Harry Potter studios

Introduction

On Tuesday 11^th December 2012 are media class went on a school trip to the Warner Bros studios near Watford London to visit the Harry Potter Studio tour. The trip would consist of visiting the sets of the Harry Potter sets and learning about how a film script is made into a film.

Summary of events of the day.

On the day we got to the Harry Potter studios at half past 2 in the afternoon. As the our groups tour of the Harry Potter studios did not start until three in the afternoon we were invited to have a look around the gift shop.

We first went into a room were upon the walls of the room were all of the Harry Potter film posters from the UK and the rest of the world. We were then shown a video of how the makers of the harry potter film first discovered about the book and the lady who read it for the first time was on there.

We then seen a short video featuring the cast from the film and they talked about how the studios were designed and what the tour would be about. We were then allowed into the first set that was used on the film and were talked to by the tour guide who then told to go and have a look around on our own.

Script To screen

First we talked about how ideas for films come about and some ideas come about from imagination, true stories and television programmes. After we talked about how the film makers got ideas we talked about how a new film maker would go and make there 25 word or less pitch to a film production company and how the idea would take of from there.

We also look at a script from the Harry potter films and what is on a script and how information on a script is displayed with important text being in capitals and the lines are indented so the actors can read them. The text was in capitals so each department knew what they needed to do for each scene. As a class we were also able to see a actual film script that was used in the Harry Potter films and was owned by somebody who worked there. The script were all marked with the names of who the script was meant for so people could not copy write it.

We also looked at how a film storey board is created and how these storey boards can actually change when they are final put onto tape. A storyboard should include information like dialogue and camera angles and possible movements of cameras and the characters. The storyboards are important as it gives the director and writers of the film the chance to see what the film could look like on camera.

10 highlights

1.       First of all to see how many people actual like to go to the studios and how many tourist there are

2.       The large scale of all of the sets that were created and how they all took a long time to design and then build correctly

3.       Seeing all of the props that were used in the film

4.       Seeing how the film team made the green screen effects on the brooms and how the cars were flown

5.       The scale model of the castle at the end of the tour that was used for all of the wide shots.

6.       How the special effects team duplicated a section of the bridge saving the prop builders a lot of time.

7.       All of the arts departments work and how they had to make loads of costumes for all of creatures and monsters.

8.       Seeing how to make a film production pitch and how very few words you actual need to make a successful film pitch.

9.       Seeing the Great Hall where the first scene of Hogwarts is seen.

1.   Seeing the houses outside where Harry once lived.

Conclusion

In conclusion the trip to the harry potter studios in Watford was beneficial as I learnt about how to create a proper storyboard and that you can change the storyboard by adding things or by taking things out. I have also learnt how to generate ideas and to take inspiration from anything like films or from real life events. For my work I have learnt how to make a pitch successfully and how to go through the process of producing a film