So today was all about the tour "Christmas at Hogwarts". It's pretty much the "Making of Harry Potter" tour at Warner Bros studios just outside of London. To say that Lindsay, Batgirl, and myself were excited would be a gross understatement. So brace yourself folks, this is all about the pictures! We met up at Victoria Station and then it was a quick 5 minute walk to where our Knight bus waited to take us to the Studios. No doubt this is an expensive ticket, even with a discount we paid £46 each but considering that was our transportation to and from the studio as well as the tour itself, definitely worth the cost.
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| Lindsay and Batgirl resting up before we arrive at the studio |
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| The Knight Bus! |
Inside the foyer there are numerous large photos of characters from the movies. Sadly so noticeable exceptions: coughcoughRemusLupinDoloresUmbridgeTheDursleyscoughcough. But I'm over it thank goodness. Because our tour was at a set time and we had arrived 40 minutes early it gave us ample opportunity to check out the gift shop and ponder oh what to buy in a store that has too many interesting things to buy. Delayed gratification is good.
When your tour time arrives you go through two separate rooms and get a brief welcome and housekeeping talk and then you see a short film. What is amazing is the film ends looking at the front doors of Hogwarts school and then the screen lifts and you're looking at the front door of the school and when you enter the doors you come into the Great Hall. Quite an impressive opening.
The Great Hall is full of props and costume worn throughout all the films and a bit of an explanation about some of the effects. The entire tour is pretty much set recreations filled with all the props, costumes, and models used as well as looking at special effects, concept art, graphic design, it was pretty overwhelming to see all these pieces. Pretty sure my photos will not do any of them justice but you will definitely get a sense of everything that was in the studio and this is a percentage of all the areas to look at and photograph. I was pleased that barring the film and the front and a green screen filming of flying a broom, I was able to photograph everything else.
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| The Yule Ball |
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| Dolores Umbridge's Rules |
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| Harry's dorm room |
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| Gigantic clock from "the Prisoner of Azkahban" |
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| The Order of the Phoenix |
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Griffindor common room
Dumbledore's office
All the headmasters' portraits
Triwizard Cup and the Golden Egg from "The Goblet of Fire"
The Potions room
Entrance to the Chamber of Secrets
The Weasley family kitchen
Hagrid's Hut
The trunk where MadEye Moody was held
The clock that marks the Weasleys, whereabouts
The Death Eater gathering with Nagini
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| The amazing wall patterns from the Ministry of Magic |
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| Dolores Umbridge's office |
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| Riddle Family Crypt |
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"Magic is Might" statue
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So after this enormous studio presentation (did I mention I didn't show the special events broom riding, flying motorcycle, Remus Lupin's selfpacking wardrobe, specially designed hallways with forced perspective?) there is an opportunity to go outside get some refreshments and see some outdoor sets from the films. This is also when you go and get your butterbeer!
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| The Hogwarts Bridge |
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Look how happy we are and this is before the butterbeer!
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