London Explorers: Part Two

Our last day in London was devoted to the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour. All eight of the Harry Potter movies were filmed on two huge soundstages about an hour outside of London and many of the sets, costumes and props have been preserved and put on display. Since four-out-of-four Finkels consider themselves to be BIG Harry Potter fans, it seemed like a must-see for this visit.

I didn’t really know what to expect and I think the kids, Norah in particular, was expecting something more like a theme park. What we found was really a series of exhibits to better understand the art of film making – production design, camera work, special effects, make-up, and more – using the Harry Potter movies as an enormous set of visual aids.

By chance, I had signed us up for the “Behind the Seams” tour which included a one-hour workshop to learn more about the costume shop for the movies. This split us off in a small group from most of the other tour goers and gave us a more intimate look at about ten of the costumes used in the movies for characters like Harry, Luna Lovegood, Mad Eye Moodie, and Lord Voldemort. Although the content was pretty adult and Norah and Ben were the youngest in the room by about 30 years, they both really enjoyed it. Plus, at the end, we each got to put on a real Hogwarts school robe and take some photos.

A final concept design for Mad Eye Moody’s overcoat.

Norah gifting Ben a perfect lightning bolt scar.

After this session, I think both kids sort of re-oriented their expectations and we spent several hours making our way through the exhibits. The kids especially liked the interactive features and photo opportunities.

I really liked the exhibits with smaller details, like the work of the graphic design team who had to come up with a distinct brand for every newspaper, text book, invitation, and piece of packaging used in the films.

I came away from the day with new, or at least expanded, respect for filmmaking as a form of art. It is also clear that if you are extremely talented and you have the chance to work on a project as enormous as the Harry Potter films, your work is an absolute playground.

Despite some transportation issues reaching the studio in the morning, when we bailed from a broken train to an alternate train only to bail from that train for an uber, I think we all came home quite satisfied with our day.