Cinematographer Adriano Goldman of the "Harry Potter" series spoke about the difficulties of working with young lead actors. Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout, Arabella Stanton, and other young artists combine filming with schooling, so they can only be on set for an hour and a half.
According to Goldman, the team sets up lights and cameras in advance, rehearses scenes, and shoots technical versions while the actors are in class. When the children arrive on set, the crew has to manage to shoot up to six takes.
"You have to shoot very quickly, and the faster you work, the more you sacrifice quality. There's no getting around that. Of course, we have a lot of resources, but it's cruel. The time constraints for children are truly brutal. So the methodology is very specific: almost all scenes have to be pre-shot while they are in class."
To combine the production of the series with the educational process, Warner Bros. even built a temporary school on the studio grounds in Leavesden. It usually accommodates about 150 students, and during the filming of crowd scenes, it can hold up to 600 people. Classes take place between filming, including night shifts and on-location work. Local authorities have allowed the use of the educational complex for ten years, so children effectively learn and work in one place.
Due to this schedule, the team also cannot adhere to the chronological order of events in the script and is forced to shoot episodes in a different order:
"It's really tough: because of this schedule, everything is shot out of order. The process is extremely complex, but I've already shot one season."
The first season is currently in post-production. Production of the second season is expected to start in autumn 2026, and the premiere of the first season will take place on December 25, 2026.