Hi peeps,
As some of you may know, for the last 3 years I've been working on my Voldemort costume (build thread: http://www.therpf.com/f24/voldemort-build-thread-very-pic-heavy-101757/) and had always hoped to get to one of the Harry Potter premiere's, but for one reason or another I'd never managed to get to a premiere, and with the final installment of The Deathly Hallows fast approaching, I didn't think I was going to make the last one either.
Well, at the 11th hour, I won a competition that quite simply, was any Harry Potter fan's dream come true (and then some!)
Yahoo! Movies were running a competition to find "The best costume" from Harry Potter fans, and I thought I'd give it a shot..... and long story short, I won!!!!
eek
The reason for this post is that I know I've been chatting with (and hopefully helping :$) a number of fellow HP fans on the RPF, so I wanted to share the experience and thought a post may be the easiest way to do that, so (in particular, @Ash, @Arivin, @iycis, @joker, @spooky, @hinky to name a few) I hope you enjoy.
(Mods - I know it's not strictly costume related, but as it all came about due to my costume, and as most of the above probably check this area more often than the off topic area, I hope it's OK just this once for this post to be here instead?)
Well, where do I start!?!?!
Since finding out I'd won, it's been a non stop whirlwind ever since! I found out that I'd won at 16:30 on Monday 4th July.... I was given unti 17:00 to get them our passport details, and it had pretty much been that kind of pace ever since.
Lots of paperwork to fill out (confidentiality agreements, etc so there's certain things I can't talk about) but finally Thursday the 7th July arrived and we heading into London early in the morning. The company organising the event picked us up from Paddington and took us to our hotel.
On the way to the hotel, we were greeted with this view of a sea of umbrella's:
Poor sods - thankfully, it dried up in the afternoon!
So, we got checked in, met up with the team who would be looking after us, got given our various passes, tickets, and wristbands, and then everyone had some time to chill.... well, everyone apart from me that is as I'd been getting phonecalls from the various press dept's trying to arrange interviews with me, so it was a mad dash to try to get a room sorted for my 1st interview with BBC Radio Oxford. (I've got a copy which I'll try to post up later)
20 minutes after that, I had another interview with a local newspaper, and another 20 minutes after that, a 3rd interview. I was already knackered so I can't imagine what it's like for the cast!
Next, it was a quick dash downstairs and out into the rain to head up to a location near Leicester Square to grab my press/TV crew pass and another wristband. I was then introduced to my cameraman for the day (a lovely chap named Loic) and to a reporter for Yahoo! OMG - a lovely lass called Julia
Then, we headed straight to Trafalgar Square... and to the red carpet for the 1st time
We set up our gear in the press area, and then myself and Loic ventured out onto the red carpet to do some "intro's" for the Yahoo! Movies footage.
Then we did a bit of interaction with some of the fans. We didn't get them all screaming but it was nervewracking as you had polished professionals from the likes of MBC, BBC, CNN, ITV... and then little old me trying not to fluff it!!!
Then, it was pretty much a waiting game for the cast to arrive. (In the mean time, my wife (who wasn't with me through all of this) was getting picked up from the hotel with some of the other prize winners and was taken to the VIP area at the opposite end of Trafalgar Square)
Anyway, gradually the cast started to arrive and it was time for my 1st interview - eeek
I can't honestly remember who my 1st interview was with now! I seem to think it was either Rupert or Jason Isaacs but it's all a blur. I'm looking forward to getting the blooper reel as that not only had some great questions / answers on which weren't aired, but also will actually give me a chance to listed to what the answers were (I was too busy trying not to fluff and to get my next question ready
)
I can't remember everyone I interviewed, but here's a taster:
Here's a quick pic of me having a chat with James & Oliver - it's thanks to them that I was there as they judged the competition!:
I didn't directly get to interview Emma (which was a real shame as we actually used to live about 3 miles away from each other!
) because by this stage a lot of them were running late so they bundled me and 5 other people together and it was a bun fight to get questions in before she was moved on.... I lost.
Dan was also running late so I didn't get a chance to chat with him either sadly.
Anyway - you can watch some of the interviews here:
Harry Potter winner on the red carpet | Movies Blog - Yahoo! Movies
We were supposed to be seated by 18:45 in Leicester Square, but come 19:00 I was still in the press area interviewing so we tried to make a dash for it but couldn't..... why? because Jo was coming around giving interviews so we had to wait
We got out eventually, but we ended up going out the wrong way, right around the long way to Leicester Square, and then got refused entry as apparently our passes meant we *had* to use the red carpet, so it was a quick U-Turn and a frantic dash back down to Trafalgar Square to get back onto the red carpet, and then (trying to look like we weren't running), pretty much running down the red carpet back to Leicester Square
They had a few Death Eaters on the red carpet and had made a Diagon Alley shop part way down with a real live owl that looked like Hedwig (it may even have been him - not sure). We were in such a hurry, we didn't even spot him. It was only when Jo told me later I knew anything about it.
It was really weird getting cheered and screamed at by loads of people that didn't know us, and esp given that we were "nobodies"
Into the cinema, and grabbed our seats - it was the 1st chance I had to catch up with Jo and it turns out she had walked down with Jonathon Ross and Jason Isaacs - very cool
I bumped into Domhnall Gleeson in the cinema who remembered me from the interviews. Thoroughly nice chap.
Anyway - we settled down to watch the film in 3D
Afterwards, we all piled out and some folks went to the aftershow party but Jo & I headed off for a bite to eat and bed before flying off to new York the next day
Day 2:
The next day we headed off to Heathrow for our flight out to New York. We met up with 12 other prize winners from all around the world who were to fly out with us. We got checked in at our very own "Harry Potter Group" check-in desk, and were then taken to the Executive Lounge to chill out for a bit.
Then another little treat - Matt and Rupert came in and said hi, had a bit of a chat, did some autographs, and we all had our pic taken with them:
They're both so friendly and down to earth.
I think they'd both be great to know (just as people) without the formality/restriction of the HP connection, and just have a chat with over a pint.
Now; sadly there had been a bit of an error with the prize info. It said that we'd be flying out with the cast on a private plane. It turns out, that was an error.
It's a real shame as having the opportunity to chat with them 1-2-1 in "out of work mode" would have been quite special.
Still, definately not complaining (nor wishing to sound ungreatful!) - it was a bit of a disappointment admittedly, but I was still with 12 other of the luckiest HP fans on the planet and that's something I still have to pinch myself about.
We got to New York, checked into the Hotel, and long story short - had a couple of days in New York just exploring.
We did all of the usual stuff:
The organisers also gave us complimentary tickets to the Harry Potter exhibition. It was very cool.
I love "behind the scenes" stuff (thoroughly looking forward to the opening of Leavesden next year) and have a lot of respect for everyone who works on films, so it was great to be able to see so many of the costumes and props up close. The attention to detail truely is impressive and a credit to them all.
On the Monday evening it was time for the New York premiere. This was a much smaller event compared to London. In London I think there was something like 12,000 fans and the red carpet was the longest in history (apparently) at 3/4 of a mile. In New York however, it was about 100m, and had about 2,000 fans which I was quite surprised about.
We then went in and watched David Heyman and select members of the cast give a quick presentation/talk to the audience, before we all sat back (with our Harry Potter framed 3D glasses) to watch the film all over again - it was really funny as I looked around at one point and it looked like a scene from "Where's Wally?"
After the premiere we came out and I managed to grab a quick chat with David Yates, and David Heyman before they all dashed off to another aftershow party.
... and that's pretty much it. The next day we flew back.
I was back to work on Thursday and had to do another quick follow up interview for BBC Radio Oxford, but now everything is done and dusted.
So overall, a really brilliant experience. I really wanted to share it with fellow fans from around the world so I set up a twitter account to try to share some of it and that seems to have gone down well and been appreciated, so it's nice to have been able to at least take people on it with me in spirit.
BBC Radio Oxford asked me if I'd ever fancy doing a red carpet again - in a word (well 2).....hell yeah!
As some of you may know, for the last 3 years I've been working on my Voldemort costume (build thread: http://www.therpf.com/f24/voldemort-build-thread-very-pic-heavy-101757/) and had always hoped to get to one of the Harry Potter premiere's, but for one reason or another I'd never managed to get to a premiere, and with the final installment of The Deathly Hallows fast approaching, I didn't think I was going to make the last one either.
Well, at the 11th hour, I won a competition that quite simply, was any Harry Potter fan's dream come true (and then some!)
Yahoo! Movies were running a competition to find "The best costume" from Harry Potter fans, and I thought I'd give it a shot..... and long story short, I won!!!!
eek The reason for this post is that I know I've been chatting with (and hopefully helping :$) a number of fellow HP fans on the RPF, so I wanted to share the experience and thought a post may be the easiest way to do that, so (in particular, @Ash, @Arivin, @iycis, @joker, @spooky, @hinky to name a few) I hope you enjoy.
(Mods - I know it's not strictly costume related, but as it all came about due to my costume, and as most of the above probably check this area more often than the off topic area, I hope it's OK just this once for this post to be here instead?)
Well, where do I start!?!?!
Since finding out I'd won, it's been a non stop whirlwind ever since! I found out that I'd won at 16:30 on Monday 4th July.... I was given unti 17:00 to get them our passport details, and it had pretty much been that kind of pace ever since.
Lots of paperwork to fill out (confidentiality agreements, etc so there's certain things I can't talk about) but finally Thursday the 7th July arrived and we heading into London early in the morning. The company organising the event picked us up from Paddington and took us to our hotel.
On the way to the hotel, we were greeted with this view of a sea of umbrella's:
Poor sods - thankfully, it dried up in the afternoon!
So, we got checked in, met up with the team who would be looking after us, got given our various passes, tickets, and wristbands, and then everyone had some time to chill.... well, everyone apart from me that is as I'd been getting phonecalls from the various press dept's trying to arrange interviews with me, so it was a mad dash to try to get a room sorted for my 1st interview with BBC Radio Oxford. (I've got a copy which I'll try to post up later)
20 minutes after that, I had another interview with a local newspaper, and another 20 minutes after that, a 3rd interview. I was already knackered so I can't imagine what it's like for the cast!
Next, it was a quick dash downstairs and out into the rain to head up to a location near Leicester Square to grab my press/TV crew pass and another wristband. I was then introduced to my cameraman for the day (a lovely chap named Loic) and to a reporter for Yahoo! OMG - a lovely lass called Julia
Then, we headed straight to Trafalgar Square... and to the red carpet for the 1st time
We set up our gear in the press area, and then myself and Loic ventured out onto the red carpet to do some "intro's" for the Yahoo! Movies footage.
Then we did a bit of interaction with some of the fans. We didn't get them all screaming but it was nervewracking as you had polished professionals from the likes of MBC, BBC, CNN, ITV... and then little old me trying not to fluff it!!!
Then, it was pretty much a waiting game for the cast to arrive. (In the mean time, my wife (who wasn't with me through all of this) was getting picked up from the hotel with some of the other prize winners and was taken to the VIP area at the opposite end of Trafalgar Square)
Anyway, gradually the cast started to arrive and it was time for my 1st interview - eeek
I can't honestly remember who my 1st interview was with now! I seem to think it was either Rupert or Jason Isaacs but it's all a blur. I'm looking forward to getting the blooper reel as that not only had some great questions / answers on which weren't aired, but also will actually give me a chance to listed to what the answers were (I was too busy trying not to fluff and to get my next question ready
I can't remember everyone I interviewed, but here's a taster:
- Robbie Coltrane
- James & Oliver Phelps
- Rupert Grint
- Matthew Lewis
- Warwick Davis
- Bonnie Wright
- David Barron
- David Yates
- David Heyman
- Mark Williams
- Julie Walters
- Natalia Tena
- Domhnall Gleeson
- Steve Kloves
- Jason Isaacs
Here's a quick pic of me having a chat with James & Oliver - it's thanks to them that I was there as they judged the competition!:
I didn't directly get to interview Emma (which was a real shame as we actually used to live about 3 miles away from each other!
Dan was also running late so I didn't get a chance to chat with him either sadly.
Anyway - you can watch some of the interviews here:
Harry Potter winner on the red carpet | Movies Blog - Yahoo! Movies
We were supposed to be seated by 18:45 in Leicester Square, but come 19:00 I was still in the press area interviewing so we tried to make a dash for it but couldn't..... why? because Jo was coming around giving interviews so we had to wait
We got out eventually, but we ended up going out the wrong way, right around the long way to Leicester Square, and then got refused entry as apparently our passes meant we *had* to use the red carpet, so it was a quick U-Turn and a frantic dash back down to Trafalgar Square to get back onto the red carpet, and then (trying to look like we weren't running), pretty much running down the red carpet back to Leicester Square
It was really weird getting cheered and screamed at by loads of people that didn't know us, and esp given that we were "nobodies"
Into the cinema, and grabbed our seats - it was the 1st chance I had to catch up with Jo and it turns out she had walked down with Jonathon Ross and Jason Isaacs - very cool
I bumped into Domhnall Gleeson in the cinema who remembered me from the interviews. Thoroughly nice chap.
Anyway - we settled down to watch the film in 3D
Afterwards, we all piled out and some folks went to the aftershow party but Jo & I headed off for a bite to eat and bed before flying off to new York the next day
Day 2:
The next day we headed off to Heathrow for our flight out to New York. We met up with 12 other prize winners from all around the world who were to fly out with us. We got checked in at our very own "Harry Potter Group" check-in desk, and were then taken to the Executive Lounge to chill out for a bit.
Then another little treat - Matt and Rupert came in and said hi, had a bit of a chat, did some autographs, and we all had our pic taken with them:
They're both so friendly and down to earth.
I think they'd both be great to know (just as people) without the formality/restriction of the HP connection, and just have a chat with over a pint.
Now; sadly there had been a bit of an error with the prize info. It said that we'd be flying out with the cast on a private plane. It turns out, that was an error.
It's a real shame as having the opportunity to chat with them 1-2-1 in "out of work mode" would have been quite special.
Still, definately not complaining (nor wishing to sound ungreatful!) - it was a bit of a disappointment admittedly, but I was still with 12 other of the luckiest HP fans on the planet and that's something I still have to pinch myself about.
We got to New York, checked into the Hotel, and long story short - had a couple of days in New York just exploring.
We did all of the usual stuff:
- Empire State Building (at night)
- Rockefeller Building
- Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
- 9/11 site
- Grand Central Station
- Times Square
- A bit of Central Park
- and more...
The organisers also gave us complimentary tickets to the Harry Potter exhibition. It was very cool.
I love "behind the scenes" stuff (thoroughly looking forward to the opening of Leavesden next year) and have a lot of respect for everyone who works on films, so it was great to be able to see so many of the costumes and props up close. The attention to detail truely is impressive and a credit to them all.
On the Monday evening it was time for the New York premiere. This was a much smaller event compared to London. In London I think there was something like 12,000 fans and the red carpet was the longest in history (apparently) at 3/4 of a mile. In New York however, it was about 100m, and had about 2,000 fans which I was quite surprised about.
We then went in and watched David Heyman and select members of the cast give a quick presentation/talk to the audience, before we all sat back (with our Harry Potter framed 3D glasses) to watch the film all over again - it was really funny as I looked around at one point and it looked like a scene from "Where's Wally?"
After the premiere we came out and I managed to grab a quick chat with David Yates, and David Heyman before they all dashed off to another aftershow party.
... and that's pretty much it. The next day we flew back.
I was back to work on Thursday and had to do another quick follow up interview for BBC Radio Oxford, but now everything is done and dusted.
So overall, a really brilliant experience. I really wanted to share it with fellow fans from around the world so I set up a twitter account to try to share some of it and that seems to have gone down well and been appreciated, so it's nice to have been able to at least take people on it with me in spirit.
BBC Radio Oxford asked me if I'd ever fancy doing a red carpet again - in a word (well 2).....hell yeah!
