Pretty much any book about Harry Potter is an automatic five stars from me and this is no exception. This book was so informative and interesting I was so sad to get to its end! I wanted more! If you're interested in HP at all I would recommend this book. It's so fasinating with all the tidbits it has. Very obviously a 5 out of 5 stars from me. Will read again. ( )

I swear, the more of these books that Jody Revenson publishes the more happy I am. Call it an obsession, but it doesn’t surprise me that the marketing department for the Harry Potter franchise took one look at the amount of money that our generation is willing to shell out (literally, so much) and decided to make a complete set of books which analyze the creation of the films. I mean, they’ve done it in some form or other for plenty of other film and tv series, but I think that the choice to separate the publications into subjects is a lot more palatable than having a giant catch-all book. Not only can readers choose which topics they’re interested in (ALL OF THEM, duh), but with the added space that each book provides they are able to delve so much further into the design, artwork, and practical aspects of translating the books into films.

This specific volume discusses the characters in depth, and thus far is second only (in my opinion) to the volume on the creatures. Instead of trying to rehash the actual characters and motivations of the cast, the author focuses on the visual design (ie costuming) of the characters which brings to light some interesting, and seriously underrated, aspects of the films. Choosing colour palettes for each character (or group of characters), the casting choices, and wand design (which is really an aspect of character rather than simply props) were all expected themes, but I was astonished to find that even “minor” characters who appear infrequently in the films were given equal credence to the major players. Especially interesting were the revelations of how much some of the actors influenced their character designs - Emma Watson and Evanna Lynch being well known examples of such, but I had no idea that George Harris turning up for rehearsals in traditional African garb completely changed the costume designers’ ideas of how Kingsley Shacklebolt would be portrayed! ( )

Pretty much any book about Harry Potter is an automatic five stars from me and this is no exception. This book was so informative and interesting I was so sad to get to its end! I wanted more! If you're interested in HP at all I would recommend this book. It's so fasinating with all the tidbits it has. Very obviously a 5 out of 5 stars from me. Will read again. ( )

Pretty much any book about Harry Potter is an automatic five stars from me and this is no exception. This book was so informative and interesting I was so sad to get to its end! I wanted more! If you're interested in HP at all I would recommend this book. It's so fasinating with all the tidbits it has. Very obviously a 5 out of 5 stars from me. Will read again. ( )