POA Set Report 02/03/2003

I came to the set at about 10 a.m., but nothing was going on. Alison, who wrote the set report for TLC, and her mom were already there, and with them Jill, a nice American girl, who studies in London.

They told me that the filming begins at 4 p.m., so we just walked around the area and found the Knight Bus standing on a parking space. It's really massive and huge as you can see from the pictures.

We got back to the set and one nice guy told us that they start filming at about 4 and that Dan will arrive on the set about 5.30. It was very interesting to watch them preparing the scene when the Knight Bus brings Harry to the Leaky Cauldron. They had a stand-in for Dan, who has got the same height, to check on the camera ankles and the lights etc..

At about 4 they started shooting the scene when the Knight Bus arrives in Diagon Alley. For the Leaky Cauldron they prepared a door with a fake brickwall and put the cute metal sign with a witch and her cauldron (see picture Knight Bus03) over the door. They filmed the bus from different ankles.

It began to get really crowded. Most people were locals, but we also met some nice tourists. For the huge crowd of people they got a monitor so that they had a better view of the filming.

At about 5.30 Dan and his publicist arrived on the set in a small black Mercedes. I could only see him from a far distance and couldn't take any pictures, because he was surrounded by people from the set. After every take they would bring Dan back to redo his makeup.

They shot the scene when Harry arrived and had to go into the Leaky Cauldron. At about 6.45 Dan left the set and they filmed the scene when the Knight Bus leaves Diagon Alley. At 12.20 a.m. filming finished.

It was a very interesting day for me and I would like to greet all the people I met on the location.