I grew up reading the books along with seeing the movies as they came out. I co-read my first Harry Potter book, with my mom, in the second grade before seeing the premiere of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This movie set a fire in every child around the world-- we were obsessed. Our school began making it a field trip whenever a new movie would come out. We would read the book as a class and then see the movie as a reward. This is one of the few series where the movie truly rivals the books by bringing them to life in a way far beyond what our little minds could ever imagine.
In order to get to the sets from Harry Potter, you had to walk through a long hall that was lined with famous quotes from all the books. Our excitement grew and grew as we walked by and took pictures of every single quote. We began our tour with a short cinema of how Harry Potter has impacted the entire globe. I was thoroughly intrigued that the directors discovery of the book series was a happy accident. It was a low priority that no one in the company cared to read in the first place. A woman who held a low position at the company ended up reading it and raved about it to her boss. Soon after they picked up this book to turn into a movie, the book series was featured on the cover of time magazine.
Getting through the sets took almost three hours.We started with the Great Hall. Since we had previously gone to the inspiration of it during our adventure in Oxford, I had a little background on why they structured it the way they did. It was absolutely massive and beautiful. We were able to see the behind the scenes of how they shoot the quidditch scenes. Unfortunately, it did ruin the magic a bit because we saw many green screens with brooms on sticks. When I was young, that scene was my favorite because it seemed so fast paced and different than sports we have in the Muggle world.
All the sets were so much smaller than how they are shown in the movies. It is amazing what cinematography can do. After a quick dinner break and the best Butterbeer ice cream this world has to offer, we went to outside the of the Dursley family's house- the place where Harry Potter lived for 11 years. There was a massive triple-decker bus with a sign that looks exactly like those we see at bus stations around London. This led to many jokes about whether our Oyster card worked in that zone or not. Seeing the sets of Harry Potter with people who love Harry Potter and have lived in London for a while now made more engrossing because we all had a little extra background from living in the city it was filmed in and based on.
The very last room was what we all came for- Hogwarts. I've seen pictures of people in this room, but they did not do it justice. It was a huge sculpture with intricate details and thoughtfully places lights. The first thing I did was put my hand to my chest because it literally took my breath away. The combination of the music along with the rest brought tears to my eyes. They had it designed to be viewed from all around. At the very last part, they even represented the boats going towards Hogwarts like they do in the movie. The expensive, two hour journey from the steps of our flat was worth it all for that moment.
Getting through the sets took almost three hours.We started with the Great Hall. Since we had previously gone to the inspiration of it during our adventure in Oxford, I had a little background on why they structured it the way they did. It was absolutely massive and beautiful. We were able to see the behind the scenes of how they shoot the quidditch scenes. Unfortunately, it did ruin the magic a bit because we saw many green screens with brooms on sticks. When I was young, that scene was my favorite because it seemed so fast paced and different than sports we have in the Muggle world.
All the sets were so much smaller than how they are shown in the movies. It is amazing what cinematography can do. After a quick dinner break and the best Butterbeer ice cream this world has to offer, we went to outside the of the Dursley family's house- the place where Harry Potter lived for 11 years. There was a massive triple-decker bus with a sign that looks exactly like those we see at bus stations around London. This led to many jokes about whether our Oyster card worked in that zone or not. Seeing the sets of Harry Potter with people who love Harry Potter and have lived in London for a while now made more engrossing because we all had a little extra background from living in the city it was filmed in and based on.
The very last room was what we all came for- Hogwarts. I've seen pictures of people in this room, but they did not do it justice. It was a huge sculpture with intricate details and thoughtfully places lights. The first thing I did was put my hand to my chest because it literally took my breath away. The combination of the music along with the rest brought tears to my eyes. They had it designed to be viewed from all around. At the very last part, they even represented the boats going towards Hogwarts like they do in the movie. The expensive, two hour journey from the steps of our flat was worth it all for that moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment