I had a bit of a late start to this day, so that I could somewhat recover from the previous night's antics. Whoever thought that free booze and karaoke was a good idea?
I decided to hop on a bus and head to Warner Bros. Studios for a tour. I luckily managed to buy a last minute ticket while waiting for the bus, and I was so excited! When I got there, I was greeted by the giant, bronze statues of Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny at the entrance of the building. I got to my tour group just in time and was playing 9th wheel to a lot of couples. I was the lame one that sat in front with the tour guide, but that just means that I got the best spot for picture taking on the trolley! It was a great tour but there were a few places that we couldn't visit because Michelle Obama was currently filming on the Ellen show!
Daffy and Bugs
It was so fun and interesting to here about how movies and TV shows are made! One of the first stops that we made was to Anywhere Town, a fake town that has been put together that could be used no matter what city the show/movie is set in. I instantly recognised the town square from Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls and fangirl-ed quite a bit! In that same town are houses that are used in Friends, Pretty Little Liars, Ghost Whisperer and so many more that I can't remember. Apparently Pretty Little Liars dominates that set though, and it has made me want to watch it so I can try and recognise the buildings!
Just down the road from Anywhere Town is New York Street, and a bit of Chicago. They seem so fake/small in real life - apparently it's true that the camera adds weight, because they seem very real on film! Everything is made of plaster - no bricks allowed in case of earthquakes. If a show wants to have bricks/tiles, they need to be painted on - even the sidewalks had painted pavers! Our tour guide informed us that a crew has only 24 hours to dress a set, and this includes if you need to set up the entire town! If an episode was being set in Winter time, then they would need to strip the real trees of all of the leaves, and set up the small town with fake snow. Apparently if there is ever any falling snow in a show/movie, the snowflakes are actually instant mash potato flakes. Once the shot has been filmed, they need to restore the set to it's original state. In a lot of cases, if there is a scene set in Spring the next week, they will need to zip-tie fake leaves back to the trees! It's all so much work! The rule on the set is, you can do whatever you want, as long as it's reinstated the following few days. It was super interesting to hear about all this!
Anywhere Street
Town Square
"Central Park"
New York Street
The houses and buildings were hilarious to go into, because mostly they are only used for external shots. This means that, to save space, a lot of the buildings are only a few feet deep. In scenes where there are people going in and out of buildings, they are getting squashed together in small spaces. With subway entrances, there are usually only about 10-20 extras who walk in down the stairs, quickly change, then walk back up as a different person, creating the illusion that there are dozens of people. I'm definitely going to be on the look out for this stuff when I watch movies and TV now! The houses are double or even triple sided, meaning they can use the one house to depict multiple characters' houses! Apparently, out the front of the Gilmore house (which is the back of a PLL house), the yard was used for a small scene in the new Avengers movie! Can't wait to try and spot that.
The Gilmore House!
The stairs from the Gellar House in Friends
Anywhere High School
We also visited the Warner Bros. museum, which was set up in celebration of 75 years of Batman! They displayed all of the costumes throughout all of the movies, and we even got to see the actual, working Bat Mobiles that were used in the movies. There was also a cool exhibit of Harry Potter, showing a lot of the costumes and creatures used in the movies. They even had a sorting hat there - not to brag, but I was sorted into Griffindor. The tour also explored the back lots of the studio and we got to visit the set of Conan O'Brien.
Getting sorted!
Bat Mobiles
The famous water tower
My absolute favourite part of the tour was getting to visit the real Central Perk set! It was tiny! My camera definitely added weight to this set, because my pictures don't do it justice as to how small it is! Apparently, in Central Perk scenes, the actors had to be sitting in the chair already, otherwise they ran from the door to have it make sense as to why they reached the couch so quickly. Apparently, David Schwimmer was able to go from the door to the couch in three steps. Other than that, it was amazing! They had all authentic props from the show (except for a laptop and the guitar - which Lisa Kudrow took when the show finished). Sitting in that chair was incredible!! A huge highlight of the trip! My one regret so far is not buying the Central Perk mug in the gift shop.
The Friends Stage
After the tour I headed back to the hostel, mugless, but not before the presidential motorcade drove past me at the bus stop - I was happy for them to delay my bus just to see that. The rest of the afternoon was boring and spent booking accommodation and buses.
That night was great fun though! A bunch of us had a "Killer Pool" tournament, a new game that I will definitely keep playing. Basically, you have 3 lives each, and you take in turns to try and pot a ball. If you miss, you lose a life. If you get one in (exc. black), you keep your lives. If you pot the black ball (after all the others are in), you gain a life. I managed to hold my lead for most of the game, much to the boys and my surprise. I ended up coming second and winning 3 beers!
After the tournament, we stayed up talking for a while then watched Get Him to the Greek. This was especially fun because we were all excited to say "we've been there" anytime they were in a spot in LA.
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