Today I went on the Warner Bros. Studio Tour (aka the Harry Potter experience) and it’s really well done. I definitely thinking going on the first tour of the day is a good idea as it made for a much more relaxed entrance. I have difficulties with crowds and I was apprehensively that I might ruin the day, or cause it to end early, if I had a panic attack and had to leave. However, maybe I should have had more faith in the Harry Potter brand.
I have never been anywhere where there were lots of people but so little noise. I don’t know for certain (as I’m not an expert in these things) but I reckon that they had experts who laid the tour out. So exhibits were placed to manage the flow of people and also the amount of noise. There were screens next to some of the exhibits showing a short video about them and they were easily heard. Even more amazing is that it was a big warehouse and it wasn’t echoey. I didn’t feel like I was being beaten on all sides by the hum of chatter.
Sorry I know it’s probably weird to focus on this (and not on the tour itself) but it’s a huge deal for me. I went to the space museum in Leicester last month and had to leave early after having only seen maybe a quarter of what I wanted. I always find that embarrassing and so to be able to essentially ‘complete the day’ means a lot to me.
Anyway the actual place! Well some of the sets are huge! I think the scale is what struck me the most. In the backlot they have facades of three houses. Then inside they have the Great Hall, Gringotts Bank – Diagon Alley! I had read of course that these exhibits were there but reading they exist and actually stepping inside them are two different things. The sheer scale was jaw dropping in person. I think the Concept Art wing might have been my favourite. Seeing the VFX and how they blended models, paintings, live action, green screen etc.
They had lots of card models done to scale in the Concept Art wing. They blew my mind just on their own because my fingers are much too clumsy. Then of course that led up to the main model – Hogwarts castle. The detail was staggering. I read that the turrets had a 1000 tiny tiles on them (again my fingers much too clumsy). They used the model in conjunction with digital VFX to film the scenes were the camera sweeps down corridors and stuff in the castle. You know it’s weird sometimes. Sets that I think are real are actually digital and sets which are so huge I’m sure must be digital, are actually real!
I was a big Potter fan as a kid but I was more interested in the cinematography behind the scenes details, than on the Potter stuff and I wasn’t disappointed. I had an extra talk as I had ‘Behind the Seams’ tickets so they talked all about costumes and the process of designing them, and showing us costumes up close and the details and also why the designers made the choices they did etc. That was super fascinating.
But even more than seeing how they did it, I was fascinated by the depth of the world building. It’s a bit like neuro-linguistic programming I guess. They talked about that in the costumes talk, about how everything about the design was intended to evoke certain reactions in the audience, and that was probably done subconsciously. It’s the same with the rest of the small details. Super-fans (and tumblr) probably notice but the GA likely doesn’t, however they are still probably influenced/drawn into the story more because of them. It’s what makes a living, breathing world I guess as well as being subconscious manipulation in terms of foreshadowing or prompting a particular emotional response.
Anyway as a creator, this gave me a lot to think about from a world building perspective. I am guilty a lot of the time of skipping over details. This showed me why they are important and also how they can deepen and enrich the actual story. It was a lot to think about and a lot to take in. I mean intellectually I knew that detailing was important but again I think like the scale of sets, it’s one thing to know, and another to actually see it.
So yeah 10/10 on management and solid content. Would recommend.