Harry Potter: Film Vault: Volume 11: Hogwarts Professors and Staff

Book Preface

During Harry Potter’s tenure at Hogwarts School of  Witchcraft and Wizardry, he is taught by a variety of  professors who not only educate him in the magical skills  he will need to defeat the Dark Lord, Voldemort, but also  impart to him their wisdom and support as  Harry finds his way through his school years.  Not every teacher can be considered a positive  influence; in fact, some of his professors are  extremely silly and others sink so low as  to torment and suppress Harry and his  fellow students.

Harry Potter’s professors and the  other Hogwarts staff members are uniquely  individual in their personalities and appearance. The costume designers—Judianna  Makovsky for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s  Stone, Lindy Hemming for Harry Potter and  the Chamber of Secrets, and Jany Temime, who  started on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and stayed for the remainder of the movies—had fun  and fashionable characters to clothe, although the pressure to  please the fans was always on their minds. “Trying to do the first  of the series was absolutely terrifying,” says Judianna Makovsky.  “I really didn’t want to disappoint anybody.”  Creating the right costumes for the characters was essential;  the fabrics and colors a character wears give audiences an important glimpse into their personality. Actors also find inspiration  in their wardrobe. Before filming, each actor would meet  with the costume designer to view and discuss  ideas for their clothes. When actor Richard  Harris visited Judianna Makovsky about costumes for Professor Albus Dumbledore for  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, she  showed him some preliminary sketches  for the headmaster. “He stared at them for  a while and then said, ‘Thank you. Thank  you. Now I know what my character is,’ and  that was it. Richard Harris made it simple.” For Harry Potter and the Chamber of  Secrets, Lindy Hemming continued with  the overall look established in the first movie.  “That didn’t mean you had to keep them in the  exact same costumes, because new scenes dictated  new clothes,” she explains, “but we tried not to have a  jump in the look, obviously.” She gives great credit to the talented craftspeople in the costume department for their skills and  imagination. “They had a sensibility to make things in a straightforward way, but [they] always added little touches. They’d discover a marvelous button to use or suggest a strange little  pocket you wouldn’t have thought of that added a new dimension  to the piece. These were people who loved the Harry Potter books and films so much that they wanted to give an input.”

When Jany Temime joined the Harry Potter team, she  “didn’t realize how important [her role] was,” she says. “If [I had,]  I would have been completely paralyzed and incapable of doing  anything!” Temime recognized that the staff and professors of  Hogwarts should keep their “wizardy wear,” for the most part, but  she did reinterpret the look of one beloved member of the faculty.  She felt that Rubeus Hagrid’s wardrobe should better address his  job of tending the grounds and the Dark Forest, but also reflect  his new responsibility as Care of Magical Creatures professor in  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, so she provided him  with a pocket-filled waistcoat and thicker trousers and boots. In  order to accommodate the larger versions of Robbie Coltrane’s  clothes needed for his double Martin Bayfield, Temime created  her own prints, so they could easily be blown up to three times  the original size.

The costume department worked closely with chief makeup  artist Amanda Knight and chief hair stylist Eithne Fennel, who  served in those roles on all eight Harry Potter films. Knight  and Fennel would sit down with the costume designer several  times to discuss ideas for each character’s hair and look while  they reviewed sketches of the outfits. They also noted that they  worked with each film’s director, who would want to put their  mark on the overall design as well. “We always showed them  pictures of existing artists who were coming back,” says Fennel,  “and ask[ed] them if they were happy with that look, or did they  want to change it.” Sometimes, small changes were made, “but  most times they were happy.” We are fortunate that the insights of all these creative  women, gained by deeply educating themselves about each  character, brought to life the Hogwarts professors and staff,  some sporting disheveled hair or werewolf scars, others dressed  in checkered tweeds, floating silks, well-worn leather, or fluffy  acid pinks

OPPOSITE TOP: Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) helps Ron  Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe)  with their homework assignment in Harry Potter and the  Goblet of Fire; OPPOSITE BOTTOM: Two of Professor Gilderoy  Lockhart’s required textbooks; LEFT: Defense Against the  Dark Arts Professor Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton);  BELOW: Professor Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh) begins  his class year in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets;  BOTTOM: Dolores Umbridge threatens to expel Professor  Sybill Trelawney (Emma Thompson), who is protected by  Transfiguration Professor Minerva McGonagall (Maggie  Smith) in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix