Kira Bakst

Logan Bearden
ENC1145-13
23 September 2013
The Magic is in the Medium
Media surrounds us all at every minute of every day. Posters, flyers, books, movies, and
television shows- all examples of media, and all aimed to attract a certain group of people, a
certain audience. The goal of each of these various mediums is to get information across to their
audience whether that information is a story or an announcement of a sale at the new store that
just opened down the street. One example of a medium is the book. There are many ways in
which books make meaning for the audience, from the smallest aspects of their look (the font,
the size of the margins, the placement of new paragraphs, and the location of punctuation marks)
to the major climax of the stories that they hold within their pages. To demonstrate how a book
uses these characteristics to make meaning and draw in an audience I will bring to mind one of
the globes most famous characters: Harry Potter. Harry Potters tale takes place in both the
medium of film and the medium of book, and through this paper I am going to explain to you
how exactly these two media use their unique affordances and limitations to make a story have
meaning.
The name Harry Potter is known around the world. For some people it is the name of a
boy who should be destroyed for going against their beliefs, but for many others it is the name of
a hero- a boy who nearly destroyed the worlds most powerful dark wizard at age one and then
returned to finish the job sixteen years later. Harry Potter is not perfect. He is not the best
student, he has a quick temper, and his tone is often dripping with sarcasm, but he also stands for

courage, loyalty, and hope- all of which are admirable qualities whether you are in the fictional
world of Hogwarts or not. Due to his relatable nature and his incredible story, Mr. Potter has
managed to transcend the written world of his seven-book series and enter into the greater realm
of popular culture. There are eight movies, a theme park, two musicals, several spin-off books,
an interactive website, and thousands of stories and artworks written and created by fans trying
to keep the magic alive. Every one of these versions of the series has its own audience and take
on the story along with its own way of getting the tale across, and each individual audience is
made up of those who are intrigued by the features of that particular medium. For example, the
medium of a theme park is designed in such a way that allows the audience to take part in the
story for themselves, and so the theme park inspired by the Harry Potter series attracts the
audience interested in this feature with its unique elements such as Ollivanders Wand Shop,
where members of the audience can take part in their own wand choosing ceremony, and Harry
Potter and the Forbidden Journey, a roller coaster where you can fly alongside Harry throughout
the grounds of Hogwarts and witness the magic of Hogwarts from a first-person point of view.
For the sake of this paper we will look at the novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and
the first of its film adaptations, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One. In each version
there is a scene in which Harry sees his family, the Dursleys, for the last time. However, the
scene as written in the book gives the impression that the scene is being used as a way to
effectively close a period in Harrys life, while the same scene in the movie implies that the
scene has no important meaning; it is just a way to cast the audience into the rest of the film.
Specifically, this paper will be an analysis on how and why this scene differs so vastly in
meaning between the two media, and how this difference is important in the study of how
medium affects audience.

The goal of a story is to entertain, and every person has their own way of defining how it
is that they judge a story on its entertainment value. However, an audience comes about when
many people share several traits and agree on what they consider to be an engaging story. This is
how medium affects audience, because without a single coherent mode through which an
audiences idea of an engaging story is presented, the audience would never have come
together in the first place. That being said, the audience of those who only read the book version
of Deathly Hallows is likely made up of those who are at or above age 12, have relatively strong
attention spans, do not mind sitting in the quiet for long periods of time, are able to sit still for
long periods of time, enjoy reading, and, after following Harrys life across six novels and
thousands of pages, have a strong connection with the series as a whole. Those who only saw the
film adaptation of Deathly Hallows probably have a different set of qualities; they are probably
at or above age 13, have an attention span of approximately two and a half hours, enjoy being
engulfed by surround sound explosions and movie scores, and would rather sit and watch the
story play out in front of them than read it and visualize it being played out in their heads.
Therefore, it stands to reason that the main reason the novel and the movie are so different in the
stories that they relay is that while the novel has the wiggle room to add extra details and
diversions from the main plot, the movie must get right down to the main idea so that it can tell
its story in the two hours and thirty minutes it has to capture and maintain the audiences
attention. That is, the plots of the scene in the book and the scene in the movie have to be
different because of the demands of the different media. The novel presents the scene as a way to
officially end Harrys childhood: he is seeing his family- the Dursleys- and the only home he has
ever known- Privet Drive- for what he expects will be the last time, and thus it tries as hard as it
can to effectively close this period of Harrys life. The movie simply uses the clip as a way to

kick off the real plot of the story- Harrys hunt for a way to end Voldemort for good. Despite
being supposed to represent the same scene, the original and the remixed version vary greatly
because the methods used to display the scene are very different as well. The book must rely on
wording, descriptions, and seemingly miniscule details like the font, font size, paragraph breaks,
and punctuation placement in order to have the story generate a smooth flow of meaning from
the page to the readers thoughts. The movie, however, is much more visual. It relies on acting
(spoken and non), music, lighting, and set design rather than the organization of words on a page
because those are the features of the medium of film and those are what the audience of a film
have been conditioned to expect to see. A films audience perceives the films meaning in a
certain way because they have adapted to the ways in which the film tells the story, and the same
goes for the audience of the novels. This is how medium affects audience. In these next few
pages I will explain how the technical elements of each medium give meaning to the scene where
the Dursleys depart, and therefore why the meaning of this scene differs between the two media.
As a novel should, the chapter which details Harrys final interactions with the Durselys
uses mostly narrative to tell the reader what is going on. That is, the author, J.K. Rowling, uses
words to describe each characters appearance, mood, and general feeling about leaving their
home on Privet Drive. This is of course to be expected- it is a book, after all. Unlike a movie, a
book is not able to provide a visual representation of what is going on. It is up to the authors
choice of words, word placement, and grammar to get the story across to the reader as smoothly
as possible. For example, at the beginning of the chapter Harry is depicted as uninterested and
deep in thought:
a voice yelled Oi! You! Sixteen years of being addressed thus left Harry in no doubt
whom his uncle was calling; nevertheless, he did not immediately respond. He was still

gazing at the mirror fragment in which, for a split second, he had thought he saw
Dumbledores eye. It was not until his uncle bellowed, BOY! that Harry got slowly to
his feet and headed for the bedroom door, pausing to add the piece of broken mirror to
the rucksack lled with things he would be taking with him. (Rowling 30)
Harry clearly has more important things on his mind than whatever his uncle happens to find
disagreeable at the moment, but it is not through the look on his face that we obtain this
information. The meaning of Harrys actions is given through the descriptions of them. The
meaning is made based on the use of words that indicate hesitation, such as pausing and
slowly, and through the grammatical breaks that simulates the voice of a reader and guides
other readers through the quote. The punctuation breaks up the passage just as Harrys own
movements are broken up, and helps the reader visualize what the words are attempting to
describe, the meaning that the words are attempting to convey. Here is another long quote in
which the aspects of the medium of a book are being used to their full extent:
Hastily stowing her wet handkerchief into her pocket, she said, Well good-bye, and
marched toward the door without looking at him.
Good-bye, said Harry.
She stopped and looked back. For a moment Harry had the strangest feeling that she
wanted to say something to him. She gave him an odd, tremulous look and seemed to
teeter on the edge of speech, but then, with a little jerk of her head, she bustled out of the
room after her husband and son. (42)
In this scene, the very last point in time where Harry interacts with a member of the Dursley
family, there are many different pieces that come together to create the scenes deeper meaning.
Most clearly different from the previous quote is its overall layout. This quote is not in a strict

paragraph form, but rather in separate sections, with the first and last dealing with Petunia
Dursley and the small middle section dealing with Harry. This structure not only allows the
reader to go with the flow of the dialogue and actions of the characters, but provides a small,
visual hint that Harry and the Dursleys are now separate. They do not occupy the same space in
the books layout, or in the times that are to come. The grammar also belies how transitory this
time together that Petunia and Harry have is. The broken-up nature of the paragraph breaks up
not only the flow of words, but demonstrates the broken relationship that Harry and Petunia
have, and their dialogue is written choppily, emphasizing the idea that the two only have a short
amount of time left together to speak. Furthermore, Petunia is described as appearing as though
she wanted to say more before but she instead leaves their final word as good-bye, a word that
all readers can relate to and understand the meaning of. Once the Dursleys have departed, Harry
is left alone in the living room. This imagery of Harry standing alone is a last, subtle attempt to
show that this phase of Harrys life, the era of him being tormented by his only blood relatives
while spending the hot summer months waiting for his return to his true home- Hogwarts, has
ended. It is only through the medium of a book that this degree of imagery can be described and
detailed to this extent, and that is how medium affects audience, because the audience of a
medium is drawn in based on the specific qualities of that medium.
As stated, with all the dialogue and detail included in the twelve pages that make up this
scene in the novel, there is no way that the film could have incorporated everything in it and
have been able to remain within its time limit. As such, it uses different methods to tell a much
different story. First off, the scene opens with Vernon and Dudley Dursley loading their car with
their belongings. Dudley is asking why they must leave their home while Vernon explains that it
is because they are not safe here anymore, and Harry is shown silently watching the two from his

bedroom window. Because the scene is so short in the film (a measly fifteen seconds), it is hard
to use words to explain the story as they are used in the book. Therefore, numerous other
methods are utilized. Rather than have the dialogue be written, words are spoken, and the way in
which they are spoken determines their meaning. Taking advantage of this fact, actors allow the
mood of the film and the meaning of the words they are speaking to flow through them and out
their mouths by altering the points at which they emphasize syllables, at which they swallow
sounds, at which they speed up or slow down their words, and at which they change the volume
of their voice. For example, Dudleys lines are spoken jerkily (I still- I still dont understand
why we have to leave), as though he cant seem to comprehend the situation enough to even
formulate a question (Batuhan). Following along with confused mood implied by his words, the
actors tone of voice is puzzled and a bit irritated, shown again through the choppy delivery of
the lines and also through the loud volume of the actors voice. Vernons own lines are much
steadier: Come on Dudley! Hurry up! Because its not safe for us here anymore
(Batuhan). However, they are hurried, and by the end of them they have decreased in volume- an
attempt to show, rather than describe, that he has only one thing on his mind: to leave and to
remain undetected while he does so. Alongside the actors voices is a music score which stresses
the uptight atmosphere even more. The string instruments are playing the same two low notes
while gradually getting louder, bringing to mind the concept of the rising action in a plot device,
and one, possibly two, brass instruments play a tense, almost somber melody. The lighting and
scenery also have a hand in creating the mood of the scene by casting a dark tint across
everything: the sky is cloudy, the houses windows are dark, and the car that Vernon and Dudley
are loading is black. Also, the set of the scene, Privet Drive, is made to look very uniform, with
the only thing out of place being the Dursleys and their car, as if they were simply added in and

can just as easily be taken out. This was a very delicate and visual way of giving the meaning
that it is not the Dursleys who are a main part of the story, but rather that they are simply there to
quickly tie up a loose end before springing into the real plot. Each of these facets of the scenethe music, the acting, the set design, the lighting- are all characteristics of the medium of film.
They are things that the medium of the novel does not have. Music in movies is a sly way of
manipulating the audiences mood (without them even realizing it) to better appreciate what is
being played out before them. If the music is fast-paced, the audience unwittingly becomes
excited, and is the music is slow but getting louder, such as it is in the scene described above, it
influences the audience to be wary because something greater is about to occur. The design of
the set, along with the lighting, provide visual cues for the viewers of the film to follow. The
cloudiness of the sky, the irregularity of the Dursleys amongst the stillness of the rest of Privet
Drive, and the contrast of Harrys darkened face next to the whiteness of his curtains are all
trying to show that this is not the main point of the story, but a jumping off point. Eventually, the
sky will get even cloudier, the Dursleys will be gone, and Harry will be forced to face alone
whatever storm is implied to be coming by the overall gloominess of the scene. Actors and
actresses are also an integral part of the medium of film because it is they who get the films
story across. It is through their spoken lines, their stressed syllables, cracking voices, and silent
gestures, that the meaning of the scene, plot, and words themselves shine through. The audience
hears those words just as they hear the music and they affect them by proving that they are
getting what they came for: they are having the story be told to them, take part in front of them,
in a way that involves them personally despite not being directly involved. The audience of a
movie expects to be told a story in exactly this way because they know that those are the
characteristics of the medium. They do not expect to have to mull through details and stumble

over the phrasing of sentences or ponder about the layout of paragraphs because those are not
characteristics of a film, revealing that medium can affect audience.
The methods being used to tell the story of this scene are very different, and thus the
audience for each version of the story is not the same. What the novel lacks in the visual and
audio aspects it makes up for in detail, and what the film lacks in detail it makes up for with
audio and visuals. Each medium does its best using its pros and cons to deliver its story in the
most effective way possible to appeal to the largest audience possible- that is the main goal of
every story in the end. Thus, the audience of a particular medium is a direct result of whatever
features that medium has to offer, whether it be comedy and song (typical of A Very Potter
Musical) or challenging puzzles that can keep one entertained for hours (typical of the Harry
Potter-inspired website Pottermore) or even just having the story be told in as much detail as
possible (typical of the origin of every Harry Potter remix out there- the novels themselves).
Knowing this, it would be easy to target any audience you could think of by just deciding what
features you want your story to be told with. That is why the study of how medium affects
audience is important, because without it writers, whether they be writing a script or a book or an
advertisement, would have no way of making sure the ways in which they pass their information
along will be received by those whom it will affect most.

Works Cited

Batuhan, Arda Acar. (Hermione) Obliviate Scene Dursleys Departing Scene Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1. Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube. 3
Sep. 2012. Web. 24 Nov. 2012.

Rowling, Joanne K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. New York, NY: Arthur A.
Levine Books, 2007. Elisd.org. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.