The first thing we did in London (reminder: this was an entirely kid-friendly trip!) was head to the Harry Potter Studio Tour.
It was a bit out of the way... A couple of tube stops, the cross-country train, and a bus to get there, but tons of people were headed in the same direction, so the mood was festive.
Waiting for the bus, three gals were putting Harry Potter scars on their foreheads. Johnny accepted their invitation!
I had never seen anything like this before... The secrets behind a high-tech movie like this one. Even my pictures won't do it justice.
The tour began with a short film describing what we were about to see by adult versions of Harry, Ron and Hermionie (Daniel Radcliff, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson).
In the last scene of the little introductory film, you could see the actors standing at the front arched door of Hogwarts. The film ends and they lift the screen to see the *real* model of the door. Sheila and I looked at each other and mouthed W-O-W!
I don't think the kids got it and it was really difficult to understand that this WAS the *real* hogwarts... This place we were about to enter was where they shot most of the scenes of the movies... Not a replica of the place for tourists... but THE place.
We entered straightaway into the great hall where they had meals and the sorting ceremony. They had the actual costumes of many of the actors over the years and then explained how they had the floating candles on the ceiling.
The best part of the tour, in my opinion, were the sets of the boy's dormitory, the Griffendor Common Room and the Potions classroom.
These pictures make it look like the movie but really these were just small, quite intricately decorated sets.
Unbelievable.
Here is the mirror of Erised and the invisibility cloak.
There were a few interactive aspects to the tour. They let you "fly" on brooms... Essentially they showed you the technology - you got on a broom with a green screen behind you and then they superimposed a film of flying through London behind you. It was truly amazing. They also showed you a few spells!
The work and detail that went into the films is unbelievable.
Here are a few more pictures and us enjoying a Butterbeer!
At the end of the tour you come to this model of Hogwarts Castle. It is unbelievable and the details are perfect.
To tell you how good they are (the filmmakers) and how darlingly naive our kids are, I will relate a conversation I had with Maggie staring at this very perspective of the castle.
She was pointing to parts of the model above and commenting on how perfectly detailed it was and she kept referring to "the real thing" as in "Look! Even that road or that staircase must be just like the real thing!"
And I said to her, "What do you mean 'the real thing'"?
And she said "The real castle!.... The model is so detailed, it must be just like the real castle!"
And I said, "... But this IS the real castle!?!"
Seriously, she was not being silly... It was all that convincing and unbelievable that they can make this model LOOK like the real thing on film. Unbelievable.
The last room is a room that LOOKS like Olivanders wand shop. There are hundreds upon hundreds of boxes of wands with names on the outside. We found out that the names were all of the cast and crew. It was unbelievable. Johnny wondered if the boxes were real and Maggie wondered if they contained wands.
They had us fooled!
It was a bit out of the way... A couple of tube stops, the cross-country train, and a bus to get there, but tons of people were headed in the same direction, so the mood was festive.
Waiting for the bus, three gals were putting Harry Potter scars on their foreheads. Johnny accepted their invitation!
I had never seen anything like this before... The secrets behind a high-tech movie like this one. Even my pictures won't do it justice.
The tour began with a short film describing what we were about to see by adult versions of Harry, Ron and Hermionie (Daniel Radcliff, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson).
In the last scene of the little introductory film, you could see the actors standing at the front arched door of Hogwarts. The film ends and they lift the screen to see the *real* model of the door. Sheila and I looked at each other and mouthed W-O-W!
I don't think the kids got it and it was really difficult to understand that this WAS the *real* hogwarts... This place we were about to enter was where they shot most of the scenes of the movies... Not a replica of the place for tourists... but THE place.
We entered straightaway into the great hall where they had meals and the sorting ceremony. They had the actual costumes of many of the actors over the years and then explained how they had the floating candles on the ceiling.
The best part of the tour, in my opinion, were the sets of the boy's dormitory, the Griffendor Common Room and the Potions classroom.
These pictures make it look like the movie but really these were just small, quite intricately decorated sets.
Unbelievable.
Here is the mirror of Erised and the invisibility cloak.
There were a few interactive aspects to the tour. They let you "fly" on brooms... Essentially they showed you the technology - you got on a broom with a green screen behind you and then they superimposed a film of flying through London behind you. It was truly amazing. They also showed you a few spells!
The work and detail that went into the films is unbelievable.
Here are a few more pictures and us enjoying a Butterbeer!
At the end of the tour you come to this model of Hogwarts Castle. It is unbelievable and the details are perfect.
To tell you how good they are (the filmmakers) and how darlingly naive our kids are, I will relate a conversation I had with Maggie staring at this very perspective of the castle.
She was pointing to parts of the model above and commenting on how perfectly detailed it was and she kept referring to "the real thing" as in "Look! Even that road or that staircase must be just like the real thing!"
And I said to her, "What do you mean 'the real thing'"?
And she said "The real castle!.... The model is so detailed, it must be just like the real castle!"
And I said, "... But this IS the real castle!?!"
Seriously, she was not being silly... It was all that convincing and unbelievable that they can make this model LOOK like the real thing on film. Unbelievable.
The last room is a room that LOOKS like Olivanders wand shop. There are hundreds upon hundreds of boxes of wands with names on the outside. We found out that the names were all of the cast and crew. It was unbelievable. Johnny wondered if the boxes were real and Maggie wondered if they contained wands.
They had us fooled!
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