One of the things I had booked in advance of
this trip was a tour of Warner Brothers Studios. I had wanted to do a studio
tour, and there were a few to chose from – Paramount, Warner Brothers and
Universal. I had heard mixed things about Paramount, and in order to get into
Universal you needed to buy a pass to the theme park. Plus, last year Uncle
Beau and Connor did the WB one and loved it, so that was the one I picked.
Our tour time was 9:30 but we checked out of
the hotel by 8:00am since Chris had warned us traffic could be a nightmare.
Fortunately, it was only a 15-minute drive and traffic was non-existent so we
arrived with plenty of time to spare. That worked to our favor as we spent 45+
minutes driving around trying to find a coffee shop. The GPS was telling us
there were Starbucks and Peets around, but they seemed to be inside studio
buildings that we couldn’t get to. We drove around in circles, before we
managed to find a small independent café where we had a quick breakfast to go. Of
course, as luck would have it as soon as we entered the main WB building, there
was a Starbucks right inside!
The entrance to the tour was off to one side
of the WB offices, and in addition to the Starbucks included a gift shop,
theater and some artifacts and costumes from the Harry Potter movies. We spent
a few minutes looking around before our group was called. They keep the groups
small, so there were only about 9 of us all together, and our first stop was
the theater. It explained a bit about the Warner Brothers (who were actually
brothers!) and how they came to Hollywood with the dream of opening a studio.
It was about 15 minutes long, and showed a bunch of clips from the various TV
Shows and Movies that had been filmed there. Afterward we met our guide, who
was amazing! I forget his name, but he was very knowledgeable and personable,
and made the tour a lot of fun.
We boarded a large golf-cart/trolley thing and
drove across the street into the Studios. The tour started by going down the
“big city” streets. These are the outdoor sets of a city such as NYC or
Chicago. They include storefronts of shops and restaurants, apartments,
theaters, parks, and subway entrances. Our guide explained how these sets are
decorated and set-up for the movies and TV shows that need them. As we drove
along he pointed out areas that had been used for shows like Friends, The Big
Bang, Pretty Little Liars and ER.
There was a set of train tracks off to the side,
which had been built especially for ER. We also got to see the small alleyway
that had been made famous by the Spiderman/Mary-Jane upside down kiss in
Spiderman 2. Interesting fact, that scene was filmed with rain effects and
since the actor was upside down for it, the water kept piling up in his mask
choking him. They finally had to put rolled up gauze inside his nose so he
wouldn’t breathe in the water, and then use the computer to add in his lines
afterward since the gauze prevented him from speaking normally.
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| Train tracks from ER |
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| Spiderman Kiss Alley |
When shows and movies need the sets, their
team of set-decorators etc. will come in and spent a day or two setting it up.
This includes adding store names and items, setting up cafes and restaurants,
and often painting the exterior different colors. Because they want the city to
look older and authentic, they brought in actual older fire escapes from NYC to
put on the buildings. But because they were dangerous, they had to repair them
and then re-paint them to make them appear older. It’s all about making things
look real, and ensuring the set is believable of the city is it supposed to be.
We drove down to an area where they have the
larger buildings that are been used as museums, theaters, and city halls. We
also got to see a subway entrance that holds about 30 people inside.
Apparently, it gets pretty claustrophobic down there when they are shooting a
scene that involves a bunch of people spilling out of the subway tunnel!
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| This is often used as a park set - and has been Central Park in NYC a bunch of times. In Friends it was in the scene with Rachel and Pheobe running crazily though the park. |
Our first stop was a costume and prop museum
and it was awesome. The entire second floor is devoted to items from the Harry
Potter films. They include costumes from many of the cast, as well as props
like the sorting hat, beds from the hospital, and an incredible prop that was
used in the second movie when Hermonie was petrified. It took them months to
make this prop, and everything was modeled after the actress. They even put the
strands of hair in individually as to make it look believable.
They had a fun area where you could be
“sorted” like in the movie and I am happy to report I was sorted into
Gryffindor. Brian however was sorted into Ravenclaw.
The second level includes items from an
assortment of movies and TV shows. There were costumes from Friends,
Smallville, Pretty Little Liars, Casablanca, My Fair Lady, The Dark Knight and
many more. It also had the piano from Casablanca, and some stationary and props
from Gilmore Girls.
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| From My Fair Lady |
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| The Hangover |
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| Casablanca |
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| Friends |
One thing that amazed me was how tiny the
actor/actresses clothing is. While they appear thin and fit on screen and in magazines,
the clothing is even smaller then you would imagine – even with the men’s costumes.
Our next stop was to the Two and a Half Men
set, where we were unable to take any photos. It was interesting to see how the
indoor sets was laid out, and it was a cool experience to see one of a show I
was familiar with. Our guide explained how the sets are kept up for the
duration of a show, and how things like cleaning and staging are done. For
cleaning, they actually have a crew that comes in and vacuums and dusts every
week. For staging, they include masking tape on the floor to show the actors
where their “marks are”. Often actors invent ways of checking their marks that
get incorporated into their character. In Friends, when Rachel was always
checking to make sure her shoes matched, it was the actress double-checking her
mark. The most interesting story was that of the show Colombo, as the actor had
a glass eye that would reflect light whenever he looked down at the floor. In
order to deal with that, the actor shielded his face when he looked down, and
that move became the characters trademark action of putting his hand to his
face and looking down whenever he was thinking about something.
Our guide explained the process of scripts,
and how script changes occur up until the last second. In order to ensure
actors have the most up-to-date scripts they use colored paper whenever they
re-print them. He also explained the large role advertising plays in the
writing. Scripts are often re-written and changed based on the advertisers that
have bought airtime – and sometimes these changes are over the silliest things.
The example he used was a pizza company. If a pizza company is being advertised
on that show, and the show mentions pizza at all – it may be changed. Even a
small thing of a pizza being delivered late, or a character not liking the
pizza toppings will be changed because they don’t want to take the risk of
offending the advertiser. This is why a lot of shows include food delivery
places that don’t tend to advertise.
After leaving the set, we went into a
transportation warehouse that holds a bunch of the famous cars from TV shows
and movies. It had the Austin Powers cars, 4 of the Batmobile’s, the flying car
from Harry Potter and a bunch of others. They were all roped off, but it was
cool to walk around and see what they actually look like.
This building also had a green screen to
demonstrate the process that most movies now use. Instead of acting in an
actual set, most of it is computer generated – especially for action movies.
The actors act in front of a green screen, and then the scenery and set is
generated around them. We got to take a picture demonstrating this, so Brian
and I were posed in front of the green screen in a certain way. Then the
background of the Hogwarts express was generated in before the photo was
printed. It was incredible how real it all looks.
Our guide drove us past the trailers that they
take out on location sets, and past the set mechanic and gas station. Both of
these are actual, real areas that are used daily but can also double as sets
when needed. He explained a number of directors that often use WB to film, and
one was Clint Eastwood. Eastwood seems to have a lot of clout there, as the
guide demonstrated in the following story. When George Clooney was filming ER
on the lot, he wasn’t as famous as he now is. For whatever reason, he really
wanted a basketball court on the lot. He bugged the WB people about this
constantly, and was finally told if he got a large number of signatures within
a day or two, they would talk. Clooney came back the next day with only one signature
– Clint Eastwoods’ – and the basketball court was built.
Something else that surprised me was learning
that WB rents out space to other studios. This is why other shows and movies
unassociated with the studio are sometimes filmed there. This started happening
a few years ago when Universal had a fire and needed studio space to relocate
to.
One of the coolest parts of the tour was
getting to go into the re-created Central Perk set from Friends. It looks
exactly as it does on TV, and Brian and I got to get a photo sitting on the
actual couch. As a Friends fan, that was awesome!
From there we walked down into a few sections
of prop warehouse, which blew my mind. It is this massive warehouse where
anything you could ever imagine set-wise is stored – furniture, books, frames,
lighting fixtures, drapery, tableware, clocks, knick-knacks, food, everything!
Apparently when a show/movie needs something they come here and rent it out.
They also rent out to other studios as there were pieces marked “Castle”, “Greys
Anatomy” and other shows that film outside the lot.
Our guide explained this is another area where
advertising comes into play, as they cannot use any item with the name of a
product unless they have permission/are paying to do so. The funny thing is,
that only doesn’t only apply to the product type but the actual name. For
example, if they used laundry detergent with the “Pepsi” name, that would count
as using Pepsi. Strangely enough, it doesn’t apply to the actual logo, which is
why you see different brand names on well-known logos from time to time.
For the last part of the tour, we drove into
the “small town” exterior set, where shows like Gilmore Girls and Pretty Little
Liars were done. We drove past sets that were familiar to me from these shows,
including the town square and the exterior of characters houses. I loved this
part, as I could recognize these places and that was really fun! They were
setting up to film Pretty Little Liars, so the school and town hall buildings
had Rosewood High School and Rosewood City Hall on them. It is amazing to
realize just how much time and effort goes into setting these places up for all
these shows and movies. They must have their schedule down to a tee, as they
only have a certain amount of time before another show/movie uses the outdoor
sets.
Our tour ended at the gift shop, where I was
able to buy the Luke’s shirt I had seen earlier. (Luke’s was the diner in
Gilmore Girls – my favorite show!). I was going to buy a Central Perk mug, but
didn’t want the hassle of getting yet another item home. Brian bought a Harry
Potter tee shirt that had the words “I solemnly swear I am up to no good” on
it.
We grabbed some Starbucks before leaving the
studio, and began our drive back up the coast to Monteray. We chose to drive
the coastal route for some of it, which was really beautiful. We stopped in
Santa Barbara for lunch at this place that had been on the show Diners,
Drive-Ins and Dives. It was a cute little café, but massively overpriced as for
two sandwiches, two salads and two drinks cost almost $50.00! We drove through
a bit of Santa Barbara, but had such a long drive ahead that we didn’t stay as
long as we would have liked to.
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| Our Lunch stop |
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| This must be where Santa vacations in the off season! |
The sun was just starting to set when we
reached start of the Pacific Highway – the highway that is on the side of a
cliff! I knew this wasn’t a route I wanted to take going down (as going south
you are in the lane closest to the edge) but I thought going up would be fine.
It wasn’t – it was terrifying! I think part of that fact had to do with the time
– about 30 minutes in we lost the light and it was pitch black. The roads are
very narrow, and the drops insanely steep. It was a stressful few hours –
especially when we saw a guy pulled off to the side of the road as he had taken
the turn to quickly. I am sure that the views are amazing, and it’s a wonderful
experience to have, but I have no desire to ever drive that road again!
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| Signs of the Water Shortage - This was common as we got further north on the highway |
It was almost 10pm when we arrived at our
hotel in Monteray and we were both hungry and exhausted. We decided to walk
across the road to a little Irish pub, not realizing that it was the Friday
before St. Patrick’s Day. Instead of a quick and quiet dinner, we were in the
middle of all the festivities, which turned out to be fun. The pub’s food was
actually amazing – surprisingly they had the best clam chowder both of us had
ever tasted. It’s funny how some of the strangest places turn out to be awesome,
and far better then you ever imagined!
Our hotel was the Marriott and right in the
center of town. It had also been booked on points, and was the best hotel we
stayed in. Amazing rooms, helpful staff and an incredible location that allowed
us to walk to most places. If you are ever in Monteray, the Marriott is the
hotel to stay at.
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