Universal's Wizarding Worlds of Harry Potter

I recently travelled to Orlando, Florida, to visit Universal's two Wizarding Worlds of Harry Potter. I was intrigued to see which elements from the films these worlds recreate, particularly in relation to the representation of ideas about British culture and identity.

The first world, which opened to the public in June 2010, is a mock up of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, with its flagship ride - Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey - located within the castle building. Upon entering, visitors are immediately presented with the front section of the Hogwarts Express steam train (complete with an English accented guard) as well as the Victorian architecture of the Hogsmeade buildings (snow-capped to reflect their presentation in the films).

These sights are in line with a nostalgic vision of Britain's past and thus reinforce the ideas that the films represent around British cultural heritage. It can be argued that this world serves as a site for film tourism. Many of the settings for the Harry Potter films were comprised of several different shooting locations (for example, scenes at Hogwarts were shot in Oxford and Gloucester), which makes a fan pilgrimage rather tricky and somewhat underwhelming. Universal's worlds create a site for film tourism where the public can immerse themselves in a 'real' Harry Potter setting (purchasing Butterbeer and their very own wands too!). The implication for this is the extension of the ideas on British culture and identity that are represented by the films.

A fully operating Hogwarts Express steam train ferries the public to the newer world - a recreation of Diagon Alley - which first opened in July 2014. Providing an even larger Victorian-esque setting, fans can reenact Harry's first magical shopping trip, visiting replicas of Ollivanders wand shop, Flourish and Blotts book shop and Gringotts bank. 

Of particular interest is the world's location, hidden behind a mock up of modern day London (the exteriors of Kings Cross and Leicester Square stations, a telephone box, the Wyndham Theatre, and a row of houses made to look like the north London-based Grimmauld Place). 

This setup mimics the films' representation of an old-fashioned magical world that could plausibly exist amongst our own reality. This in turn gives the British heritage aesthetic of the magical world more 'real-world' grounding. These particular modern-day mock ups also reinforce wealthy London-centric representations of Britain.

I intend to discuss Universal's Wizarding Worlds of Harry Potter in my thesis as it can be argued that they serve as paratexts for the films.

HoMER@NECS Conference 2018

At the end of June I was very honoured and grateful to receive funding from the University of Bristol's Alumni Foundation in order to present my research at the HoMER strand of the NECS conference in Amsterdam.

Key contributors to the field of New Cinema History (NCH) were present - Daniel Bittereyst, Robert Allen, Melvyn Stokes, Annette Kuhn, Philippe Meers - and their presentations provided much food for thought in terms of my research interests:

• Annette Kuhn's work on cinema memory has made me think about the possibility of organising focus groups, interviews and/or questionnaires that invite participants to share their experiences of and interactions with Harry Potter and James Bond movie marketing, merchandise and publicity. Other presenters at the conference had conducted this sort of cinema memory research and asked their participants to bring along artefacts.
• Annette Kuhn also talked about making a plea for memory studies to be included in NCH. I thought that my research could similarly act as an argument for the value of analysing movie marketing and publicity and its inclusion in NCH.
• A question was raised with regards to NCH's tendency to look so far back in time rather than dealing with more recent history. My focus on materials from 2001-2012 should address this gap in the field.

A presentation on the collectible movie star cards sold in cigarette packets and chocolate bars also emphasised the importance of analysing merchandise and memorabilia since they prolong the movie experience for audiences (in turn prolonging certain ideas and themes). 

A fascinating keynote from Professor Henry Jenkins argued for the empowering and positive effects of social media and participatory culture (rather than the usual negative scholarship on this subject). He referred to a range of activist movements that had appropriated popular culture texts for their cause: for example The Harry Potter Alliance and Parkland student activists performing 'Rent'. He also demonstrated empowerment through Harry Potter fans' successful campaign to make the chocolate frog products fair trade as well as calls for a black Hermione, which resulted in the casting of Noma Dumezweni in the stage play 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'.

Prof. Henry Jenkins' keynote

Following my own presentation, a conference attendee commented on my discussion of the Harry Potter films subsuming the Scottish landscape into an Anglo-centric representation of British culture and they asked about whether I would look at what the Scottish tourism industry has done since then to capitalise on this i.e. Harry Potter walking tours in Edinburgh. I do intend to explore this in my research as I consider this type of tourism a paratext to the films and I find the emphasis on 'real life' heritage iconography particularly interesting with regards to my thesis argument.

A photograph of my presentation courtesy of Sarah Culhane

Research Without Borders

In May I showcased the beginnings of my research at the University of Bristol's event 'Research Without Borders': a day-long exhibition of PhD students' work, which was open to members of the public.

Focusing on the topic that will form one of the early chapters in my thesis, my stall was entitled 'Harry Potter and the marketing of movies: what ideas about British culture are represented?' My poster board summarised the What, Why and How of my research and I also ran two activities.

I had set up a simple voting task to encourage visitors to think about whether or not they considered Harry Potter to represent British culture. 'Yes' gained more votes and I noticed that many of these were cast by international visitors, who referred to specific aspects such as the food (roast dinner and Yorkshire puddings) and Ron's use of the word 'bloody'. A lot of home visitors weren't so sure (voting 'Yes' and 'No' to reflect this) as they felt that it represented a type of British culture but not all British culture.

I also encouraged visitors to analyse the film poster for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, taking into consideration issues of representation, with prompts such as: who is included? What is their race, gender, age? What are they wearing and what is their position on the poster? What else is included? By the end of the day the poster was surrounded by post-it notes with really interesting comments from the visitors.

I am looking forward to the next opportunity to showcase my PhD work: the NECS conference in Amsterdam, where I will be presenting my research to academics in the field of cinema and media studies.

Research without Borders 2018

My stand: 'Harry Potter and the marketing of movies: what ideas about British culture are represented?'

BAFTSS symposium and conference 2018

I recently attended two events organised as part of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS).

The first was a one day symposium 'Investigating Regional Creative Clusters', held at The Watershed in Bristol. I was interested in finding out more about the development of the British film industry over the last 20 years. An emerging theme relevant to my research was the impact of New Labour's neo-liberal approach to the arts and culture industries. This was repeatedly called out for being 'top down' and driven by capitalism and commerce, squeezing out diversity in filmic representations in the process. This is particularly relevant to the Harry Potter films, as Warner Bros were exactly the type of big studio producers that New Labour wanted to encourage to invest in the British film industry. In return for their UK based work on the films, Warner Bros. benefitted from incentives such as tax breaks.

I later attended the annual BAFTSS conference at the University of Kent. This was an opportunity to keep abreast of current issues of interest in the field, to meet fellow scholars and to find out about the BAFTSS community. It was particularly useful to learn more about the history of the British film industry through panels on 1960s British cinema, the Eastmancolor revolution and the completion bond guarantor company Film Finances. A highlight of the conference was a Q&A with Ken Loach and Tony Garnett who collaborated on many influential British productions including the television play Cathy Come Home and the film Kes.

Q&A with Ken Loach and Tony Garnett

Attending the BAFTSS conference with fellow Bristol PGRs and Professor Sarah Street

And so the PhD journey begins...

It has been a while since my last post but I am pleased to say that this is because I have been busy navigating the first few months of my PhD at the University of Bristol. I was very honoured to receive an Alumni Research Scholarship from the University, without which I could not pursue my research into representations of British culture in the Harry Potter and James Bond films, with a particular focus on paratextual analysis.

My PhD journey began in September when I attended 'Ken Adam: Designing Bond and Beyond' at the V&A Museum. This event gave me an insight into the work of the production designers for many of the James Bond and Harry Potter films and the role that their sets play in representation by 'simplifying and making meaning clear'.

Since then I have been refining my research question and methodology while reviewing existing literature around paratextual analysis, approaches to cinema history and British film.

I have also undertaken two research trips to the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum in Exeter to analyse promotional material and merchandise for the first two Harry Potter films (Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets). Over the Christmas break I also visited Edinburgh and participated in one of the city's many JK Rowling walking tours. Arguably, these are also paratexts for the Harry Potter franchise since they tell a compelling story about the author, her influences and the rocky road to publication. They also reinforce many of the representations of British culture conveyed by the films through the inclusion of supposed real-world inspirations for certain settings and characters.

My next trip will be to the British Library and the BFI in London to analyse news media materials from the build up to the cinematic release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

From the walking tour: Inspirations for Hogwarts, Prof McGonagall and the graveyard in book/film 4