Happy summer, void-that-is-the-Internets-and-readers-or-dearth-thereof!
Merlin's pants, I just got one of, not going to lie, one of the best experiences I have ever had. I got to go on the Warner Brothers Studio Tour London this July! Which is a (boring) name for SEE THE ACTUAL SOUNDSTAGES AND THE PROPS AND COSTUMES AND SETS WHERE AND WITH WHICH HARRY POTTER AND THE WIZARDING WORLD CAME TO REAL CINEMATIC LIFE.
The Studio Tour focuses on the movies, not the books. As a cinematic company, the props and sets and costumes and special effects saved from the movies are what is their forte and what they have to work with. One won't find J. K. Rowling's original drafts there, nor a model of that train to London on which she got her first spark of information, nor her emails with her agents. There, the focus is on the world and its physicality, not on the characters and their themes; not that these are unimportant in the movies or vice versa, but merely different.
I think most Potterheads have seen parts of the Studio Tour at least, in the form of pictures.
Merlin's pants, I just got one of, not going to lie, one of the best experiences I have ever had. I got to go on the Warner Brothers Studio Tour London this July! Which is a (boring) name for SEE THE ACTUAL SOUNDSTAGES AND THE PROPS AND COSTUMES AND SETS WHERE AND WITH WHICH HARRY POTTER AND THE WIZARDING WORLD CAME TO REAL CINEMATIC LIFE.
The Studio Tour focuses on the movies, not the books. As a cinematic company, the props and sets and costumes and special effects saved from the movies are what is their forte and what they have to work with. One won't find J. K. Rowling's original drafts there, nor a model of that train to London on which she got her first spark of information, nor her emails with her agents. There, the focus is on the world and its physicality, not on the characters and their themes; not that these are unimportant in the movies or vice versa, but merely different.
I think most Potterheads have seen parts of the Studio Tour at least, in the form of pictures.
But, to be cliché, there is nothing like seeing it for real. Letting eyes travel up the massive and real doors of the Great Hall. Seeing the towers of Hogwarts right there.
I think the magic here is seeing the commitment to this story, to this epic that is Harry Potter. That people took J. K. Rowling's story and made it real. By reading it and letting more books pour out of her amazing mind. By seeing this as something that would be incredible made visual and cinematic. And then by making and saving it as real, actual, physical items and places. I don't think I appreciated how big the Potterhead fandom was, or think I appreciate it now, going past the mania in school hallways, past the huge online following, past the continuing writing and its fans, past the people from every corner of the world and their collective excitement walking around those sets.
Okay, cut! Philosophy over; actual details to come later.
You're so lucky- that sounds amazing!
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right, and I can't appreciate it enough. Still, I would have given almost anything to have you guys there to fangirl with me.
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