The Harry Potter Half-Blood Prince Blu-ray Liveblog starts now.
11:50: Ten minutes left until the star (Daniel Radcliffe) and the director (David Yates) pop up and start talking about the movie while watching the movie.
11:51: If you’re using the PlayStation 3, you should make sure you’ve got the correct audio output to hear the audio stream. Otherwise, like myself last time, you’ll hear nothing.
11:53: If you miss this, it’ll be on BD-Live in a few weeks, says the British announcer.
11:53: I just figured out that they’re doing this livecast at 12 noon instead of 6PM Pacific because kids in the UK need to watch this too. Otherwise, it’d be 2 in the morning.
11:55: There’s a weird bug right now with two audio streams being overlayed simultaneously. One announcement and one…announcement.
11:56: Oh and if you need to get in, here’s the invite.
12:00: Two voices talking simultaneously is more annoying than you’d imagine.
12:02: It’s about to start in a minute.
12:02: Before we start, I gotta say this was probably in the top half of the Harry Potter movies, for me. The only problems I had with it was the fact that it looked like the whole movie had a power outage. And, that it didn’t follow the book as closely as other movies.
12:03: It’s starting.
12:04: I’m having audio difficulties and had to restart the movie.
12:05: It would be nice to go through one of these screenings without technical problems. You’d think the PS3 would be the most stable platform, but I guess not. And now it’s having trouble loading the BD-Live.
12:06: Millions of kids around the world are logging into BD-Live right now apparently. Hey kids, get off my (virtual) lawn.
12:06: I’m back in! Daniel is talking about Harry Potter and how he differs from the character.
12:07: To answer a person who asked a question about if Dan learned anything from Harry Potter, he says yes.
12:10: His favorite movie is #5. He likes shooting and watching that one.
12:10: The director says he doesn’t have a favorite.
12:12: Oh wait, the director couldn’t make it—this is someone else.
12:12: Harry Potter is there though.
12:13: Daniel is saying the director is great, and can see the whole film while shooting an individual scene.
12:13: Here’s a little hint of how Dumbledore is gay: he was treasuring a knitting magazine (with JK, the author, on the cover).
12:15: Someone asked what other movies he wants to try and get into, and Dan says he wants to concentrate on finishing the last two movies, and then maybe go back to the stage in London or NY.
12:17: Now a question about Alan Rickman. How did Dan feel about hearing Alan Rickman speak, in the first movie? Answer: probably terrified.
12:19: It’s too bad the director isn’t here, because I would very much ask him why the movie is shot during a power outage…in a black hole. Seriously, I couldn’t see anything.
12:20: Q: Is Helena Bonham Carter as cool as she looks?
12:20: A: Yes. Also she is mad. And she pulls off that wig well, and she is hilarious.
12:23: Someone just asked him about what bands he likes. It’d be better if they focused on, you know, what’s going on in the movie, but I guess that’s the kind of question we’re going to get today.
12:24: Q: Is Emma Watson as beautiful in person as she is in the movies?
12:24: A: “Yes!!” That Dan.
12:25: And now they’re singing the praises of Blu-ray, and saying the interactive experience of Blu-ray is “mindblowing.”
12:25: This is the first time they’ve actually seen one of the Harry Potter movies on Blu-ray, apparently.
12:27: What Blu-rays would you want directors’ Q&A of? Post in the comments.
12:27: Q: “What’s your favorite special effects sequence in this film?”
12:27: A: The island near the end of the movie, with the cabin and all the monsters in the water.
12:28: A: Dan’s favorite is the dragon chase in #4.
12:30: Q: “If you had the ability to use an invisibility cloak, what would you do?”
12:30: A: Dan says robbing banks. He did not say sneaking a peek of Emma Watson.
12:32: Q: “Are you or the others going to be Twittering soon?”
12:32: A: Dan says no. He says he likes Twitter, but he feels he’d be inundated.
12:35: Dan’s talking about sports.
12:36: For the most part, the audio stream is a lot more stable than it was during the Terminator live event.
12:38: What’s the next step in these? Video streaming of them in a corner? That might be pretty fun.
12:39: Dan says he was in the right place at the right time to get the part of Harry.
12:43: Unfortunately the two people answering questions, Dan and the other guy, don’t know any technical stuff. It’s too bad the director couldn’t show up.
12:44: Q: Has anyone ever challenged you to a Harry Potter trivia match?
12:44: A: Yes, and I’ve lost every time.
12:48: I’m leaving out the questions about him playing Quidditch and other silly dialogue, btw.
12:54: To answer my own question, I would really love to hear Michael Bay give a commentary on Transformers 2. I’d like to hear his thoughts behind why he wanted to do the CG a certain way, or if he left that all up to the CG folks.
12:57: Q: Besides acting, do you want to get into another part of the film business?
12:57: A: I’d love to direct, but it’s a long way off.
12:59: And now, a peepee break.
1:06: We’re back.
1:06: They’re talking about how an actor on screen now playing Marcus Belby was killed, stabbed, while protecting his brother.
1:10: It would be nicer if you could submit questions directly from your Blu-ray player as well. That would make it more of an all-in-one experience, without having to have a phone or a computer in front of you.
1:15: On another note, BD-Live kind of forms the basis of community watching, in a sense. Right now you can watch with directors and hear them talk, but if you can go in the direction of the Netflix community watch on Xbox Live, you can get communal viewings with your friends as well. That would be pretty interesting, being able to watch the same movie, synced, with a buddy across the country.
1:21: Someone asked if they could get Ricky Gervais into the movies.
1:34: Slight spoiler for #7: They’ll be playing themselves in that one scene.
1:41: They’re talking about the acting process, and the audition process and so forth. Nothing that interesting.
1:43: Q: Do you find it hard working around green screens and CG?
1:44: A: Not really. I don’t have to spend a lot of time in front of a green screen. I only have to do about three days in front of a green screen at a time. In the first film I did a month in front of a screen for Quidditch and that was mind numbing.
1:52: Looks like the audio stream just cut out.
1:53: It’s back.
2:00: I’d also like to hear JJ Abrams talk about Star Trek too. That would be one interesting live commentary.
2:01: I think they’re doing another peepee break now.
2:10: Now the audio is just cutting in and out like mad.
2:29: Oh wow has it been 20 minutes since I typed something. How long is this movie?
2:34: The audio is finicky again, and the movie’s about to end.
2:42: Movie’s over, and they’re saying their thanks for watching.
2:42: Thanks for reading! (Maybe we should stick with Sci Fi movies from now on.)
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