How was the ‘magical bus’ scene of Harry Potter shot? The magic shown on screen was not just VFX, it was real engineering.

Mumbai The famous film series ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’ (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) The purple colored ‘Triple Decker Bus’ shown in 1977 still surprises the audience. Many people think that this entire scene was a feat of computer graphics, but the truth is that this bus shown in the film was actually created. Behind this was hidden tremendous hard work and unique technology of the makers and engineers.

Triple decker made by joining three buses

The film’s production team wanted to portray the magical world as realistically as possible. For this he bought three old classic double-decker buses of London.

These buses were cut and fitted one above the other and thus approximately 22 feet high triple-decker bus Was prepared. Two such buses were built for the shooting—one was used to film interior scenes, while the other was designed to drive on the streets.

2 tonne weight added to maintain balance

When preparations were made to run this bus on the road, a major technical problem emerged. Due to the high height of the bus, its center of gravity It was unbalanced, due to which there was a danger of the bus overturning while taking a turn.

To solve this problem, engineers placed a additional weight of 2 tons of iron added up. Due to this, the base of the bus became heavy and it started moving in a balanced manner on the road.

This is how the fast paced scene was shot

In the film, this bus is seen passing through the traffic at very high speed. Actually this scene was filmed with a special trick.

During the shooting, nearby vehicles were asked to drive very slowly, while the bus was driven slightly faster. The footage was later edited in post-production. fast-forward It has been done. Due to this, it appeared on the screen as if the bus was running at the speed of lightning.

Great example of practical effects

In today’s era, where most of the film scenes are created with green screen and VFX, Harry Potter film series The practical effects used in this scene show the amount of detail and effort the makers put into creating a memorable scene.

For this reason, this magical bus is still counted among the most memorable scenes in film history.