15 Things to Know About 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' (Page 3)

11. Ist Bruno!
Also new to 'Prince' is director of photography Bruno Delbonnel, who shot the gorgeous French flicks 'Amelie' and 'A Very Long Engagement.' What does that mean to the average fan? "It'll be warmer than the last film," director David Yates says of the movie's look. "'Order of the Phoenix' was dealing with teenage angst and it was dealing with that period in life where you start to rebel a wee bit and you're struggling against authority and all of that, while this film is much warmer and much more romantic."

12. Magical vs. Fantastical
One of the biggest goals (and challenges) on the set of 'Potter' movies has been to maintain a consistent look and feel. "We've established a world and it's a parallel world to our own," says David Heyman, the 'Potter' producer who obtained the books' film rights. "We're quite strict about making sure we don't stray, because sometimes directors or contributors turn up for the first time, and it's very easy for them to stray off into the realm of the fantastical as opposed to the magical. What we try and establish is a real world that has a magical element, which is obviously not real. But who knows? Maybe there are wizards out there. Maybe we are muggles, after all."

13. Buddy Comedy
Harry, Ron and Hermione may be the tale's inseparable trio of BFFs, but behind the scenes Radcliffe bonded most with an older soul -- Michael Gambon, who plays Dumbledore. For the first couple months of filming, Radcliffe and Gambon were the only actors on set. "The relationship between me and Michael really built up over that time," Radcliffe says, adding that the two have similar senses of humor. "When you know that you're both going to have to work together very closely doing very difficult stuff, you really need to very, very quickly find something that you can bond over." Radcliffe was especially tickled when Gambon responded to news that Rowling had "outed" Dumbledore by "camping it up around set for a couple weeks after that."

14. Kissing Co-Stars
"There's so much kissing going on in this book!" Watson says. And fans aren't the only ones who get excited by the Hogwarts smooch fests. Radcliffe admits he was disappointed he missed the kiss between Ron and Lavender, "Just 'cause I thought it'd be pretty funny." According to Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville Longbottom, kissing scenes are usually shot on closed sets, "so no one can go in and start laughing in the background," but Ron and Lavender's kiss was filmed in front of most of the cast. The reserved Grint describes the scene's filming as "quite embarrassing," but says, "I had a room full of people cheering." Well, he must be doing something right.

15. Hints of 'Hallows'
"We've kind of altered our story to make sure we don't tread on the toes of what comes in 'Deathly Hallows,'" says Yates about the final chapter, which was released in bookstores only months before 'Half-Blood Prince' went into production. Among the changes: A subplot surrounding Dumbledore's wand, and a major development in the Ron and Hermione saga: "We had a kiss planned for ['Half-Blood Prince'], which we've sort of saved because we think it's better to maintain that sexual tension." In other words, fans yearning for a taste of that sugar will have to wait until Nov. 19, 2010, the day 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I' opens. Unless, of course, it's decided that the kiss will be better in 'Part II.'