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HBO's Harry Potter series will officially premiere on Christmas, but there is still a lot to do. Filming kicked off in the summer of 2025 and ended this year in May, but Season 1 is in post-production.
Adriano Goldman, the cinematographer for HBO’s Harry Potter series, revealed in a recent interview with Andre Pilli that the filming conditions for the show were not normal and "brutal" because it involved young stars. Goldman has worked on multiple high-profile TV shows before, including Disney+'s Andor and Netflix's The Crown, but HBO's Harry Potter is a different beast.
Harry Potter Filming Had to Be Reworked Around the Young Cast
There are many perks to working with young talent, but they also come with caveats. First, the labor laws don't allow them to work the brutal hours regular grown-up actors have. Plus, there's also the risk of them growing too fast, the way it happened with Stranger Things.
Speaking about the shooting challenges, Goldman explained, "You have to shoot really fast, and the faster you go, the more you compromise quality. There’s no way around it, right? Obviously, we have a lot of resources, but it’s brutal. The kids’ screen time is really brutal. So the methodology is very specific. You practically have to pre-shoot all the scenes while they're in class."
The cinematographer explained that the main cast, which includes Dominic McLaughlin (Harry Potter), Alastair Stout (Ron Weasley), and Arabella Stanton (Arabella Stanton), only came onto set for about "an hour and a half." He detailed that he had to shoot "six setups" before they had to leave again.
He explained, "It’s really hard; you shoot everything out of order, right, because of that kind of scheduling. So the process is really complicated, but I’ve done one now."
Warner Bros. found a workaround for this, as the production at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden built a temporary school for the show's actors, which could explain why Goldman hyped the show as having the largest production budget for a streaming series.
The BBC reported in 2025 that the Three Rivers District Council permitted the studio to "use a series of portable buildings as a school facility for the next decade. The proposed classrooms have been designed to be used by up to 600 pupils during peak periods, when large crowd scenes are shot, but will typically serve about 150 students. It will operate on weekdays between 5:30 am and 8:30 pm so young actors can fit in their actual studies between night shoots, reshoots and location filming."
Harry Potter Season 1's Color Grading Isn't Done
After the trailer premiered earlier this year, one of the biggest complaints was that the show lacked the same vibrant color as the first film. One thing that stood out about the Harry Potter films, whose directors fluctuated with almost every installment, is that it kept a specific color scheme. The first two films are extremely colorful, as Harry finds a happier life at Hogwarts.
However, starting with 2003's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, things get gradually darker until it gets to the finale in 2011's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2.
The first teaser didn't reflect that, and Goldman addressed that aspect. The cinematographer revealed that they haven't even finished editing Episode 1, let alone the rest of the episodes, and the color isn't ready.
Goldman highlighted the care and research they put into making this paler and colorless for Harry's time with the Dursleys, and more vibrant once he gets to Hogwarts. He also confirmed that Hogwarts will be shown at the end of Episode 1.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone premieres on HBO Max on Dec. 25.
