The Extras - "Harry Potter" Revisited

Episode Date: October 25, 2022

20 years after their initial release, former Warner Bros Entertainment Senior Vice President of Creative Content Paul Hemstreet takes us through the initial development and production of the home entertainment extras for the first two Harry Potter films. When Warner Bros acquired the film rights to the Harry Potter franchise it marked the historic rise of one of the most profitable home entertainment film series.  Paul Hemstreet was there at the beginning and was tasked with developing the extras for these fan-favorite releases.  Paul takes us through the concepting, development and execution of the ground-breaking extras and their impact on the continued explosion in popularity of the burgeoning DVD market in 2002.Paul Hemstreet FacebookBuy on Amazon:Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Blu-rayHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 4KHarry Potter 8 Film Collection Blu-rayThe Sitcom StudyWelcome to the Sitcom Study, where we contemplate the TV shows we grew up with and...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify The Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupOtaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. www.otakumedia.tv

Hi, I'm film historian and author John Fricke. I've written books about Judy Garland and the Wizard of Oz movie, and you're listening to The Extras. Hello and welcome to The Extras, where we take you behind the scenes of your favorite TV shows, movies, and animation, and they're released on digital, DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K or your favorite streaming site. I'm Tim Millard, your host. Today, we have a former guest returning to talk about his work in the early days

on one of the top-grossing home entertainment movie franchises ever, Harry Potter, 20 years after the release of that first movie. And just to give you some context, the eight films have earned $7.7 billion worldwide, and home entertainment is estimated at another $2 billion and counting. Altogether, the Harry Potter Wizarding World franchise, including books, toys, films, video games, stage plays, and home entertainment, is estimated to be worth more than $33 billion. We'll be talking primarily about the first two films in the series,

the 2001 release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and the 2002 release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and the 2002 release of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, as those two films were shot back-to-back. Those films have earned nearly a billion and nine hundred million dollars theatrically. Paul Hempstreet was one of the original employees of the Warner Home Video Extras team and ran the group for 23 years, ascending to the role of Senior Vice President. He hired me into the group, and we had the pleasure of working together for 12 years. During his tenure at Warner Home Video, he oversaw the extras for numerous franchises, including the hugely successful Matrix films, the Hangover trilogy, the DC films including

Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and the Superman films, Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, and of course, Harry Potter, just to name a few. Paul, welcome back to The Extras. It's good to have you back. Hi, Tim. Great to be here again. Well, this is the 20th year since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone became a worldwide phenomenon and launched one of the biggest home entertainment franchises ever. And I know these films are special for you because, you know, it spans so much of your career and personal life. I mean, I remember your kids, you know, they kind of grew up while you were working on these films

and I'd see pictures of them dressed as Harry Potter and, you know, so on and so forth over the years. So I know this means a lot to you. It really does. It was such an incredible project. I feel so blessed and fortunate to have been part of that for so many years. And it really was a joy to work on. I mean, some projects you get through, some projects you can appreciate, but aren't necessarily enjoyable. And Harry Potter certainly had its challenges, but I always loved it. And I just loved the fun of it all. And when it started, my kids were babies and I was having to go off to London and leave them with my wife, their twins.

So it was quite a bit to handle. And later, they started to read and devour the books and then love the films. Of course, we got into it when they got more age appropriate to the point where at the end of the 10 plus years of working on it, they were huge fans. And that was really wonderful to see. And we got to take them to a few events, which is super special. Yeah. And last time you were on, we were talking about the Matrix DVD, the impact that had on the home entertainment. The difference there is it's not really for kids, whereas the Harry Potter, you could kind of bring to them and bring them into that world, you know, once they got a little bit older. And that's kind of fun when you can work on a project that you can include your kids, your family. Right. And it was so family friendly and especially the earlier books.

It aged up, of course. We grew up with the kids. The stories matured as time went on. But it was exciting to see the love for Harry Potter in the audience, in the young audience. And then the bond, I think, between parents and their kids, enjoying it together. So many people read it to their kids. I read it to my kids. And then you get the kids growing up now having kids. So it's a whole generation of people. I mean, jumping forward to today, you have a whole audience that grew up with it and now has kids that are entering it. So it was something very special for our family and for so many families.

And I don't know if this is a common correlation, but my parents kind of were reading a fantasy series called The Chronicles of Narnia. And they passed that on to me when I was young. And I remember receiving those books. And the other one, of course, from that era is The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, which I remember receiving at a fairly young age and devouring all of those books. And it felt like the Harry Potter was kind of that for this generation. Well, it's 20 years back, but it was a more current thing. And you always need that. You kind of need that infusion of a new fantasy world or a new thing that it's, you know, on the one hand, it's new, but it's also old. You know, it's got that old vibe of another time of classical England.

Right. It has so much history infused in it, but yet it's modern. I mean, the dates were always a little loose, but it felt like modern times. You know, they didn't have the cell phones or anything like that. But it was modern kids in an ancient school and society. And another thing that was so exciting at the time when we first started working on the films is not all the books were released. So there was the excitement of a book release, and then we're working on the films and then the film releases. So there was still a lot of newness to it. Everybody was waiting to see what was happening in the books. How is this going to resolve? So I think that generation of young readers that was really embracing this was along

for the ride and waiting to see what happened. So it was such a great time to be involved in a property like that. Well, why don't we go back just a little bit? We've been kind of skipping around, but when we were talking about the Matrix release on DVD, that was 1999 that that came out. And this first Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone released theatrically, I believe in November of 2001, right? 2001. Right. But DVD released in 2002, which places it 20 years from now. That's not too far removed from the 1999, you know, the Matrix timeframe. When did this property get purchased by Warner

Brothers? And it started to kind of come to you as, hey, Paul, we're going to be working on this. The wheels were set in motion with the purchase and production, if I remember correctly, was around the time of the Matrix. It's like right on the heels of The Matrix because, of course, these films took a long time to put together the effects and everything. They were in a very fast timeframe. And the first two Harry Potter films were shot back to back. So it was nonstop production. So when they finished the production of the first film,

they went into the post-production special effects and then went right into shooting the next film after the first film release. So there was really no break for any of those people. So 1999, year 2000 is when it really came into our orbit. And times were different back then, as we discussed with The Matrix. It wasn't like today, where when a film goes into production, there's this unity within the studio to capture everything that's needed. It took some work and some time to get to be involved in the behind the scenes shooting. When the film started, there were already crews in place. There was a team called Special Treats based out of London that was on

set shooting. And they pretty much shot everything on set for that first film, really first and part of the second film. And it wasn't until later in the series when things were in constant production, us on our DVD releases, we had a unit out at the studio at Leavesden, they're recording stuff nonstop for home entertainment releases while they are in production on the film. So it turned into this beautifully orchestrated machine with the studio content gathering while everything is in production. But in the first film, it was really chasing it and getting what we needed. So pretty much we got all the materials for the first film after they had been shot. We didn't have so much say.

But we made a trip right after the release of the film. So it would have been December 2001 to do some shooting at Leavesden and get some key interviews that we could use for our home entertainment release. And that was the first we were able to do. And just to clarify for the listeners, Leavesden is a studio, is it outside of London or near London? Yes, it's in a suburb in the northern side of London. It takes about 45 minutes or so to drive there from the center of London, 45 to an hour to get to Leaveson. So it was on the edge. I think the city has expanded a bit around it now. But it used to be an old factory. I know they built, I believe it was Rolls Royces there. And later, it was during the war, they built RAF fighter planes there. So it was converted into a film studio. And it became

the center of Harry Potter. And it was a bit rough around the edges in the earlier days. It was kind of held together with a bit of magic and duct tape and prayers, I think, before they really invested in it and built it out into the beautiful studio it is now. And they had multiple sound stages going with the different sets in it and all the scene chops and costumes and props and everything. So it was really everything. They did shoot around in different places in London, of course, and even at some other studios around London, but it was headquartered there at Leavesden. Yeah. And I believe Warner Brothers,

eventually they had made such an investment in that studio that there at Leavesden yeah and I believe Warner Brothers eventually they had made such an investment in that studio that they purchased Leavesden and now of course all those sets are available for tours for fans to do that but in the beginning days they were just kind of bringing in the sets and building it and didn't want to like assume too much probably because the cost was pretty high to build those sets. Right. They had some guarantee. I think when the series started, they were for sure doing three, I want to say, with options. Don't quote me on the exact, but they did invest in the Great Hall. The Great Hall was built out. It has beautiful stone floors.

It was very permanent. There were other sets that they threw up, took down, and didn't last around that long. So it was always sort of a challenge to race if we needed to shoot something for a particular backdrop to get in there before they tore it down. But that was one of the key ones that stood up. And it is, of course, now permanent in the museum exhibit there. Right. So then around the beginning, it's coming to you, you know, you're going to be working on it. There's a crew already in London that's on the set that's getting everything that's needed for home entertainment, publicity, all of that. When did you kind of start honing in on, hey, we need to come up with some creative ideas and take us through a little bit of that process of, okay, DVD is obviously taking off as a format.

So you know, or you expect that with the popularity of this franchise is going to be huge. Was there a lot of meetings? Is there a lot of budget thrown at you? Well, take us through that. Oh, yes. It was a cast of thousands and took a village to put it all together. And of course, after the success of the matrix, I think everyone woke up to what could be done with a franchise. And this had the potential of being the biggest that we had undertaken at Warner at the time, we started planning early in the year 2001. And there were a lot of restrictions that were put on us that were different than any other project we had done. Yes, they had shot material on set, but we were told we couldn't reveal the magic. We couldn't peel the layer back and show the behind the scenes, which was a big departure of the process, the approach we've been taking to so many great releases to date and the Superman disc release and things like that, where we could really get in and share that. The idea was, it was a children's franchise, and they didn't want to spoil it.

This came down from the top. This came down from Joe Rowling and the studio and some of her stipulations in moving forward and allowing this to go out onto DVD and home entertainment release. On the other side, we have home entertainment. Then it was firmly in family entertainment group. They, of course, wanted to make this a really big deal and put as many special features as we could on this release. But we couldn't reveal anything. And we had to stay within the world of Harry Potter, which was a really big challenge. It was a big wrench in the works. And everything we did had to be approved by J.K. Rowling. It all had to go through an approval process, besides the filmmakers, of course, who had to do that. So the studio had

a team under Diane Nelson and her group that managed this relationship with J.K. Rowling. So that team really acted on the behalf of the different departments and divisions of Warner Brothers that were trying to create different properties around Harry Potter. And we started concepting what we could do. So the idea was, can we make some fun games around this? Can we make some discoveries? What can we do using the technology available with the disc to be able to have sort of an adventure? How can we take people with us into the world of the film. So we developed a plan around actually going on a hunt to find the stone, the sorcerer's stone, the philosophy stone. So in the menus, we embedded this path. So there's all sorts of different challenges that you go through and discover in order to get to the stone. And the way we did that was by writing a script and hiring a voice to walk everybody through that. And we settled on Jim Dale, who was the voice for the books on tape in the United States. He is English. Stephen Fry did the books on tape in the UK.

And Jim Dale was the voice for the audio books in the United States. So strange to say books on tape. It was actual cassette tapes. That's the way it started. So we created a script. We created

all these different elaborate levels. Getting your wand at Ollivander's Wand Shop. You have to go through Diagon Alley and go through the brick wall. You go through getting different games in the classrooms. You mix potions. You encounter Sluffy, the giant three-headed dog.

And in all these cases, you have to find your way through and i have to say it great it was really fun and we it was a time when easter eggs were very popular and everybody at warner wanted there to be different secrets and Easter eggs. So the prize for getting through all this elaborate maze and getting the stone was being able to watch the deleted scenes. So we had a number of deleted scenes on the disc that were embedded in. So we'll have to talk about how it was received because it did generate, I think, a lot of frustration and excitement, both. But at the time, we felt that that talk around it was also something that would help generate interest in it, buzz around it. So we decided to develop this plan. And I remember one day where

we had to walk everyone through. So I needed to present this plan, this idea, to all the different groups at Warner. And there were so many different people involved. We got a small auditorium that was in the glass building then, like the screening, the presentation, and got everyone in the room. And I pitched and presented this idea to all the marketing people, publicity people, creative teams, operations, everyone. And it was daunting, but it was well

received. Everyone was game for it. And it was sort of like getting everyone in the room presenting and then, okay, go. Everybody then came back and started thinking about it, coming back with questions. And then we had countless meetings through that year to bring everyone through it to the release because there was a lot on the line here. We were trying new technologies, new ways of developing the menus, new authoring. We had discapacity issues to be careful about. We had the quality of the film that we had to pay attention to.

The space we had to work with was dependent on the film, of course, having enough bits thrown against it to be in the highest quality at the filmmaker's satisfaction, which would gauge how much space we had to work with. So it was a constant shifting puzzle through 2001 to be able to get to those delivery dates and to be able to get everything on the disc that we wanted. And because of the nature of what you put together, did you have to deliver things a little earlier because it was a little more authoring that had to kind of go into this treasure hunt element? Stay with us. We'll be right back.

Hi, this is Tim Millard, host of The Extras Podcast. And I wanted to let you know that we have a new private Facebook group for fans of the Warner Archive and Warner Brothers catalog physical media releases. So if that interests you, you can find the link on our Facebook page or look for the link in the podcast show notes. We did. And as you mentioned, the release date was in May of 2002. So from November to May, you're talking like a six-month window or so, which was about as short as we could go. But production wanted a lot of time back then. The time between delivery and the disk shipping for replication is so much shorter now.

And then it had to go through so much QC testing. The earlier players were not as good. So we had to get all this QC testing to get back data on what players worked with it and what didn't. And then you have to make judgment calls, which ones you sacrifice. Like you know that there's 60,000 people that have a certain

type of player that aren't going to be able to play this disc and they're going to be upset about it and they're going to complain. So that was a constant thing we had to manage and work with marketing and publicity, of course, on how to handle that and what decision to be made. And I think that probably a lot of younger listeners won't understand the fact that back then in 2002, DVDs were still fairly, you know, growing in popularity. And it was not the gaming world that we live in today, where there's just between the PlayStations and the Xboxes, the sophistication there, but also just the ability to do all these things on mobile gaming and on iPads and stuff. The Treasure Hunt stuff was actually very exciting.

Like, wow, it had the elements of the old CD-ROM, you know, where you would have chapters and different things and it had elements of gaming. It was very exciting to think about doing that. That's why everybody got on board. But it was a lot of gaming. It was very exciting to think about doing that. And that's why everybody got on board. But it was a lot of work. And I'm surprised that in some ways that you guys went down that path right out of the gate. It was a huge undertaking.

And there were so many different steps and levels. And you do have to look at it through a lens of the day. The games, like you say, were having fun for kids at the time. Of course, we look at them now and they look very primitive. And back then, everything you'd have to do, right arrow, left arrow, up, down, that was pretty much all you could do. But we'd bring in people to get kids to tell us what they thought and get sort of a quick idea before we send it through even more testing. One thing that Harry Potter,

the first release, had was DVD-ROM, which allowed us to carry on features onto the ROM side that were more sophisticated than what we could do on disk. So that was another big challenge too, is what could we manage and what could we handle on the ROM side? We worked with a company called Interactual and Canned Interactive on the development of the interface and everything. And we also had voice command. So we actually had the ability to speak magically to your computer and it would make the selection for you. Which, again, today, it's like we just grab our phone.

We ask Alexa what the forecast is or any question we have. But back then, this hadn't been done before. Hi, this is Tim with a quick message. I know some of you have books or films or work in the entertainment industry, and maybe you've thought about going on a podcast or launching your own podcast. Well, I can attest to the fact that launching a podcast is a lot of work and not necessarily something you want to try on your own, but podcasting is also a great way to connect with

your fan base and to get the word out about your book or show or film festival or the latest about your business. So if you're interested in learning more about how you can use podcasting, send me an email at info at the extras.tv or look for the link of the show notes now back to our show so the voice activated was only to the online part of the extra content yes the dvd rom would activate when you put the disc in your rom drive, it would basically open a digital experience, which is very much the precursor to what we know now as the cross-platform extras next-gen experience. So the digital experience we get when we get a film and watch the digital version and the special features in that environment on whatever platform we get it on. So the special features were all accessible

through the DVD-ROM, but it had additional functionality. It had easier navigation. It had a sorting hat that could actually sort you into a school, which is really cool. Oh, wow. On the disc, it was really, there was no intelligence to it. It just told you about the four houses. Pretty boring. But in the ROM, it It just told you about the four houses. Pretty boring. But in the ROM, it could actually sort you in the house. And then another thing that we did, which is a way of getting around revealing too much of the magic, we created these tours. It was basically 360 degree tours using what we calledPEX cameras at the time. So we did 360 shoots of the Hogwarts Common Room, the Great Hall, the actual Chamber of Secrets, and locations in the sets. And that's

something we did over the course of a few releases, but we did it early on for the very first release. So we have the actual tour of the Gryffindor common room and the dorm room and Great Hall. And they dressed them for us. They lit them for us. They had food set on the tables and we moved through the, you know, the sort of camera witness moving through and you could choose to look left or right or look around and Jim Dale would carry you through and tell you fun facts about it. In one of the later releases, I think by the third release, we actually brought in extras and actors to be able to have actors in honey dukes we had the wand shop we had the bookstore and each time we tried to up it but the first ones was basically just walking through the empty set

that looked gorgeous with all the torches lit in the great hall and in the chamber secrets you got to see the huge serpents and it was all quite fun but yeah i remember nerding out on that stuff film nerd so to speak because i had come from working at microsoft studios where we were doing these 360s as well and and that was kind of like really cutting edge stuff it was really fun to be able to go online and to be able to just kind of mouse over here to the left or up or down i mean that was total nerdsville in terms of percentage of people maybe wanted to do that. But it was so much fun that you could use computers and DVDs

to now go into these worlds and be on a set. You just felt like you're right on the set. And the technology really pushed what you could then give to the fans. It was a playground and I think really opened up the potential of what we could do. We could see where this could go based on that. We are limited by the technology, but I think it excited all of us on to what level we could bring that, where could we take it? The thing that was so exciting with Harry Potter was seeing that growth from the first film to the last film, to the big release of the wizard collection of what could be done in those later releases compared to where we started.

So that was an exciting journey to be on. And maybe there's elements even from that very beginning of the kind of world of wizarding that is such a huge, you know, online presence and continues to be so important to the Harry Potter franchise. I think fans hold all of that close to them. I think it really excited a lot of fans into seeing the world, seeing it in a different way, getting in depth. We certainly weren't the first release to be able to go in depth that way. But I

think it did pique a lot of people's curiosity and spark imagination to see what more could be done. I was going to say, Paul, too, that I'm sure you're also gearing this to that young audience who I know when I put computers in front of my nephew, you know, during that time, they immediately knew how to kind of navigate much faster than adults did. And it was just so enthralling for them to go into these worlds that you could get online for these games or these DVD extras. Yes, it was much more natural for the younger viewers, I think, to navigate through that and just to keep trying different things where adults had little patience. And yeah, I just want to watch a movie, right? You know, but the kids, they want to explore all these things. Right. And, you know, it didn't maybe offer as much for the

inquisitive adult mind to want to know how things were done. I think we got into that later, which later releases, which was a really great opportunity to be able to go back. But that first release, I know, was disappointing for people that were more aficionados of how films were made. And it's interesting just to prepare for our talk today, I went back and was reviewing different online commentary and different press reviews. And people were were so frustrated i think a lot of adults were frustrated with that gaming and i forgot some of the steps and it's like oh no like i get the disc and it's like how do i get through the wall and diane was like i don't have time for this i just wanted to so um of course it's all online you quickly find it. And I did figure it out without help. But it was, yeah, it was interesting to see the different reaction. When the disc came out, it was obviously the disc everyone wanted, the disc to get, my boss can't get to the Sorcerer's Stone.

How do you get through it? How do you get through it? They were frustrated. And I get fans. This is back in the day when consumer complaints would be routed directly to my phone, sometimes without an intermediary. So I'd pick up the phone and it'd be an angry customer in Florida trying to figure out how to solve the game with the

flying keys or something like that. And we did adjust in later years, we always would offer a backdoor, an easy way to get to the different features and all these features, their legacy. So they're carried over onto the Wizard Collection and everything. But there's a way, of course, you can get to it easily without having to wade through it and play all the games right also back then it was a big challenge to figure out what the big payoff was you know when you get through all this what do you get and the biggest prize we had was the deleted scenes that really was something that we fought for we didn't think we were going to get them. It took discussions with filmmakers and really making them comfortable with the idea of giving that up on the disc. So to bury those deleted scenes so deep as an Easter egg was controversial.

And I don't think anybody would really do that again or we wouldn't do that after that. But we didn't have a whole lot more to work with. There was no surprise interview. There was no in-depth behind the scenes secrets that we could offer as a big prize. Our hands were a bit restricted. Yeah. And I was curious, the filmmakers, obviously you had J.K. Rowling, the author, but then you had producer David Heyman, the director Christopher Columbus of the first two

films. How much involvement did that team have in kind of approving and reviewing your content? They all reviewed in great depth. J.K. Rowling and her team were more concerned about making sure we weren't using improper language. They never wanted anything that would possibly put words in the mouth of the characters. So having Jim Dale's script, you never wanted to have anything out of canon. You couldn't say anything that wasn't based in the writing. So we painstakingly prepared that. We hired a British proofreader that could read the script and make sure we were writing true British English, not American interpretation of that. We'd send the scripts off to her. She'd come back with all those changes. Then we'd route it through our internal gatekeepers for J.K. Rowling, and then it would be presented to J.K. Rowling. And she only viewed things on specific days or times, like we had to

line up for a certain window of opportunity to get the materials to her. I mean, things changed over the years, but back then she was still writing the books, she was writing the scripts. So her time was very limited and very tightly managed. So it was a challenge to get through. And I have to say, once we got it through to her, that sailed through very easily. We were very fortunate. Yeah. And it's totally understandable. I think when an author is still working on the story and doesn't necessarily have everything that you really want to limit any, um, behind the scenes, you know, it's always hard to do that

before the end of the series or the end of the franchise, you know, when Peter Jackson and you guys did the work on the Lord of the Rings, he knew what he wanted and he wanted all that behind the scenes stuff revealed. But that was a slightly different era. It was a little bit later. People understood maybe the value that exposing and giving people a peek would bring to the interest. And also that skews a little bit older. So you don't want to break the magic for the kids, but the way adults already kind of know how some of that magic already works and they, the cynical element of them wants to know a little bit more. Yes. There were secrets around the production, some that we weren't allowed to reveal until the very last Wizard Collection release, the huge giant fold-out box. That's how Quidditch was done.

That's how Hagrid was shot. There were certain things that they never wanted to come out. So while the door started to open for us to get more into the behind the scenes, to have more interviews with the kids, more time on set, there were some that we just kept on putting bits into a bucket until many years later where you can really show that Robbie Coltrane, when he played Hagrid, was standing on an apple crate to get his pipe. What? Oh, no, you blew it for me, Paul. Really a giant. And Quidditch, exactly how they did that. Of course, now you can go on the Warner tour and see how they do Quidditch. You can get on a broom and it's fun. I mean, just times have changed and secrets and what can be revealed.

But it took a lot of conversations with the filmmakers. The filmmakers were David Heyman and Chris Columbus. Like I said, they watched everything. Chris Columbus, I think, leaned more on David Heyman, but he still watched everything. He still watched all of his stuff. David Heyman would come back with very detailed notes. It was a great working relationship, but he would look at it for accuracy. He wanted to ensure that everything was portrayed correctly as far as who did what and all those

key facts that were part of it i was re-looking at some of the extras um more on the featurettes probably and i know on that first disc you have kind of the making of featurette the one that's titled capturing the stone and that's the one where the producers and christopher columbus and the director, David Heyman, where they talk about casting the kids and kind of how it came together. And I think those are always, of course, fascinating and they endure because they capture that moment, that first movie and everything. And even though it's not secrets or behind the scenes, it's still a fascinating part of the story that you want to hear. What are some of the other highlights from that first disc of some of your favorites?

So that interview with Chris Columbus and David Heyman, while limited compared to today, that is still a favorite, even though it couldn't go into the depth that we would in later years. It is one of the original ones we were able to get. It was magical to be on set. I remember being in the Great Hall, having it all lit up, and Chris, we get somebody on a walkie saying, Chris is on his way, and Chris suddenly comes in through the door on his bike. So he rides in, puts down his bike, and then comes down to the table

and devotes his time. He was living and breathing Harry Potter, shooting the two films back to back, flying home to San Francisco on the weekends to visit his family, and then being there present, fully engaged with the kids that he could only shoot four hours a day with because of all the time they had to be in school and the limits on when you can shoot with actors. You really only had a window of four hours to work with. So it could drive anyone mad. And I think he walked in and he just was completely relaxed and full of energy and excitement, true excitement, I think, to talk about this story, talk about casting the kids. And that still comes through today, looking at that. And David Heyman discovering the story, bringing it to life, bringing the players together for it was an incredible window to see. The IPIX tours, I think, were so special at the time because we were given free reign to shoot in these sets. I remember being in Haggard's Hut. We shot 360 in Haggard's Hut. It's fully dressed. There was a challenge with one of the props or things that we were showing. And they called in Stuart Craig to help solve the problem.

Stuart, the great Stuart Craig, the great production designer. And he just comes up and walks over and helps solve the problem on how we needed to shoot something to make sure we got what we needed. I encountered that so much in the team, Jeffrey Lerner and the New Wave production team and the IPIX team, Michael Samstag, all of us on set. We felt so welcomed and everyone just wanted to help us get what we needed from the top to the bottom. It was incredible to have that level of support. And that's something that was unique that carried through the whole franchise. There's that level of support, that level of help. And to be given Reign, where we're in those fabulous sets, to be able to shoot what we need for our DVD release,

to be in the common room and have free reign to shoot there all day was something that was incredible. Well, as we wrap this up, Paul, what was kind of the impact of that first release? And it's hard to kind of separate from the second in terms of the way everybody was working on it, but it did hit market first. And you could tell from the response of the viewers and the buyers, the appetite was, of course, which led then probably into the second one. But what was the impact on the audience and the industry, home entertainment in general? It was a game changer in the scope to have such a hugely profitable and successful

and loved family franchise. It was the start of people collecting several releases. the start of people collecting several releases. And we were at work on the second release, Chamber Secrets, immediately because they were back to back. We were in a very tight turnaround to get work done and get more original content for that second release. But then it was a train in motion. I remember being on set for the very first film. They were shooting the second, but we're gathering stuff for the first. Seeing Alfonso Cuaron in the wings, ready to take a meeting with David Heyman. We didn't quite understand everything that was going to be happening. But then, of course, Alfonso brought in as a third director.

A lot of changes with the third film. It really started to change the way we looked at how things were going to roll forward. It really hit around the third film when there was already an appetite to go back and think about a special edition release of the first film. So that changed our thinking around how we're going to manage this franchise. And I think what it led to was the idea of coming up with a grand overall plan for the release of all the different Harry Potter films and working with John Richards and artists who headed up all the creative and the creative teams, Jen Jones and Kristen Crichton in the home entertainment team, Michael Crawford, all the different people

involved in the development of these special features, the whole army of marketing publicity, thinking about where we could go. And we came up with this idea of having a theme for all the different special edition releases and creating these documentaries that would be related, creating the world of Harry Potter, which had eight parts. We didn't realize the seventh one was going to be split into two. But that idea of where can we go on these releases so we're not just putting out, here's how this film was made, here's how this next film was made. We wanted to keep on referring back to all the films and in a way that would really make it a great idea for a whole set.

So each release would have a theme. The first one was the origin story, but then we got into like a whole special edition around the characters. edition around the characters. So like the Chamber of Secrets special edition had a documentary that sort of brought all the ideas around the characters in Harry Potter together. The third one's magical creatures. And it sort of worked down towards later we had Growing Up Potter, which was a look back on all the actors growing up across all the films and what that was like. They came of age on set. We watched them go through the years of Hogwarts in real time. So it was coming up with that framework, I think that was key into how we could move forward. And I think those seeds were planted in that very first release. So the first release comes out in 2002. When did the final release you worked on come out?

I can't remember the exact date for the Wizards collection. I think it was 2016. Of course, all the films ended like the seven part two released in 2011. So I remember we had a big release on 11, 11, 11 for the seven part two. Then there was the work towards the release of the huge multi-disc Wizard Collection. If I remember correctly, 24 discs. Wow. Well, it was a huge franchise, obviously a big moneymaker for the studio, a real labor of love for you and the team there. I know there was a whole team and the extras team of people who worked on these titles over the years. I mean, it was just a mammoth task more than one person could do.

And it's so great. And it continues. It'll be re-released for years to come. And the work that you did will be enjoyed by a whole new generation of fans, like my daughter, who's in the fourth grade, which is the kind of place where you start the Harry Potter world in terms of school, where they read the books and everything. And her teacher even has the classroom broken up into the different houses so that the kids can kind of enjoy this process. She's in Ravenclaw. But, you know, it's going to continue and it's a great thing.

And thanks for coming on and just talking to us about it. I think it's really interesting looking back 20 years and just kind of the impact that it had in home entertainment. It really has been fun talking to you about this.

And truly, I think, a groundbreaking moment for home entertainment with the release of Harry Potter. And the numbers it's generated in sales and just the longevity of it are staggering. It's got legs and it will continue to. Thanks again to Paul Hemstreet for coming on the podcast today. And it will continue to. For those of you interested in learning more about Paul and his current ventures, there are links in the podcast show notes and on our website at www.theextras.tv. So be sure and check those out. If this is the first episode of The Extras you've listened to and you enjoyed it, please think about following the show at your favorite podcast provider.

If you're on social media, be sure and follow the show on Facebook or Twitter at The Extras TV or Instagram at TheExtras.TV to stay up to date on our upcoming guests and to be a part of our community. And for our long-term listeners, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review at iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast provider. Until next time, you've been listening to Tim Millard. Stay slightly obsessed. The Extras is a production of Otaku Media, producers of podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connects creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers.

Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals at www.otakumedia.tv or look for the link in the show notes.