Lumos Maxima.
What Jo has done is create this world where wizards and Muggles are living
side by side but the Muggles are not aware of it. So the headquarters of
MACUSA is the Woolworth Building.
It's different to the Ministry of Magic in
London in the sense that, the same building is occupied in different dimensions.
So it's a Muggle building until you know the right way to get in,
and then it changes and then you're inside MACUSA.
The Woolworth Building at the time was the tallest building in the world.
We have tried to represent the entire footprint of the building but we haven't
anywhere near. the real thing is much bigger than our very big set.
Inside the real building, it's not open plan, it's a series of small offices.
So I had to think of something to do with it, that would actually elevate it to something.
Well, ultimately magical really. The chief decision with that in mind was to
eliminate the floors. So the lobby level is just open space. All the windows are
exposed and it's is this vast, tall, cathedral of light.
There are basement floors where all the work is done.
And the further down you go, the more menial the work and the more dreadful the conditions.
We imagined the pentagram was hundreds and
hundreds of years old. It's all carved wood, all the decoration is carved wood.
It was very loosely modelled on the Houses of Parliament.
I was astonished. Every extra could have been leading man or lady.
They were exquisite and everyone looked different.
There was nothing repeated.
Wizards from Hungary and from Mongolia and Russia,
from Thailand, and wizards from Ireland and wizards from Pakistan.
This is amazing.
Tina, she burst in, became the victim in the center of the floor with this
tiered seats and the delegates from around the world of glaring down at her.
It was a good, intimidating space. That's exactly what it was supposed to be.
don't understand nothing there's nothing
The death cell is almost like being put to death in their Swiss clinic.
Everybody's really nice, but they're putting you to death.
It's gonna be like, almost a shock to the audience, I think, because it's such a
cold and weird scene. It's almost like being in a David Lynch film.
The death chamber was an interesting, different look down in the bowels of
this place below the basement levels in the foundation.
It's very clinical. The walls align with white marble like a mortuary.
Right above it, the massive cast iron beams which are the very foundation of the building.
So you get the sense you are deep, deep, deep underground which helps the secret
sinister connotations of the place.
Thank you for all of the support you've given our film.
It's a privilege to be a part of this new era of magic.
We all hope that you have a brilliant time
celebrating and reliving the magic of Harry Potter and the Fantastic Beasts.
It sort of makes me want to be a wizard.