Book Review - Harry Potter Page To Screen!

 This is a cross post from my new blog The Curiosity Complex.

First thing, first. This book is amazing and (even though heaps of people will probably complain) totally worth the price tag.

Also, this is a look and feel review. I plan to read it at my own speed (slow) and will try and do another review when I'm finished.

Harry Potter - Page To Screen, The Complete Filmmaking Journey by Bob McCabe

Purchased (special order that took over 2 months to arrive) from Dymocks.
Price: $110.00 but considering in Sydney at the Harry Potter exhibition they wanted $169.00, $110 is an excellent price.
This book is huge! It weighs 3.5kg (yes I did weigh it) and I was afraid that it wasn't going to fit on my bookshelf (but it does... geek dance). There are 540 beautiful glossy pages, some of them featuring clear embossed images, like shoeprints, wands and feathers, and there are a few fold out pages. Including one of the front featuring some of the main characters.

So, the contents...the book is divided into three parts:

Part I: The Making of Harry Potter 
Introduction 
Setting the Scene 
HP and the Sorcerer's Stone 
HP and the Chamber of Secrets 
HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban 
HP and the Goblet of Fire 
HP and the Order of the Phoenix 
HP and the Half-Blood Prince 
HP and the Deathly Hallows 

This section is full of candid photos (including Voldemort reading a magazine), set design illustrations and behind the scene photos. It also includes strange things, like the characters heights, and tidbits from the various directors.

Part II: The Art of Harry Potter 
Introduction 
Characters: Costuming
Locations: Set Design 
Creatures: Special Makeup and Digital Effects 
Artefacts: Prop Making 

This is my favourite section. It shows the characters costumes, including fabric swatches, information on tattoos, wands and makeup. It also showed art designs of main locations, including a snow covered model of Hogwarts (which is actually covered in salt, not snow) and designs from JK Rowling of Diagon Alley etc.
This section brought back a lot of memories from the Harry Potter Exhibition I went too in Sydney. Props of creatures and random artefacts that I saw, but had forgotten I'd seen.

Part III: Epilogue 
The Golden Boards 
Acknowledgements and Colophon

The last section isn't that exciting, but a little sad. Featuring photos from throughout the filming of Harry Potter, including the last group photos.

I've posted some photos of some of the pages I liked. Sorry about the quality of the photos. I used Hipstermatic, because for some reason my Camera app on my iPhone doesn't work :|

Sirius Blacks' tattoo designs

Barty Crouch Jr aka David Tennant

Severus Snape

My 2 favourite Harry Potter baddies :)

Blueprints of Hogwarts

Blueprints of the covered bridge that leads to Hagrids house.

I hope you enjoyed this quick look at Harry Potter - Page To Screen. When I picked this book up I ordered another Harry Potter book. Harry Potter Film Wizardry. So stay tuned for the review of that one :)