Cinematographer Behind HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’ Series Reveals ‘Brutal’ Reality for Camera Crew Filming Child Actors

The cinematographer behind HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series has described the “brutal” conditions for the camera team due to the young cast.

The first season of the series based on JK Rowling’s wildly popular books Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, is due to premiere on Christmas Day this year on on HBO Max.

HBO previously announced they plan to adapt all seven books in Rowling’s saga over the course of a decade, with each season covering one book so that the central child cast can still realistically portray their characters at the appropriate ages. Season two of HBO’s Harry Potter series, which is being directed by Succession’s Mark Mylod, is expected to begin filming in the U.K. in the fall.

However, according to a report by Variety, cinematographer Adriano Goldman says working on HBO’s Harry Potter series has been “brutal” for the camera department because filming must be carefully scheduled around the young cast’s limited working hours.

Alastair Stout, Dominic McLaughlin and Arabella Stanton in HBO’s upcoming ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ | Image credit: Aidan Monaghan/HBO

As child actors, the stars are required to spend part of each day in class . Last year, Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden — the production base for the series — was granted permission to build a temporary school on site, allowing the cast to continue their education while filming. The combination of schooling requirements and restrictions on child actors’ working hours leaves the crew with a much tighter window in which to shoot scenes.

In an interview with Andre Pilli, Goldman explains that Harry Potter star Dominic McLaughlin, Ron Weasley actor Alastair Stout and Hermione Granger star Arabella Stanton come to set for about “an hour and a half.” But the schedule demands he shoots “six setups” before they have to leave again. Goldman admits that the relentless pace of filming means the camera team is often forced to sacrifice quality and prioritize speed in order to stay on schedule.

“You have to shoot really fast, and the faster you go, the more you compromise quality,” Goldman says. “There’s no way around it, right? Obviously, we have a lot of resources, but it’s brutal. The kids’ screen time is really brutal. So the methodology is very specific. You practically have to pre-shoot all the scenes while they’re in class.”

“It’s really hard; you shoot everything out of order, right, because of that kind of scheduling,” Goldman adds. “So the process is really complicated, but I’ve done one now.”

Previously, PetaPixel reported on how a cameraman accidentally appears in an iconic scene in the 2002 movie Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. Some film fans believe the blunder is result of the crew and the film’s director Chris Columbus needing to cut corners to film this sequence because child actors can only film for so long each day.

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