Warner Brothers Studio Tour--London: The Making of Harry Potter (Day six)

Well, today was the day that I think most of my students were looking forward to the most.  As much as many of them were trying or trying to pretend they were these mature literary critics, they all grew up with the Harry Potter phenomena.  I know that my kids loved the books, and I i also know that there are many people who don't like them for various reasons--some of them have to do with being snobby because they cannot actual like something that is popular, but anyone who is going to say they know anything about children's literature or publishing should know something about these books.  These are students who grew up with Harry Potter, both the books and the movies.  I am not going to lie and say that I was above it all because i was really excited as well.

I'll share here a story I shared with my Children's Literature students last semester when we covered the first Potter book and the the surrounding shift in children's lit it started. On the day that the last book was coming out, my older daughter who had used birthday money to pre-order it, sat on the front steps of our porch waiting for the mailman.  Her sister waited inside (because she was not going to be able to read it until her sister finished--and we live in a spoiler free zone).  The mailman came and handed her the package, which she took as if it were the crown jewels.  He said to me he hadn't seen anything like it.  He showed up for work, and his truck was full of these white boxes.  On his entire route in Worcester, there were kids waiting for him to show up. He said the kids ranged in age and were really not anything a like with the exception of the quiet with which they waited.  They all thanked him as if he had did something really special, but barely looked at him and only at the plain white box.

When I was planning the trip, I knew we should come here because I was teaching the first Harry Potter book in my Literature for Children course, and I knew that it would be a good seller for the trip.  It is an expensive undertaking at £33 a piece and requiring a coach bus, and our tour company contact advised me against it because it was one of the most expensive items on the trip.  When I asked students during the info-session last spring about items to cut to save money, they were all adamant about keeping this tour.  They were right.  I think this would not only be a great place to go for children's literature people but also for anyone interested in film, film production, art, graphic design, theater, costuming, textiles, museum studies, and marketing.

I am only going to briefly describe it and post some pictures because nothing I could say could do it justice. I recommend going to the official site (since their pictures are better than mine) and to get better information. http://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/  You could also ask some of students to share their pictures with you because most of them took far more pictures than I did.

We got to the studios really early.  I think that might have been because we had originally planned on going on a weekday and the traffic would have probably been worse than on a Sunday.  We sat on the bus for a bit and people slept (we met at the bus at 8)

As you can see from the big Christmas tree in the foyer, we are still in time for the winter at Hogwarts session. I splurged and bought a guided tour headset, which I thought was worth the £5 because it gave all sorts of extra information.

I got two of my students to try on sorting hats in the gift shop while we waited.

While waiting in line, you get to see the actual bedroom under the stairs used in the first film.

And so it went.  We got to see so many of the actual sets or parts of sets that I would be up half the night posting them here. I will post some and let you guess what they are.  There were props galore, but what was most impressive to me and to even the people who are not Harry Potter crazies was the meticulous attention to detail in the building of the sets, set model, and the art work, and the props.  For example, all of the paintings were actual oil paintings.  

The second guide that set us up for the brief introduction video (before another short video in an auditorium) warned us all not to use up all our batteries/film because we would want to save something for the very end.  And he was right.  They have the full scale Hogwarts on display, and it was more beautiful than I could have predicted.  They showed a bunch of the drawings and the architecture designs for many of the sets before you get to the room with the full model, so it was also set up very dramatically.

I took the picture specifically for my daughter Mattea who knows how hard it is to make stairs.

And then you come into a large room with a ramp that goes around the outer edge and this is in the middle.

We entered at ten, I told the students that we needs to meet back on the bus at 1 PM.  However, if you are a fan or if you are particular interested in set design or art, you could easily spend much longer than that there.  I didn't really look at as many things or listen to all of the items on the audio tour because I felt pressed for time.  They have two places to eat here--one before you get in and one in the middle . I was hungry by the time I got to the cafeteria in the middle, but I was too worried about not having enough time to see everything, so I got a cup (not the souvenir glass of mug) of butterbeer (very good, surprisingly--but too sweet to drink too much--and I think it would be even more delicious warm) and kept going through. You cold practice using wands and even get a video of yourself (or a photo) of you riding a broom over Hogwarts and through London.  Again, I didn't do any of those things and still felt rushed in the gift shop (handily placed through the exit when a visitor is most likely at the most Harry Potter rabid--I applauded Warner Brothers' marketing sense).

We then took the bus back to London for a free afternoon for everyone.  I went with the Ladies to Harrods. 

I bought a sandwich there which was all I could afford even with the "big" sales, but still my delicious take out sandwich, which I ate for dinner, was only £6.  

I took the picture below to show my mother, so she could see how expensive some of the food really is there.  The story goes that you can buy anything at all in Harrods, and I believe it.  There were more people wearing fur in this store than I have seen my entire time in London.  

We then went to the Queen's Grocer, Fortnum and Mason (http://www.fortnumandmason.com/c-358-our-history-fortnum-and-mason.aspx),  where I bought my Kiana and Korean teacher some Royal Tea, which was first blended for King Edward VII.  We then went to a grocery store and stocked up on supplies for breakfast and dinners until we leave.  I completely forgot that I planned to eat with one of my friends tomorrow night, so I may have way too much food.  I was hungry; wrong time to go grocery shopping.

This was it for today. Tomorrow, we are going to the Globe Theatre and then my Victorian lit students and I are going to go to the Dickens Museum.