Destination L.A. : Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood, Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts and more - Day 6 Travel Blog

At Warner Bros. Studio

Studio Entrance


I was beyond excited to have my Warner Bros. Studio tour experience and I can definitely tell you it is so worth it. If you are a giant movie geek and love to learn more about movie making, behind the scenes stuffs and how they make it all happens on screen, the Warner Bros. Studio is undoubtedly going to be on your schedule when traveling to LA. Allow me to take you with me today as I show you my experience at the Warner Bros Studio. Now do keep in mind this blog post will contain lots of spoilers so please continue at your own risk!

Now at the Warner Bros. Studio, they have the entire tour planned for you. What you are going to see first til the very end is all planned out from the backlot & soundstages, the DC Comics universe exhibit, Harry Potter and much more. Throughout the tour, you will be put into a group with other visitors and you will go through the entire tour on one of those carts you see the crew and people that work in the movies always use. There will also be a tour guide with you to explain what currently filming on the Warner Bros Studio lots and much more fun and interesting history and stories that happened behind the scenes.


Here's what you will see at the Warner Bros Studio Tour:
  • Backstage & Soundstages
  • DC Universe: The Exhibit 
  • Harry Potter & Fantastic Beast
  • Batmobiles
  • The Prop Department
  • Stage 48
  • Central Perk Cafe 
  • Warner Bros Studio Store
  • click here to enter the Warner Bros. Studio Website
I will be giving you guys a glimpse into the Warner Bros tour with pictures I took as well as my overall experience there. Hope you would enjoy reading this blog post and perhaps it will make you wanna book a little adventurous trip to the City of Angels!

Giant WB engraved Rocket inside the Studio
  • Upon Arrival ...
Our tickets & cart number


You know that tingly and exciting sensation you feel before you go on a roller-coaster or about to give a speech to an entire auditorium filled with people? Well, that's how I get when going to the Warner Bros. Studio tour, lol. What can I say, I am that big of a nerd when it comes to movies and behind the scenes stuff. 

When arriving at the Studio, you are to present your E-ticket or purchase info to the staff so they can give you an official ticket and a Cart number for later when you will board the cart and begin your tour. I purchased my ticket off of the Go City Card website. Its a super convenient site where you can choose a city of your destination and book multiple different tickets & passes all at once and you will get a QR code as your tickets as well as a discount at the end of your purchase. I will link the website right here for you to check it out.

Once you're inside the studio they will put you into a cinema-like room where they play an introduction video and show you all the amazing films made by Warner Bros throughout Hollywood filmmaking history, from Casablanca, Rebel without a cause to some of the most recent movies series like Harry Potter. Just to give you an idea of what you will be seeing throughout the tour.

The Warner Bros.Tour Cart
The Warner Bros. Studio Backlot
  • Backlot & Soundstages
The famous WB water tower now has Lego Batman poster on it

For me, the Backlot and Soundstages is the most interesting and cool part of the entire tour. At the Warner Bros. backlot, you get to visit actual filming sites of famous movies and TV shows that dates back to the golden age of Hollywood. Tons of classic Hollywood actors, directors and crew have worked at the Backlot of Warner Bros. Studio. There's an entire fake street of New York built for filming purpose. It looked so realistic and beautiful, you will literally feel like you are actually in New York. The tour guide also explained to us that some of the sets and building built for filming purpose are called "Facade", which means they only build one side to make it look like a real-life building for a certain movie, and the other side of the house or building is completely empty and does not have anything there. I was so happy to learn these interesting things about filmmaking.

Rosewood City Hall from FreeForm's Pretty Little Liars

If you are a fan of the show Pretty Little Liars, you would be thrilled to know that you would get to visit actual filming locations of Rosewood High School, Rosewood City Hall, Spencer and Emily's House to name a few. It was also here at the Warner Bros. Backlot where they filmed some scenes in the Oscar-nominated film La La Land. Be sure to do your homework before going to the studio tour. The knowledgeable tour guides at Warner Bros do such an excellent job at explaining all the movie making secrets and recommending a lot of must-see classic films for the visitors to watch. At the end the tour I truly feel like I've learned so much about film-making yet there are still so many good films and TV series for me to discover!


Stage 11



I also got to visit the soundstage where they record The Ellen Show and The Big Bang Theory. being a fan of Ellen, I was just blown away when I saw the iconic set where Ellen would appear and do her opening monologue. Now they do have a strict no-photo rule while inside the soundstages, but just being at the same place where all the talented actors and hosts once stood gave me goosebumps. 
  • The DC Universe, Harry Potter & Fantastic Beast, Batmobile



At the DC Exhibit, you will get to see lots of superheroes and villain props, costumes and original comic books from the DC universe and movies. Now please excuse me for my lack of information since I'm not much a DC comic fan but I will link the Warner Bros. website here for you to read.
  • The Harry Potter & Fantastic Beast Exhibit 
Left to right: Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore, Snape and Hagrid's costumes

The Weasley couple costumes


the marauders map





Harry, Ron and Hermione's costumes
I will, however, be focusing on The Harry Potter & Fantastic Beast exhibit since I'm a huge Harry Potter fan! You will see loads of amazing costumes and props such as wands, the sorting hat, and marauders map from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beast Movies that will absolutely blow your mind. I also enjoyed looking at some of the original sketches and posters from the movies, it just shows how much work and effort are put into movie making. 

You can actually try on the sorting and take a picture with it if you like, the staff there was so kind and happy to help you.

Scenes from Fantastic Beast and Where to find them



  • Batmobiles
On to the Batmobiles exhibit. Again I'm sorry that I am not a huge Batman series fan but I do deeply admire the slick and futuristic designs of each Batmobiles that were on display. I will say no more and insert the video I took.

  • The Prop Department
The prop department is the one place that truly amazed me. Home to more than 450,000 registered artifacts. A countless number of movie props from statues, chandeliers, dolls, and antiques are stored right here at the Warner Bros. Studio's prop department. Now the studio actually rents out their props to other movie studios and related business all around the world, but the rent surely doesn't come cheap.
  • Studio 48

Costumes designed by Oscar-winning designer Coleen Atwood

Costumes from the movie Mad Max

Illustrations from cartoon Looney Tunes
Classic movie stills
Behind the Scenes look at the Art Department in a movie production


Studio 48 is basically a behind-the-scenes look at how the Casting Person, Costume  Designer, and Illustrators get to work in order for a movie to come to life. It showed some of most famous actors' headshots and how the casting process of a movie is really like; You will also have a chance to see lots of genuine movie scene sketches, as well as witness Oscar-winning costume designer Coleen Atwood's work from the movie Sweeney Todd.


... And that about it! I say this after every place I visit in LA, but the Warner Bros Studio Tour is undoubtedly an exceptional experience for anyone genuinely interested in movie making. After visiting the Warner Bros. Studio, my respect and admiration for these talented artists have only grown stronger. To some people, a movie is only a source of entertainment, they forget about it the minute they left the cinema; but to me at least, movie is art. Every movie I see represents a certain time in my life, a phase I was or currently goes through, and it is all these films and cinematography that shape and change the way we look at life and teach us how to be alive. If you look beyond the movies and go behind the scenes, you realize how much effort, time and inspiration, as well as ideas are put into making one single movie, and it is something that should never be easily forgotten.

Comments

Popular Posts