In Harry Potter speak a Muggle is an ordinary human being, or non-member of the magical community, and Hogwarts is the fictional boarding school for witches and wizards. Recently, two third year MFA students from the Department of Design for Stage & Film at the Tisch School of the Arts proved that Muggles can work magic.
In Harry Potter speak a Muggle is an ordinary human being, or non-member of the magical community, and Hogwarts is the fictional boarding school for witches and wizards. Recently, two third year MFA students from the Department of Design for Stage & Film at the Tisch School of the Arts proved that Muggles can work magic. This winter, they each got to spend a week at Leavesden Studios (Hogwarts) outside London working in the Warner Brother’s Art Department on the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Parts 1 & 2).
Alexios Chrysikos, from Athens, Greece and David Meyer, from Sodus, NY are both studying design for film. They were offered the opportunity to intern by Andrew Jackness, adjunct instructor in the Department of Design for Stage and Film and professional production designer with numerous credits to his name, with the help of Molly Hughes, Design alumna and an art director on the Harry Potter movies.
“These artists can create an entire world in an incredibly short amount of time,” said Meyer, who interned last November. “I built some models everyday and helped on set a couple times. It really inspired me and reinforced my choice to pursue production design.”
Chrysikos and Meyer both agreed the most exciting part of their internships were meeting this “exclusive and talented group of artists.” Chrysikos did his internship last December. “I was model building most of the time,” he said. “And for a young designer like myself, having the chance to ask questions and see how an art department of this magnitude and quality functions, it was particularly instructive.”