We packed a lot into today. We were at Warner Bros Studios at 8.30am this morning for our 9am tour. The tour started with a short video about the history of the Warner brothers and some of the films and tv shows that have been made at the studios.
Then we went out and got in a mini tram. There were only 8 people in the group which was excellent. As we went around, our guide pointed out various facades and areas that had been used in tv shows and films. He stopped in 'a New York street' and we were able to get out and walk around looking at things and touching. The only things that were real were the trees and the fire hydrant. But the trees could be removed because under the surface they were growing in pots. The bricks looked so real but they were just plaster. Even the chewing gum stains on the footpath had been painted on.
While we were in this street, 3 men came down leading a horse. It was the horse used in a new sitcom called Two Broke Girls. One if them said we could help train the horse by half standing on one side of the road and half on the other. The horse had to run down the middle. He did it beautifully!
Also in this street was the shopfront from Harry's Law. The spaces like this one are left free of light fittings and door handles so the people whose show is filming are not influenced by anything and can make their own decisions about the set.
We saw another outdoor set being prepared for some filming that would take place that afternoon. It was a Christmas episode and the street was fully decorated. They were still working on the preparation as we drove around. Our guide said they had been setting it up for a week already.
There was some filming going on for a new show called Suburgatory. Our guide is a big fan if the show and allowed us to get out of the tram and stand the end of the street where they were. He spoke to someone who said they were filming inside a building. The cameras must have been facing out because there were cars with New York plates slowly driving past and extras walking along the footpaths. The poor b*****s were done up in coats, scarves and gloves as it was supposed to be winter. In reality it was nearly 30 degrees. The guide told us it takes about 7 or 8 days to make a 1hr episode of a show.
We went to an area where props are kept. There were 2 huge rooms full of lamps. There were pieces of furniture waiting to be picked up that were being hired by other companies. There were some pieces there for a film Ben Affleck is currently directing.
In the same area was Central Perk - the coffee shop from Friends. We were allowed to go in and sit on the lounge. It was pretty cool.
Next we went to a sound stage. We could choose between The Mentalist, Mike and Molly and another show I hadn't heard of. Everyone chose Mike and Molly. It was cool to see it all set up. There was Molly's house, the diner and Mike's mother's place. This show is filmed in front of a live audience. 4 cameras are used to allow them to film fluid movements. Scott also told us they will rewrite a joke immediately if the audience doesn't laugh. It would have been perfect if we could have seen them filming.
We saw the sound stage were Ellen films her show. She was filming 2 shows that afternoon.
In the museum we saw lots of costumes from various movies and films. There were also handwritten notes from actors/directors. The second floor was devoted to Harry Potter. We saw costumes, broomsticks and even Dobby. It was a shame photos weren't allowed in the museum or the sound stage.
Another area we went to housed cars. We saw the General Lee from Dukes of Hazard, the bike Johnny Depp rode in Willy Wonka, the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo and the Batmobile.
We drove through the set making area and saw an igloo being worked on for Happy Feet 2.
It was an excellent tour and went for about 2.5hrs. I think it was better than Universal because we could get out and look at things.
After the tour we went down to Hollywood Blvd to see our favourite bag man and buy another bag to bring stuff home in. We wandered along a bit, looked at the Hollywood sign on the hill and had lunch.
After lunch we headed for Century City Westfield. Robyn got the Tag watch she wanted and I got the Swarovski champagne flutes I wanted. We will be using them on Christmas Eve, Jen!!
At about 4.15pm we headed for Anaheim. We went to Downtown Disney which is a shopping/dining complex adjacent to Disneyland. We didn't go to the House of Mouse because it wasn't worth the entry fee at that time. We spent a bit of time in the Disney shop and then found a restaurant for dinner. We headed home about 9.30pm. It had taken nearly 2hrs to get there because of peak hour traffic but we were home in less than 1hr.
Tomorrow morning we need to pack our new bags and hope they come in under the baggage allowance. Hopefully the hotel will mind our bags after we check out as we have a late flight. We might have an issue getting all the bags into the convertible for the drive to the airport!