We were invited to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter in London to experience their Dark Arts event.
The studios are just outside London at Leavesden studios where all 8 Harry Potters were made over a 10 year period. The tour includes everything from film sets to animatronics. Not only are there several sets including the Cupboard under the Stairs, Gryffindor Common Room and The Burrow, but plenty of fascinating displays and also interactive elements like riding a broom with a green screen background. There are also plenty of fun photo opportunities too.
We explored the creature effects, the art department, special and visual effects, props, hair, make-up, and costume. We walked through the Great Hall which was decorated to celebrate Halloween, we visited Dumbledore’s office, number 4 Privet Drive, and took a stroll along Platform 9¾ where we boarded the Hogwarts Express and took a look inside.
New for 2019 is the set of Gringotts Wizarding Bank, the tours biggest expansion to date, which had a rather terrifying visitor in the form of a Dragon and in the Forbidden Forest we met some rather large eight-legged friends! We learned about how various props like the Death Eaters Masks were made from initial idea to finished article and how Snot, Unicorn Blood, and Drool were made- delightful! But the dark delights didn’t end there, we ventured down Diagon Alley only to be met by a Death Eater!
Last but by no means least, we saw the scale model of Hogwarts, the level of detail is amazing. In fact, if you added up all the man hours it to create the model, it would take one person over 74 years to complete! This tour is not only fascinating for Potter fans but any film fan would find it interesting to see all the elements that go into creating a film.
We hope you enjoy this full walkthrough tour video. Please give us a Like and don’t forget to subscribe for all our latest videos.
We were gifted our tour tickets but all words and opinions are our own.
Tour tickets can be booked here: https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk
