Harry Potter Studios

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live"--Albus Dumbledore

Yes ladies and gentlemen my fastastical nerdy dream came true! I went to the HP Studios in London. Needless to say I was in my own blissful little bubble of a world of nothing but Harry Potter and the making of the film. I'm not sure what I was expecting when I first arrived at the studios, but the entire experience, and believe me it was an unforgettable experience, blew me out of the water.

The line leading up to the beginning of the self guided tour had pictures of the actors on the walls, the ford anglia hanging from the ceiling, and quotes and information from J.K Rowling. We were guided into a room and shown a video and the screen then gave way to a door. Little did we know we would walk through those doors just the like actors did for years into the Great Hall. The first thing that caught my eye was the attention to detail. Details the cameras wouldn't always pick up and that most people wouldn't notice were literally everywhere. The objects on the tables and murals on wall were absolutely amazing.


I won't give a play by play of the entire experience, but I will highlight some of my favorite parts. My all time favorite parts were the ones where we got to see how the behind the scenes affects, such as costuming, makeup, wigs, animatronics, and character prosthetics. While there we learned that the actress who played Luna had made all of her jewelry for the film and we saw all of her costumes. It's great to see how the actors contributed and what other talents they have. Most actors are only known for one thing and by displaying these items it gives them more dimensionality.

The experience had every single prop you remembered and never even noticed from the films. The left absolutely nothing out. It is overwhelming to see just how many objects a film can accumulate. You thought hoarders were bad. Goooooooood grief. At least is was organized and they had really cool facts about everything you were looking at. The Gryffindor beds never changed size as the actors grew and the cameramen had to choose certain angles because everyone's feet were dangling off the end.


Whole sets were kept such as the potions classroom and Dumbledore's office.





















Another one of my favorite things was the overall lack of laziness. There were TONS of things that could have been easily done with CGI, but were made by hand. Moody's trunk with all the layers inside, the Magic is Might statue from the Ministry of Magic, Harry's house in Godric's Hollow. And these super cool working doors.

Can I just say that butterbeer is delicious? Look how happy we are drinking it. YUM

The surprises just kept on coming. The chess pieces from the Sorcerer's Stone were actually made and were enormous!

The next room after this consisted of all the animatronics and prosthetics. It really made me realize that there's so much I could do in film and I have only scratched the surface. I can't even wait to see where I end up in the film industry after seeing all of this. Yes, it's slightly cheesy, but I felt extremely inspired after seeing everything.





At first I was a little creeped out by seeing all of the goblin masks just sitting on a shelf staring at me with those lifelike faces, but then I just didn't want to stop staring at them. After taking stage makeup and have to make prosthetic noses and cuts for myself and failing miserably quite a few times I have major respect for those people who make them look flawless and easy to make.

Before touring the studios I always thought the dementors and werewolves were entirely the product of CGI. However, I was yet again wrong. Actors were put in harnesses with the torso of the creature they were playing on top of them. It seems weird until you see the picture. Then it all makes sense.











They also had a basilisk head that moved, Aragog and Buckbeak! Another one of my favorite parts was touring the actual Diagon Alley. I wish we could've gone inside the stores, but it was so cool to walk by the windows of the shops I imagined from reading and saw in the movies. There was so much in the windows to look at I probably could've spent all day in there.

I never thought I would think architecture and engineering plans were interesting, but holy crap. The next room was amazing. It was essentially wall papered with plans for anything you can possibly think of. Pictures do it so much more justice than my ravings can.

The next room had small models of things like the Beauzbatons carriage, Luna's house and the Durmstrang ship. What was more impressive were the paintings lining the walls. They were al of scenes from the film or inspired by certain aspects and exhibited artistic license.
I wish there had been pictures of them for sale in the gift shop because I would've bought every single one. It was great to see a different take on certain things or a static perspective of scenes.

 The last room was the most impressive and we spent the most time in there. There have been very few things I have seen that have stopped me in my tracks and made me just stare with a loss for words. The ENORMOUS, but not full scale,  replica of the castle was phenomenal. This model was the epitome of attention to detail. It was by far my favorite part of the tour. They definitely saved the best for last. You got to walk around the entire model and listened to the theme music. To sum it up it just made me extremely happy and in awe.

The only part of the studios that was not extraorinary was the gift shop. It was geared towards children, but did not have anything affordable for anyone my age and above. I ended up with peppermint toads and Hermione's wand, which is now on display in my room :) Laura and I did manage to have some fun in the gift shop as we always seem to do.

Reality needs to get on this level of awesome

As sappy as this is I really took this whole experience to heart. It goes to show that a movie and more importantly a series of books and move an entire generation. We grew up with these books and will always want to pick them up to read them and never be able to put them back down. The studios are an amazing contribution to the books and movies. It lets the readers who enjoy them both so much to actually experience them in person and more importantly to be a part of it and see just how much work went into the making of the films. I have never seen any movie set and everyone involved create something so imaginative. They have set the bar extremely high for those in the future.

"It is our choices... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."--Albus Dumbledore