feel | Travels through a geek's mind

Oct 28 2013

Experiences, Fandoms, Life, Photos, Travel Gallery

And all was well

At the end of my week in London in 2012, I visited the Warner Bros. studio tour of the making of Harry Potter. This was by far my most anticipated experience of the trip. If you’re a Potterhead and have the chance, this should definitely be on your bucket list! Get the audio-guide (narrated by Tom Felton) and immerse yourself for a few hours in the wonderful world of film and magic. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. There are a lot of them, so keep scrolling!

Sets and set details

The very first glimpse on the tour… the cupboard under the stairs

Set detail - Ravenclaw in the Great Hall

Set detail - Gryffindor in the Great Hall

Set detail - Hufflepuff in the Great Hall

Set detail - Slytherin in the Great Hall

Set detail - house cup scores in the Great Hall

Sets - the entrance to Dumbledore's office

Sets - Dumbledore's office with costume of Albus

Sets - Gryffindor common room with costumes for Hermoine, Harry and Ron

Sets - Gryffindor common room with costume for Ron

Sets - the potions classroom with costume of Snape

Set - The Ministry of Magic's new statue

Sets - that hateful woman's office at the Ministry of Magic

Set - the Potter's cottage in Godric's Hollow

Set detail - Gringotts bank in Diagon alley

Set detail - Eeylop's owl emporium in Diagon alley

Set detail - Flourish & Blotts in Diagon alley

Set detail - Madam Malkin's in Diagon alley

Set detail - Ollivander's in Diagon alley (day time)

Set detail - Ollivander's in Diagon alley

Set detail - Weasleys' wizard wheezes in Diagon alley

Set details - Weasley's puking pastilles in Diagon alley

Set details - shop front of the magical menagerie in Diagon alley

Costumes

Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) designed some of the costumes for her character herself. Knowledge learned courtesy of Tom Felton 😉

Costumes - Minerva McGonnagal, Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape

Costumes - Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin

Props and portraits

Props - the Weasley's unbelievable clock

Portraits - previous headmasters of Hogwarts

Portraits - additional portraits for the halls of Hogwarts

Portraits - cast and crew member details

Portraits - Young Minnerva McGonnagal in the Gryffindor common room

Props and portraits - The headmasters of Hogwarts with the Sword of Gryffindor

Props - the Sorting hat in Dumbledore's office

Props - a cupboard full of memories in Dumbledore's office

Props - The pensieve in a cupboard in Dumbledore's office

Props - the golden egg (HP and the goblet of fire)

Props - Entrance to the Chamber of Secrets

Props - potions ingredients in Snape's classroom

Props - the Black family tapestry, with members burned off

Props - wand boxes in Ollivander's shops, with cast and crew member names - 2

Props - wand boxes in Ollivander's shops - JK Rowling, Emma Watson

Props - wand boxes in Ollivander's shops, with cast and crew member names - details

Props - wand boxes in Ollivander's shops, with cast and crew member names

Props & makeup - Goblin faces and shrunken heads

Artwork and odds & ends

“I solemly swear I’m up to no good”

Potion labels were hand-drawn, the amount of detail is amazing

The letters addressed to Harry at number 4 Privet Drive were hand-written. Only the flood of letters assaulting the house at a later stage were printed copies of the originals. The weight of the letters also had to be taken into account, so that owls could actually fly with them.

Scale models

Scale models - Hogwarts castle and courtyard with bridge

Hogwarts model

This is the crème de la crème of the experience. The entire model has miniature torches and lights simulating people passing in front of them. To appreciate the full-scale of the model, I’ve added a photo from the Daily Mail to the bottom of this post from their article on the model of Hogwarts. The lighting in the room where the model is kept cycles through a few phases, simulating night and day, showing the model in all its immense glory.

From the Daily Mail article: Proud: Jose Granell, model supervisor, is pictured with the model of Hogwarts Castle. It has been used for every one of the Harry Potter films.

All images by the author: © catterflyworx 2012. Please contact me if you would like to use any images from this site.

Tagged feel, Harry Potter, London, Potterhead, Potternerd, Site-seeing in London

Apr 10 2013

Turning our house into a home: the before & after

In December 2012, we moved into our very own house. As first time home owners, the first week was filled with excitement. The four months following that first week, has been filled with a lot of hard work.

The reward has been worth it though, as this past weekend was the first one since the beginning of December last year that there was no ‘To Do’ list. No more walls to paint. No builders tramping through the house and no more small little things niggling at my conscious to get done.

Well, I’m lying. There was one more thing. It read: “Take and post some before and after photos.”

Done.

Master bedroom

Second bedroom. (Seriously guys, I was not making an extra bed in the house purely for the pics. Sorry!)

Study. The walls were a slighter lighter green that that cabinet.

Study

Lounge. The parquet flooring was in immaculate condition. This is the first time in 47 years that the wood has been exposed, it was covered in carpets as soon as the previous owners moved in.

Kitchen, with lots of space for wine. One can never have enough wine (or books).

Kitchen

Scullery

Pantry

Dining room (we still need a table, so in the meantime you get to look at my amazing Belweb wardrobe)

Bathroom

For those of you who want more info, our work regime was roughly as follows:

Remove all carpets, replace with laminate wood flooring in all bedrooms and study. Sand and varnish parquet floor in lounge, dining area and hallway.
Resurface the bath, basin and toilet (changing the colour of the enamel from blue to white).
Move into the house.
Unpack most of the boxes. Don’t unpack everything, as we’ll have contractors in the house for the next two months.
Remove all curtain pelmets.
[DIY] Paint the bathroom, WC, hallway, master bedroom, lounge, and dining room.
[DIY] Mount curtain rails and hang newly made curtains in lounge (YAY!!).
Pack the kitchen back up and use the study as a temporary kitchen.
Demolish kitchen.
Start replacing the kitchen.
Remove tiles from wall in study.
[DIY] Put cornices up in kitchen.
[DIY] Paint cornices, kitchen walls, study.
Unpack the rest of the boxes, including the kitchen (again).
Build and [DIY] cover frame for TV mount to hide cables.
[DIY] Mount TV-cable-hider-frame and TV (at 2am the night before your housewarming).
Enjoy fabulous new kitchen while preparing food for said housewarming 🙂