Click high resolution option for the images - you’ll need it.
This is my Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban art direction appreciation post. This was one of the first movies I recognised the potential art direction in and was the movie that made me decide to drop my previous decision to study Anthropology and God knows what else and pick up Graphic Design.
I can guarantee you that this movie will be in 90% of people’s Top-Potter-Movies list. Why? Well, I believe there are a few contributory factors, including: the awesome score (I own the extended version); the fun, intricate and tangent-like plot, the more mature acting of the kids; and, of course, the beautifully aesthetic art direction.
In this massive collage of shots from the film below, I want you to look past the attention grabbers to see the amazing details that you were bound to miss. Art direction or production design is about creating a detailed, involved, real, tangible world for a story so that the audience believes in it without realising and without question. For example, in the second photo of a Daily Prophet newspaper, you will first notice Sirius Black’s photo, then you’ll notice the awesome typographical layout of the Prophet and perhaps read some of the articles, then, if you’re lucky, you will notice the corner of an Ancient Runes book underneath it that someone has created just to appear there for a few seconds of the movie. Yeah, now you understand the depth of art direction a bit more.
My highlights:
- The amazing Marauder’s Map
- The Divination Classroom (note the huge tower of teacups)
- The Daily Prophets
- For personal reasons (I LOVE rain) I always love watching the Hogwarts Express as it steams along in the rain.
