MAJOR SPOLIERS MAJOR SPOLIERS MAJOR SPOLIERS MAJOR SPOLIERS MAJOR SPOLIERS MAJOR SPOLIERS MAJOR SPOLIERS MAJOR SPOLIERS
Ok so this is a very detailed onset report by two lucky fans. It does have DH spoliers through it so you don't want to know then just stop reading and skip when you come to any mention to DH cause this is a must read
Our Visit to Hogwarts
What you are about to hear is the literal culmination of a life long dream, interwoven with something so near and dear to our hearts and something that changed our lives forever. It’s no secret to those who know us, that Harry Potter is what brought Maria and I together. So, on our 1.5 year wedding anniversary, what better way could we spend it by taking a trip to the actual, physical world of Harry Potter?
We arrived at Leavesden Studios just before 11am in the morning. I gave our names to the guard and to my great relief and surprise (because I was still thinking this too good to be true), they were on his list. After signing our life away, a call was made and our guide showed up to show us around. This wasn’t a tour guide, but someone who actually works on the films. Not only that, but an avid Harry Potter book fan as well, as became readily evident within moments of our journey into Hogwarts. The three of us loaded into a van, driven by a fantastically knowledgeable fan and employee of the studio, for a tour of the backlot first. We did our best to remember everything we saw, but some of it may be out of order. Still, here is a breakdown of what we saw.
The first thing we saw was a life sized Grawp on top of a building. That guy is HUGE! From there, we went on to Grimmauld place. It had just been used as Baker Street in the new, Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes film and was being repainted for Deathly Hallows. From here, we drove past the Hogwarts courtyard that was being worked on and also the entrance to Malfoy Manor. It has a huge hedge (~15 feet tall) and two large, stone pillars flanking either side of the entrance. They apparently did one or two nights of shooting on this set. This set was used for the scene where the Snatchers take Harry and the others to Malfoy Manor. There was also mention of a white peacock at the animal wrangling section and this was probably there for the Malfoy Manor exterior. I hope they are keeping this much detail from the books!
We drive past the entrance to the Hogwarts grounds. Remember the scene in HBP where Luna and Harry pass through the gates? That’s the set we saw.
We drove onto a giant airstrip where we saw two of the Knight Buses, as well as several large wrapped up objects that said “Astronomy Tower” on them. Couldn’t see through the plastic though. Just down from this was Hagrid’s Hut, which was in ruin as it had been destroyed in the last film (and perhaps again in this film). Right across from this was another set, but not something we recognized from the books. It appeared to be a bunch of burned trailers / mobile homes. Apparently this is a scene where Harry and Hermione show up at a camp site only to see it’s been attacked by Death Eaters.
After this we saw a grassy knoll. Not sure what scene that was used for… we’re guessing a camping scene. After this, we saw the actual Burrow!! Well, the first floor or so, as the rest is CGI. They were “planting” the tall, reed like grass (like what we saw in the swamp scene in HBP). Each of the stalks of grass is individually pushed into a foam base, and there were something like 9000 of them that have to be done. One part of the base was purple. I always remembered it being brown from the films, but I’ll have to go back and watch again.
We turn the corner and right there in front and to our right was Privet Drive! They had been doing the seven Potter scenes there. From what we were told, it sounded as if they will use makeup on the actors to make them look like Dan, at least for some part of the scene. I would imagine a lot of digital work would also be done here, but that’s just a guess as well.
We got a very close and impressive look at Luna’s house. It looked like a stone base of a tower… just about 15 feet tall. Again, CGI would be used to complete the house. Rocks jutted up around the front yard. Growing up the front of the house was a tree, and the left side was covered with vines and bright orange plants. Our driver, who was extremely knowledgeable on what was going on, said these were the Dirigible Plums. They had recently filmed a fight scene here and the right side of the house was pitted with holes where Death Eater spells had hit the house (squib explosions). They were prepping the house again for a much bigger version of that fight, apparently. They were adding even more squibs for the new fight.
That was pretty much the extent of the backlot tour.
The driver dropped us off at the canteen, and we began our tour inside. In the canteen were a series of large displays of props from all of the films thus far. Each giant, glass fronted box contained costumes and props from one film, and would be the ultimate collection for any Potter fan. I would give just about anything to have any one of these in our house! In the Philosopher’s (Sorcerer’s) Stone display, we saw brooms, money, a snitch, a quaffle, a troll head (huge), chocolate frogs and boxes, and a massive pile of wand boxes. The Chamber of Secrets display had Lockhart books, Lockhart paintings and pictures, Mandrake plants and Dobby. Dobby looked SO real!! Prisoner of Azkaban had Sirius’ prison costume, his wanted posters, Trelawney’s crystal ball, Harry’s Grim teacup (complete with Grim shaped tea leaves) and loads of Honeydukes products. Goblet of Fire had the Tri-Wizard trophy, Krum and Fleur’s costumes, a giant silver trophy, a Grindylow and a mermaid. The Order of the Phoenix display had Umbridge’s costume and Lucius’ Death Eater costume (amazing), several kitten plates and decrees as well as the Defense Against the Dark Arts book Umbridge hands out. Finally, the Half-Blood Prince display had Slughorn’s costume and Luna’s party dress, the green hourglass from Slughorn’s office (what I would have given for a photo of that), several Weasley Wizard Wheezes products and the cursed necklace.
On to the sets. Words will not adequately describe the awesomeness of this (or any of the visit really). The first thing we saw was the Room of Requirement, similar to what we saw in Half Blood Prince. Stacks upon stacks of furniture, books, potions and whatnot (including several chess pieces from Philosopher’s Stone) were everywhere. Here we got to see a bit of filming that involved the stunt doubles for Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) and Louis Cordice (Blaise Zabini). They were perched atop one of the stacks of furniture and rigged into a harness. Just to the right of these guys, but not used in this scene, was Hagrid/Sirius’ flying motorbike mounted on a rig and lifted off the ground.
When they cut, we slipped into the set and skirted around the edge. Around the corner from the stunt doubles and through the gap between two stacks of stuff was Tom Felton and Louis Cordice. We got to watch the playback monitors for the scene they had just shot. One of the monitors shows the actors exchanging dialog, while the other was an overhead shot of them walking through the stacks. Just as we walked out, we saw the banners for the Gryffindor and Slytherin common rooms. Even though we weren’t suppose to, we couldn’t resist and quickly sneaked a touch to both.