Today our group went and toured Warner Brother Studios where they filmed the Harry Potter series. It was by far one of the coolest places I have ever seen. There were hundreds of props, and it was amazing to see the amount of detail that went into everything. I had no idea that every single thing was hand painted and many of the props had intricate details such as a signature of one of the crew members, or even the portraits that hang in Dumbledore's office were all hand painted, totaling over 350 different ones. At the tour it showed makeup, special effects, props, full sets where scenes were filmed, and the mechanics behind some of the magic that happens in the movies. Aragog, the spider that Hagrid owns, was one of the most fascinating. They built the spider and made it furry with real yak hair, and it took 15 people to be able to coordinate and move it with complex mechanics. We were able to walk through the actual train that takes Harry and his friends to Hogwarts, and even able to see many costumes from the cast over the 10 years of filming. It's incredible what special effects and various techniques in filming can do, such as the arial shots of the castle. The crew designers built a huge model castle to do the arial filming from and then transposed and editing the background to make it look real.
After an eventful day being entertained by Harry Potter, Rachael, Hannah, Jake and I all decided we were going to try and see a musical. We ended up being unsuccessful in trying to score tickets to the Book of Mormon, so instead went and saw Pitch Perfect 2 in a nearby cinema. It was really funny, I recommend it and thought it was even better than the first. Afterwards we enjoyed an elegant dinner consisting of KFC chicken and shakes that really hit the spot. All in all, it was a very good day and I really enjoyed everything.
Kenzie,
ReplyDeleteThe Harry Potter Studios tour yesterday was absolutely amazing! I loved it just as much as you did, and I was equally as blown away by how much detail was put into the entire movie series. There were an untold amount of handmade props, wigs, paintings, and even animatronic characters. The Aragog they had hanging from the ceiling in one of the creature rooms was so cool! It was also very scary because I'm quite afraid of all forms of spiders. But it was really amazing being able to see it hangin like that. I even took a selfie with him! It must have taken a lot of work to make all of the creatures and props and set designs. I felt really blessed to have been able to see it all since I love the movies so much.
Also, I am so jealous you went to see Pitch Perfect 2! I really want to see that movie. It looks so good. I hope you're able to make it to Book of Mormon while you're here. I've heard it's hilarious!
Jamie
I agree with you to, that was totally an amazing experience! After reading all the books and watching all the movies it was wonderful being able to go into the place that made the wizarding world feel real! That was so impressive on how all the portraits were painted as well as how they are of paintings of the workers who helped with the movies. It was fun being able to taste butter beer which we have read about many times and that becoming real.
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