Day 3 - Warner Brothers Studio VIP Tour

This morning was the tour that I had most been looking forward to at Warner Bros Studio. This tour was always going to be better than the Universal Studios tour as it isn't trying to be a Themepark ride it is a pure studio tour.

It starts off with a short film about the history of the studio and then a group of about 12 hop in an extended electric cart and a tour guide drives you around the lot telling you where things have been filmed and some secrets from behind the scenes.

Start off with a man made forest where they have some cabins etc. that have been used in various tv shows and movies. One of the only

scenes not filmed on location for Jurassic Park was filmed in the forest involving the jeep getting chased by a T-Rex with Jeff Goldblum in the back.

We then went into a small town square which has been used for many different cities including for Gilmore Girls and Hart of Dixie one edge of it even had Ross and Monica's parents house from friends. There was a fair bit of activity in the square as they were setting it up for filming on Pretty Little Liars season 4.

We then parked up and got to go in the studio where 2 Broke Girls is filmed. We sat in the seats where the live audience sits and could see the set for the Diner, the Kitchen and their Apartment, the sets are all alot smaller than they look on tv. Unfortunately due to copyright issues we weren't allowed to take photos.

We then got taken into the car museum where they had numerous vehicles that have been used in different movies and tv shows including all the movie batmobiles and the nerd herd vehicle from Chuck.

We then got taken to the props department where they have a couple of buildings the size of four football fields and four stories high where they store all the dressings and props for shows it is set up like a library and the production gets charge a fee, usually a percent of the cost of the prop. There was a clock sitting there that had been reserved for use in Pretty Little Liars season 4. This building is where they have the Friends Central Perk set. At the end of the show they retired all of the props due to them being to recognizable, then Jay Leno wanted to interview the cast and wanted to do on the set so they set it up and Leno suggested they leave it for visitors. As it is a retired set they do allow photos to be taken however you may only sit on the couch and can't go any further into the set to preserve it. Couple of facts I learnt the menu whiteboard was changed everyday and the one hanging on set now is the same menu as the final ever episode and the gold coffee machine was also used in Full House in Uncle Jesses bar but didn't become recognizable enough that it needed to be retired. Extra fact not related to the set is that Gunther was not the original coffee guy, the person that was hired didn't turn up (he'll be kicking himself now). The producers asked all the extras if anyone knew how to use an espresso machine 'Gunther' happened to be a barista by day so put his hand up (he just needed to know the

actions as the machine was too loud to use in set). Gunther then went on to be the second most credited cast member on the series outside the 6 core cast.

Anyway enough of the friends trivia we then got taken to a costumes museum where we weren't allowed to take photos due to the light damaging the costumes, on the first floor they had various costumes from throughout the history of Warner Bros including the outfits for villains and batman from the Christopher Nolan trilogy. Upstairs was dedicated to Harry Potter where they had a whole heap of costumes and props from the movies including the death eater and dementors. The also had the Hermione dummy from when she is frozen solid in the Chamber of Secrets. It looked freakily realistic! The coolest costume they had there was the legs and club that the troll used when it was smashing around in the girls bathroom. The legs were massive and had a normal human inside kind of hanging there it looked like it would be awesome walking around in it. It would have cool to have seen how the made Robbie Coltrane so big to play Hagrid, they had his coat from the beginning of the first movie and it was giant size so I don't know how he filled it in.

We then drove around a few more areas and streets that had various shows and movies filmed on them. Other productions companies are allowed to come and film at the Warner Bros Studios so we also got to see where Sony Pictures filmed the upside down kiss scene from

the first Spider-Man movie. Apparently when they were filming in the rain with Tobey Maguire hanging upside down the suit was not waterproof so the rain was going up his nose. The costume designers decided to put cotton wool in his nose and cover it with Vaseline. This meant that he no longer sounded like Spider-Man so they actually ended up recording the dialogue separate to the action.

Of course at the end of the tour they had a store with lots of goodies from their various tv shows.

The rest of day was spent more or less in my hotel room where I had a small sleep and watched some tv etc. I have another toured booked for tomorrow morning which I have to walk about 4km to get to and then possibly go somewhere a bit unusual but i'll check in tomorrow with the details.