Hello, we’re coming to you from our Gringotts Wizarding Bank set here at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London
- The Making of Harry Potter.
To celebrate Back to Hogwarts this weekend,
we have with us today choreographer Paul Harris,
to teach you some wand combat moves.
Hello there Paul, tell us a little about yourself.
Thank you Mason, good to see you again, and 
my name is Paul Harris, I was the choreographer
of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,
and along with the Director, David Yates, I created
and devised the physical language for fighting
with the wand, which subsequently became known
as wand combat.
Exciting stuff, and today I understand, you’re
going to showing us five of the wand combat moves, 
so everyone at home can join in, is that right?
Yes, today we’re going to focus on the five
attacking positions for wand combat, the core
basic attacking positions. So everyone at
home make sure you have a wand or a wand-like
item, we’ll dive right in with position number one.
Which is a position for firing a spell 
from above the head.
So bring the wand above the
head with a nice clean curve, line up your
eye and your wand. Bring the wand forward
of the body, rotate it for the swish and flick,
and draw it back.
Get some venom into it, some power behind
the movement because your life is a stake!
Now it’s your turn at home, so let’s see that, Mason.
Wand arm up, non-wand arm up.
Good, eyeline lined up, lots of space.
Get down, that’s very good. Line up the
eye and the wand, and action!
No stabbing, everyone at home, don’t stab
with the wand, get a rotation of the wrists
for the swish and flick. A finality to the movement.
So right at the end? 
Exactly, yes. I want to hear some venom,
your life is at stake, Mason. Here we go, ready. 
Very good. Mason has done this a lot before so he’s
already very good, but even so make sure that
there’s power behind it, your body’s behind it,
you’re fighting for your life. 
Have some intent. Let’s try that once more.
Position number one. Above
the head. Line up, ready and action!
Well that was fantastic, Mason. Wonderful.
Ok, let’s move on to position number two,
which is a much more open position, wider
base. Split your weight between both feet,
aim the wand at the enemy. Your non-wand arm
is lined up with your front arm. Rotate the
wand to deliver the spell.
Make sure there’s real power behind the
delivery of the spell. 
Make sure you’re well into the movement.
Now it’s your turn at home, let’s have
a look. Here we go, ready and action!
Very good, see you can get still more rotation
of the wrist. The swish and the flick is very important.
Here we go. That’s good. 
Make sure the wand isn’t dropping, it’s absolutely
in line with your eye and aimed at your target.
And remember that the target could be far away,
so you need to visualise that as you
deliver the spell.
Your life is at stake, I want to hear something!
Ok, you were better at position number one.
Let’s move on, position number three. Move
number three is very important because if
you’re a very powerful wizard like Voldemort
for example, your non-wand arm could potentially
deflect a spell from a less skilful wizard,
so it’s very important that you bring your
non-wand arm across the body to protect you,
making sure that you’re able to still deliver
the spell whilst at the same time protecting
yourself. So line up your eye, your wand,
and bring the wand underneath the non-wand
arm and rotate to get the swish and the flick,
rotate inwards. Fire the spell underneath 
your non-wand arm.
Try to bring your weight onto the front leg
so there’s body behind it, so you’re delivering
the spell with all of the power that you have.
That’s it, that’s your turn at home.
Now let’s have a look. Here we go, standby and
action! Very good, make sure you really deliver
the spell with finality. Once more, and action!
Very good, that was great, that was really great.
Ok so position number four is also important,
because it takes into account that the wizards
don’t necessarily need to be able to see
the enemy, they can sense them all around
them. So this is a position to fire a spell
behind the back. So we’re going to turn
our back to the target and then we’re going
to fire the spell behind us. So all our attention
appears to be in this direction,
but we're going to fire the spell this way.
Now it’s your turn at home. Bring the wand
upwards until it’s in line with your target,
with your enemy. Still get down, bend the
knees, fire the spell behind, you making sure
you still get the wish and the flick, and action!
So we’re going to rotate the wand still
to get the swish and flick, that’s it.
Make sure you’re not shooting the ground, especially
below Gringotts Bank, you don’t know what’s there.
So make sure you’re able to bring
the wand up to the height of your target,
that's it. So really work the wrist. 
That’s wonderful!
Don’t worry about hunching over, do anything
you want. But make sure you get the swish
and the flick and the wand is at a height
to hit the target, and action!
That's wonderful, that’s really great. 
Excellent that was really good.
And move number five. Now I love this, it’s
very sneaky and it’s behind the back
but in the small of the back, and I mean I’ve
seen you play a Death Eater before so when
you have the robes, it’s very full in terms
of movement. So bring the robe around you,
and the wand and the other direction so that
it ends in the small of the back. Still get
the swish and the flick as much as you can,
and fire the wand behind you but in the small
of the back. 
That’s fine, either is fine.
It doesn't matter if the feet are together? 
No it doesn’t matter, that’s absolutely fine. All of these
movements can be strung together however you
want them to be. It’s the same as any other
movement form that established out of a set
of positions such as ballet or kung fu providing
you can choreographically arrive at where you
need to arrive any of the positions can be
used for any spell. They can be done
in any order, you can put
them together in any order you like. They
can be wide or high or low, however you want
to use them. The idea is to personalise it
for your character. So for example, Malfoy
in Order of the Phoenix would fight differently
from Sirius Black. So you need to be able
to use the movement to be able to adapt it
to suit your character. Personalise it.
Personalise it absolutely fine, I was wide, 
you were narrow, that’s fine.
Make it my own. Make it your own, own it!
Your turn at home, here we go and action!
And there we have it, those are the five attacking
positions for wand combat, so now let’s
run them through; one, two, three, four, five.
Yeah, do them all together. Here we go, position
number one above the head, standby, and action!
Position number two, standby and action!
Position number three, and action!
Position number four, and action!
And position number five, and action!
And there we have it, thank you very much
those are the five attacking moves for wand combat. 
I hope you had a lot of fun and thank you, Mason.
Thank you very much that was a lot of fun, Paul.
Tell us, which was your favourite move
do you think?
I think position number five actually because
when it’s done by a whole hoard of Death Eaters
its looks fantastic, I love it.
Very dramatic, I can see why you like that move.
Well thank you very much for joining
us here today, Paul, it’s been a pleasure
seeing you again, and we hope 
to see you again soon.
Thank you, thank you very much 
and thank you all at home.
We hope all of you at home have enjoyed learning
these moves with us. Let us know in the comments
section below which your favourite move was
and share your wand combat videos with us
on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using #WBTourLondon. Don't forget to check out the
Back To Hogwarts hub at WizardingWorld.com, for information and ideas on how you can celebrate
at home this year - plus details on how you can join
the fan community virtually on the September 1st.
