For my birthday in June, I visited Warner Brother Studios to see the Harry Potter tour. This was a fun day out, and we easily spent most of the day here. We saw props and costumes, full sets, large-scale models of various locations used in the film, and saw the techniques used to bring the Harry Potter franchise to life.
The first set that we discovered was the Great Hall (Hogwarts). We saw many of the costumes in this room, and each corner was dedicated to costumes that the actors and actresses wore for each house (ie, Gryffindor). The front of the Great Hall showcased many costumes of the staff members. The detail in this room was amazing.
The Great Hall
We also saw the sets for the Gryffindor house sitting room and the boys' bedroom. The rooms were filled with props and costumes.
Gryffindor dormatory room at Hogwarts with costumes worn by Hermione, Harry, and Ron.
We saw the classroom for the Dark Arts, including several glass jars filled with unique items that were gathered and labelled individually. It looked like the studio employees had fun with this fine detail and coming up with some creative solutions, including what to put into the jars and what to label them.
Snape's costume was also on display, and the potions on the table had self-stirring couldrons. The room was made to look like it is underground.
Dark Arts classroom with potions and Professor Snape's costume
Hagrid's house and Weasley's house (sets) were also on display. In the Weasley's house, many of the items moved by magic. For example, a knife sliced a vegetable. The brush in the sink washed a pan, and the iron was doing the ironing. The costumes that the Weasley family wore were also on display. The shelves in the kitchen were also stocked with their own packaging for cereals, created by the graphic designers who worked on the Harry Potter films. (That would have been a fun job.)
Ron Weasley's family's house
Professor Dumbledore's office was also a set with the costumes on display. The books were re-bound Yellow Pages, and the portraits around the room (not shown) were based on Warner Brother's staff and celebrities who worked on the series.
Half-way through the exhibition was a kiosk selling Butterbeer. I had to have a try. The drink tasted very sweet. It was made of ice cream, cream, soda, and a carmel-like syrup.
Professor Dumbledore's room and costumes; Butterbeer glass
I saw the full set of Diagon Alley, the street where Harry and his friends went to have fun and buy their supplies for school.
Diagon Alley
Wooden bridge at Hogwarts
Large-scale models and other props were also on display.
A large-scale model
The large-scale model of Hogwarts was on display, and the room was much larger than my flat. The lighting changed depending on the time of day, and it was on a cycle. The detail in this was amazing. There were monitors around the model with scenes from the film and how the images were super-imposed of one character walking (on a blue-screen treadmill in a blue-screen room) and instantly transferred into the grounds of Hogwarts.
Large-scale model of Hogwarts and the grounds, with changing lighting to show the different times of the day.
Have you been to the tour? What did you think?
Leave a comment