Bill and Jen's Adventures: OMG - It's Hogwarts!!! (Part Two)

Continuing my post about all things Harry Potter from Leavesdon Studios just outside of London…

The Gryffindor common room was tiny, but just as plush as you'd imagine. Again, because we went during the holidays, everything was dressed for Christmas.

Gryffindor common room

I loved that they had costumes and props all included in the sets, so you really got a feel for the movies.

Gryffindor common room and costumes from HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Snape's potions classroom was one of the larger sets. Each bottle had aged, hand-drawn labels that actually said stuff like 'frogs tongue' and 'eye of snargle' etc. When you pushed a button, the cauldrons would stir themselves.

Snape's potions classroom

The pendulum for Hogwart's clock tower is massive and still swings. I got a far-away shot to show it's size, relative to people, and an up close shot to show its detail.

Hogwart's clock pendulum

Hogwarts clock pendulum

Dumbledore's office was another fairly large set, but it unfortunately only had three small entrances from which to see the set. The opening that was front and center to his office was at least five people deep, so I made my way to the left of the set and waited a few minutes to get up to the front in order to get a good view.

Dumbledore's office

Around all the big sets they had lots of little displays of smaller props. I could have taken photos of all of the props, but I would have been there all day! This little display holds the deluminator (light putter-outer), Nevil's Remembrall, Hermione's time turner, a golden snitch, and Serius Black's Azkaban prisoner number, among other things. The photo below that shows a bevy of prop wands for extras. Can you imagine how cool that would have been to be an extra in a Harry Potter film?!

A bevy of props

A collection of wands

Hagrid's hut was a very small set. My guess is that it was made that way in order to make Hagrid appear to be the half-giant that he was.

Hagrid's hut

It's hard to tell in the photo below, but the fire was actually flickering. It was a neat special effect to showcase how they make fires for film, but you can't really see it very well in a photograph.

A faux cauldron fire

The also had a lot of larger props, such as the door to the chamber of secrets. This was actually very large, at least six feet in diameter, and looked very sturdy.

The Chamber of Secrets door

Near where they had Hagrid's motor bike and several wands agains the green screen, they had a station where you could get yourself filmed, in a Hogwart's robe flying on a broom with the green screen background. After you film the footage, you can buy the short DVD, still photos, or both. I stood in the queue for at least five minutes, but the line wasn't moving very fast, I didn't know where my friends were, and my phone didn't have a signal, so I decided exit the queue. Now I wish I had stayed in line. Sigh… Well, if friends or family ever want to come visit and go on the Studio tour, you know where you'll find me!

Hagrid/Serius' motorbike

The Hollow, AKA the weasley's home, was another large set. Even though it was large, it gave off the cramped, cozy feel that it had in the movies. Again, when you pushed a button, the dishes in the sink washed themselves and the knitting needles started knitting.

The hollow, AKA Weasley's home

The hollow

And then you turn a corner and make your way to some of the dark wizard sets and props.

A bevy of skulls

The scene below was another one that attracted large crowds, so I took my photo from a far angle. You can still see Nagini rising up towards the Muggle Studies teacher (I forget her name), hanging over the table with the Malfoys and other dark wizards in attendance. It was really creepy!

Nagini at Voldemort's table

Several demeanors flew overhead…

Dementor! Dementor!

They had several backdrops from within the Ministry of Magic all in a row.

Ministry of Magic sets

Included in the Ministry of Magic sets, was the statue of muggles holding up / being squashed by a pillar. If you look in the photo above, you can see how large the statue is in real life. It was pretty impressive.

Ministry of Magic's muggle-squashing statue

A different edge of same muggle-squashing statue

Another interesting factoid I learned from the audio tour was in regards to Delores Umbridge's office. It took a dedicated team of professional photographers one solid month of photo shoots to get the kitten photographs for Professor Umbridge's twee plates. The detail to which the crew went to do anything and everything to make these movies really impressed me!