Harry Potter

Today was all about Harry Potter.  We got up, we ate, we set out for Leavesden England, we arrived and were herded in with about one hundred people (2/3 being children on field trips) to begin our tour.  We were there in the studio where much of the wildly popular  movies were made.  With the first movie, they filmed in Oxford and other sites.  As they realized what a hit they had on their hands, they began to build more and more elaborate sets of their own.  In some instances, they duplicated the interior rooms of Oxford colleges.

We entered around 10:30 and left close to 5.  It is not a typical theme park with rides.  The tour took us through fantastic sets, and instructional videos of every sort showing how things were done, such as:  makeup, wigs, special effects, costuming, building the sets, interviewing actors, and a host of other things.  There were 24 stops on the map, which we walked through at our own pace.  For 5 pounds we each got headphones and a little digital guide which was full of short videos which enhanced everything we were seeing.

It was stunning.  I had never thought through what goes into a movie like that.  The amount of work to make everything look authentic...to make every detail exactly how it should look, to make every actor - even if they have no speaking parts and are only on-camera for less than a minute - look the part....it was mind-boggling.  Artists worked closely with architects to ensure every detail of every room and building was planned and executed with precision.  Seeing those live sets was eye-opening.

We are learning how to do selfies!

In every room, there were small things like books which had started out as phone books, bound and then aged, or instruments in Dumbledore's office that started out as junk and were turned into scientific tools of discovery.  On one set, with over 3,000 tiles on the wall, each had been painstakingly painted to look like aged and hand-made tiles.  Costumes put together for crowd scenes that look better made than anything I own.  Make-up and wigs that took hours to apply.  Blue screen technology that made my mind spin.  An old train that had been lovingly and with patient attention to detail turned into the official Hogwarts train.

Pulling the sword out!

Dobby moved however I moved.

After all those hours inside wandering through jaw-dropping sets, we came to the end - a room full of small boxes stacked floor to ceiling with names on them.  They covered the walls, set back into shelves.  But they were permanently there....you couldn't move them.  We asked what they were, and were told that they were the names of every individual who had worked on the film....over 4,000.

Well....that wasn't quite the end.  The end was a spectacular gift shop.  Isn't it funny that they call it the gift shop...even though everything in there is pretty expensive, and generally purchased for oneself.  SK got a racquetball shirt for himself.  I got the plastic shopping bag for 5 pence that he carried it out in.  And that was great....I love plastic bags.  I know you think that is odd, but it's a great looking bag!  I'll send something in it to one of our grandchildren.

We went out into the wind and cold (which Andersen and I loved) and said our goodbyes.  We may see the Madsens again before they leave on Sunday morning.  We may join them in London on Friday or Saturday.  We need to look at our schedules etc to see if we can be gone. 

They are all heading towards the bus with their carry-on luggage.  Hard to see them go.

They got on the London-bound bus south, and we got into our little car and headed northwest.
It has been a delightful few days, packed full, but so very memorable. 

I wonder what they will all remember about Oxford 20 years from now?