Stunt co-ordinator Greg Powell was responsible for overseeing the training and safety of Radcliffe and the other actors, who were in turn supported by four divers each and the dive master. “Not only did Daniel have to swim, act, speak lines and respond to creatures that would be added by a computer in post-production,” Powell reminds, “but he had to perform with webbed hands and feet. He accomplished all of this while 20 feet under water in total darkness – before he ran out of air and gave the signal for one of the stunt team to swim in and give him back his oxygen mask. It really was an incredible achievement.”
In total, Radcliffe spent 41 hours and 38 minutes under water over a three week period of filming, with one dive alone lasting 75 minutes, “which was quite cool!” he enthuses
Creature effects supervisor Nick Dudman and his team were responsible for tethering likenesses of Ron, Hermione, Cho Chang and Fleur’s younger sister Gabrielle Delacour to the loch’s ruins assembled at the bottom of the tank, where Harry struggles to free his friends from their bonds. Dudman explains the meticulous process: “We made body casts of each actor, punched in each hair individually and added skin color layer by layer. We needed to make them match the person perfectly as well as move in a way that made them look peaceful or asleep. We used floatation tanks and pumped water into rams in order to keep them bouyant.”
“All credit for directing the underwater scenes must go to our second unit director Peter Macdonald,” Newell praises. “Without Peter, we couldn’t have made this film. His patience and skill in directing this huge sequence, which literally took weeks, is beyond compare.”
Visual effects supervisor Jimmy Mitchell and his team created the computer generated underwater universe, from the ruins that may once have been a part of Hogwarts to the wicked water demons known as Grindylows. “I think of them as a very unpleasant, distant cousin of the Cornish pixie!” Mitchell says of the tempermental creatures
Harry also encounters a mermaid in his quest to find his friends in the loch, and the filmmakers endeavored to make her “unlike any mermaid you’ve seen before,” Heyman says.
“Stuart and I designed the mermaid’s tail to move from side to side, rather than up and down, which is what happens when you have a person in a mermaid suit,” Mitchell explains. “Then we made the creature longer than humanly possible and gave her hair made of jellyfish tentacles.”
The third and final task requires the teen wizards to navigate a dense and foreboding maze formed by tall, thick hedges and shadowy pathways choked with mist. The champions begin their journeys at dusk, with nothing to guide them but an eerie blue light emanating from the center of the elaborate topiary, where the coveted Triwizard Cup awaits.
“We endeavored to make the maze taller and bigger than any you’ve ever seen,” Craig says. “It’s disorienting, disturbing and altogether intense!”
Dumbledore cautions the champions not to lose themselves within the living labyrinth, which seems to have a sinister agenda of its own. “This is a double-edged warning,” Heyman explains. “The maze is spacially enormous and so there is a real and terrifying threat of becoming lost. At the same time, it’s a living creature that feeds on fear, preying on the insecurities of all those who dare enter.”
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