Well, I'm a little late with this post again, but I think it will be worth it. I know that this is going to be a super long post because I had a ridiculously long weekend. It's going to take some time before I regain feeling in my butt from all the travelling I did. However, I would do it all again in a heartbeat, because I got to see so many beautiful things and experience so much history. A couple of times, I looked around and thought "is this really my life?" For the sake of expediency (and so that I have something to do between now and the time that I leave on the 17th), I'm only going to talk about my first day in London in this post. Maybe I'll do Friday's adventures tomorrow.
I'll start out with saying that I left for Dublin Wednesday night, with my flight leaving at 11:00 AM Thursday morning. I arrived at the airport shortly before midnight, and set up my computer to wait for my flight. After about an hour, I decided to take a nap. Luckily, the McDonalds upstairs had some comfortable benches perfect for just such an occasion. I think the security guards thought I was a hobo, because at one point they woke me up to ask if I had a flight in the morning. I looked down at my suitcase before replying, thinking "No, I just carry this heavy luggage around to tone my arms." I didn't say it (mostly because I think they would have kicked me out of the airport), but I really wanted to.
I arrived in England at around 1, and immediately started rushing around, trying to get everything that I wanted done accomplished. My easybus left London Heathrow airport and stopped in Watford Junction, where I picked up a shuttle to Warner Brothers London Studio tour of Harry Potter. I then waited for about 20 minutes for my tour to begin, all the while taking in some of the props and photos they had in the lobby. They had a Ford Anglia suspended in the air over the information desk, some pictures of the cast as they grew up on the walls, and a giant telescope from Dumbledore's office all on display before you even got into the actual studio.
Once in line, the first thing that I saw was the staircase in the Dursley's home, where Harry was forced to sleep at the beginning of the first book. Since it was the actual set where they filmed the scenes, you could see just how tiny Daniel Radcliff was when they first started shooting. It was so tiny! They even had an original pair of Harry's glasses sitting on the floor beside the staircase from the first movie, and they were so little. It amazes me to think just how long it has been since I was in second grade, and my teacher kept yelling at me to put "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" down and pay attention in class.
Once they let us into the main studio, they showed us a bunch of the movie posters from around the world, in a number of different languages. They then showed us a movie about how the movies came to be about, followed by an introduction from Daniel Radcliff, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint welcoming us onto the set and telling us more about their time in the studio making the movies. It was a really cool way to start out the tour, which then continued into the Great Hall set. One of the most iconic sets in the movie, it was almost unreal to step inside and be a part of the Hogwarts world in a way that I dreamed about when I was younger.
They had a lot of the costumes from the ghosts and the students on display, including the costumes of the main actors. For example, they had Neville's sweater from the final battle, and Harry's tiny uniform from the first film. They also had the costumes from the main teachers, including Hagrid and Dumbledore, next to the Head Table and Dumbledore's podium. However, my favorite part of the Great Hall was getting to see the House Point counter, which didn't really feature too heavily in the movies. It was so interesting to think of all the work that went into creating the thousands of colored glass beads inside.
From the Great Hall, they led us in one of the main soundstages, where they had little stands that you could walk around and check things out at your own pace. For example, they had an entire section at the beginning dedicated to all the work the production crew put in for the Yule Ball scenes from The Goblet of Fire. They had Hermione's beautiful dress, as well as the costumes of Harry, Krum, Cho and Ron. They also had the crystal punchbowl and all of the fabulous dishes that they created with the "winter" theme in mind. My favorite part was, of course, the chocolate table that they had created for the opening feast of the fourth movie. The entire table looked good enough to eat, though none of it was edible.
From there, they had set up makeup and hair counters, where you could see all of the work that was put into creating the look for each character, particularily those with strange hairstyles, like Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy. They even had Hagrid's beard pinned onto a mannequin so that the vistors could see that every single part was made up of individual components that I'm sure took forever to get just right for filming. It kinda weirded me out seeing all those wigs on the mannequins, though. It's not that I'm afraid of them, like some people. It's just that it looked like some of the characters had been scalped, and their hair placed on the mannequin heads. Though, maybe I've just been watching too much Bones lately. Also, the makeup counter was ridiculous. I have never seen that much makeup outside of the aisles in the store. It was insane to think of how long the actors had to sit in those chairs in order to look the parts they were playing. I certainly don't envy them that experience, though I'm sure they got used to it after a while.
Next to the hair and makeup stands was costumes. Obviously, they couldn't show every single costume worn by each person, but they did show a couple Luna and Lockheart's costumes on the rack like they would be for filming. I had a lot of fun thinking, "hmm...Luna wore that one at the wedding in the sixth movie." or "Ah! This was Fleur's costume during the Triwizard Tournament!" (that one you can just barely see in the background of this shot). Interestingly, the girl who played Luna Lovegood in the movie, Evanna Lynch, helped to design her costumes for the films. Pretty interesting, at least in my opinion.
From there, it was pretty much a free-for-all, where you could move around the enormous soundstage and check out some of the most iconic sets from the movies. Of course, I headed to the Gryffindor tower rooms first, where they had set up the common room and the boys dormitory sets. Interesting little tidbit: The beds in the boy's dorm room were created to fit them when they first started the movie. In other words, for their ten-twelve year old selves. They were never rebuilt, so by the end of their time at Hogwarts, the characters had to curl up in bed so that their legs didn't hang off the ends and appear ridiculous. Next time you're watching the movies, check out their legs to see if it's noticeable! I was weirded out by how
small the room looked. In the movies, it seems like a huge room, but it was actually really tiny in person. The magic of cameras, I guess, because I never would have guessed that the actors probably had barely enough room to move around with all of the camera equipment in that tiny little space with them.
Right beside the dormitory was the common room set, which featured not only the lush chairs and cozy fireplaces that I expected, but also had some unexpected features. It had the costumes for Harry, Ron and Hermione from the first, third and seventh movies on display, as well as the Invisibility Cloak, both the green screen version and the exterior, celtic-design inspired exterior. Also, if you look in the upper right hand corner of the picture to the right, you can see the painting of a young woman with her hands behind her back. Turns out this was a young Professor McGonagall. All of the paintings in the dormitory were of former Gryffindor Head of Houses. A tidbit that wasn't in the books, which I found very cool.
One of my two favorite sets on the interior sound stage was the Potions classroom. You can't really capture the magic of this set on film, because a number of the cauldrons were stirring themselves. They were lit up from the inside with green or red lights so that it looked like the potions were phosphorescent. Plus, all of the bottles on the walls actually contain real ingredients, like boiled bones from the local butcher. All of these vials are handmade and hand labeled, which made it truly fascinating. The whole set was coated in dim, green lighting, making it feel like it was underground. Like, say, in the dungeons? (that was sarcasm. I have read the books, and thus know that the potions classroom was, in fact, in the dungeons)
My 2nd favorite set was also probably Harry's 2nd favorite place in the world. I, of course, am talking about the Burrow. From the blanket that was knitting itself, to the carrots that were being chopped by a magicked knife, the entire room had the feeling of home, which I am missing terribly at this point in my trip here. Of course, my family isn't as home-oriented as the Weasley's, but it has its moments. And I'm sure that my mom would envy Mrs. Weasley her wonderful clock. Insider's Info: The Burrow was supposed to look like Mr. Weasley had built it, so the house was first built entirely level, then production pulled it with ropes until nothing was at right angles while still maintaining the safety of the set. So the room looked slightly lopsided.
The sheer amount of props that were used in the movies were truly amazing. They kept almost everything, from the wands, to the Triwizard and Quidditch cups, and Rita Skeeter's Quick Quotes Quill. And most of the important props from the movies were on display. My favorite props to get a closer look at were the Horcruxes. They obviously couldn't put Nagini or (Spoiler Alert for those of you who still haven't read the books or watched the movies) Harry on display, so all they had in the case were Ravenclaw's Diadem, Hufflepuff's cup, Slytherin's Necklace, Marvolo's ring and Riddle's diary. Also, there was another case that had the Rememberall, the Snitch, and the Sorceror's Stone inside that I spent quite a while standing at.
From there, you could go and check out the green screen technology, including getting the opportunity to film yourself playing Quidditch. I wasn't really in the mood to stand around for an hour to wait, so I just looked around the green screen area that was already set up. They had the Gringott's cart, Hagrid's motorbike, and Moody and Harry's brooms on the mechanisms that made them fly against the green screen. The pictures I took of the cart and the brooms were really fuzzy, but this one wasn't too bad. They also showed clips from filming, where Daniel would be on the broomstick, and you could see it moving around. Then, they added the background, and Harry was on the Quidditch pitch, reaching for the Golden Snitch.
There were more sets in this part of the tour, including the Ministry's fireplaces, the Magic is Might statue, and Dolorus Umbridge's office (which looked like someone had thrown up a lot of Pepto Bismol inside). However, the one that drew the largest crowd was Dumbledore's office. The office had the costumes of both Dumbledores (Richard Harris and Michael Gambon), as well as the giant telescope and all of his various textbooks and trinkets that lined the walls. They also had the Griffin statue that led up to his office on display outside the doorway. However, it led to nothing but a wall, as this version wasn't mechanized.
However, the coolest part was tucked away where, strangely, no one was looking. I'm, of course, talking about the Pensieve and all of Dumbledore's collected memories. Each vial in the case on the left was handblown and labeled in spindly handwriting, which must have taken the production team a very long time. The Pensieve, regretably was pushed back on the shelf and not quite as majestic as it appears in the films, but still pretty cool.
The next part of the tour was the outside backlot, which hosted any scenes that were outdoors in the films, including the bridge outside Hogwarts, the exterior of Privet Drive, and the Potter's house in Godric's Hollow. Bet you'd never guess that Harry's very first home was about 10 feet from the house that made him so miserable, would ya? Also outside was one of the two versions of the Knight Bus. The team created one bus that was motorized and able to move, and another that didn't move, but offered access to the inside for shooting.The bus itself is the product of two London tour buses, with the double decker portion of one bus cut off and welded onto the top of the other to create the three-tiered bus. Sadly, no shrunken heads were on the inside of the bus.
Once I was done walking around the outside, taking pictures of giant wizard chess pieces and Tom Riddle Sr.'s gravesite, it was into the creature room I headed. It was here that they created all of the animatronic elements for the movies, including three versions of Fawkes the Pheonix, Grawp, Aragog, Buckbeak and the emaciated, tiny Voldemort. They also had life-size, rubber molds of several of the cast members, including Hermione, George, Harry, Dumbledore and Hagrid. The Hermione mold was most likely used both when she was paralyzed by the basilisk in book 2 and during the scene in the lake in book 4. The Harry and Dumbledore molds were likely used when both characters were supposed to be dead. Perhaps the coolest/creepiest thing in the creature studio was the realistic, animatronic head of Hagrid that was remote controlled to move its lips, create facial expressions, and twist like a normal head. This animatronic version of Hagrid was placed on top of the 6'6" stunt double for Robbie Coltrain when Hagrid was standing beside other characters and had to appear enormous, yet didn't have to talk. It was actually quite convincing.
After the creature studio, we passed by the enormous Aragog and continued on to find Diagon Alley. Easily, the most interesting fixture of the alley was the moving statue of one of the twins at the Weasley Wizarding Weazes shop, but I was determined to wait until I got to the end to truly appreciate it. There were only a couple of shops at Diagon Alley, mostly because they rebuilt the set for each movie, adding and removing shops based on their necessity for the movie. Eeyops Owl Emporium was there, as well as Ollivanders, but Knockturn Alley was missing. Interesting tidbit: each of the wandboxes in Ollivanders (over 17,000) were handmade, individually labelled with different labels, and set up in the shop. That is, until the special effects team got ahold of the shop and blew it up for the 6th movie. Also, each of the wands for the cast and extras were individually serial numbered. They were given their wand at the beginning of the day, then returned them at the end of the night. That way, it was easy to find who had which wand and where they could find them to get it back.
From Diagon Alley, I moved on to easily the most amazing part of the tour: The Hogwarts Model. While it was 1:25 scale, it was still a beautiful model and so intricate that I was reverent just looking at it. As someone who typically moves like a bull in a china shop, I was extremely careful not to get anywhere near it in case I fell and tripped into it or something. Truly a work of art, it featured tiny, fiber optic lights that flickered to simulate torchlight and even had the silhouette of students moving through the halls built in. Every year, each tiny little brick on every tower, turret and wall was handpainted to be fresh. Every little bit of the model was handcarved and so unbelievably detailed that it took my breath away. I can only imagine how much work went into creating it.
The model covered the entire grounds of Hogwarts, including the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid's Hut, and some areas that weren't really covered in any of the movies. According to the information plaques around the room, the model was used for exterior shots of Hogwarts, namely when they were showing scenes of the landscape. They used real materials, such as stones from the nearby village, as often as possible when creating the model, and it was honestly the coolest thing I saw while I was there. I applaud the builders who went into creating this labor of love. They should be incredibly proud of creating Hogwarts in a way that would make J.K. Rowling proud.
Overall, my tour of the Warner Brothers London Harry Potter Studios is an event that I will never forget for the rest of my life, and something that truly made the books and movies more dear to my heart than ever. Since I was very young, about the same age as Harry when his journey began, these books have been a part of my life, and I grew up with their characters. I was extremely sad to see it all end, but at least I have this tour to remind me that Harry Potter is still alive and out there in the generations who still have yet to discover the magic of the series. And it didn't hurt that I got to have the delicious Tom Felton talk in my ear for nearly two hours. ;)
After the tour, I hopped on the bus to Central London, found my hostel, and went straight to sleep. After waking up at five the next morning and finishing my last final paper, I had another adventure through Central London, but I'll save that for next time, as this post is already ridiculously long.
As always, more pictures of my time in the studios is on Facebook!
Much love,
Brooke
There were more sets in this part of the tour, including the Ministry's fireplaces, the Magic is Might statue, and Dolorus Umbridge's office (which looked like someone had thrown up a lot of Pepto Bismol inside). However, the one that drew the largest crowd was Dumbledore's office. The office had the costumes of both Dumbledores (Richard Harris and Michael Gambon), as well as the giant telescope and all of his various textbooks and trinkets that lined the walls. They also had the Griffin statue that led up to his office on display outside the doorway. However, it led to nothing but a wall, as this version wasn't mechanized.
