Showing posts with label harry potter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label harry potter. Show all posts

Thursday, May 05, 2016

Platform 9-3/4!!

Dick was a real trooper. He waited in line with me and even posed for a (hilarious) photo.

He pointed out to that that we were the only adults in line without children.

Whatever..... :)

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Harry Potter's Oxford: The Great Hall

We went to Christ Church College and had a chance to tour the Great Hall which was also used for filming in the earlier Harry Potter movies.

It is such an amazing and beautiful building.

Harry Potter's Oxford: Bodleian Library

We visited the Bodleian Library at Oxford today. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that most of my knowledge of some of the buildings around Oxford/London revolve around my fandom of various YA Fantasy books versus anything academically based.

I know of the Bodleian Library because of the "All Souls Trilogy".

I learned today that part of it was also used for some of the filming of the Harry Potter films.

This portion, The Divinity School, was used as the infirmary of Hogwarts as well as where the students practiced ballroom dancing in "The Goblet of Fire".

Sunday, May 05, 2013

The Making Harry Potter Studio Tour

This morning, I took the underground to the aboveground train out to Watford Junction (total travel time between 1 to 1-1/2 hours, depending on which train you catch) and met my friends Rob and James at the The Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour! The tour is located at the actual studio where the Harry Potter series was filmed. They had a really amazing display of several of the iconic sets, costumes and props used during the filming of the series.

You have to pre-book your tickets, which I think we did way back in January. We arranged for 11:00am tickets, and arrived a bit early. It was really nice, as the parking lot was still pretty empty, and there wasn't much of a line to get in. Once through the line, you are brought into a large theater where the three main actors from the film describe the studio, and what you're able to see. After that, the screen lifted, and we were at the main doors into Hogwarts Great Hall. Once the door opened, we were able to walk through the Great Hall, which is exactly as it looks in the movie. I think it's one of the few sets that was built for the first movie which was kept throughout the whole series. (I could be wrong, but it was meant to be fairly permanent to last for a long time.)

The Great Hall was the only part that we were on any kind of time constraint. After that, the rest of the tour was self-led, and you could take your time as you pleased. The first section of the tour showed many of the main sets, along with several costumes (including wigs) and many props, large and small. It also showed how some of the special effects were created. This was the largest part of the studio tour.

The second part of the tour was outdoors, and showed larger props such as the Knight's Bus, Number 4 Privet Drive, Hogwarts Bridge, etc., After that, we went into the creature center where the masks and animatronics were displayed. After that, we were treated to walk down Diagon Alley!! That was super cool, as we were able to look through many of the storefronts familiar from the books and films. After that, we saw several pieces of pre-production art including beautiful paintings, renderings, and models. The big surprise at the end was a HUGE large-scale model of Hogwarts. It was enormous. Probably 2-1/2 stories high, and took the space of a very large room.

Of course, I took many, many, many photos, and tried to narrow down to the highlights to post. I think this gives you a good idea of what the experience was like.

If you're interested in going, plan on about 4 hours or so for the tour itself. Depending on how you get there, plan on at least one hour from London to travel. You may also want to leave more time to peruse the gift shop.

I'm SO glad that I was able to go to this tour today, and it was made even more fun to be able to experience it with Rob and James. (In case you're wondering, Dick elected not to go because he wanted to hit a couple of museums here in London before we leave tomorrow morning.)