|
 |
|
|
|
|
PoA screening interview with Emily
Prior to our interview with Emily, she sent in a little bit of information about the movie: Click here to read it!
Veritaserum.com:
Did you really see the POA screening?
Emily:
That I did. I loved it- it was the best. Alfonso Cuaron was really great, too.
Veritaserum.com:
How did you get to go to the screening?
Emily:
Folks from Warner Bros. were coming around to some Chicago schools, and they went to my friend's school. A student's mother who worked at WB was signing up kids, and she gave me the tickets. Well, there weren't actually tickets.
Veritaserum.com:
What were there? Passes or something of the sort?
Emily:
There was a list of people who could be admitted.
Veritaserum.com:
Did she tell kids what it was?
Emily:
No! She said "It's the long awaited sequel to a WB movie, but we can't tell you which one." But the same thing had happened to my friend and her mother two or three years ago for the first HP movie, so she had a good idea of what was going on. They announced that we were the first audience to see it once we got into the theatre. It was very surreal.
Veritaserum.com:
Was this at a middle or elementary school?
Emily:
It was a preschool through eighth grade public school.
Veritaserum.com:
Am I allowed to ask questions regarding the screening?
Emily:
I think so, to an extent. They took comments and suggestions and a survey. I'm not supposed to reveal much, but after all, it is a book. In the movie, Lupin is kind of less thin than I pictured. He has a mustache. They added a scene with Lupin and Sirius, and another one with Lupin and Harry. But all of this stuff has yet to be edited, so some of it might not make it into the film.
Veritaserum.com:
Are you impressed with what you saw in the movie?
Emily:
Yes, more so than the other two films. But the digital stuff wasn't in there much yet, so I couldn't tell the quality of it.
Veritaserum.com:
What did the dementors look like?
Emily:
They flew and were skeletal, but partially digital, so not finished. Their robes were tattered.
Veritaserum.com:
Can you describe the scene where the dementor gets on the Hogwarts Express?
Emily:
Harry and Hermione and Ron are talking about Lupin, I think, and then they blabber on and on about Scabbers, and then everything freezes up when Ron's hand is on the window. When it freezes, everyone's breath shows. Then the dementor's hand comes on, and Harry faints. It's much darker, with way more innuendo.
Veritaserum.com:
Is the part with the dementor's hand coming on that you just said the part of the dementor's hand that we see in the trailer?
Emily:
Yes, that it is. But then it enters the cabin area. The previews are actually really informative- they show a lot.
Veritaserum.com:
Would you feel comfortable talking about the dementor's kiss scene?
Emily:
Sure. Ok, that scene is very different than I pictured it. First of all, it's only Harry and Sirius (no Hermione), and Harry is very fuzzy.
Veritaserum.com:
Fuzzy as in dizzy-fuzzy, or the camera is blurry?
Emily:
Both. Then all the dementors swarm in the sky, and this little bead of silver light comes out of Sirius's mouth. Then a Patronus from the other side of the lake blasts them all away, and Sirius is saved.
Veritaserum.com:
Is the Patronus what you pictured it'd be?
Emily:
no, I'm kind of a purist. I picture exactly what the book says. The Patronus is like a white, transparent shield, not a stag. It's very odd.
Veritaserum.com:
A shield? Not even a stag shape?
Emily:
Yes, a shield. But a stag shape does appear at the end.
Veritaserum.com:
A shield when Harry's producing the Patronus, or after it's been released from his wand?
Emily:
Both. It comes out as a shield, and then it gets bigger. A stag then just randomly appears out of nowhere.
Veritaserum.com:
How is the Time Turner scene?
Emily:
It's good; confusing to anyone who hadn't read the books, in the test screening, at least. But I found it fine. The Time Turner looks very cool. Not like I'd expected, but cool. And there's a huge pendulum in the middle of Hogwarts and a garden.
Veritaserum.com:
So there's a huge pendulum that's the Time Turner?
Emily:
No. In Hogwarts, like, in the middle of the castle, there's a large clock with a swinging pendulum that affects the Time Turner sequence.
Veritaserum.com:
Do they say anything about it, or just show it?
Emily:
They only show it.
Veritaserum.com:
How much time in the film do they spend at the Dursley's house?
Emily:
Very little. Just enough time for the Aunt Marge scene, which is around ten minutes.
Veritaserum.com:
What does the Grim look like?
Emily:
Well, it's animated, so I didn't see much of it. And all of this is subject to change, you know.
Veritaserum.com:
How long is the movie?
Emily:
I thought it was too short, around an hour and forty minutes.
Veritaserum.com:
An hour and forty minutes? Other reports I've read have stated that the film is closer to 2:20-2:30.
Emily:
It might be, in all, but when I saw it, it was definitely an hour forty. I'm not saying the other people lied; it's just what I saw. They may have edited out the good stuff.
Veritaserum.com:
How many people were at the screening you went to?
Emily:
Around 130- it was a full theatre.
Veritaserum.com:
Were any prestigious people (regarding the film) present?
Emily:
Alfonso Cuaron was there, along with a couple of people from the WB from Los Angeles and some other people who worked on it that I didn't recognize.
Veritaserum.com:
Did you get to meet Alfonso?
Emily:
Yes, he was fantastic.
Veritaserum.com:
Really?
Emily:
Yes.
Veritaserum.com:
What did he say?
Emily:
Well, he didn't say much, but I told him I liked it way more than the other two, and he said “Oh, thank you.” Then my mom asked if the sets were different, and he said most of them were, yes. However, then he had to go.
Veritaserum.com:
Was there a line to see him?
Emily:
Not really, he was very accessible. I was one of the only people who knew it was him, because I'd done my research. No one else really knew who he was.
Veritaserum.com:
That's surprising.
Emily:
We weren't told he was there, but he listened in on our comments.
Veritaserum.com:
How did you get across your comments?
Emily:
Only a few people were selected to comment afterwards, but we all filled out a survey.
Veritaserum.com:
What was the average age group present at the screening?
Emily:
Well, I was watching the movie, you know, I'm a real HP freak. I wanted to let it all sink in, so I wasn't really counting. But there were a bunch of kids under 10. We didn't know we were going to see it, you know. It was a big surprise deal. We were the first audience in the world to see it besides the cast and crew! So they didn't tell us until right before it started.
Veritaserum.com:
What was your favorite scene?
Emily:
The Sirius and Lupin scene where they reunite [in the Shrieking Shack]. There's even some added dialogue.
Veritaserum.com:
Can you give more detail?
Emily:
I can't tell you more than that.
Veritaserum.com:
What did you think of Emma Thompson as Trelawney?
Emily:
She's good, but not like I pictured. She's less glittering, and frumpier. But she's a good actress, in my opinion.
Veritaserum.com:
What were your thoughts on Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew?
Emily:
He's very odd and very rat like. He has a weird mustache.
Veritaserum.com:
Does he resemble this?
Emily:
Yes, he looks like that. I never saw that picture. It's disturbing. He wrings his hands like a rodent, and has a weird twitchy thing going on with his mouth. In the picture, those are Lupin and Sirius's wands pointed at him.
Veritaserum.com:
What are your thoughts on Crookshanks?
Emily:
He looked really puppet like; not like a real cat.
Veritaserum.com:
Does he look like this?
Emily:
Yes! There really wasn't much of him in the film, however. Just little shots of him sweeping by, like in the Shrieking Shack and such.
Veritaserum.com:
How about Crookshank's relationship with Scabbers? How is that shown in the film?
Emily:
That scene from the book where Ron and Hermione fight?
Veritaserum.com:
Yes.
Emily:
That was barely two minutes, and they were talking again in no time. It was really aggravating. The only thing was Ron telling Hermione that Scabbers was thin because of Crookshanks, but that was about it. And once Scabbers bit Ron's finger and he blamed it on the cat.
Veritaserum.com:
The Knight Bus: what are your thoughts?
Emily:
It's exactly how it looks in the commercials; that's really all I can say. However, it was different than I thought.
Veritaserum.com:
What do you think of David Thewlis's performance?
Emily:
FABULOUS! He was great! And Lupin is my absolute favorite character. I think he's better than anyone else in the movie. Sirius, too, but he was slightly more insane than I thought in the books.
Veritaserum.com:
What did you think of the boggart? What did it look like, and how many times did it transform?
Emily:
It doesn't have shape, and it just popped and then whirled a bit when it transformed. It wasn't immediate, either.
Veritaserum.com:
What did you think of the end of the movie?
Emily:
Okay, it [the Firebolt] was jammed in at the end. Ron had already unwrapped it, and it didn't have to go through inspection, because they took liberties and put the scene at the end, which was annoying. However, they said that they'd probably change that.
Veritaserum.com:
Overall, what impact would you say the movie had on you?
Emily:
It was the best experience of my life going to see that movie.
Veritaserum.com:
If you could give the movie a rating (1-10, one is the worst, ten is the best), what would you give it?
Emily:
As a film, I would give it a 6. In comparison to the books, a 4.5, and in comparison to the first two films, I would give it a 9.
-03/03/04
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
|
