Synopsis:

Harry Potter and the Boy Who Never Lived: Part 1 is a full-length fan edited film based on the Harry Potter series that explores an alternative magical universe in which Snape and Lily never grew apart, creating a number of ripple effects, one of which is that Harry Potter was never born. Through a restructured narrative and a number of special effects, the character Harry Potter is completely removed from the movie.

Intentions:

There are a number of times throughout the HP series where Harry’s “saving people thing” makes things worse (Dept. of Mysteries) or where the day would have already been saved without him (Mirror of Erised). What if Harry Potter was removed completely? Could a story be told that still hits all the major plot points without the central character? This project wasn’t just about removing Harry Potter though. There have been a number of additions that movie viewers have never seen before. There are 7 deleted scenes reinserted, 2 new characters added, 2 new songs added, new dialogue for Mad-Eye and Victor Krum added, and a brand new opening sequence and custom closing credits.

Change List:

Cuts: Harry Potter Never-Before-Seen Additions: 1. New opening scene with young Lily/Severus 2. New flying titlecard 3. New Character: Ludo Bagman voiced by Jim Dale (from audiobook) 4. New Character: Peeves, portrayed by Rik Mayall (footage from Drop Dead Fred) 5. New Song: Year 1 Sorting Hat Song, sung by Jim Dale (from audiobook) 6. New Song: Weasley is Our King, sung by Jim Dale (from audiobook) 7. New Dialogue: Mad-Eye Moody’s “Constant vigilance”, voiced by Jim Dale (from audiobook) 8. New Dialogue: a number of lines for Victor Krum were sourced from the original actor Stan Yanevski’s YouTube channel. 9. Custom ending credits Deleted Scenes Added: 1. Hoggy Warty Hogwarts song from GoF. 2. Trelawny’s antics while eating dessert in the Great Hall from OOTP 3. Durmstrang students inviting Hogwarts students to the Yule Ball from GoF 4. Full version of “Do the Hipppgriff” by the Weird Sisters during Yule Ball from GoF 5. Snape catches students making out in carriages during the Yule Ball from GoF 6. Ron’s exposition audio after finding Crouch’s body from GoF 7. Gryffindor common room (Neville’s cactus, Seamus’s “oh, you don’t cheat” line) from OOTP Scenes rearranged or brought from other Harry Potter films: 1. Wormtail reviving Voldemort in the cemetery now occurs immediately following the Quidditch World Cup, from GoF 2. Voldemort’s explanation of what happened to him contains a number of clips from multiple movies. 3. Order of the Phoenix reforms at Grimmauld Place following the Dark Mark at Quiddich World Cup from OOTP 4. Slughorn teaches potions this year, from HBP 5. Quidditch tryouts and games inserted from HBP 6. Many transitions (most including the Womping Willow) from PoA 7. Ron/Lavender romance happens in parallel with Hermione/Krum, from HBP 8. Azkaban breakout on Christmas Eve night after the Yule Ball, inserted from OOTP 9. Multiple dark forest scenery taken from PoA as visual over Ron’s exposition following Crouch’s death. 10. Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall’s conversation about HP being selected by Goblet is now about Crouch’s death. 11. Sirius in the fireplace inserted from OOTP 12. Madam Rosmerta in Hogsmeade inserted from PoA 13. Dumbledore’s Army formation and training montage inserted from OOTP 14. Lockhart’s Dueling Club from CoS now happens in parallel with Room of Requirement training. 15. Owl exams and Weasley fireworks inserted from OOTP Other Changes (direct, or by implication): 1. Voldemort’s flashback now shows that Lily sacrificed herself to save Snape. 2. Changed Hermione’s newspaper on Hogwart’s Express from The Prophet to The Quibbler 3. Professor Moody is in fact Mad-Eye Moody (not Barty Crouch Jr) 4. Victor Krum fights the Hungarian Horntail during the 1st Event 5. Hermione wins the Felix Felicis potion, and actually puts it in Ron’s cup. 6. Since Sirius was never in Azkaban in this timeline, and therefore never broke out, Fudge blames the breakout on Bellatrix. 7. Victor Krum solves the egg puzzle with Moaning Myrtle. 8. In the 2nd Event, Fleur fights the pack of Grindylows. 9. Neville provides Ron with Gillyweed so he can save Gabrielle during the Triwizard Tournament 2nd Event 10. Ron is hospitalized due to Slughorn giving him an overly strong tonic, not due to poisoned mead 11. Hermione convinces [Spoiler] to lead Dumbledore’s Army 12. [Spoiler] wins the Triwizard Tournament Changes from other sources: 1. Banshee from X-Men first class inserted as Ron underwater during the 2nd Event 2. Many scenes were rescored to eliminate the musical choppiness resulting from deleting Harry’s dialogue.

Additional Notes:

The strategy was generally to 1) Remove Harry 2) Fix the resulting plotholes 3) Elevate sideplots that didn’t involve Harry. - All frames where Harry is speaking and on camera were cut. When Harry is in the frame, but not speaking: - When Harry was near the edge of the screen, the frame was cropped, then expanded to fill the full frame - When Harry was in the middle of the frame, but distant and in front of a static background, he was masked. This involved taking a different portion of the frame and layering it on top of Harry, or photoshopping a still to remove Harry, and layering the static screengrab on top of him. - When Harry was in the middle of the frame, but large and in the foreground, the frame was split into 3 vertical pieces. Harry’s middle section was cut out, then the left and right pieces were expanded, feathered, and lined up together.

Other Sources:

Harry Potter Films Harry Potter film soundtracks Harry Potter audiobooks (read by Jim Dale) X-Men: First Class Drop Dead Fred Stan Yanevski’s’ YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/diablo8z/videos Fanedit.org intro by theraney

Special Thanks:

SWPACA 2018 Conference Attendees