work can be seen on his website www.demsteader.com
Mark said of the “EMMA” collection:
“It has been a wonderful privilege to work with Emma on these images. The idea behind them is to make a collection to celebrate Emma’s birthday. I wanted to capture a moment in time, and by making each piece a quick snapshot, I hope to capture Emma as she reaches 21. In some way I hope these works celebrate Emma in what she has achieved already, and in all the many possibilities to come.”
Mark has kindly agreed that 10% of all sale proceeds and one of the pieces will be donated to Emma’s charity of choice, CAMFED International, a charity which supports the education of girls and economic empowerment of young women in Africa.
The chance for her work to help those less fortunate than her was the icing on the cake for Emma. She said, “I am really excited that Mark said he would support CAMFED International with this exhibition, too. They are a great charity doing an amazing job educating girls in Africa.” You can find out more about CAMFED and the work they do at uk.camfed.org
The exhibition opens to the public on 15th June 2011. For more information contact Panter & Hall at www.panterandhall.com
Newest HP7 Part 2 Trailer
Pottermore
The boy wizard’s creator, at a news conference in London this morning, announced that she will share extensive new material on the Potter saga on a new website, Pottermore, that will go live in October. The site will launch in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, with more languages to follow.
“No author could have asked for a more wonderful, diverse and loyal readership,” Rowling told fans in a YouTube video also released this morning.
“I’m thrilled to say that I’m now in a position to give you something unique, an online reading experience unlike any other. It’s called Pottermore. It’s the same story with a few crucial additions. The most important one is you. Just as the experience of reading requires that the imaginations of the author and reader work together to create the story, so Pottermore will be built in part by you, the reader.”
One of the biggest announcements related to the website is that the Potter books will for the first time be available in e-book form.
“Digital generations will be able to enjoy a safe, unique online reading experience built around the Harry Potter books,” Rowling said. “Pottermore will be the place where fans of any age can share, participate in and rediscover the stories. It will also be the exclusive place to purchase digital audio books and for the first time e-books in the Harry Potter series. I’ll be joining in too because I will be sharing additional information I’ve been hoarding for years about the world of Harry Potter.”
The new material will include more details on the characters, objects and places in her beloved series.
Pottermore, Sims says, “is a step toward a Potter encyclopedia that fans have wanted for a long time. The exclusive content is definitely going to get a lot of people using this. It’s a cool way to reveal all this new information that she’s been quote unquote hoarding.”
On Rowling’s equally big news that her books will now be available in digital form, Sims says: “Fans have wanted Harry Potter e-books for a long time. I’m glad they’re finally doing it because this is obviously one of the greatest book series of all time, and now it’s available for a lot of people who want to experience it through an e-reader.”
Pottermore, it was also announced, is being developed in a partnership with Sony and will be an outlet for Sony products designed for Potter fans.
A news release distributed after the news conference explained that on the Pottermore website “the storyline will be brought to life with sumptuous newly-commissioned illustrations and interactive ‘Moments’ through which you can navigate, starting with the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s (Sorcerer’s) Stone. On entering, you choose a magic username and begin your experience. As you move through the chapters, you can read and share exclusive writing from J.K. Rowling, and, just as Harry joins Hogwarts, so can you. You visit Diagon Alley, get sorted into a house, cast spells and mix potions to help your house compete for the House Cup.”
Key features of the website, according to the news release, will bring to life both the Sorting Hat and Ollivanders experiences from her books “by revealing the questions asked by the Sorting Hat — which places newcomers into their Hogwarts houses according to their characteristics — and the magic behind the Wand Chooser — which finds the right wand for each user from over 33,000 possible combinations.”
Beginning today, fans can submit their e-mail addresses on Pottermore.com in order to be contacted by the site following the opening of registration on July 31, Harry’s birthday. On that date, an online challenge will be launched in which the first million people to complete their registration will gain early entry into the website.
Who Is The Biggest Hero BESIDES Harry Potter? (SPOILER ALERT!)
In my opinion, one of the things that makes Harry Potter such an amazing story is all of the help and sacrifices made by other heroes who supported his cause.
If you haven’t read “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, then shame on you, go read it. You will most likely not want to read any further because the movie will be spoiled for you. In fact…
There. Buy it, read it, then come back to this post.
Okay, as I was saying, the supporting heroes in the Harry Potter series are some of the most amazing characters in my opinion. Harry himself is only a hero because of circumstance. Not to say that he isn’t brave and an amazing hero.
But think about all of the pure bloods who would be perfectly safe from You Know Who that risked their lives out of pure goodness?
Snape and Dumbledore both made the ultimate sacrifice to help Harry and bring down the Dark Lord, but Snape was by far the bravest character in the entire series. It takes a lot of courage to be hated and thought a villain when you are sacrificing yourself to save the people who hate you.
But… MY personal favorite is Neville Longbottom. Why, you ask? Because he started off clumsy and inept, then by Order of the Phoenix, he started becoming a brave member of Dumbledore’s army and gets decent at spells. And in Deathly Hallows, he chops the head off of Voldemort’s snake, Nagini with the sword of Griffindor who is also a Hoarcrux! Destroying a hoarcrux is kind of a big deal…
Anyway, I love Neville and he’s my favorite hero. Who’s yours and why?
<3 Abby
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Bloody Harry, Face to Face With Voldemort: First Official Deathly Hallows Part 2 Poster
Click thumbnail to see full sized image.
First official poster! Exciting! Also a bit sad… The poster says it all ends 7.15…. It all ends!?? I don’t want it to end, but I also can’t wait to see it. I don’t like the thought of never having another Harry Potter thing to anxiously await.
The poster looks super cool though. Harry’s all bloody, Voldy is holding the Elder Wand… it’s about to get crazy! The final battle is going to be so epic.
Anyway, I’m sure this is just the beginning of a huge marketing buzz for the movie, with the release date creeping up and all. So keep an eye out for more Deathly Hallows Part 2 updates!
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Harry Potter Things You Never Knew Existed
So I was looking around for some cool stuff for next months giveaway, thinking that I was pretty much aware of everything related to Harry Potter that was in existence.
But then…
I stumbled upon some of the COOLEST Harry Potter stuff I’ve ever seen and I had no idea that a lot of it even existed! Any true fan would gush… I seriously could have produced a patronus!!
I just went to this link: Super Rare Harry Potter Stuff … and there were pages and pages of Harry Potter items that I ended up browsing through for about 45 minutes before finally buying this:
I KNOW RIGHT??? Harry Potter Bobble Head!!!! Maybe I’m out of the loop and everyone knows about these, but I was stoked! Plus I’m in love with Fallout 3 so I have a soft spot for bobble heads. Someone is definitely winning one of these in our April giveaway.
(If you haven’t signed up to win stuff yet, do it now! We wont send you ads or anything, you just get a chance to win an awesome Harry Potter item EVERY MONTH and have it mailed straight to your home! As of now, not very many people have entered yet so chances of winning are pretty good at the moment. Click the following link for more info: Win Free Harry Potter Stuff.)
Some other AMAZING things I found:
Yep, this is a TriWizard Cup port-key… I mean LAMP!!! An actual LAMP!!!
OMG! This is the most ridiculously awesome/hilarious Harry Potter Toy I’ve ever seen… I can’t even describe it in my own words. Leave it to the Japanese to create such a marvel:
“Harry Potter Ultimate Dueling Battle Trainer
:
* Prepare to face the forces of evil with this infrared wand and electronic animated Voldemort bust!
* Features 3 levels of difficulty to test your skill!
* Imported from Japan!
Prepare to face the forces of evil with this infrared wand and electronic animated Voldemort bust! Learn up to 10 spells in 3 levels of difficulty and play in 4 different modes to hone your wizardry skill! Watch as Voldemort reacts to your spells! Order yours today!”
Haha, simply amazing.
Oh Severus… If only they knew, maybe you wouldn’t have to be so grumpy.
I know I’m supposed to be sort of an “adult” and all, but I’m using any excuse possible to bust out my
HARRY POTTER LUNCH BOX!!
Don’t even try to pretend that you wouldn’t secretly love this 18-inch Talking Harry Doll…
Everyone should really have a pair of these… can’t be too careful when it comes to spotting out nargles!
What could be more comforting at night than having He Who Must Not Be Named
watching over you from your night stand?
Giant Peel and Stick Harry Potter: Perfect for making your wall look awesome and scaring away burglars.
Harry, Snape and Fenrir getting along famously in old school action figure awesomeness.
So I was doing research… in the library… in the restricted section… and I came across a… Hermione Bobble Head!
Hogwarts Express Book Ends!!! These are next on my wish list.
A book collection isn’t complete without magical train book ends.
Cuuuuuuute!
Dumbledore, Fawkes, Harry Potter, Sword of Griffindor and the Sorting Hat… Super detailed and basically needs to join my Harry Potter collection ASAP!
Deep down, everyone wants a cuddly little Buckbeak…
Okay, I can’t look at any more of this stuff or I am gonna go crazy. There are tons more if you just click onSuper Rare Harry Potter Stuff.
And don’t forget to visit our Harry Potter Shop!
Exclusive: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 Blu-ray promo
What will be the movie that finally gets you to convert to Blu-ray if you haven’t already? If you’re a Harry Potter fan, it could be the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1, which hits shelves April 15. Watch the promo below, which teases the hours of extras available only on the Blu-ray combo pack (that includes Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copies). The DVD will boast deleted scenes, but the Blu-ray comes loaded with those plus:
• An exclusive sneak peek of an opening scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2, which hits theaters July 15
• “Maximum Movie Mode”: An interactive journey through the movie hosted by Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy), and including other cast and crew, which also revisits important moments from the previous films to prepare us for the final battle. (Quicker than rereading!)
• ”Dan, Rupert and Emma’s Running Competition”: Director David Yates provides commentary for the “hilarious rivalry” that the three leads engaged in while filming the escape scene from the Snatchers in Swinley Forest. (This sounds even better than “Taylor Time” on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse DVD, which was what they dubbed the moments in the making-of documentary when Taylor Lautner was shown catching grapes in his mouth thrown from people like Kristen Stewart and director David Slade’s assistant from great distances.)
• “On the Green with Rupert, Tom, Oliver and James”: Cameras follow Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Oliver Phelps (George Weasley) and James Phelps (Fred Weasley) for a round of golf to profile the friendship they developed over a decade of filming Harry Potter movies. Fun.
• “The Seven Harrys”: A look at Daniel Radcliffe’s method for recreating the personalities of the different characters for the Privet Drive scene, as well as the visual effects. (Read: Shirtless Radcliffe.)
• A plug for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter that includes footage of Radcliffe, Grint, Watson, and other cast members enjoying their first visits for the grand opening
• A “Behind the Soundtrack” extra
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Daniel Radcliffe Earns 10 Points For Hero Award
In honor of all of his work and support, the Trevor Project is giving Daniel Radcliffe the “Hero Award.” The Trevor Project is an organization that offers crisis support to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered youths in America.
I think it’s really cool that even though he is a young star and is super busy with all the Harry Potter stuff that Daniel Radcliffe still takes the time be involved in something like this.
Apparently he’s been involved since 2009 doing public service announcements and even personal outreaches, which I think shows how genuine he is. “Harry Potter” will be receiving the award at a ceremony in New York on June 11th, just before the long awaited release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2! Yay!
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two Video Footage
I edited out the part one clips from the trailer- Veeeerrryyyyy Exciting!
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