How was the “magical bus” scene from Harry Potter shot? Actually the magic wasn’t just VFX

The mystery of the magical triple decker bus in the movie ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’

Mumbai. The purple colored ‘Triple Decker Bus’ seen in the famous film series ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’ still surprises the audience. While many consider it a marvel of computer graphics, the real truth is that it was simply created for real. The construction and technical efforts behind it made this possible.

Special triple decker made by joining three buses

The film’s production team tried to make the magical atmosphere realistic. For this, he purchased three old classic double-decker buses from London.

By cutting these buses and assembling them one above the other, approximately 22 feet high triple-decker bus Was constructed. Two buses were built for the shoot; One was used for interior scenes, while the other was designed to drive the bus on the road.

2 tonne weight added for balance

When preparations were made to run the bus on the road, a technical problem emerged. Due to the height of the bus its center of gravity Became unbalanced, causing danger of simply overturning while turning.

To address this challenge, engineers designed the bottom of the bus for approximately additional weight of 2 tons of iron couple. This made the base of the bus stable and it could remain balanced on the road.

shooting fast paced scenes

It is shown in the film that this bus is passing through the traffic at high speed. In fact, this scene was shot through a special technique.

During the shooting, nearby vehicles were instructed to drive slowly, while the bus was driven at a slightly faster speed. Subsequently, the footage was edited in post-production. Fast-forward This was done, which made the audience feel as if the bus was speeding away without attention.

Unique example of practical effects

Nowadays, while most of the film scenes resort to green screen and VFX, Harry Potter film series This scene is a wonderful example of practical effects. It shows how much detail and hard work the makers put in to create a spectacular scene.

Because of this, this magic bus has become one of the most memorable scenes in film history.