my ART blog Visit to heart of the Potterverse inside MinaLima 2016

Interview with Miraphora Mina (M) at House of MinaLima, 26 Greek St, W1 16 November 2016 DT: How did you and Eduardo get to be MinaLima ?

M:

We met on the set of the 2 ndharry potter film. As designers.

One of many

M:

Yes, you had this massive team. With the production designer at the top. And then everybody else, some specialising in the architectural side of it, some set design, or set decorating.

And then we came in (as graphic designers.)

I was doing graphic design on the first film and then Eduardo joined me on the second film.

We got on really well creatively, to the point, when we got to the end of the films 10 years later, we set up a design studio. Just up the road in London

Because, we kind of figured out that if we carried on working as individuals in films, we would dissipate. Because freelancers (much like journalists you know,) end up, being bumped around to different places.

And it’s been really great, because having the studio, we can take on different projects. Not just films, we’ve done publishing and printing. We worked on the Harry Potter theme parks and packaging

And then this happens! (the shop and work for the new film franchise)

DT So that’s the end, how did it begin

M:

Eduardo and I were as youngsters, very into making and drawing. He said he wanted to work in films.

I didn’t know really, I went to art school in London to do theatre design, I did set design. And then I did postgrad in films. That’s when I started working in films. But more on the technical and architectural side. Then after a few years, there was a job that needed graphic props making.

It totally suited me. I really loved drawing, the crossover between 3D and 2D and then Harry Potter came along…

DT How long had you been working in films then

M:

That was 2000, and I started in 1991, around nine years

(see IMDB — Talented Mr Ridley)

DT Had you read the book at this point

M:

No, I hadn’t. It was 2000, and I think the book came out in er 1997 or something. So it was still fairly a young audience, like my nephew, or my cousin who was like 11 at the time

And also, I had a one year old, so I was completely out of touch with what was going on

So, no I had no idea what we were entering into.

The designer who employed me said, lets see, maybe three or four months six months, see how it goes. None of us knew that it was going to be so huge

And I mean creatively. Everyone talks about the success of the dollars and box office, but actually creatively it was great for so many of the people who worked on the Harry Potter films.

Because a lot of people did go through and work on all of them. It was a real school of their craft.

You know, from the construction team, to the visual effects, the special FX ..

And technology has changed a lot in that time, so people have been able to master their skills as part of a big family

DT How does your work tie in with CGI?

Well from what we do, we’re fairly analogue. Because of the nature of what we do, we might be designing a book and having it made physically. I will literally design it, go to the printer and book binder. I’ll work with the bookbinder to get it finished, so it’s still a very physical thing.

Even on work that is animated, it is up to visual effects to animate what we design. So I have to have an understanding of where things are going to go.

I like the fact that something that we always hold dear is to always, work with hand first!

So, a lots of the Harry Potter stuff, even here (gesturing) is all drawn. So, although we might be using maybe a pattern from an archive, or an old font we have taken… We still rely heavily on drawing and rendered techniques.

DT And your brief in the case of the new film only comes from a script, not a world of books>

M:

Yes, absolutely, just the script. Because there are no books

And even on the Harry potter films, our duty was to work towards the script. So sometimes you would go to the book to see what she (JK) meant by that bit!

DT Going back, when did you realise you were good at drawing?

M:

I always liked drawing. As you know, British people don’t like to say I’m good at something, but I knew it was the thing I was always good at, at school…

So, I couldn’t wait to go to art school to have an opportunity to use (my talent)

I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, fine art?.. but it was kind of what I always did.. It was just what I always did. Felt very organic.

I didn’t have a plan B, I just as going to do something creative and that was that.

DT Advice for budding artists and designers?

Stick at it.

It’s a good ethos to have. If you like something enough, then you’re probably going to be quite good at it.. and if you love it, then why not stick with it and make it more than a hobby, make it something!

We feel that we’ve been absolutely blessed and privileged that we’re working in a field that we love, being paid to do it, sometimes (laughs)

But it’s not without some extreme hard work , you can’t just be good at it

DT As freelancers on a mega budget film franchise, how did you get to be a brand yourselves?

M:

We already had a print business which was on exhibition previously in this room like two weeks ago, where we designed a whole load of our own prints, because we wanted to do it, illustrated collective nouns, ( From an Armory of Aardvarks to a Zeal of Zebras ) you can see them in the shop downstairs, small quirky sort of things

So we had a small print business and thought maybe we should try and do our prints the Harry Potter series.

There is so much material that has never been seen, or which the fans would really love and would want to have something valuable, as a nostalogic nod to the films, rather than beach towel of mug or something.

DT Was it legally difficult to persuade Warner Brothers?

Well, we were very naïve, Basically Again we had a very sort of intuitive approach.

We didn’t know anything about licencsing. We just thought, let’s have a go and ask , and they said yes!

We very kind of innocently got in touch with Warner Brothers and asked if we could have a licence, you know pay to have a licence to reproduce all the work we did on the films. And they saw it as kind of a good way to have a high end product that is collectible. Because the collectible market is smaller, they gave us an exclusive licence to do that.

So we print everything ourselves in our little studio in Twickenham. And try and keep everything as close to how it was in the films So it’s kind of a much shorter link from the films to the buyable print.

They have a percentage It’s a win a win for all.

Originally published at http://ethicalbit.wordpress.com on July 30, 2024.