Studio tour

While in LA, we decided to visit a Hollywood studio. There were a few to choose from but we decided to visit the Warner Brothers studio, as the reviews were pretty good. I did not expect much from this tour but wanted to go and see how much I could learn about how movies were made. Surprisingly, I came away impressed by the tour and would recommend it highly to others. The tour cost $45 per person, and you also had to pay $5 for parking. Reasonable price considering what you get to see and experience on this 2-2.5 hr tour.

We were first shown a short movie about the history of the studio and the movies that were made there. Then we were taken on a tour of their 'fake' city, where facades of buildings are made out of fiberglass with painted on brick. Even the pipes were made out of fiberglass and painted to look rusty. This fake city was used in a lot of different movies and TV shows, including Annie, Spiderman, Gremlins, The Mask, and many others that I cannot remember now.

Most of the 'buildings' on this street had no rooms behind the facade. It was pretty cool to see the setup, as this 'fake' city set was built in the 30's and 40's, and has been kept up to date. We were shown other fake neighborhoods and town squares that get used in quite a lot of movies/TV shows (Dukes of Hazard, Eastwick, Gilmore Girls, etc.) It was really neat to see them changing leaves on a tree in the town square. They were replacing the green summer leaves with red fall leaves, all fake. Weird!

We were then shown to a Warner Brothers museum, containing costumes from the latest Batman movie (including Batman and Joker costumes, and Joker's helper's masks), The Matrix, 300, The Watchmen, and many other movies, including the Oscars that studio movies have won. The second floor contained costumes and equipment from various Harry Potter movies.

While in the museum, we got to meet Danny Pino from the TV show 'Cold Case'. They were filming the show but as Danny did not have any scenes for the day, he went for a tour of the museum with his friends. Cool! I would recommend visiting the studio during the fall or spring as there would be more action and more stars to see, if you are into that kind of thing.

The tour took us through their plumbing, carpentry and artistic departments where they make all kinds of props needed for the movie. It is really amazing what these guys can make. As we pulled up to another studio building, we saw a parking full of vehicles from famous movies. They had a Batmobile and Batman motorcycle from the last Batman movie, Dukes of Hazard car, Harry Potter blue car, and Gran Torino that Clint Eastwood had driven in the movie 'Gran Torino.' Super cool! Then were taken to a room where they have the whole set from the TV show Friends, including the famous sofa, bar, and the Central Perk window.

On our way back to the entrance, our guide snuck us onto the set of Ellen Degeneres show. Very, very cool. All in all, the tour was very worth the money and time invested.