edenburned: nerdy stuff

Okay, this is my last Harry Potter post, but I just wanted to share some of the really cool special effects stuff you can see on the tour. Its amazing, all the different ways they have to create all these unbelievable scenes. Animatronics, green screens, models... Its interesting, in the 'Reading Film' class I took during my last year of my undergrad I was surprised to learn how many things that I thought were CGI were actually done with camera tricks. However, I am beginning to suspect that my lecturer may have overstated the extent to which such features are still used, as both this exhibit and extra features from recent films show a heavy reliance on CGI (as well as animatronics and models).

One movie special effects area that I have a lot of interest in is makeup and prosthetics. I'm a big fan of SyFy's reality show Face Off in which a group of prosthetic makeup artists compete against each other to create prostheses such as those found in science fiction and horror films. It is seriously amazing how much makeup artists can transform actors (my friend Annie is going to school in Toronto for this right now, and it is super cool).

Green screen and CGI are obviously very big components of films like Harry Potter, with stuff like quidditch being built in computers. They had a room where you could go in front of a green screen on a broom, and fly over London on a computer screen, which was quite fun (unfortunately, you had to pay to actually keep the images, which I did not. My hairstyle does not work on green screen).

Now this is a trick of perception.

So many goblin heads.

LUNA'S LION. It was awesome, there were all the obvious parts of the exhibits, but if you looked around, there was also a lot of stuff just tucked in all over the place (the Lion hat is on a shelf really close to the ceiling).

CREEPY.

This was one of my favourite rooms in the exhibit - the amount of work that goes into designing every little detail is staggering.

The concept art was also amazing (and in some cases, much better than the final effect).

There were also quite a few animatronics throw in throughout the exhibit, which was fun.

And thats all for Harry Potter! It really was an amazing experience, and one I would heartily recommend to any fan of the series. The gift shop at the end is incredibly expensive, but I did buy a wand (Hermione's) and a sugar quill (I try not to buy souvenirs unless they are at least somewhat practical, ie. mugs, magnets, coasters... but I figure I will love and cherish that wand because I am a huge, huge geek, and so it was totally worth it to buy something slightly impractical but ultimately, amazing).

If you aren't a complete Harry Potter geek, you may want to skip this post. It's gonna be a lot of fangirling and angsty musing on childhood.

I took a ton of pictures at the HP experience, if you want to see all of them, you can find them over here.

Literally the first thing we did when we arrived at Kings Cross station in London was head over to Platform 9 3/4. We hit it at a good time, there was basically no one else there, and I got my second photo there (I suspect this may become a "thing" every time I go to London...).

After that we headed over the hostel to drop off our bags. Ali and Jack were off sharing a double, but us girls were all sharing an eight-bed dorm. Unfortunately they messed up my booking when I cancelled the Friday night for Keira, ending up in them deleting her reservation entirely, so I had to rebook her in a different room, so it ended up being seven of us... and one random Australian dude. He was very nice, but I strongly suspect, in the morning, when we had multiple hairdryers going, straightens on, and a whole bunch of girls doing their makeup, that he hated his life. But hey, he sleep-screamed swear words at like, four am every night, so fair play.

The hostel was the same one I stayed at over Christmas, the beds were just as tiny this time but, like last time, totally manageable. Plus the dorm we were in was an ensuite with an extra sink in the room itself, so that was cool. But seriously. Don't stay in a dorm with seven girls (I decided to pack generously since I was taking the train and brought both my backpack AND my small carry-on suitcase. Most of the girls brought huge suitcases. I was feeling very low-maintenance).

After we were settled in, we ditched Alix, who was staying with her brother, and head off to the Harry Potter Experience, which is housed in a large studio lot a train and bus ride away.

*fangirling*

Eve, Melissa, Ali, Jack, Keara, Becky, Leanne, Me.

Neeeeeeeeeeerds.

I honestly wasn't sure what to expect going into this. I knew, objectively, what I would be seeing - props and sets from the films, information on special effects, and more - but I wasn't sure how I would react. I have had several friends who had been before tell me that they cried. And sure, I care a LOT about Harry Potter, but this was stuff from the films, not the books, and I wasn't sure if it would have that much of an emotional impact on me.

Spoiler alert: it did.

Ravenclaw represent! (I was at the tour with a bunch of proud and loud Hufflepuffs, and am the only Ravenclaw in the group).

I guess this whole thing just hammered home how much of an overall impact Harry Potter has had on my life. Whether it is the films or the books, I literally grew up with these books and these characters, and I really wasn't prepared for how much this exhibit would hit me (right in the feels, to use the internet parlance).

That tiny little costume was the one Radcliffe wore in the first film (so little! so cute!)

Dumbledore! *swoons*

It was really just so amazing to see all these sets of things that I first imagined in my head, and then got to see come to life in the films.

Becky's face in this photo was basically my entire reaction to this exhibit.

I really don't know how to describe it. It was just so amazing to be there, to be immersed in this world that I have lived in and loved for so long.

I am concerned with Melissa's apparent approval of the Dark Lord.

Fun bit of trivia: to make the name 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' still anagram into 'I am Lord Voldemort' (an important scene in the second book), foreign editions of Harry Potter ended up having to change his name... in French, he became 'Tom Elvis Jedusor' (Je suis Voldemort).

Butterbeer was actually really good. It reminded me a lot of something like a rootbeer float. However, it was really, really sweet (and in something that is probably telling of our diets, the Canadians loved it and the British did not).

*screaming*

The day we were there was actually the first day they had the owl out. Winning! (also, I have terrible friends - I took photos of everyone, but I was last, and when I went to go up, everyone started to walk away. Its cool, I just yelled at them and Leanne came back :P )

They are 'running'. Apparently.

ITS THE DARK MARK.

I told someone to be pretending to be attacked. Leanne did so. I told Melissa and Becky to pretend to be dead. They lay on the ground with no hesitance. This is a great power I wield.

Daniel Radcliffe is really, really not tall.

Then again, neither are Leanne and Becky.

*screaming*

And this is the point where I came the closest to crying. You walk in, there's this beautiful music playing, and then you see this huge model of Hogwarts (the lighting changes in cycles from day to night and back again). Magic. Really, really magical moment.