Harry Putter and the Chamber Pot of Secrets
This movie...
• 31 minutes
• Shot over 9 days from June 17 to July 3, 2007
• Premiered August 21, 2009
Other pages in the film section:
Introduction, movies, and resumeMy movies:
Anti-Amendment (Pro-Equality) PSAPaperclip
The Vacationers
Harry Putter and the Chamber Pot of Secrets
Harry Putter and the Sorcerer's Phone
My second movie, Harry Putter and the Chamber Pot of Secrets was the sequel to my original Harry Putter and the Sorcerer's Phone, and over twice as long (31 minutes). This movie also featured dozens of special effects shots: magic wands, moving drawings on whiteboards, flu powder, and more. Principal photography began on June 17, 2007 and we wrapped just a couple weeks later on July 3. Post-production overlapped my senior year of college, and as a result we didn't premiere until August 2009.
Some movie sets are blessed that the cast and crew become like a family. Harry Putter was one such set. And so making a sequel was wonderful, because it meant bringing the family back together. For me as a young filmmaker, this helped make the second time around easier - the fears and insecurities of making a first movie were gone, now I could focus more on reaching that "next level," be that in special effects, complexity of story plot, length of the finished product, size of the cast, etc.
Other lessons learned were to screen the rough cuts to my producers and ADs to get their feedback. And, have the movie completely finished, before scheduling the premiere date. (this to avoid the last-minute scramble that defined the HP1 premiere) I was also much pickier in the edit room this time around, having a clearer idea of what was possible, and what I wanted.
I could talk for endless hours about Putter, but just one last quick thought for now: I was very blessed, both on HP1 and HP2, to have amazing composers create real, custom music. These movies became so much better because of their soundtracks.
