Harry Potter and the Boy Who Never Lived: Part 1

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Harry Potter and the Boy Who Never Lived: Part 1
Faneditor Name:
Genre:
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Original Release Date:
2005
Original Running Time:
157
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
117
Time Cut:
107
Time Added:
67
Available in HD?
Brief 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.
Intention:
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.
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
Release Information:
  • DVD
  • Blu-Ray
  • Digital
Special Features
Editor's Commentary Audio Track. I discuss the motivation behind this edit, explain the reasons for many of the narrative changes, and give overviews of how some of the special effects were done.
Editing Details:
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.
Cuts and Additions:
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
Cover art by RollWave (DOWNLOAD HERE)
image

Trailer

User reviews

7 reviews
 
14%
 
71%
 
14%
3-5 stars
 
0%
1-3 stars
 
0%
Overall rating
 
7.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.7(7)
Audio Editing
 
8.4(7)
Visual Editing
 
8.2(7)
Narrative
 
6.7(7)
Enjoyment
 
6.9(7)
View all user reviews View most helpful
Overall rating
 
8.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
7.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
8.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
Very clever and looking forward to the next chapter! The quality dips a bit but the narrative and curiosity of how you cut Harry out made it worth watching.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
K
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Overall rating
 
7.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
5.0
Enjoyment
 
7.0
Mostly good AV quality, although it did drop when cropping took place.

Very impressive editing in some parts, especially the removal of Harry and the re-editing of scenes to flow better.
The construction of a new narrative is quite impressive, the first 15 minutes of the edit are amazing. I feel the edit suffers from focussing for quite a large part of the runtime on subplots and non-essential material, such as clunkily stitching together Ron & Hermione's scenes from Goblet of Fire & Half Blood Prince to give them character development. It would've been far more interesting for this edit to be more plot oriented and included plotlines from the Order of the Phoenix & the Deathly Hallows. It gets off to a great start with Voldemort, with the intercutting of the end & beginning of GOF being done superbly, but then spends an eternity on Ron & Hermione's romance subplots, as well as other seemingly unimportant plotlines, such as the liquid luck scenes, Ron joining the Quidditch team, the Triwizard Ball etc.

Editing Harry out of several scenes in which he is key but keeping the scenes made these scenes feel quite unnatural and disorientating, as it isn't clear who is interacting with the other characters. The use of the voice over sometimes worked, but often didn't.

Overall, this edit has a lot of potential as an idea, and has some very very impressive editing, but it feels a little wasted on the content that was chosen. I'd like to see a part 2 someday focussing on the films OFTP & DH.
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(Updated: April 12, 2018)
Overall rating
 
8.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
7.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
I would say this is one of the most ambitious edits I've seen, and it was mostly done pretty well.

AV quality was solid, a good quality image for most of the film, but cropped scenes are pretty blurry, as well as some deleted scenes. But they're overall not too bad.

A/V editing varies, sometimes the removal of Harry is barely noticeable, sometimes rotoscoping and masking doesn't work too well, as others have pointed out. Some cuts were slightly abrupt, but nothing you can't look past. The combination of movies makes the colour frequently change, and perhaps for part 2 could be added colour correction? The Jim Dale sections imo were very noticeable, it just felt like a dub or something. Mostly I didn't like the editing during the second trial, where you attempted to replace Harry with Krum, as it just feels off. His lines are odd, too loud, and does not blend with the tone/music of the scene. The addition of Snape in DA though was done better. Overall, it still is in my opinion a wonderful job in the technical area. I mean, I can barely do a small fraction of the effects that was put in.

Narrative was not bad, very creative. I kinda liked how you twisted the story without changing too much of the story of GoF, and I like that the characters can be very visibly seen here to grow, unlike when the focus was on Harry.

Enjoyment I put a high rating due to the fact that I really enjoyed it. I watched this first with my sister who is not a very avid HP fan and she really liked it. Her main complains were when the Jim Dale parts came out, especially the Sorting Hat song.

Overall, a great edit from an ambitious concept. I watched this twice about a few days apart and the second time I watched with the editor's commentary which makes me really appreciate this edit and the hard work put into it. Excellent job, RollWave!
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(Updated: April 08, 2018)
Overall rating
 
5.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
5.0
Visual Editing
 
5.0
Narrative
 
4.0
Enjoyment
 
4.0
To begin with, I want to say that I am impressed that RollWave was able to produce such a grandiose project that removes the major character from a story. I also loved seeing the how it was done clips in the project thread. Though I cannot stand The Goblet of Fire, the possibilities of such a drastic narrative rearrangement was too much to resist.

A/V Quality: 9
The video and audio quality is exactly what it should be in this edit and for the format in which I watched it (MP4). The only A/V quality issues of concern for me will be addressed in the individual A/V editing sections.

Visual Editing: 5
Much of this rating is a product of the difficulties involved with removing the major character in the story. There are more than a few scenes where the background is noticeably moving where Harry is painted out. Incidental scenes are retained that require major re-framing and odd placements of characters e.g. when Mrs. Weasley is talking in the corridor and is far right and half seen. It would be better to have removed such scenes than to have such odd framing, imho. The scenes of Voldemort's rebirth are also a bit rough in terms to the rotoscoping and masking. The added scene from X-Men during the lake scene totally pulled me out. I think it would require extra color correction to make it at least fit with the preexisting color palette. Was that supposed to be Ron? Wasn't he later seen tied up in the water in his Wizard robes? There are inserted scenes that also don't feel like they flow in shots such as when Snape arrives in Dumbledore's chambers. Scenes felt visually rushed and squished throughout the edit.

Audio Editing: 5
There are a lot of abrupt audio transitions when Harry is removed from scenes. Instead of rebuilding the audio track, the audio sounds to have been simply spliced together which results in gaps. The scene where Ron is daydreaming in his room is particularly jarring as it goes from a lullaby type music which abruptly stops, to no music, and then to new music. The insertion of the Jim Dale segments sound a bit louder than they should and don't feel like they fit in the mix. Other lines that are inserted for other characters are likewise distracting. Perhaps they need some reverb and eq treatments to mimic the sound of the mix? Are the voice overs from the tub scene from the Crazy Russian Hacker YouTuber?

Narrative: 4
I'm not entirely sold on the new narrative in this edit. It feels very confusing and undefined. I just can't figure out what the story is here. The jumping back and forth between ages is odd as well. I can't tell if Ron and Hermione are in the tournament. They win contests, but they aren't seen as being a part. The Ron choking on the drink scene left me confused. I think the narrative goal was perhaps too lofty with this one.

Enjoyment: 4
I'll admit, the major source material for this story, The Goblet of Fire, is one of my least favorite movies period, so this is may have some effect on the enjoyment factor of this edit. The visual and audio editing felt really distracting throughout and just kept me from being able to take in the new narrative.

Overall Rating: 5
This is one of the most ambitious edits I've watched and I applaud RollWave's attempt at such an endeavor, but ultimately this edit feels more like a preview/workprint than a finished product to me. Still, I would recommend this edit to anyone who has any thought of drastically altering a narrative of a film. I know that I learned a ton about editing from watching this and the possibilities of editing narratives has been expanded.
D
Top 500 Reviewer 21 reviews
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Overall rating
 
7.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
4.0
Enjoyment
 
4.0
I admittedly have a bad habit when it comes to fanedits: I love watching them but I feel little motivation in reviewing them due to my tendency to get long winded in my breakdown in what does and doesn’t work. However, given how this edit aims to do something so drastic,as well as being a massive fan of What If scenarios in my favorite stories (specifically Dragon Ball), I felt that there was a lot more to chew on here.

Harry Potter and the Boy Who Never Lived Part 1 is a technical marvel. RollWave went to great lengths to remove Harry Potter from the story of Voldemort’s return, and while some of it is done rather cheaply by merely cropping Daniel Radcliffe out of the frame, there are many other times where masking tools are used that effectively erase Harry while not outright gutting the scene altogether and, as he said in his commentary, greatly strengthens the other characters throughout the movie. The commentary also discusses how the audio has been reworked to remove Harry, further showing just how much effort went for the whole project.

That said, while I appreciate edit on a technical aspect, Narrative is a different story. In the first 10 or 15 minutes, I was confused as to how I should approach this edit. If it’s meant for new viewers, why do none of the characters get properly introduced to the point where people might confuse Hermione as just another member of the Weasley family until her surname gets stated later? If it’s for hardcore potter fans who know the story in and out, why does it include the Sorting Hat Song as an introduction to Hogwarts and how it works outside of fanservice that eats up time? Why doe Mad Eye get introduced twice, one somewhat neutral and the other dark and ominous? Does Umbridge show up near the end because Crouch Sr. has just been killed? If Goblet of Fire is the crux of your narrative with a bit of Dumbledore’s Army from Order of the Phoenix included, why then also include Voldemort’s resurrection if the latter never culminates with the former two in any meaningful way (i.e., why is there set up but no payoff)?

That last bit is really damning, too, since at least Deathly Hallows Part 1 had a somewhat climactic feel, with Dobby sacrificing himself to save Harry and Voldemort obtaining the Elder Wand. Here, though, aside from being a bad story dcision to give away all your cards about how Voldemort’s revival is different from the canon, the return is completely disconnected from anything outside the kids *eventually* reacting to the Ministry kidnappings, and Cedric Diggory dies because Hogwarts has no sense of safety when it comes to what’s supposed to be a tournament meant to build bonds of friendship between three different schools (I know that Hogwarts is the target of many “why would anyone ever go to this school” jokes based on all the dangers it houses, but this is just the grossest of negligence on the teacher’s parts).

Even the stuff about the narrative that I liked involving Ron and Hermione’s subplots (Quidditch and classes still happening independent of the tournament, the two of them falling for different people, etc) not only takes up a minor part of the runtime, but it also doesn’t do the narratives any great favors, simultaneously making Ron look like a user of women and Hermione a waif who can’t decide between Ron and Viktor (then again, I don’t know if the footage would have alloqwed for Ron to have gotten his girlfriend, and then have that spur Hermione into pursuing Viktor). The passage of time also feels a little unclear, since the first two tournament challenges seem to take place before Winter, and yet the last occurs when spring starts? There’s part of the commentary that also hurts the viewing experience, since the first time watching Ron go to Slughorn under the affects of love potion (which I don’t think Ron should've done since he’s intoxicated and just wants whoever vexed him, but okay), and I thought that his violent reaction to the serum was just a result of the antidote reacting with an improper version of the love potion, Slughorn said could be dangerous if made wrong. However, RollWave then said that Slughorn just gave Ron the wrong antidote, and he never gets called out on this, further confirming just how awful Hogwarts’ staff truly is.

Still, I overall liked Ron and Hermione’s new stories here (clothing and hairstyle continuity notwithstanding), and there are points where I can imagine where things should have gone had the footage had existed. For example, Mad Eye’s harassing of Crouch and interfering of the Tournament by offering Nevile, and by proxy, Ron, gillyweed would have driven him out of the school and replaced by Umbridge, which, since she’s imposing Ministry rule on the Beauxbatons and Drumstrangs, would help strengthen those bonds of friendship they supposedly built over the year. That really is the greatest flaw of the edit: ambition kneecapped due to the lack of footage. How different would Hermione and Snape’s be if he overcame his prejudice of non-magic parents, in addition to finding a witch who seems so much like the one he lost? Why didn’t Lucius Malfoy stow Riddle’s diary into Ginny’s book bag during her first year? Why is Lockheart suddenly legitimate?

There’s also small things that bug me due to the lack of footage. Aside from the fact that Ron should stick to one girlfriend, basic storytelling tenants tell me that Cedric should have been the one in competition with Ron in Quidditch, not whoever it actually was. Would have established him as a hard worker, taking on both Quidditch and doing the tournament. Also, if we’re free to alter canon here, I would’ve made him Snape’s nephew or something. Why? Because it would have given more credence to Voldemort’s revival. In this edit, it makes no sense that Voldemort’s followers wouldn’t immediately sought out to revive him. By making Cedric related to Snape, you then can use the “Lily’s love protected you from me, but since I was revived by your [relative’s] blood I can properly come after you” plot point from the original book. As far as changing things for an adaptation, it's not that out there.

As a product, this edit is kind of a mess, but as a thought exercise, it certainly succeeds at making me think outside the box.

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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