DH Set Reports ~ Snape's Epic Duel and Magnificent Death
Stuart Craig, Set Designer, on Snape's Death Via Snitchseeker
Craig said he took some creative license with a key death scene in the book.
“In the book [the character] dies in the Shrieking Shack. I specifically asked J.K. Rowling if she would mind if we transposed that to a boathouse. I felt it would make a very interesting, very theatrical set. There was a lot of glass in the design for the boathouse. Through the glass, you’re aware of Hogwarts in flames and the water inside the boathouse reflects the flames and you get a great sense of the height and the drama. It’s rather cathedral-like in a small way, a rather ephemeral structure. I think [the actor] was happy to die there and I was very happy to see [the actor] die there.”
Mugglenet Set Report: Stuart Craig interview ~ Snape's Death/Boathouse Set
Early in the interview with Craig I asked him about a recent interview in which he said that Snape's death scene brought him to tears. I asked why. "He's just so good," Craig replied in a persuasive tone, "Even on dailies [which is raw, unedited footage], his death is extremely moving."
"With J.K. Rowling's permission, we did make a departure. Snape dies in the Shrieking Shack in the book, and the Shrieking Shack is an interesting interior but it didn't have, somehow, the breadth and the romanticism that I think Snape's death required. So we made something of the Boat House which has always been there beneath Hogwarts. Now his death has a real sense of place. He dies somewhere which is very atmospheric. Looking out over the lake, to the mountains across the lake, the school in flames above - it's exposed and influenced by the atmospherics of all those things. So, I think it's a suitable setting for a magnificent death really."
Dan Radcliffe (Harry) had a more humorous take on putting Snape's death in the Boat House: "It's pretty violent. I was impressed. Nagini offs him. It's a great scene. There's a great thing we [while filming] which I love. Which is, we keep saying, "The boat house? We never mentioned the boathouse before in ANY of the other films! I didn't even know Hogwarts HAD a boathouse! But that's where it takes place and it's a GREAT set. Alan plays it wonderfully and beautifully. All the stuff about Harry's mother. He's plays it all as you'd expect him to - wonderfully. It was a pleasure to be there and see Alan give that performance."
I transcribed some of the Collider Interview in which they talk about Alan Rickman and Snape - some cute comments about Rickman eating in the cafeteria plus the fact that the dueling scene was filmed from every angle in a crowded room full of students. :) Spoilers!!! This is not a complete transcript so watch the video at the link if you want to know more.
Collider Set Report: Epic Duel, AR "always" in Character, Snape, Dan Radcliffe
(starts at minute 11:51 on video)
"We were basically in the Great Hall and Snape has called the students to him, telling them that Harry Potter has been spotted in Hogsmeade(?), and if any of the students help him - or faculty - they will be punished to the full extent of Hogwarts law, and if he finds out after the fact that any of them have information that they didn't divulge, then they would be punished as if they were Harry Potter. Yeah, and it was great because we got to see - we were standing outside the Great Hall, we all had little headphones on, looking at the monitor, and we could hear Alan Rickman as Snape in the Great Hall and we could see him with all these extras, and he's doing his accent - I can't do it (laughter). He's acting as Snape, and he's right there, and he was just awesome! You see Snape give a huge monologue - and he says that he knew Harry Potter's return was not only possible but inevitable, and because of that they had taken so many defensive measures, so Harry Potter will never return to Hogwarts, but if anyone has any information, please step forward now.
And of course, the person who steps out of the shadows is Harry Potter, and he's like "I don't think your security was good enough." And he comes in and he's yelling at Snape - How epic it was to be watching this - it's a big moment in the movie - we're in the Great Hall - Harry comes in and he says something like "How dare you stand there where Dumbledore stood. Why don't you tell them what you did? Tell them that you killed him.
And he's yelling at him (Snape) and then he says "I brought some friends," and then a big group of people, of Dumbledore's Army (Order members?) come in, and then Snape and Prof. McGonagall (a stand-in for her), they start doing a wand duel battle which will be added in later. But it's still really cool. It was funny to see in person because you almost think they were joking around, but they did take after take. ...It's like a choreographed kind of thing. It's going to be epic.
At all times they had two cameras going. They were all on Snape - Alan Rickman. Dan Radcliffe was there delivering his lines, and that's something we should mention. Often times with a diva or certain stars, they will not stand off-screen and deliver their lines. They'll have a director do it, or an aide or somebody else. But everybody was there. We heard about an actor the other day that if it wasn't a close-up, then they'd use a body double or something like that. But although Dan Radcliffe wasn't on camera at all during that take, he was there delivering his lines, forcefully, off-screen, with the full emotion as if that's the moment that the audience are seeing. And after the take, we had headphones on so we could hear more than we should have, and Radcliffe would be breathing heavily because he really got into it.
And it's interesting, when we were speaking to Daniel, and he told us that the ending of Book 7 has Harry realizing that the only way to defeat Voldemort is to die and he has to go face Voldemort knowing he's going to get killed. And it's that emotional realization that is awesome. And he said that was one of his favorite scenes, and he was so nervous about getting it right that he was probably playing it too hard. Just interesting hearing him talk about wanting to get it right.
There were tons of Hogwarts Students there. Kids you'll probably never see in the films, just in the background, all with their wands in that room. It was a wide shot, and they filmed it a few different ways. One shot was wide and had students on both sides of Snape, and they zoomed in. One was with the camera up. About 50 kids in there looking and some of them were young. 11-12 years old. It was a two-page sequence and they filmed it every which way.
It was a big scene. The funniest part was when Snape -- at one point he went into this monologue, and he's up there in front of the Great Hall, and he said a line, then in character he told the people to be quiet because there was noise from behind us. He said something like, "There's alot of noise." :spinny: But he didn't break character to say that. He wasn't all of a sudden Alan Rickman. (laughter) It was Snape telling people what to do.
AR doesn't do any press on the HP set. He'll do it at the junkets or press junket, but apparently he's just in-character. And we have to mention the cafeteria - no actor is so high and mighty that they don't eat in there. Alan Rickman is in there eating with some little kids and friends of somebody.
Craig said he took some creative license with a key death scene in the book.
“In the book [the character] dies in the Shrieking Shack. I specifically asked J.K. Rowling if she would mind if we transposed that to a boathouse. I felt it would make a very interesting, very theatrical set. There was a lot of glass in the design for the boathouse. Through the glass, you’re aware of Hogwarts in flames and the water inside the boathouse reflects the flames and you get a great sense of the height and the drama. It’s rather cathedral-like in a small way, a rather ephemeral structure. I think [the actor] was happy to die there and I was very happy to see [the actor] die there.”
Mugglenet Set Report: Stuart Craig interview ~ Snape's Death/Boathouse Set
Early in the interview with Craig I asked him about a recent interview in which he said that Snape's death scene brought him to tears. I asked why. "He's just so good," Craig replied in a persuasive tone, "Even on dailies [which is raw, unedited footage], his death is extremely moving."
"With J.K. Rowling's permission, we did make a departure. Snape dies in the Shrieking Shack in the book, and the Shrieking Shack is an interesting interior but it didn't have, somehow, the breadth and the romanticism that I think Snape's death required. So we made something of the Boat House which has always been there beneath Hogwarts. Now his death has a real sense of place. He dies somewhere which is very atmospheric. Looking out over the lake, to the mountains across the lake, the school in flames above - it's exposed and influenced by the atmospherics of all those things. So, I think it's a suitable setting for a magnificent death really."
Dan Radcliffe (Harry) had a more humorous take on putting Snape's death in the Boat House: "It's pretty violent. I was impressed. Nagini offs him. It's a great scene. There's a great thing we [while filming] which I love. Which is, we keep saying, "The boat house? We never mentioned the boathouse before in ANY of the other films! I didn't even know Hogwarts HAD a boathouse! But that's where it takes place and it's a GREAT set. Alan plays it wonderfully and beautifully. All the stuff about Harry's mother. He's plays it all as you'd expect him to - wonderfully. It was a pleasure to be there and see Alan give that performance."
I transcribed some of the Collider Interview in which they talk about Alan Rickman and Snape - some cute comments about Rickman eating in the cafeteria plus the fact that the dueling scene was filmed from every angle in a crowded room full of students. :) Spoilers!!! This is not a complete transcript so watch the video at the link if you want to know more.
Collider Set Report: Epic Duel, AR "always" in Character, Snape, Dan Radcliffe
(starts at minute 11:51 on video)
"We were basically in the Great Hall and Snape has called the students to him, telling them that Harry Potter has been spotted in Hogsmeade(?), and if any of the students help him - or faculty - they will be punished to the full extent of Hogwarts law, and if he finds out after the fact that any of them have information that they didn't divulge, then they would be punished as if they were Harry Potter. Yeah, and it was great because we got to see - we were standing outside the Great Hall, we all had little headphones on, looking at the monitor, and we could hear Alan Rickman as Snape in the Great Hall and we could see him with all these extras, and he's doing his accent - I can't do it (laughter). He's acting as Snape, and he's right there, and he was just awesome! You see Snape give a huge monologue - and he says that he knew Harry Potter's return was not only possible but inevitable, and because of that they had taken so many defensive measures, so Harry Potter will never return to Hogwarts, but if anyone has any information, please step forward now.
And of course, the person who steps out of the shadows is Harry Potter, and he's like "I don't think your security was good enough." And he comes in and he's yelling at Snape - How epic it was to be watching this - it's a big moment in the movie - we're in the Great Hall - Harry comes in and he says something like "How dare you stand there where Dumbledore stood. Why don't you tell them what you did? Tell them that you killed him.
And he's yelling at him (Snape) and then he says "I brought some friends," and then a big group of people, of Dumbledore's Army (Order members?) come in, and then Snape and Prof. McGonagall (a stand-in for her), they start doing a wand duel battle which will be added in later. But it's still really cool. It was funny to see in person because you almost think they were joking around, but they did take after take. ...It's like a choreographed kind of thing. It's going to be epic.
At all times they had two cameras going. They were all on Snape - Alan Rickman. Dan Radcliffe was there delivering his lines, and that's something we should mention. Often times with a diva or certain stars, they will not stand off-screen and deliver their lines. They'll have a director do it, or an aide or somebody else. But everybody was there. We heard about an actor the other day that if it wasn't a close-up, then they'd use a body double or something like that. But although Dan Radcliffe wasn't on camera at all during that take, he was there delivering his lines, forcefully, off-screen, with the full emotion as if that's the moment that the audience are seeing. And after the take, we had headphones on so we could hear more than we should have, and Radcliffe would be breathing heavily because he really got into it.
And it's interesting, when we were speaking to Daniel, and he told us that the ending of Book 7 has Harry realizing that the only way to defeat Voldemort is to die and he has to go face Voldemort knowing he's going to get killed. And it's that emotional realization that is awesome. And he said that was one of his favorite scenes, and he was so nervous about getting it right that he was probably playing it too hard. Just interesting hearing him talk about wanting to get it right.
There were tons of Hogwarts Students there. Kids you'll probably never see in the films, just in the background, all with their wands in that room. It was a wide shot, and they filmed it a few different ways. One shot was wide and had students on both sides of Snape, and they zoomed in. One was with the camera up. About 50 kids in there looking and some of them were young. 11-12 years old. It was a two-page sequence and they filmed it every which way.
It was a big scene. The funniest part was when Snape -- at one point he went into this monologue, and he's up there in front of the Great Hall, and he said a line, then in character he told the people to be quiet because there was noise from behind us. He said something like, "There's alot of noise." :spinny: But he didn't break character to say that. He wasn't all of a sudden Alan Rickman. (laughter) It was Snape telling people what to do.
AR doesn't do any press on the HP set. He'll do it at the junkets or press junket, but apparently he's just in-character. And we have to mention the cafeteria - no actor is so high and mighty that they don't eat in there. Alan Rickman is in there eating with some little kids and friends of somebody.