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Musings #13: Goblet of Fire Press Junket in London!
by Matthew Vines
October 30, 2005
Last weekend ranks among the most exhilarating, entertaining, and simply delightful few days I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing first-hand.
I'll start with Friday. The day began with the usual for transatlantic flights - hardly any sleep and much too much turbulence. After the obligatory hour and a half at customs, a stop by our hotel to clean up (I flew over with my dad), and a good nap, I headed over to the Room of Purest Delights in central London for the very first screening of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Unsurprisingly, I was the first journalist to arrive, and consequently was given the first seat as well. Lots of firsts here, eh?
The theatre only held about fifty, so it's not like there was a bad seat in the house, but that's not to say some weren't better than others, and I'd certainly like to think that I snagged the best one. Over the next ten minutes, a few more reporters trickled in, and it finally hit me: I was about to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which is thrilling in and of itself. But a whole month before its release. And in London! Oh, how sweet it was to have finally gotten past the stress of plane tickets, hotels, a passport, an audio recorder, the masses of phone calls, and everything else that comes with flying overseas for the first time, and to sit there in that plush black seat and let it all sink in.
There was a moment (to quote Harry) - but just the tiniest of moments - when my excitement slipped out and I split a massive grin. At this, one of the jaded journalists a few rows back noted that he enjoyed seeing enthusiasm in youngsters, which apparently was not present in most of the adult crowd around him. Well… I'm fifteen, run a website dedicated to Harry Potter, and have the opportunity to see the new movie four weeks before the rest of the world. What did you expect?
An absolutely lovely lady, Thomasina Gibson, ended up sitting next to me a few minutes before the movie began. Naturally, I asked her which media outlet she was representing (Sci Fi Wire), and she then posed the same question to me. She was most excited to discover that I run Veritaserum, as she's been an avid reader since June. Hello, Thomasina!
Moments later, a gregarious WB representative stepped out from behind the curtain to announce the start of the film, and then quickly exited to wild applause from those few in the audience. (By this point, we had completely packed the theatre, and several reporters ended up taking a seat on the stairs. Not that they really minded - this was an incredible opportunity for everyone there.)
The lights dimmed, the WB logo graced the screen….
….and the last of the credits rolled on by.
The first words I uttered after the screen grew dark were resoundingly affirmative: "Yes. Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!" The movie completely blew away every single person there - even the guy up in the control room. I didn't hear even a slightly mediocre word about it from any of the reporters - now, granted, they could've been drowned out by my rather fanatical ravings about it, but there is no doubt that this movie will garner the best reviews yet for a Harry Potter film, and it's got the best shot at an Academy Award, too. I can smell Best Picture, I really can. And Director. And Special Effects and Editing and Screenplay and every other award the Academy rewards truly epic movies with.
The rest of the night was spent seeing some sights around London, and I suppose my father and I looked a bit too touristy, because a man ran off with my laptop, audio recorder, passport, and camera as we were video taping the festivities at Trafalgar Square from outside Waterstone's. He was so subtle and swift about the whole thing - even dropping a spare bit of parchment (to quote Harry, again) a few feet behind us to distract us while he was running away with our things - that I didn't react nearly as fast as I should have, and we ended up in a mini-chase of sorts. We did eventually catch him, at which point he stumblingly fished about for a valid excuse, and finally said that he would really appreciate it if we gave him some money for the bus. Oy, London police, where are you when I need you?
That was completely irrelevant - my apologies. Now back to Harry Potter!
Saturday morning brought with it a second screening of Goblet of Fire, and though I didn't think it possible, it was even better the second time around. Having just seen it the previous night, I already knew exactly what was coming, so I was able to stop and smell the roses along the way. And what gorgeous, aromatic, and brilliant roses they were - all strokes of pure genius, credit to Mr. Mike Newell.
After a quick look around Covent Garden, I headed back to our hotel, where I wrote out all of my questions verbatim before taking a rather posh cab to the hotel where the press conferences were being held. I arrived in good time - about 45 minutes before the conferences were scheduled to begin - and thanks to Thomasina, I was able to sit smack dab in the middle of the front row.
An hour or so later, after we'd all snacked and been given advance copies of the GOF soundtrack, Mike Newell and David Heyman waltzed on in the room and took a seat at the front table. It felt a little strange to be mere feet away from two of the most brilliant men in the Harry Potter universe, who I'd only seen previously in pictures, but also surprisingly normal. Mike was in a particularly jolly mood, as evidenced by his hearty laughs throughout the conference, and David seemed perfectly comfortable. They were more than ready to chat it up with the reporters.
Their conference ran for half an hour, and nine questions were asked, leaving, on average, a little more than three minutes per answer. So, I was quite pleased when my question elicited a five-and-a-half minute response from the duo. I asked, "How frequently did you consult with JK Rowling about deviations from the book and subplots cut from the storyline, and what about in particular?"
If you'd like, you can listen to a crystal clear audio recording of their response right… here. I was hoping for Mike or David to mention a few more specific examples - Nigel, the new first year student; the new female Death Eater; cutting out S.P.E.W. and the house elf liberation movement; etcetera, etcetera, etcetera - but I was more than satisfied with what they had to say, especially JKR's thoughts on including Barty Crouch, Jr. in the first scene.
When the first conference came to a close, Mike and David slowly rose from their seats, but gladly stopped to chat for a few minutes before the champions came in. I took this opportunity to ask David about Order of the Phoenix casting, and he spoke openly about the latest from the Umbridge and Luna fronts.
Soon after Mike and David said their final goodbyes to everyone in the room, Stanislav Ianesvki walked in, followed by Clemence Poesy, Robert Pattinson, and Katie Leung. As they were taking their seats, Robert turned to me and said, "I've met you before, haven't I?" Unfortunately, my honest answer was no - I think I'd remember that! - but I appreciated his genial tone anyhow. Katie also said a quick hello before the conference commenced.
Robert was the keenest to talk throughout the conference, which everyone was fine with, as he gave the best answers. His charisma made for a really fun conference, and also made Katie and Stan considerably more comfortable. I was fortunate enough to pose two questions to the four of them - well, technically three, if you count my "How early did you have to get up?" as a question, but two works.
While I was asking my first question....hang on, short story first! I've only had my watch for a year or so, right? So I haven't quite figured out how to use the timer on it yet. But I knew that if you clicked a couple buttons on it, it would eventually start counting down from 24 hours to zero. I used that countdown to time how long the movie was both times I saw it, but didn't think about what it'd do once it hit zero. Alright, now back to the press conferences. While I was asking my first question (and had the microphone in my hand), the countdown on my watch hit zero and filled the room with loud, piercing beeps.
Shoot.
Not good at all.
But they just laughed (with, not at!) and kept trucking right along. My second question centered around stunts, and Robert called the maze scenes "enforced method acting" in his response. Audio clips of both of those questions and answers are below:
A typical BEEP day on BEEP set - .6 MB
Stunts - .8 MB
Following the second conference, I caught up with Clemence and asked her what she thought of Half-Blood Prince. She loved the book and said that although she "doesn't know yet" if she'll be coming back for the film adaptation (after all, they're just starting number five), she's more than interested ("Yeah! Why not? It would be fun.")
Within a couple of minutes, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, and Daniel Radcliffe sauntered in nonchalantly and sat down at the front table. I took a moment to compliment Dan on his haircut (it really does look much better now), and he then talked about it for a bit before the WB reps said it was time to start.
The final press conference began, and as at the first two, I wasn't more than five feet away from Dan, Emma, and Rupert, which was absolutely wicked. Dan made eye contact with me and smiled a fair number of times - probably because I was the youngest journalist in the room by far. He was amazingly down-to-earth, funny, and even a little cheeky at times, but always polite. Not to mention that he was quite the chatter bug! He was so enthusiastic in all of his responses, even to the lame questions, and passed the time by conducting random polls ("Hands up if you've heard the band called Godspeed You Black Emperor!").
Emma was fairly talkative, but nowhere near as much so as Dan. Rupert, on the other hand, was spacing out the whole time, which is why he didn't say all that much during the conference, and his answers often began with "What was the question?" So much like his character!
I believe I asked which scenes they filmed that were cut they would most liked to have seen in the final movie, and although I didn't get specific examples from any of them, Emma said "good question!" at the beginning of her answer:
Scenes cut from the movie - .7 MB
After the conference came to a close, I walked up to Emma to congratulate her on her excellent performance ("Oh, thank you, that's really sweet of you," she said) and also to get her opinion on HBP ("I loved it, I loved it."). I then caught Rupert as he was being escorted out of the room to ask about Order of the Phoenix (he's back), Driving Lessons, and dancing with Maggie Smith, and in that short time frame, I think he said "yeah" about seven times.
The thirty-some reporters present slowly left the room, and I soon found myself standing around in the hotel lobby doing absolutely nothing, when who should walk down the stairs but Daniel Radcliffe, flanked by bodyguards. He beelined toward me, abandoned his bodyguards momentarily, and shook my hand. I was at a complete loss for what to say, so I just babbled on about how ridiculously amazing the movie was for a bit. Dan said, "Thank you very, very much" before being whisked away by the men in black.
Whoa.
That was probably the best thing ever.
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