The first thing you see at the Harry
Potter soundstage right outside London is the cupboard under the stairs, which
is the place where Harry lived until he was 12 years old. Then, you walk into a
room that looks something like a small movie theater. You watch a video where
the people who play Ron, Harry & Hermione give you a little pep talk about
the soundstage. After that, the video screen lifts up and you're standing in
front of the doors of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. You enter the Great Hall, and
it's not as big as it seems in the movies. You get to see two of the House
tables, with the plates, silverware, goblets and everything.
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| Hogwarts Table |
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Then you exit a side door, and it's
not another room, but you're standing in the midst of a bunch of props. You see
decorations from the Yule Ball (see "Goblet of Fire"), and Hermione,
Harry and Ron's dress robe costumes. Then you walk a couple spaces and you see
all the wigs that the stunt doubles wear for when the actors are flung back.
You turn right and you're standing at the entrance to the Gryffindor boy's
dormitory. You see Neville, Ron, Dean, Seamus and Harry's beds and trunks. Look
to your right, and you see all main characters' wands. Look to your right
again, and you're standing in Dumbledore's office. There's a stuffed Fawkes
sitting on its perch, and the Pensieve (see "Goblet of Fire") in the
corner.
Then you walk a couple spaces and
there's a door. You walk in, and there's usually a line to ride in Ron's flying
car (see "Chamber of Secrets") and to ride a broomstick. I'm only
going to explain the broomstick. There's a seat so you don't have to sit on the
wooden stick. You put on a robe and pull it over your knees to hide the seat. There's
a green screen behind you (which can show any background you want) and there's
a screen in front of you that shows you the background that will appear where
the green screen is. You fly in London, over Hogwarts, and through the forest.
And after you do that for a little while, they ask you to look at a camera, and
they take a couple pictures of you. After, you exit to your left and get your
pictures.
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Broom & Green Screen
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When you walk out, you see Dolores
Umbridge's office (see "Order of the Phoenix"). Turn right, then left,
and you're standing in a part of the Ministry of Magic (see "Order of the
Phoenix"). Turn right again, and you're behind a fence looking at a part
of Malfoy Manor (see "Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1"). Turn left, and
there's a case of all the small props they use like coins, letters, books and
other stuff.
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| Galleons, Sickles & Knuts |
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Then you go outside and get a mug of
butterbeer. Then you're allowed to sit on Hagrid's flying motorbike (see
"Sorcerer's Stone") and the Knight Bus (see "Prisoner of
Azkaban"). Go behind the Knight Bus and you see the front porch of 4
Privet Drive. Turn right and there's a couple of chess pieces from "The
Sorcerer's Stone." You go inside again, and you're in the workshop where
they made all the goblin masks, the Basilisk (see "Chamber of
Secrets"), Buckbeak (see "Prisoner of Azkaban") and other
creatures. Turn right, then turn right again, and you're standing in Diagon
Alley. Like the Great Hall, it's not as big as you think. Take twenty normal
strides, and you're at the end. Turn left, and you're looking at a full-scale
model of Hogwarts. It's not the real Hogwarts, it's way smaller, and the
filmmakers used it when Harry is flying over Hogwarts. It's amazing how they
built it. It took them 3 years to build this model. It has full color and it's
not just Hogwarts. You can see the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid's hut, and the
Quidditch pitch.
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| Hogwarts Model |
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Go right and you're standing in
Ollivander's, only instead of regular wand boxes, every box has a name of a
member of the cast and crew of the movies. Go straight, and you're in the gift
shop. That's the end. It might not seem like much, but each thing has every
detail you can imagine, and it takes a while for you to get through it even if
it's only twenty strides because you want to make sure you don't miss anything
and if you see something cool, you want to point it out to your family.
You might think that the actors get
to keep their wands, but they don't. As I told you, next to the boy's
Gryffindor dormitory, there's a case of all the main characters' wands. These
are all some of the original wands. Each character, if they were a big part,
went through many different wands, but Harry went through the most. He used up
80 different wands and they changed the look of Harry's wand halfway through
the movie series. If you look closely at Harry's wand in the first movie, you
can tell it looks different from the way it looks when you buy it yourself
today.
If you can convince your parents to
take you to London, then you can see the Harry Potter soundstage.
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| Golden Snitch |
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