Costume and set design used in the film. Production designer
Stuart Craig returned for the sequel to design new elements previously not seen in the first film. He designed
the Burrow based on
Arthur Weasley's interest in Muggles, built vertically out of architectural salvage. She retained many of the characters' already established appearances, and chose to focus on the new characters introduced in the sequel. Gilderoy Lockhart's wardrobe incorporated bright colours, in contrast with the "dark, muted or sombre colours" of the other characters. Branagh said, "We wanted to create a hybrid between a period dandy and someone who looked as if they could fit into Hogwarts." Hemming also perfected Lucius Malfoy's costume. One of the original concepts was for him to wear a
pinstripe suit, but was changed to furs and a snake head cane in order to remark his aristocrat quality and to reflect a "sense of the old."
Filming Principal photography began on 19 November 2001, only three days after the wide release of the first film.
Second-unit work had started three weeks before, primarily for the flying car scene. Filming took place mainly at
Leavesden Film Studios in
Hertfordshire, as well as on the
Isle of Man.
King's Cross railway station was used as the filming location for
Platform 9¾, though
St Pancras railway station was used for the exterior shots.
Gloucester Cathedral was used as the setting for Hogwarts School, along with
Durham Cathedral,
Alnwick Castle,
Lacock Abbey, and the
Bodleian Library at the
University of Oxford.
The Burrow was built in Gypsy Lane,
Abbots Langley, in front of Leavesden Studios.
Roger Pratt was brought on as director of photography for
Chamber of Secrets, in order to give the film "a darker and edgier feel" than its predecessor, which reflected "the growth of the characters and the story." Director
Chris Columbus opted to use handheld cameras to allow more freedom in movement, which he considered "a departure for [him] as a filmmaker."
University of Cambridge linguistics professor
Francis Nolan created
Parseltongue, the language spoken by snakes in the film. Principal photography
wrapped in July 2002.
Sound design Due to the events that take place in
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the film's sound effects were much more expansive than in the previous instalment. Sound designer and supervising sound editor
Randy Thom returned for the sequel using
Pro Tools to complete the job, which included initial conceptions done at
Skywalker Sound in California and primary work done at
Shepperton Studios in England. Thom wanted to give the
Whomping Willow a voice, a deep growl for which he used his own voice slowed down,
equalised and bass-boosted. For the
mandrakes, he combined baby cries with female screams, in order to "make it just exotic enough so that you think, 'Hmm, I've never heard anything quite like
that before.'" Thom described the
basilisk as a challenge, "because it's a giant snake, but it's also like a dragon — not many snakes have teeth like that. He had to hiss, he had to roar and there were times at the end when he was in pain." He mixed his own voice, tiger roars, and horse and elephant vocalizations.
Special and visual effects Visual effects took nine months to make, until 9 October 2002, when the film was finished.
Industrial Light & Magic,
Mill Film, the
Moving Picture Company (MPC),
Cinesite and
Framestore CFC handled the approximately 950 visual effect shots in the film.
Jim Mitchell and
Nick Davis served as visual effects supervisors. They were in charge of creating the
CGI characters
Dobby the
House-elf, the Basilisk and the
Cornish pixies, among others. Chas Jarrett from MPC served as CGI supervisor, overseeing the approach of any shot that contains CGI in the film. With a crew of 70 people, the company produced 251 shots, 244 of which made it to the film, from September 2001 to October 2002. The visual effects team worked alongside creature effects supervisor
Nick Dudman, who devised
Fawkes the Phoenix, the Mandrakes,
Aragog the
Acromantula, and the first of the Basilisk. According to Dudman, Aragog was the most challenging character to create. The giant spider stood tall with an foot leg span, each of which had to be controlled by a different team member. The whole creature weighed three quarters of a ton. It took over 15 people to operate the animatronic Aragog on set. The Whomping Willow sequence required a combination of practical and visual effects. Special effects supervisor
John Richardson and his team created mechanically operated branches to hit the flying car. A 1:3 scale set was built on stage at Shepperton Studios, which featured the fully-sized top third of the tree with a forced perspective to appear a height of over high. The courtyard and the tree were built in 3D. Some shots ended up being entirely digital. Jarret identified the rendering as "the biggest challenge" of the scene, because "there was just so much going on in [it] ... It was simply massive."
Music John Williams, who composed
the previous film's score, returned to score
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Composing the film proved to be a difficult task, as Williams had just completed scoring
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and
Minority Report when work was scheduled to begin on
Catch Me If You Can. Because of this,
William Ross was brought in to arrange themes from the ''Philosopher's Stone'' into the new material that Williams was composing whenever he had the chance. Ross also conducted the scoring sessions with the
London Symphony Orchestra. The soundtrack album was released on 12 November 2002. ==Distribution==