Warner Brothers Studio Tour

Cindy and I went on a long weekend trip over to the Los Angeles area. We got there on Friday and had scheduled a tour at the Warner Brother's studio. Before starting the tour we had lunch at the oldest surviving Big Boy Resturant. They even had some limited Car Hop Service. Here is Cindy with the Big Boy himself. It was a popular spot. We had to wait for a table.

Then we took our 2 and a half hour tour of Warner Brothers Studios. I learned a lot! First off, this huge studio has been the home of countless movies and television shows. Did you know Friends is the most popular show ever? It is showing somewhere in the world 24 hours a day. Did you know I've never watched a complete Friends episode? Did you know Friends was never filmed in New York? It was all filmed right here except for segment in England.

Here are two well known Warner Brothers stars taking their hats off to greet us.

This is called an undressed set. It doesn't have all the details that make it look real, including door knobs,etc. But this little alley is the very spot where Spiderman kissed his girlfriend when he was hanging upside down. The fire escapes behind is where the big number with the the orphans from Annie took place. They can make these sets look like anywhere in anytime period. It's pretty amazing how little there really is to them. All kinds of folks rent the spaces at the studio to film.

This is lagoon where fantasy island was filmed. It's right next to "Walton's Mountain" and the Mountain from the opening scenes of MASH. It was also the jungle from Juraissaic Park.

The costume shop.

Part of the Star Waggons they use for makeup, dressing etc.

This is a dressed set. The town square was set up for one series on one side of the street and a completely different place and time on the opposite side of the street.

All the Sound stages had plaques on them commerating the movies and series that had been filmed in them. This is the set where friends was filmed, along with many others. Friends makes the stars like 23 million a year in residuals.

This is the largest sound stage in the world. It was used for A Perfect Storm. They put the water and ship and everything in there. It was used for Inception. They built the whole Asian Palace inside. It costs 10,000 $ a day to rent. Steven Speilberg puts it on hold whenever he wants it.

This is a close up of the mattress like padding inside the walls. The sound is just kind of dead inside.

ONe of the digitized backdrops they use to simulate a skyline. They stretch it out like a shower curtain and have lights showing through some of it.

Part of the huge shop where they make sets and props.

This was the car museum and Scooby Doo's van. We were able to take photos in here, but later went to the museum and we weren't allowed to take photos in there. All the Harry Potter movies were done here and the whole second floor of the museum is devoted to Harry Potter. It's pretty cool to see some of the costume's props and monsters. I even got sorted by the orginal sorting hat.

Harry Potter and the car from the movie.

Duke's of Hazzard car, car from Arthur, car from Matrix. Austin Power's car is just barely visible. They had a set saved from Friends and we were able to get our photo taken on the couch!

The huge prop building is really amazing. It really helps you realize why it takes so many people to plan and organize a movie. Again, people come from all over to use the things at Warner Brothers. They determine the rental value as a percentage of the monetary value. The Warner Brother's wives went all over the world to buy things to use in the movies. They also used them freely in their homes. They have the largest collection of thrones in the world here.

Some of the lights.

It was really fun. And they even took our photo in front of a green screen that turned  out to be the Hogwart's Express and then gave it to us!