MU
2011-10-13 17:40:53 UTC
http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-movies/harry-potter-studio-to-1199887.html
WATFORD, England — The magical world of Harry Potter is being
meticulously reassembled at a former aerodrome near London.
Actors from the Harry Potter movie series, from left Natalia Tena,
Oliver Phelps, Rupert Grint, Mark Williams, Warwick Davis, James Phelps,
Bonnie Wright, and Tom Felton, poses for photographs at the 'Great Hall'
one of the sets of the movies during a tour in Watford, north of London,
Wednesday Oct. 12, 2011.
This collection of sheds and sound stages, a former aerodrome near
London is where the eight films were shot over almost a decade, and soon
they will be home to the official "Making of Harry Potter" studio tour.
With more than five months to go until the site's March 31, 2012
opening, tickets go on sale Thursday Oct. 13, 2011. The eight Potter
films made here between 2001 and 2010 were a mini-industry, employing
both the cream of Britain's acting talent and hundreds of craftspeople
and technicians. The tour will show off the skill and craftsmanship that
went into the spectacle.
With more than five months to go until the tour's March 31 opening
stonemasons in hard hats are busy laying the (real) flagstone floor of
the Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Even
half-finished, its Gothic arches, gargoyles and huge fireplace are an
impressive sight.
When it's completed, studio Warner Bros. hopes it will be, well, magic —
though the spell was briefly broken when advance tickets went on sale
Thursday. Many fans found an error prevented them from booking tickets
the official website. Warner Bros. blamed heavy traffic for the problem.
Movies are all about illusion, but creators of this tour are keen to
stress its authenticity. The 150,000-square-foot (14,000-square-meter)
site will include only authentic sets, props and costumes, on the
original studio site 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of London.
For the movies' cast, who spent a decade working here — the younger ones
growing up on set — it can still evoke powerful feelings of nostalgia.
"I get shudders down my spine every time I walk back in there," said Tom
Felton, the 24-year-old actor who played Harry's Muggle-hating Hogwarts
rival, Draco Malfoy. "Immediately, as soon as you go back it just fires
up a decade's worth of memories.
"I remember the first time I went in there — it was on camera.
(Director) Chris Columbus specifically didn't want us to see it before
filming, because we were only 11-year-old kids. So, our reaction when we
walked in there was pretty much genuine."
The vast Great Hall, where hundreds of Hogwarts pupils dined,
celebrated, and were divided into houses by the mysterious Sorting Hat,
will be the centerpiece of the tour, but there will be plenty more to
delight Potter fans.
Re-erected sets will include the cupboard under the stairs where Harry
was forced to sleep by his miserly relatives, the Dursleys; the imposing
Ministry of Magic; headmaster Albus Dumbledore's book-lined office; and
Hogwarts' classrooms, common room and a dormitory,
The tour is spread across two soundstages — stages J and K, a pleasing
but accidental tribute to Harry's creator, J.K. Rowling. The existing
stages here at Leavesden Studios are A through I.
As well as the sets, visitors will learn how the series' magical
creatures were created in the studios' workshops, and see some of the
200 shipping containers full of props that producers have kept from the
films.
The eight Potter films made here between 2000 and 2010 were a
mini-industry in themselves, employing both the cream of Britain's
acting talent and hundreds of craftspeople and technicians. Part of the
tour's aim is to show off the behind-the-scenes skill that went into
creating the spectacle.
The level of detail is impressive. Dumbledore's bookshelves are lined
with individually titled books. His desk drawer opens to reveal
quill-written letters and parchments that no moviegoer would ever have
seen. The Weasley family kitchen will include a self-washing frying pan,
enchanted knitting needles and other ingenious supernatural gadgets.
"The attention to detail and the care and the thought is breathtaking,
and still is to us, even after eight films," said actor Mark Williams
who played Arthur Weasley, father of Harry's best friend Ron. "You'd go
on set and go, 'Bloody hell, it works!'
"I think people will be amazed about what was created as a physical prop
rather than fixed later in the computer," added Warwick Davis, who
played Hogwarts charms master Prof. Filius Flitwick and the goblin
Griphook.
"Certainly for me, the filming experience on these was quite different
to the work I'd done on 'Star Wars,' in the sense that stuff was here
and real," said Davis, who appeared in both "Return of the Jedi" and
"The Phantom Menace."
"George Lucas would've built the first six feet of wall and left the
rest to the computer."
Filming on the final Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows: Part 2," finished last year, and it was released in July, to a
global wave of emotion from fans. The studio tour is a way to keep the
Harry Potter machine running — but to be a success, it must avoid
feeling like a cynical cash-in.
"I hope people will come on the sets and feel the warmth on the sets,
and the experiences that have been here," said Bonnie Wright, who played
Ginny Weasley in the films. "They're really lived in, all the sets. They
don't feel just like a studio, they do feel like a world."
It will also be a working movie studio. The facility — for years a
ramshackle collection of aging buildings and temporary structures on the
site of a former aircraft factory — is being turned into Warner Bros'
British base. The company says it will be the biggest studio complex in
Europe when it opens next year.
Many people feared the end of the Potter series would bring job losses
in Britain's movie industry, but Warner Bros.' investment — which will
make it the only U.S. studio with a permanent base in Britain — should
bring a big boost.
"It's lovely to see the redevelopment," Davis said. "I just wish they'd
done it before we filmed them. We spent years here in the damp and cold,
and now I see these beautiful studios, with roofs."
Felton says he hopes to return one day to shoot a new film here.
"And if the work dries up," he said, "we can always come back and be
tour guides."
WATFORD, England — The magical world of Harry Potter is being
meticulously reassembled at a former aerodrome near London.
Actors from the Harry Potter movie series, from left Natalia Tena,
Oliver Phelps, Rupert Grint, Mark Williams, Warwick Davis, James Phelps,
Bonnie Wright, and Tom Felton, poses for photographs at the 'Great Hall'
one of the sets of the movies during a tour in Watford, north of London,
Wednesday Oct. 12, 2011.
This collection of sheds and sound stages, a former aerodrome near
London is where the eight films were shot over almost a decade, and soon
they will be home to the official "Making of Harry Potter" studio tour.
With more than five months to go until the site's March 31, 2012
opening, tickets go on sale Thursday Oct. 13, 2011. The eight Potter
films made here between 2001 and 2010 were a mini-industry, employing
both the cream of Britain's acting talent and hundreds of craftspeople
and technicians. The tour will show off the skill and craftsmanship that
went into the spectacle.
With more than five months to go until the tour's March 31 opening
stonemasons in hard hats are busy laying the (real) flagstone floor of
the Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Even
half-finished, its Gothic arches, gargoyles and huge fireplace are an
impressive sight.
When it's completed, studio Warner Bros. hopes it will be, well, magic —
though the spell was briefly broken when advance tickets went on sale
Thursday. Many fans found an error prevented them from booking tickets
the official website. Warner Bros. blamed heavy traffic for the problem.
Movies are all about illusion, but creators of this tour are keen to
stress its authenticity. The 150,000-square-foot (14,000-square-meter)
site will include only authentic sets, props and costumes, on the
original studio site 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of London.
For the movies' cast, who spent a decade working here — the younger ones
growing up on set — it can still evoke powerful feelings of nostalgia.
"I get shudders down my spine every time I walk back in there," said Tom
Felton, the 24-year-old actor who played Harry's Muggle-hating Hogwarts
rival, Draco Malfoy. "Immediately, as soon as you go back it just fires
up a decade's worth of memories.
"I remember the first time I went in there — it was on camera.
(Director) Chris Columbus specifically didn't want us to see it before
filming, because we were only 11-year-old kids. So, our reaction when we
walked in there was pretty much genuine."
The vast Great Hall, where hundreds of Hogwarts pupils dined,
celebrated, and were divided into houses by the mysterious Sorting Hat,
will be the centerpiece of the tour, but there will be plenty more to
delight Potter fans.
Re-erected sets will include the cupboard under the stairs where Harry
was forced to sleep by his miserly relatives, the Dursleys; the imposing
Ministry of Magic; headmaster Albus Dumbledore's book-lined office; and
Hogwarts' classrooms, common room and a dormitory,
The tour is spread across two soundstages — stages J and K, a pleasing
but accidental tribute to Harry's creator, J.K. Rowling. The existing
stages here at Leavesden Studios are A through I.
As well as the sets, visitors will learn how the series' magical
creatures were created in the studios' workshops, and see some of the
200 shipping containers full of props that producers have kept from the
films.
The eight Potter films made here between 2000 and 2010 were a
mini-industry in themselves, employing both the cream of Britain's
acting talent and hundreds of craftspeople and technicians. Part of the
tour's aim is to show off the behind-the-scenes skill that went into
creating the spectacle.
The level of detail is impressive. Dumbledore's bookshelves are lined
with individually titled books. His desk drawer opens to reveal
quill-written letters and parchments that no moviegoer would ever have
seen. The Weasley family kitchen will include a self-washing frying pan,
enchanted knitting needles and other ingenious supernatural gadgets.
"The attention to detail and the care and the thought is breathtaking,
and still is to us, even after eight films," said actor Mark Williams
who played Arthur Weasley, father of Harry's best friend Ron. "You'd go
on set and go, 'Bloody hell, it works!'
"I think people will be amazed about what was created as a physical prop
rather than fixed later in the computer," added Warwick Davis, who
played Hogwarts charms master Prof. Filius Flitwick and the goblin
Griphook.
"Certainly for me, the filming experience on these was quite different
to the work I'd done on 'Star Wars,' in the sense that stuff was here
and real," said Davis, who appeared in both "Return of the Jedi" and
"The Phantom Menace."
"George Lucas would've built the first six feet of wall and left the
rest to the computer."
Filming on the final Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows: Part 2," finished last year, and it was released in July, to a
global wave of emotion from fans. The studio tour is a way to keep the
Harry Potter machine running — but to be a success, it must avoid
feeling like a cynical cash-in.
"I hope people will come on the sets and feel the warmth on the sets,
and the experiences that have been here," said Bonnie Wright, who played
Ginny Weasley in the films. "They're really lived in, all the sets. They
don't feel just like a studio, they do feel like a world."
It will also be a working movie studio. The facility — for years a
ramshackle collection of aging buildings and temporary structures on the
site of a former aircraft factory — is being turned into Warner Bros'
British base. The company says it will be the biggest studio complex in
Europe when it opens next year.
Many people feared the end of the Potter series would bring job losses
in Britain's movie industry, but Warner Bros.' investment — which will
make it the only U.S. studio with a permanent base in Britain — should
bring a big boost.
"It's lovely to see the redevelopment," Davis said. "I just wish they'd
done it before we filmed them. We spent years here in the damp and cold,
and now I see these beautiful studios, with roofs."
Felton says he hopes to return one day to shoot a new film here.
"And if the work dries up," he said, "we can always come back and be
tour guides."
