Friday, February 15, 2008
Our first activity since returning from the States was to take a trip out to Leavesden Studios, which is where they film the Harry Potter movies. That was one of the coolest things that we have done since we've been here, being huge Harry Potter fans and all. We got there and had a coffee in the Canteen with the people that we were going to be walking around with. Ally guided us and the other 5 people around many places at the studio.
We started our tour walking by the crew and actors bicycles and the adult costume rooms, although we didn't get to go in. The group that we were touring with all do licenses for the children actors, therefore, they had to see where the education of the children takes places, so this is where we started out. We got to see where they have their classes during the day and where each of the actors (under 16) had their own personal rooms, including Bonnie's, who plays Jenny Weasley.
Our first major stop on the tour was to see the Great Hall, it was absolutely amazing to see in person. We felt like we were actually in the Great Hall of Hogwarts. They had just filmed a scene where the children were all eating, so there were crew members washing off all of the plates with the pink food leftovers, it was supposed to have been some sort of custard. Walking up to the front of the Great Hall where the teachers sit was even more impressive, you could see the floating candles, the house points counter, Hagrid's chair that was bigger than all of the others with the dots for the green screen, and so much more. Looking at all of the Hogwart's specific silverware, metal plates, and the cakes was so much more detailed than you get to actually see in the movies. Also, seeing the wall statues of the 4 houses was so cool, there were no candles on them lit but they said when they are lit it is more amazing than you can imagine. Once we walked out of the Great Hall we even got to see a cue card for Professor Dumbledore's welcome speech.
When we walked out of the Great Hall we walked into the hallways leading up to the Great Hall, they are all pretty much archways and stairs with green screen backdrops, not the complete thing, still the architecture that they put into the sets is outstanding. While we headed to our next stop we passed some backdrops along the way and we got to see half of Grop from the 5th movie, apparently some of the set guys had put him on top of the building as a joke. We walked by the exterior of Grimald Place and even Wool's Orphanage, which has not been seen yet. We then headed to our destination, car park 5. This is now a makeshift area for the children extras. It was divided into girls and boys, over 16 and under 16. We got to go into the under 16 boys dressing area and see lots of costumes, including the new Quidditch uniforms. It was kind of funny how it was set up, each child is assigned a number, and they have hangers with each of their outfits on them, there is even a picture of every child in each of their outfits.
We walked to the rest of the costume department, where you get to see more costumes, including ones for Slughorns Christmas party in the upcoming movie. We even met some of the ladies who have to wash, dry, and iron these clothes every single day, what a task. There were thousands of pieces of clothing laying around, I don't see how they do it. We also got to walk through the children extra's canteen area and classrooms. They are kept separate from the adults since there are so many of them and they are so loud, there were over 300 in the last movie.
Next it was back to the canteen for lunch. Everyone's lunch is between 11:30 and 2:00 and is on a staggered schedule. When we walked in the first thing we saw was Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) sitting at the head of a table with a group of people. It was so crazy to see him just sitting there, he is so tall and very impressive looking. Louise also told us he is the nicest actor, he is so friendly to all of the employees and is always willing to sign autographs and take pics with kids. We also saw Rupert Grint sitting at a table eating lunch with his runner, he plays Ron Weasley for those of you who don't know him. He looks so shy. We went through the line and grabbed lunch, chicken curry, and sat and ate lunch with Jamie. While there we saw a few other actors, including Bonnie again, and some of the doubles eating their lunch, along with lots of crew members. We went to look at Louise's cute Harry Potter bike that she drives around to the sets to put out drinks and snacks, while there we listed to Alan Rickman talk, he sounds just like Snape, I thought he would sound differently.
After lunch we looked at some glass display cases from each of the movie. They housed lots of memorabilia from each movie, including the Goblet of Fire, a beauxbatons dress, Umbridge's pink suit and cat plates, the dancing cactus of Neville's, and way too much more to mention everything. We headed outside and walked to Privet Drive, we even looked inside the windows of Number 4. All of the other houses are just fronts, no actual insides. Due to a parking shortage at the Studio, there were crew members who actually park their cars in the driveways of the houses of Privet Drive, it was kind of funny. There were actually 2 cars parked at #4. We continued our journey outside and saw where Durham Cathedral was being built for this movie. They can get those sets up so quickly and they look spectacular. We were going to go to Hagrid's hut but due to the construction on the Cathedral we could not go down there. Oh well, we walked by the Quidditch Pitch, it was kind of funny because the top half, including the quidditch rings, were all green screen, only the bottom half actually looked like the Quidditch Pitch.
Our next stop was back inside the studios where we got to see the interior of 2 cars from the Hogwarts Express. The room that housed the 2 cars was also the room that was formerly the interior to the Ministry of Magic. There were still some remaining set parts lying around, like the fireplaces and the statues from the fountain. Also was part of the interior of the cave for this movie and the outside of part of the Hogwart's castle that overlooks the lake, complete with bench and lamppost. There were crystals hanging in front of the lake backdrop to make the lake look like it was sparkling. There was even some leftover snow around the lamps and on the roof top from a previous scene. Looking inside the building that we were standing in front of you could see Christmas decorations and a tree stump decorated (we think for Slughorn's party). In the next room over they were doing a photo shoot on one of the brooms. We then continued walking through more halls of Hogwarts, we even saw the mirrors that were used in the Room of Requirements in #5.
Our next stop was completely unexpected but one of our favorite stops, inside the Weasley's house. Stepping inside the house was exactly what it looks like in the movie, small, cluttered, and very crooked. Your eyes were very distorted while in here, your mind knew something was not right. Some of our favorite things around the Weasley's house were the Pixie Puffs cereal, Owlieos cereal, the Family clock that shows each members whereabouts and if they are in peril or not, the fireplace where they used the flue powder, Hogwarts school trunks, Gilderoy Lockhart books, the long and narrow dinner table, and so many other things. We even walked up a level of stairs, when you look up there were many more levels above you, all getting more and more narrow and more and more crooked.
We walked across the way into Slughorn's office, he even had a Christmas tree outside his door. We joined another group here to listen to a guide that had lots of stories to tell. We continued our tour into Gryffindor's common room. There was a stuffed armadillo, a notice board with a poster for Weasley Whizzes, the great fireplace that had Sirius's head in it, and a large Gryffindor plaque above it, along with so many other things. We walked upstairs to the boys room, and even got to touch Harry's pillow, sheets, and curtains. The beds are made of solid wood and are so small. Ron's bed was a complete mess.
Next we walked over to see Dumbledore's office, this room was so detailed. We got to see the pensieve, the memory holder, pictures of the sleeping previous head masters, the telescope that is made from a B-52 bomber chair, lots of law books, and other astrological sculptures. We even got to sit in Dumbledore's chair, it was not very comfortable. The neatest thing in his office to me was the memory holder, it was about 5 tiers tall, gold and glass, and had thousands of little bottles in it, all labeled with different memories. There were some very unruly children with us at this point and all I could think was that they were going to knock this over, that would be a complete disaster.
Our last stop on the tour was to actually watch a scene being filmed. The scene included Professor Snape (Alan Rickman), Professor McGonagall (Dame Maggie Smith), Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), and Hermoine Granger (Emma Watson), in which they are showing Snape the blue necklace. It was fun to watch, it took about 45 minutes. It was really cute, Emma was reading a book in between all of the takes. Once the scene was done we stood around for a while and watched the actors leave, Daniel is so much shorter than I had ever realized, maybe shorter than me. Overall we had a fabulous time, I will never ever forget it.
To continue our entertainment themed weekend, we went and watched an episode of Don't Froget the Lyrics being filmed, we were audience members. It was a lot of fun and not as long as I expected it to take.
Our signed copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:
