Making The Magic Happen

The Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour

In 1997, a medium-sized film production company in London approached JK Rowling about the possibility of adapting her fantasy novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, into a feature-length film.

This company was Heyday Films, owned by literature enthusiast, David Heyman. Heyman read the first book in Rowling’s series and immediately saw the potential for a “modestly popular British film”.

Rowling had struggled for years to find a publisher for her novel, and had to battle a rough divorce, her mother’s death, severe depression, and borderline poverty all while trying to provide for her young daughter.

At the time that Heyman inquired about the film adaptation, the 2nd novel had not even been released yet, and the first was still in the process of getting discovered.

Fast forward a few years, and Heyday Films landed a partnership with Warner Bros. for the first Harry Potter film with a budget of $150 million. The book was also on its way to becoming the 2nd-best selling fantasy novel of all time, behind only The Hobbit.

We all know what happened next. The magic of Harry Potter spread to every corner of the globe. Every single book in the 7-part series sold over 60 million copies worldwide. Then, the movies followed, each grossing over $800 million at the box office. The final Harry Potter film, released in 2011, crossed the $1 billion mark.

Now, we even have Harry Potter theme parks and Broadway shows!

The humble beginnings of this story that ended up captivating the entire world always gives me goosebumps when I think about it. These books meant so much to me growing up. Everyone in my family read them. My mom used to read it aloud while my dad, my brother and I all listened.

When the movies started to come out, I would wait in line at the movie theater to see the first showing at midnight, and my mom would even let me take the next morning off of school.

It was truly a part of what made me who I am. There is a reason why these stories resonated with so many people. It is fantastic literature and world-building! Whether by page or screen, taking in one of these stories truly feels like entering another world.

Years later, when I met a beautiful girl from Iowa during my senior year at Marquette, it was a wonderful moment finding out that she, too, was a Harry Potter fanatic.

Yesterday, we got to do something quite special together, and it was a day I will never forget. We journeyed out to the London suburb of Watford to spend the day at the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour!

After the completion of the film series, Warner Bros. decided to convert Leavesden Studios (the place where the filming took place) into a full-scale museum to honor the wildly successful movies. We were able to walk through all of the sets we are so familiar with, and see all of the props and costumes used in the films!

The best part of this tour is that all of the sets are cinematically lit, so pictures and videos turn out incredibly well! For this reason, I am not going to put any pictures in the rest of the newsletter. It just wouldn’t do it justice. We will release a YouTube video next week documenting the entire day at Leavesden! Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already!

The entire day felt like living in another universe, and my respect for everyone involved in creating these films has multiplied exponentially!

It was incredible to get a behind-the-scenes glance at all of the moving parts that go into creating magic. Everyone from the set designers, to the carpenters, to the engineers, to the hair and makeup artists, to the costume designers, to the camera crew, to the screenwriters, composers and directors, all were masters of their craft!

I’ve always had enormous amounts of respect for the entire cast of these films. It is truly incredible how perfect Rupert Grint (Ron), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), Maggie Smith (McGonagall), Alan Rickman (Snape), and so many others were at lifting their character straight out of the books and bringing them to life.

However, the studio tour added a whole new dimension to my understanding of how much work went into every single detail of these films. It was not an accident that they became so popular, they are true masterpieces created by the collective effort of thousands of talented people.

I recommend this experience to anyone who considers themselves even a little bit of a Harry Potter fan. The immersion into the world we know so well is indescribable. We will do our best to share it with you through our video recap. Make sure to turn on notifications for our video releases so you don’t miss it!