The Making of Harry Potter
Monday, 17 September 2012 
4 Comments
In September 1998 I was working in a Border’s bookstore in downtown Washington DC. I remember a huge display being set up right at the entrance of/for a book called Harry Potter. I read it just to see what the fuss was all about and was totally hooked from the get-go.
Fast forward 14 years: me and my husband whom I met at that very same Border’s store a few weeks after the first book was released, took our kids to see the magic behind creating amazing movies based on these amazing books at the Making of Harry Potter studio tour in Watford just outside of London.
Despite all my photos coming out awfully grainy due to low lighting :|, we found the experience to be very fascinating and eye opening – the amount of detail that goes into making movies of that scale is just phenomenal (just think of 17,000 wand boxes with hand written labels on them to start with, not even talking about hundreds of small models of buildings, objects and scenes).
Oskar has only seen the first 2 movies, but he was blown away regardless. Oliver just wanted to sleep the whole time – I guess his Harry Potter time is yet to come :).
We bought the complete set of movies from the gift shop and once the kids were in bed, watched the last one as we hadn’t seen it before. Very dark and serious for most of it, and then totally goofy when Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron were made to look 19 years older – somehow the time had gone forward but the fashion sense had gone back to the 70s?
Anyway, I feel like I could fly right now! Books that take us off to another world do that to me, they are absolutely priceless. Here are some photos:
The Great Hall
Dumbledore’s office
Lock on the door to the Chamber of Secrets
Lots of stuff to see!
Choosing a wand
Diagon Alley
Oskar’s favorite shop – selling Puking Pastilles :)
Full Hogwarts model
Hungarian Horntail
Hogwarts Bridge (much longer in the movies :)
Ministry of Magic
The Weasleys’ home (complete with pots and pans that scrubbed themselves, a scarf that was knitting itself, etc. )
And pretend-flying a broomstick:
If you’re thinking of going, note that tickets need to be bought quite far in advance. It’s a popular place!
WOW!!! Yes, we definitely want to go. Our kids are crazy harry potter fans :-) And mommy too!
It looks absolutely wonderful!
Whereabouts is it?
It’s just north of Heathrow, not far at all :)
So fun!!!! Can a be a little bit jealous?
That looks like such a great place!! I too, am a bit jealous! I think I might have to surprise my husband and take him next year.