Behind the scenes of Harry Potter

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to say right off the bat, thank you for coming back to reading my blog!

Recently, I traveled to London, England on my own as it was one of the cities I've always wanted to visit. The top site that I've always wanted to go to ever since I was a little kid, has always been the Warner Brother's Harry Potter Studio Tour (I've included the link just there). As it's a very popular attraction tickets book up quick, and you have to get them WAY in advance. None of my friends schedules fit in with the available dates for the studio tour, so I decided that I would do this on my own and make it my own little adventure in this beautiful city!

So many of you guys were sending me messages through Instagram or Snapchat, commenting on how cool the studio looked so I thought I'd write about my experience there and let you guys know what to expect if you plan on ever going!

Who would I recommend this to?

Well if you have ever seen any of the Harry Potter movies, or if you're a huge Harry Potter fan like I am I would highly recommend this experience in London!

How much did it cost?

For anyone 16+ tickets cost anywhere from 39-41 pounds, which is around $70-74 CAD. I also bought the audio guide for 5 extra pounds, which I found was great to learn extra information about the making of the movies, and also acted as an interactive screen that showed additional videos/ pictures that really added to the experience!

How to get there?

The only downside to doing the Studio tour is that it's about an hour+ by train and bus out of the city centre, so prepare to dedicate your day to this.

What you'll see while you're there!

My family and I have been to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida and went to the Harry Potter World that's there, but nothing compared to going to the actual studios where they shot all of the movies! Every prop, costume or set that you get to see in the tour, was actually used in the movies, which was AMAZING! It was an incredible way to get up close to all the places and things you love from the movies, and get a new understanding of them. So enjoy the pictures below, and I'll try to only add a few comments.

**If you want to want to keep everything a surprise than don't keep scrolling down**, but if you're curious and interesting in seeing some of my pictures, than enjoy!!

When you first walk into the studios, you get to see this great long hallway with all the famous quotes from the movie! Of course at this point I was beyond excited and thought that the quotes were so beautiful in the Maurader's map style! Then once you start lining up inside to actually go in to see all the incredible sights, you get to see this cool little prop...

It was so cool to see Harry's little cupboard under the stairs, where you can see lots of the little props they used, including the little toy soldiers, and round glasses that Harry kept there! It was a great way to pass the time while waiting to go in.

By far one of my favourite attractions at the Studio tour was the Great Hall!! As the very first thing you see, it was so cool walking down this great room, thinking of all the scenes that have been shot here and how significant of a role it plays in every single movie! As there was a special Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire exhibit, they included the actual goblet along with the hilarious costumes of Fred and George Wesley when they got turned into old men after trying to cheat their way into the competition. They even made it interactive with the crowd, which you can see that video in the Video section of my blog (link on the world 'video').

This was my legitimate reaction when walking into the great hall! A mix of amazement, excitement and awe, I loved getting to explore this place up close and personal. Besides the ceiling which is all CGI, and fire blazing in the fireplace or side chandeliers, the room was exactly what you would picture walking this room is like, and definitely does not disappoint!

Past the Great Hall, the Studios opens up to a massive room FILLED with tons of costumes, props, sets, and interesting information that really gave you a behind the scenes look at the movies! So because there was so much to see, I'm gonna list of things separate categories so you can get the whole thing!

Costumes

There were so many cool costumes in the Studio that it's impossible to show them all, but here were some of my favourite! Knowing that these were some of the actual costumes that the actors/actresses wore during the filming of the movies, was just soo cool! You really see all the effort and detail that goes into each individual costumes. From the hair extensions, facial hair, beading on the clothing, dirt spots, torn sleeves, specially sown detail, it really is incredible thinking of the time that goes into each character!

After the Great Hall, the first costumes you see are the ones from the Goblet of Fire, and the formal dresses/suits that the characters wear to the Yule Ball! Probably one of my all time favourite costumes was Hermione's pink dress she wears in that movie, and so to see if up close was so cool!

Than another one of my favourites that I got to see at the Studio, was the Snape/Bogart costume, where Snape ends up looking like Neville's grandmother! So hilarious, and definitely of the goofiest costumes from the series!

It's good to know that celebreties don't always have perfect hair, and that's it's because of hair extensions and a whole team of makeup and hair stylists that they get that perfect look for the movie. So it was definitely a little weird seeing the wigs of some of those well known characters!

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I knew 7 was my lucky number for a reason! It was so cool seeing Harry Potter's Quidditch uniform on display along with other props from the sport!

What would the movies be without the dynamic villains, including their iconic costumes. The first picture is Voldemorts sleek green robes that he wears in the last films, and the next the various pink shades that Dolores Umbridge wears in the later films.

Finally, probably one of the coolest costumes included in the series is Harry Potter's invisibility cloak that we see throughout the films. Interesting enough seeing the green fabric sewn to the inside of the cape, which gives the invisibility effect that the cloak is known for!

Props:

Everywhere you look throughout the Studios, is another incredible and iconic prop used in the films! At times it was overwhelming to the sheer amount of objects placed throughout the room, all holding it's own significant role in the movies. If you're a big fan, the amount of props in the Studios will be like a dream come true, and take a really long time to get through them all! Again, as much as I'd like to show them all, these were some of my favourites!

Placed all in the same display case, these items were so cool saying I saw the originals! Any Harry Potter store you visit you'll find replicas of these items, but seeing the real thing was awesome! From the Philosopher stone that is the most important item of the first movie, the Remembrall which is the item that get's Harry on the Quidditch team, and the Time-Turner which acts as the hero in The Prisoner of Azkaban. (Movie clips found in the blue links).

Harry's Advance Potion Making book, which he uses to ace the course, which plays a central role in causing division between Harry and his friends.

Harry's acceptance letter into Hogwartz, that he ends up receiving a million copies of!

Now who wouldn't want to get a sneak peek of the magical, purple Knight bus that we know so well from the Prisoner of Azkaban movie.

Or how about some of the smallest props that you never really see up close in the movies, like this trophy! I thought that was so cool that the prop designers included a "Gnome Racing Championship" trophy, even though it's something that us as the viewers only probably saw for 2 seconds! But how cool that they made the movies just that much more authentic by creating these fun, little props, almost as if that it was a real thing!

Sets:

Now this was a really cool thing about the Studio tour! On top of seeing all the costumes, and props, you can still see some of the original sets that were used in the movie, almost like the actors are still on break and are ready to get back to filming! Here were some of the coolest!

Just like we're the ones settling in to the Gryffindor dormitory, it was so amazing all the little details that are still there like Ron's suitcase, Neville's slippers that still have his name in them, and other awesome things!

Visit the recreation set of Platform 9 3/4, where you can walk through the Hogwarts express, take a picture with the carts, and stand amazed at this beautiful hall! So incredible!

Visit the Burrow, the cozy little home of the Weasley family! It was amazing that they show you how they made some of the props moved, to make it look like magic was making knitting needles move, along with a self washing pan and a knife chopping carrots!

Take a walk through the actual 4 Private Drive, where you can see the letter filled room from the first movie, along with some of Dudley's ridiculous trophies/prizes that can be found framed on the walls of the main hallway, so definitely keep an eye out for that!

Visit the potions classroom, found in the Hogwarts dungeons, where you can witness some of the crazy jars filled with strange items that the prop crew had to get creative with, and the many magical self-stirring cauldrons, where Harry, Ron and Hermione attended their classes!

And then what wouldn't a Harry Potter tour be without visiting the real Diagon Alley, where Harry experiences his first taste of the wizarding world!

Now my absolute favourite was the Gryffindor common room, where we find Harry's true home was! Again the prop crew did an incredible job making it look like this room was centuries old and loved by many generations of students. With an incredibly worn out rug, sagging/comfy couch, and beautiful tapestries lining the walls, it was by far the coolest set! I even love how they left a coffee mug, books and Betty Botts Every Flavour Beans on the table too, almost like a student is comign back to enjoy them! Another cool detail they added to this room, was a cork board found in by the back of the room, where the actual actors of the movies would create made-up club posters and notice messages that would be hung up. Their job was to make things that they believed the students of Hogwarts would actually put up there!

Other Honourable Mentions:

Then on top of all the amazing things you can see, there were also some incredible little things that put the whole experience over the top!

Instead of an elf on the shelf this year, get a Dobby on the shelf!

The Black family tree tapestry with some of the faces blacked-out!

Mad-Eye Moody's crazy eye, funny that this one was tucked away in a corner with special effects makeup area!

In all the movies, it would be too expensive to create life-size pieces of the castle to get their around the castle action shots. So what they did instead was created a smaller scale version and fly a small camera around it and than adding in green screen movements afterwards to make it look like Harry was flying around the castle.

Conclusion:

In the end these are just some small parts of the Harry Potter Studio tours that can be found outside of London. They say that the tour takes on average 3 hours, but if you're like me you may stay for 4.5 hours, since there is no time limit to the visit! Although it's expensive and out of the way, it is hands down one of my favouite parts of London. So if you're a huge Potterhead or just enjoy watching the movies, the tours will not disappoint! Or otherwise, I hope you enjoyed the blog and at least enjoyed some of these behind the scenes pictures!

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment or like on Facebook, or send me a private message telling me what you think and what I can do too keep improving! Also if you're interested, I will be leaving a couple videos in the 'video' section of my blog, which you can find the link to on the word video.

-Tori