5 Harry Potter Movie Facts You Didn’t Know

As Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone turns twenty, we look at surprising facts about the making of the movie

It doesn't feel possible, but somehow, the first film of the fantastical Harry Potter franchise is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this month. Released in 2001, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone hit big screens around the world on November 16 and instantly became a smash hit. In the US alone, it grossed $32.3 million at the Box Office on day one, breaking the record held by Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

Over the past twenty years, you may have watched the film dozens of times, and you might have noticed the magical effects age, but what you probably didn't know is what went into the magic in the first place.

Rather than flashy CGI, for the first film, a lot of the effects came from real-life magic that happened on set thanks to the design and production teams. Here are five surprising ​facts about the making of movie number one.

How did Hagrid get so big?

A magical potion of four ingredients: cleverly designed sets, a stunt double, forced perspective, and the use of a green screen went into making Hagrid (played by actor Robbie Coltrane) look his half-giant, half-human size.

The design team created two huts for Hagrid—one was very big so that the other characters looked small in it, and the other was made much smaller so that Hagrid looked huge. Plus, a six-foot, ten-inch-tall former rugby player, Martin Bayfield, played Hagrid’s stunt double.

In other scenes, Hagrid was filmed against a green screen so that he could be superimposed as a giant.

Finally, a filming technique called forced perspective was also used to enhance Hagrid’s size. This involves filming an object near to the camera and far from the camera in equal focus so they both appear to be near each other.

Written with love

Do you remember the Hogwarts acceptance letters shooting through the letterbox, flying out the chimney, and whirling around the Dudley household? All these letters had to be carefully planned out for the effects to work.

Created by design studio MinaLima, hundreds of letters were digitally printed on very thin paper to help them float through the air, however around twenty to thirty letters were handwritten with a fountain pen for truly authentic close-up shots—and each one took a few hours to write.

Not only that, but a separate batch of smaller letters with lighter envelopes had to be produced, so they could be carried and delivered by the owls who were trained over a period of six months.

Watch the scene below:

Owls may look cute, but...

A fact for fans of the extended cut: there's a scene deleted from the original movie, where Aunt Petunia looks out at the owls as they surround the house menacingly with the Hogwarts Acceptance letters.

However, during shooting, the owls kept looking at the camera behind them. To keep the owls focused, a resourceful assistant decided to attach a dead mouse to Aunt Petunia’s apron. Because no matter how captivating Aunt Petunia’s performance may have been, nothing captivates an owl like a dead mouse.

The not-so cutting edge technology behind Ollivander’s wand shop

Forget about CGI—clever lighting and fans go a long way in creating special effects. When Harry finally hits on the right wand for him, suddenly a gust of wind whooshes through Ollivander’s shop, the candles flicker, and a mysterious light haloes Harry’s head.

These effects were achieved by lots of fans, some smoke, skillful lighting, and slowing the film down to 120 frames per second to give the impression of time quickening.

Take a look at the effects in the scene below:

The real wizardry behind Wizard’s Chess

Remember that fateful game, where Ron surprises us all with his dab hand at chess?

Again, it was practical effects behind this scene. The life-sized chess set was real, with each piece (standing up to twelve feet tall and weighing around 500lbs) sculpted by the production team to replicate a real chess set from the 1100s. The pieces were moved with riggs and radio control.

You may be twenty years older than you were when you were introduced to the magic of Hogwarts, but you're never too old to learn more about the magic. To find out more about special effects and editing, check out Domestika's online filmmaking courses.

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