"If we turn our heads and look away and hope that it will all disappear then they will - all of them, an entire generation of people. And we will have only history left to judge us."
On 5th August 2004, we took our children to watch the filming for Goblet of Fire in Ashridge Woods, Hertfordshire.
The filming was well hidden away from the road, but we counted at least 20 WB location signs on the way telling us exactly where to go. After parking the car we sneaked through the woods (not knowing the security). Having previously been to Virginia Waters last year, we were not sure of the reception that we would get whilst the filming was going on. However, this time, the security guards were really nice.
To start with, we could not see any of the filming as it was too far in the woods, however we did see a lot of fake fog coming from the filming area. We were asked by one of the Production team if we could move back (due to health and safety), they also promised us that he would guarantee that we would get signatures when they had a lunch break in 30 minutes.
We moved further up the path and sat patiently on the grass. About an hour later they broke for lunch, and we could clearly see, Emma, Daniel, Rupert, James and Oliver Phelps, Mark Williams, and Bonnie Wright coming from the woods, they were all ushered into a car and drove away. Emma, who drove past us saw us waiting and waved frantically out of her window (the only one who did).
We walked down when they had cleared up and saw that they had been filming up a big old tree, again the security guards were really nice and just warned us to be careful of the guys with the equipment. Luckily we had heard of a second location and we set about finding it, in the end we found the Base (where the trailers are kept) and followed them all back to the second locations.
We worked our way though the woods and ended up about 500 yards away in the same field. When we arrived, there were about 30 other fans watching the doubles practice the next scene.
After about 20 minutes the cars started arriving and they got out one by one, again all of them got out of their cars and were ushered again onto the scene. Again it was Emma and her mum who had their windows open and were smiling at the fans. Emma got out of her car and all of the fans cheered her and screamed. She was also the only one who came over (much to the annoyance of the Crew), and she signed about 15 autographs and almost blankly ignored the crew's plea to hurry up, just so she could sign as many autographs as she could.
The scene which went on for a few hours were when they were all hiking (to the Quidditch match) and heading into some fog.
There were many fans trying to take photos (much to the annoyance of the crew and Daniel Radcliffe's father), and slowly we realized that the crew were driving vehicles and stacking up equipment to block our view. A few hours later (about 4.30pm), we heard some loud thunder and the crew began packing away equipment.
Then all of a sudden it was over, the cast made their way to their cars and we all stopped them and they were kind enough to sign autographs. Despite the promise of thunder and rain they all stayed outside the cars signing autographs and Emma even sat down with her mum and had lengthy chats with her fans.
No one had managed to get Daniel's autograph or speak to him. After about half an hour of signing we could see that Daniel's dad had taken him straight to his car and we were all looking and pointing at his car (which was a Green Lexus).
After about another 15 minutes, Dan's father wound down his window and called us over, and we managed to get some autographs by passing note pads to his dad who passed them over to Dan. It was quite dark in the back of the car, but we managed to say "Hi" and "thank you" him from the front window.
After meeting the rest of the cast, we were even given copies of photos from POA which were originally signed by Dan, Emma and Rupert. In the end we had a great day, made more special by Emma Watson and by the very kind security guards. But Daniel's situation made us question what it must be like to be Harry Potter.
Set report courtesy of MuggleNet.com. August 8, 2004.
Disclaimer: Veritaserum is run by fans and is for the fans. We are in no way official and are not affiliated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., EA Games, Scholastic, or Bloomsbury. We do not own any of the characters in the books, movies, or games.
