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Harry Potter - Ending with a Splash
The release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II on July 15 marks the end of perhaps the most ambitious – and certainly the most remunerative - film cycles in cinematic history. Almost 10 years on from  Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling’s saga is concluded on screen, in 3D. As with Part I, the film is directed by David Yates and produced by David Heyman, David Barron and J.K. Rowling. As always, the film stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, supported by a panoply of top British acting talent, both young and old.


For VFX studio Framestore, too, Deathly Hallows: Part II marks the end of an era. The company has been a part of the cycle from the outset, contributing to every single film. Framestore’s work has included the deadly Basilisk in Chamber of Secrets, Buckbeak the Hippogriff in Prisoner of Azkaban and Dobby the House Elf’s moving final performance in Deathly Hallows Part I.

The new film sees Framestore once more facing new challenges, with the company providing a brace of dazzling sequences, as well as – a bittersweet honour and pleasure – helping create the last sequence and shot of this last film.



After destroying one Horcrux and discovering the significance of the three Deathly Hallows, Harry, Ron and Hermione continue, in Deathly Hallows: Part II, to seek the other Horcruxes in an attempt to destroy Lord Voldemort. However, now that Voldemort has obtained the Elder Wand, he aims to complete his final stage to ultimate power and launches an attack on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the trio return for one last stand against the dark forces that threaten to take over the Wizarding and Muggle worlds.

VFX Supervisor Andy Kind led the Framestore team’s work on the film. “Compared to our contribution to some of the other films,DH: Part II was a relatively modest affair, some 90 or so shots,” he notes, “That said, it kept us pretty busy. Not only were there challenging technical aspects to the VFX work, but the creation of our own 3D versions of these sequences to an appropriately high standard meant we had to stay on our mettle.”


Water Palaver


The first of Framestore’s sequences takes place in the Chamber of Secrets, the underground cave system below Hogwarts, first seen in the eponymous second film of the Potter cycle. Ron and Hermione return to the Chamber, seeking one of the Horcruxes, which is in the form of a cup. Finding it, they destroy it by striking it with a tooth taken from the corpse of the Basilisk that Harry slew several years ago. As they strike, the residual malevolent Voldemortian energy possesses all of the water in the Chamber, causing it to rise up (Voldemort’s face briefly forming in it) and pursue Ron and Hermione through the chamber before running out of energy and collapsing in a huge, drenching splash over them. As the waters recede, Ron and Hermione are moved to express their feelings for one another…