Extra Credit Blog - Yuting Zhang - the wizarding world of Harry Potter

I choose this picture for the overall feel of the wizarding world of Harry Potter in universal studio. This section restores Hogwarts castle, and shops from the wizarding world in the movie Harry Potter. The lighting design for this attraction is pretty simple. Orange and warm lamp light and the mixtures of blue and purple, cool light form the whole lighting of the magical world. The lighting designer wants to restore the exact look of wizarding world in the movie, and the design works for such purpose. Because of the limited use of lights, I can barely see the figure of the castle. The roof of the castle seems hidden in the sky. The use of limited lighting creates a mysterious and fantastical atmosphere. Such atmosphere matches the way that people should feel about Hogwarts, the wizard school, for the wizarding world is an unknown world, and cannot really exist. The lighting designer is smart about using little light to create the right atmosphere. Because of the limited lighting, people cannot see the wizarding world clearly. The wizarding world seems to hide a secret from people, which attracts people to explore the world more.





This picture shows the roof of a normal shop in wizarding world. From the snow on the roof, clearly the magical world is in winter season. The lighting designer uses a cool blue light to lighten the roof. The cool blue light is like a winter moonlight, and the use of globo creates certain patterns on the roof. These patterns are like the shadow of trees' branches and leaves while moonlight is lighting through the trees. The lighting makes me feel this house should be deep in forest, far away from normal world. The warm lamp light makes a huge contrast with the cold blue moonlight. The lighting helps me to feel that even though this wizarding world is very mysterious and far away from our normal world, the world is real, for it seems like there are many wizards live in this world. The cool moonlight makes the world mysterious, and the warm lamp light gives me feeling of home and crowds, the feeling that people living in such a mysterious world.




This is the picture of a gate from the wizarding world, I like how limited lighting the designer uses to create a mysterious and unknown atmosphere. It is very dark, and there are only several lamp lights on. The orange lights along side of the road lead people to an unknown place. We don't know where the road leads to, due to the darkness. The darkness creates the mysterious feeling, and makes me curious and excited about where the road leads. Usually people feel scared about unknown place. But for this one, I won't, because the warm lamps make me feel safe and the lights seem to welcome people to get in and explore the mysterious world.