The Making of Harry Potter

In a year of all things Potter, we were fortunate to be in the UK for the 2012 unveiling of the Making of Harry Potter exhibit. The tour is a collection of sets and props from the eight films, as well as special exhibits on the make-up, design and construction of the movies. If you're not a Harry Potter fan, feel free to check back next week for the latest blog entry, otherwise enjoy this little overview of the tour.

Main reception area before you enter the tour

Pictures from the Dursley household.

The cupboard under the stairs

Entering the Great Hall at Hogwarts

There are displays for each house along the hall with costumes. The robe on the far left is Harry's original robe from the first film.

The main table for the teachers with costumes

Looking back at the Great Hall

Some deserts that were used at celebrations in the Great Hall

Diagon Alley and the Great Hall were called "hot sets", meaning they were film ready and could be used at any time. The ceiling in the Great Hall is open because they used digital effects to close it off for special occasions.

Large exhibition space for interior movie sets

Hanging out in Ron and Harry's room

Will gazing into the Mirror of Erised. Will says he saw himself as a pro footballer and BMX biker.

The Griffindor Common Room

Ainsley at the moving staircase which leads to Dumbledore's office

Dumbledore's office- notice the sorting hat on the shelf.

The Tri-Wizard Cup

The display case shows the wands of every major character (about 25 in all)

There were a number of display cases with special props

Snape's potions classroom

Hagrid's Hut

Inside the Burrow

One of the amazing things to see during the tour was the attention to detail. Individual packaging on magic tricks, sweets, and hand-written labels on wand boxes were impressive to see up close.

Some Every Flavor Beans

We had to get ourselves some Butterbeer. It tasted a bit like a cream soda float.

The Knight Bus

Checking in on the Dursleys. I almost expected them to open the door and yell at me.

Dobby and a few copies of the Care of Magical Creatures textbooks.

Ainsley visiting with the mechanical Hedwig

Shops from Diagon Alley

Architectural drawings for the Burrow. It's fascinating to see the process for creating the sets and characters.

Paper model of Hogwarts used in pre-production

Model of Hogwarts (1/24 size)

At the end of the tour there is a large space similar to Ollivanders Wand Shop. Each of these wand cases is labeled with the names of people who worked on the film.

Hand prints from Harry, Ron, and Hermione

Catching the bus back to the train station

Ainsley wanted to say how much she liked the giant Hogwarts model at the end and getting a Pygmy Puff like Ginny, and Will says "It was awesome".