Harry Potter Studio Tour

After getting back to the Generator a little after midnight last night on my return to London from Paris, I was awake bright and early this morning so that we could get on our way to Harry Potter Studio. We spent about 5 hours at the studio, and I only took a little over 800 photographs while I was there. There was so much to see: sets, costumes, props, wigs, animetronics, models of larger parts of the set, equipment from the makeup and visual effects departments, etc.
It was really interesting learning how much time and thought went into the detailing of each prop, costume, and set. The Gryffindor Common Room set, for example, was designed specifically to be warm, comfortable and inviting in order to provide Harry with the home environment that he did not have at Private Drive. The set designers then used the red and gold color palette of Gryffindor House and applied it to the design. A lot of the furnishings for the sets, as well as a lot of the props, we're items that crew members found in shops and markets and then decorated to fit the films, such as the trunks used by the characters travelling back and forth to Hogwarts. Set decorator Stephenie McMillan even sourced many of the props for the set of The Cupboard Under the Stairs from her own basement. Other props and design elements were created by hand, such as each character's wand, the tapestries hanging in the castle, and the moving oil paintings (several feature members of the cast and crew). Whether it was an item created exclusively for the films, or an item that was refurbished to fit the films, the amount of detail and though put into every aspect of the designs was amazing. Each bottle, and vile, and box in the potions classroom sets was filled with something and labelled. The vines in the Cabinet of Memories for the Pencieve were labelled with the names of characters from the books that did not make it into the movies. Even the smallest of props, that appeared for only seconds on the screen and were hardly noticed, were incredibly detailed, and at the very end of the tour there was a room reminiscent of Ollivander's, filled with wand boxes that were labelled with the names of every cast and crew member from all eight films.
While I loved looking at the actual sets and costumes and  props used in the films, my favorite part was the concept art that was featured near the end of the tour. Every design had to start with an idea, and an interpretation of the text. It was fascinating to see how the different artists approached what was described in the books and turned them into a visual work of art.