Today the entire day was taken up with traveling to, experiencing, and returning from the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter. I had read about various options to travel to the studio located in Leavesden, and it sounded like it would wise to allow a couple of hours of travel each way. As it turned out, we walked to the St. James’s Place Underground station, then traveled to Victoria Station as far as Euston, then rode an overground train to Watford Junction, ending with a shuttle bus to the studio. Luckily for us, we had caught the express to Watford Junction, it only taking 20 minutes for the last train segment.

The Studio is a collection of the sets, props and costumes used for the making of all eight Harry Potter movies. Visitors get a chance to see up close the detail and effort that goes into a major feature film at the scale of the Harry Potter series.

It was when I started reading the captions on the materials used in making the props, that I realized, OMG, none of this is real! For example, several huge chandeliers were constructed, each with 25,000 plastic crystals, measuring 12×16 feet long. To reduce production costs, only the lower halves of the chandeliers were created physically, while the top halves seen onscreen were added as a computer-generated effect.

And as for all the marble flooring surfaces in the banking hall, they were actually made of paper. To achieve the look of a marble floor, a visual design was first created by the art department. Then different types of marble were researched and sampled from Australia House, the original set location in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Paper was then dipped in tubs of water with oil paint floating on top to recreate a marbleized look. Large digital printers were used to make copies of the marbleized paper. Individual pieces were cut and glued by hand to a plywood base, before a layer of lacquer was applied to create the glossy look.

The filming of the Quidditch flying broomstick sequence scenes can best be described by this YouTube video:

All in all, it was a most interesting, but tiring day. We had arrived at the studio shortly after 11:00 am and didn’t leave until about 4:30 pm. By the time we got back to our Westminster flat, it was nearly 6:00 pm. Not so many steps this day, but most of it was just standing in place and walking slowly behind the crowds. Apparently 6,000 people visit every day.