Saturday 11 April 2015

Janine Ashbless and the Chamber of Secrets

Heh heh  - Guess where I went for Easter weekend?


It had to be booked two months in advance, but BOY was it worth it! The Harry Potter Studio Tour is an awesome three hours for fans of the books and movies, gadget geeks, costume freaks, and anyone creative. For once they saved pretty much everything they used to create the films, so you can see it for real. This tour takes you right onto the sets and lets you peer into dusty corners for the intricate detail.

No, it wasn't CGI. The snakes were all mechanically operated.
Gryffindor common room

Defense Against the Dark Arts

Slightly scary ...

Really goddamn scary!

For you American types ... all of London looks like this, honest :-)

The level of detail bordered on the bonkers ...

Every portrait in the school was painted by ... someone
Every jar filled with a different weirdness

Each character's wand individually crafted
Do you remember this? It was probably on-screen for about a second.

There were some pretty big props too...


Oh, the creatures!!

You can't see anything, can you?


Boo!


Even the concept art was glorious:


And when we got to the large-scale filming model of Hogwarts ... well I wasn't the only one who teared-up, let's just say.


I find it incredibly moving when people create together. When they pour their hearts into art, and especially into fictional worlds that others can inhabit. I almost feel like I like the human race, hrooom hrooom.


Of course, there's always the danger of fans getting TOO excited...

SQUEEEEE - Snape's actual hair!

So this is a wise rule for all:


(And a final word of advice ... try a sip of the Butterbeer, but don't drink the whole glass. Seriously.)

5 comments:

Jo said...

Oh, man. I want to bring the kids so much.

As far as I know, butterbeer is cream soda with caramel syrup in it. Gack!

Janine Ashbless said...

Yep, that's pretty accurate - it's a caramel creme topping.

It tastes nice at first but it's SOOOO sweet. I felt quite sick afterwards!

Jo said...

Did you ever read the L Shaped Room? By Lynn Reid Banks, if I remember correctly. There's a bit where the main character goes to a club, and her black friend makes her a hot buttered rum punch type thing. It sounded amazing! So butterbeer always made me think of that.

Jo said...

http://tinyurl.com/oxcnfu6 I love the internet! Page 93!

D. L. King said...

I am dying to go to this. Maybe this fall.