PPP1 Research: The Making of Harry Potter The Tour

Over Easter  had the opportunity of going to Leavesden Studios to see the making of Harry Potter. This was an incredible experience and I was able to see actual sets used and also got to be part of a green screen practice of being able to fly on a broom - which of course was a once in a lifetime experience. Due to the fact that the studio tour was split over two warehouses and also an outside area made this tour huge and so exciting. As a big fan of the books and films myself, I was ecstatic to be able to walk on the floors that such talented actors, directors and producers did and it created a wonderful insight into how much work everyone had to do to be able to create the 8 films; and to an incredibly high quality.

The tour began in the great hall of the castle and we were able to walk down the centre looking at the set design and also at how big the room actually was. Along with this they also included robes and different characters outfits that they actually wore in the films. We then moved into the main warehouse where we were able to look at each of different rooms including; the potions dungeon, Dumbledore's office and the Gryffindor common room. All of the sets looked amazing and this is also a particular area of interest for for me as well as set design is one of the things that made me interested in the course in the first place. All of them, and there were many, were incredible and it was hard to believe that these where the actual sets they work on.

Along with sets in this section there were also a number of different costumes and props that where used int he films that were interesting to look at. There was also an area with props such as the mine cart from the Gringotts vaults and also broomsticks with the mechanism so that the actors were able to appear to be flying on them. At this stage of the tour we also got the chance to be able to take part in a green screen filming session. We got to put on Gryffindor robes and were able to sit on the broom and watch ourselves fly around the route that Harry himself took in the Order of the Phoenix on the way to 12 Grimmauld Place. This was incredible and due to the green screen we were able to then get our picture taken with the Quidditch stadium in the background.

We then moved into the outdoor area were there was the Knight Bus, Sirus' motorbike and Mr Weasley's car that were used in the films. Along with these there was also the section of the bridge that was first introduced in the Prisoner of Azkaban and then was used in all of the films after that even though it was not in the books, and this was the only section made, as the rest was added in digitally in post-production. Similarly the Dursley's house, Number 4, Privet Drive, was also only  part of one row of houses, only 2 which are still there, and the rest of Little Whinging was again added in after. There were also a few different vehicles in this section that were used in the films and then animated and also the chess piece from the 1st film, which is one of my favourite scenes out of the film so I was so excited to see them.

We then moved back inside into the section studio which was all about beasts and creatures and how they were created. They had amazing masks of the Golins that were all individually created for the films and fitted each actor perfectly, and each had there own personalities that suited them perfectly. What interested me most in this section was looking at the creatures and figuring out how they used them in the film, especially for the Hungarian Horntail dragon in the 4th film. From what I could see they used a giant head model of the creature for any close-up shots in the film and then used the smaller model to them animate and get the far away shot; especially when flying around the castle. After looking at all of the creatures, including an amazing animated Buckbeak which moved as he did in the film, we then walked down Diagon Alley, well the shop fronts of Diagon Alley. The actual street used is a real street set and we walked down a replica that they build so that they could superimpose the shop fronts onto the street, which was amazing to see as the street was still in the same shape.

The last, and probably the most amazing set that we saw was a model of the Hogwarts Castle that had been built in a short amount of time but still looked brilliant. It was an exact replica of the castle and was used for any wide panning shots that needed to be done for the films, after the 3rd one, and worked incredibly. It was so interesting to see how they had filmed the scenes with the whole castle in shot, as before starting on the course I wouldn't have even thought about how they would have done this so it was so interesting to see and walk around. Along with this model they also had smaller models made from white card as an initial start to creating and designing the buildings, which makes me also interested in creating models for my projects as well to be able to illustrate the development of my projects better.