franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
So were going to take a little detour from our Disney moments for a competitor. When Jill told us she was coming out here, we immediately planned a couple different Disney experiences. It wasnt until we had pretty much sealed up the Disney experiences that she mentioned she would like to do a tour of Warner Bros studios. Weve heard about this, but for those of you who live in potential tourist locations, you know that the locals never get to visit what all the tourists see. We decided to change that with respect to Warner Bros Studios. I booked us for a 1:45 tour on March 31, 2014. Or. So. I. thought.
Because LA traffic is so unpredictable, all of us left our respective locations in plenty of time. It turns out that we all parked within 5 minutes of each other and we were at least an hour early for our check time. Or. So. I. thought.
Fran wanted to sleep in the car until it was time to check in, and Jill and I are Starbucks addicts so we went inside to get some drinks and hang out until it was time for our tour. We decided to check with the ticket counter and make sure that they would be able to accommodate Fran and her scooter on the tour. They were happy to oblige and asked for the copy of my confirmation of the purchase. And this is where it happened.
These tickets are for March 18th the ticketing agent said.
What???????????
Thats the day you bought them said Jill.
Ugh! When I purchased the tickets, I went back and forth on the WB site and must have missed the fact that the date changed from the one we actually wanted back to the current date. Luckily the nice gal at the ticket counter was able to move our unused tickets from the 18th to our actual tour day. She also logged the fact that they needed an HA tram for our tour. We could have checked in at the point, but since all three of us werent there it didnt make sense so we decided to go get some beverages and hang out until we had to wake up Fran.
The telecommunications device that billed my Starbucks card was having a problem and we were stuck at the check out counter for what seemed like forever, but finally they were able to bill us and we sat in some chairs that neither of us thought we would be able to get up from but we did. They had these costumes on display in the waiting area and Starbucks café. Just a taste of what was to come. Im sorry they didnt come out very good the back lighting makes it hard to see the actual costumes.
Once we went back to the car and woke up Fran we came back to check in for the tour. This required showing our IDs before they handed over the tickets.
While we waited, I admired some of the Harry Potter Merchandise they had. Much of it was similar to what we could have bought at US in Florida. Unfortunately, being the Disney girl that I am, I was really not familiar with a lot of the Warner Bros productions and kept struggling to find things they had done that I had actually seen, so no merchandise purchases for us.
After a short film that included lots of 1 second clips of movies from WB (They had a name for this at the D23 Expo, but I cant remember it now) we boarded our tram. OK, the suspense got me, I looked it up and its called a Sizzle Reel.
Back to the Tram, it was a nice HA tram where Fran could just roll in, and they tied her down and she was good to go. Here is a bad selfie as we take off.
And here we are passing through the gate onto the actual Studio lot. The thing about Warner Bros. is that it is a working studio lot. There is always production going on, and the more that they can film on their own lot, the more money and hassle they save. Every building but one is as generic as it could possibly be. We drove past a building which was all offices. It was two stories and resembled a motel or possibly a school. Our guide told us that the Mentalist had used it as a motel. Just add room numbers to the doors and voila! Others had used it as a professional office building, or classrooms at a school. Their main rule of production was whatever you put up (ie facades, door plates, signs, etc) you take it down when youre done.
The first place that they took us was to the jungle. Upon entering the Jungle there was a structure. Evidently this structure was one of the few things to bypass that rule of cleaning up after yourself in production. It was built for some production, and they liked it so much they let it stay. Our guide told us that this was used as a Western bar in some productions, a cabin in the woods for others.
Just add a few signs, vehicles and voila! Your audience is believing it. Notice the rocks on the bottom of the building. Our guide told us to pick your favorite rock and look about six feet away. See it turned around in a different position? Theses are just fiberglass or plastic facades stapled on to the building. If you want wood siding, bricks, take the rocks off and staple on your texture. Ill have more on this later.
This is the lagoon that you can see through the trees.
Normally the lagoon is empty, but they were filling it for some production. Evidently it takes 15 hours to fill and 3 days to drain, if my memory serves correctly.
Our guide mentioned that it could also be filled with sand, and was used in some movie that I wasnt familiar with. With the bamboo here, it also works for Cambodian Jungle scenes.
For those of you who saw Jurassic Park, most of it was filmed in Hawaii, but there were a few scenes that once they returned to the mainland they realized that they didnt get the correct scenes. Rather than fly everyone including camera crews and equipment back over there, they rented the Jungle from WB. I believe she said it was the chase scene when they are in the Jeep and the dinosaur is chasing them. They started at the end of this road drove all the way to the other end, turned everything around and shot them going the other way, as the road is actually quite short. That gave them the illusion of a longer chase scene.
This house, is pretty much just the front of the house. If you look through the windows, you can see the bushes behind it. Notice the big wooden platform next to it. Ive already forgotten what they called this but they use them to give the illusion of a wooded area. Whatever they were filming in this space couldnt have a house in the shot, so they park these bush wagons in front of things to obscure them.
Here is a shot of one without the trimmings.
Our guide told us that they trim these with clippings from around the studio grounds, but eventually they die, so they just spray paint them green to look alive. Evidently the camera doesnt really pick up on this and viewers just see it as lush green background. See when I took these pictures yesterday, I could tell that the bushes were painted. As I look at them now. Not so much.
Evidently the Mentalist had been filming in this trailer here. They were done so the guy in the Maroon Pick up was towing it out of there.
One last look at the lagoon as we start to exit the area.
I took this shot to illustrate a point that our guide made. They never keep light fixtures or door hardware on buildings. Just this simple little touch can set the era for the production. Antique hardware and fixtures could put this door in the early 20th century, while more modern fixtures could make it anywhere from the late eighties to current times. This shack was used as a diner in some production. I hadnt seen it so I dont quite remember which one.
[Continued in Next Post]
Because LA traffic is so unpredictable, all of us left our respective locations in plenty of time. It turns out that we all parked within 5 minutes of each other and we were at least an hour early for our check time. Or. So. I. thought.
Fran wanted to sleep in the car until it was time to check in, and Jill and I are Starbucks addicts so we went inside to get some drinks and hang out until it was time for our tour. We decided to check with the ticket counter and make sure that they would be able to accommodate Fran and her scooter on the tour. They were happy to oblige and asked for the copy of my confirmation of the purchase. And this is where it happened.
These tickets are for March 18th the ticketing agent said.
What???????????
Thats the day you bought them said Jill.
Ugh! When I purchased the tickets, I went back and forth on the WB site and must have missed the fact that the date changed from the one we actually wanted back to the current date. Luckily the nice gal at the ticket counter was able to move our unused tickets from the 18th to our actual tour day. She also logged the fact that they needed an HA tram for our tour. We could have checked in at the point, but since all three of us werent there it didnt make sense so we decided to go get some beverages and hang out until we had to wake up Fran.
The telecommunications device that billed my Starbucks card was having a problem and we were stuck at the check out counter for what seemed like forever, but finally they were able to bill us and we sat in some chairs that neither of us thought we would be able to get up from but we did. They had these costumes on display in the waiting area and Starbucks café. Just a taste of what was to come. Im sorry they didnt come out very good the back lighting makes it hard to see the actual costumes.
Once we went back to the car and woke up Fran we came back to check in for the tour. This required showing our IDs before they handed over the tickets.
While we waited, I admired some of the Harry Potter Merchandise they had. Much of it was similar to what we could have bought at US in Florida. Unfortunately, being the Disney girl that I am, I was really not familiar with a lot of the Warner Bros productions and kept struggling to find things they had done that I had actually seen, so no merchandise purchases for us.
After a short film that included lots of 1 second clips of movies from WB (They had a name for this at the D23 Expo, but I cant remember it now) we boarded our tram. OK, the suspense got me, I looked it up and its called a Sizzle Reel.
Back to the Tram, it was a nice HA tram where Fran could just roll in, and they tied her down and she was good to go. Here is a bad selfie as we take off.
And here we are passing through the gate onto the actual Studio lot. The thing about Warner Bros. is that it is a working studio lot. There is always production going on, and the more that they can film on their own lot, the more money and hassle they save. Every building but one is as generic as it could possibly be. We drove past a building which was all offices. It was two stories and resembled a motel or possibly a school. Our guide told us that the Mentalist had used it as a motel. Just add room numbers to the doors and voila! Others had used it as a professional office building, or classrooms at a school. Their main rule of production was whatever you put up (ie facades, door plates, signs, etc) you take it down when youre done.
The first place that they took us was to the jungle. Upon entering the Jungle there was a structure. Evidently this structure was one of the few things to bypass that rule of cleaning up after yourself in production. It was built for some production, and they liked it so much they let it stay. Our guide told us that this was used as a Western bar in some productions, a cabin in the woods for others.
Just add a few signs, vehicles and voila! Your audience is believing it. Notice the rocks on the bottom of the building. Our guide told us to pick your favorite rock and look about six feet away. See it turned around in a different position? Theses are just fiberglass or plastic facades stapled on to the building. If you want wood siding, bricks, take the rocks off and staple on your texture. Ill have more on this later.
This is the lagoon that you can see through the trees.
Normally the lagoon is empty, but they were filling it for some production. Evidently it takes 15 hours to fill and 3 days to drain, if my memory serves correctly.
Our guide mentioned that it could also be filled with sand, and was used in some movie that I wasnt familiar with. With the bamboo here, it also works for Cambodian Jungle scenes.
For those of you who saw Jurassic Park, most of it was filmed in Hawaii, but there were a few scenes that once they returned to the mainland they realized that they didnt get the correct scenes. Rather than fly everyone including camera crews and equipment back over there, they rented the Jungle from WB. I believe she said it was the chase scene when they are in the Jeep and the dinosaur is chasing them. They started at the end of this road drove all the way to the other end, turned everything around and shot them going the other way, as the road is actually quite short. That gave them the illusion of a longer chase scene.
This house, is pretty much just the front of the house. If you look through the windows, you can see the bushes behind it. Notice the big wooden platform next to it. Ive already forgotten what they called this but they use them to give the illusion of a wooded area. Whatever they were filming in this space couldnt have a house in the shot, so they park these bush wagons in front of things to obscure them.
Here is a shot of one without the trimmings.
Our guide told us that they trim these with clippings from around the studio grounds, but eventually they die, so they just spray paint them green to look alive. Evidently the camera doesnt really pick up on this and viewers just see it as lush green background. See when I took these pictures yesterday, I could tell that the bushes were painted. As I look at them now. Not so much.
Evidently the Mentalist had been filming in this trailer here. They were done so the guy in the Maroon Pick up was towing it out of there.
One last look at the lagoon as we start to exit the area.
I took this shot to illustrate a point that our guide made. They never keep light fixtures or door hardware on buildings. Just this simple little touch can set the era for the production. Antique hardware and fixtures could put this door in the early 20th century, while more modern fixtures could make it anywhere from the late eighties to current times. This shack was used as a diner in some production. I hadnt seen it so I dont quite remember which one.
[Continued in Next Post]
I liked the 'weather machine' they demonstrated but you might be leading up to that...scared my Mum half to death but me and Jo and Dad laughed it made our bellies hurt!
I have heard they have lunch with a naturalist who comes and answers all your questions about the animals- I am thinkin about settin that up sometime, my friend Lonnie would LOVE it. 
