Warner Brothers Best Kept Secret. SHH!!!!!

Time to break out those Marauder's Maps and head out to Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank because a tour is about to commence! That's right the Warner Brothers Studio offers tours of their studios and Museum (and for more information click on that link!).

At Warner Brothers, everyone is considered a VIP. Their standard tour is the VIP tour where members get an excusive look at sets, soundstages, backlot streets and craft tours. In addition, the tour ends at the Warner Brothers Museum which has many spectacular exhibits (including an entire floor dedicated to Harry Potter) that are available only through the tour. So for all those muggles and people wishing to experience the behind-the-scenes magic of Warner Brothers' current and classic movies and television come a board! Because what better time is there then the present!

The tour also begins with a video that depicts the history of Warner Brothers. These tours are from 8:20 am to 4pm Monday through Friday and it is recommended to get advanced tickets online. However, they do offer first-come, first-serve tickets each day for remaining spots, as well as extended and weekend tours during spring and summer and those dates will be listed on the website.

But for those of you would want to be very, very important people, there is the Deluxe Tour. These tours are led by guides that take you into current movie sets and allow you to talk to crew members as well as the artists in the craft shops. Overall, this is a more in-depth tour that really allows you to ask questions and understand the movie-making process. This tour also invites you to eat at the studio commissary cafe where -hint hint-you might just get to dine with a star! These Deluxe Tours are five hours and begin at 10:20 am Monday through Friday and advanced tickets are recommended.

Included in both tours is an all-access pass to the Warner Brothers Museum which features many exhibits on movie memorabilia such as costumes and props from classic and recent films. Some examples of memorabilia the museum houses are the intricate hats from My Fair Lady, James Dean's hunky Triumph 500 motorcycle, and Oscar's from some of Warner Brothers award-winning films. Along with these beautiful displays, the Museum has a variety of audio stations and video clips that depict how or when certain props were used in a film. And the most popular exhibit is the entire floor dedicated to the fantastic world of Harry Potter. There is even a Harry Potter Sorting Hat on display that will even sort guests into different houses! Another museum area is devoted to Casablanca that holds Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman's costumes, the famous piano and other one of kind pieces from the production. The most recent addition to the museum is a special one that celebrates the 50th anniversary of television.

With Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opening today in LA, here are some more Harry Potter-related locations for all of us die hard fans which you might not know about. For instance, if you go to the magnificent Hollywood Mann's Chinese Theater to see the movie, be sure to see the three young stars of the Harry Potter movies Daniel Radcliff, Ruptert Grint and Emma Watson's hand prints and foot prints in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theater - a historic landmark of Los Angeles that houses hundreds of celebrities' imprints. If you go to the Santa Monica Promenade to see the film, another Harry must-see several miles away is Whismic Alley a store at 2717 1/2 Wilshire Blvd. that is fashioned to be a Diagon Alley look alike. Inside the store, you will find individual sections serving as the different stores in the books and movies such as Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions which has extremely authentic costumes and Olivanders Wand Shop featuring equisetic imitation wands from the movie and books. Finally, the Arc Light Sherman Oaks is currently displaying costumes from the latest movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. If you are a real diehard fan or planning to travel to Chicago, the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry has a great summer Harry Potter exhibit that is stirring up lots of excitement. After Chicago, who knows where the exhibit will land.

So don't just sit back, relax and watch Harry Potter or any movie. Get involved with the premiere week and have fun with it. Maybe even go in costume. You are in Los Angeles, meaning Hollywood and all the movie magic is at your finger tips so take advantage and enjoy it!

Voldemort and Death Eater costume photo courtesy of Curt Gibbs that is from his picture set of FIDM's 2008 Movie Costume Exhibit which contains several other Harry Potter costume pictures. It is very possible that costumes from this year's film will be in the 2010 FIDM Movie Costume Exhibit.

-Aly

A One Day Visit to Hollywood and Downtown LA

My neighbors who are from Australia had friends of theirs arrive from Australia and knowing that I came up with the idea and oversaw the production of the ExperienceLA/Lonely Planet Downtown LA in Your Pocket Guide, they asked me how I would spend a Sunday between Hollywood and DowntownLA. So here is my one day guide to hopefully not doing too many things, but getting a glimpse of some of what is unique to LA.

If one was leaving bright and early and needed a coffee fix on the way to Hollywood, I recommended stopping off in Silver Lake for coffee at either Intelligentsia or LAMill. Two of the best coffee houses in LA. With the Hollywood Farmers Market beginning at 9 am, then it would be leaving to drive and park one's car for the day at the ArcLight Cinema and Cinerama Dome Movie Complex to formally begin the day at the Hollywood Farmers Market. This is perhaps the best Sunday market in Los Angeles and right after the Santa Monica Farmers Markets ranks among the best. ExperienceLA maintains a complete list of all of the Farmers Markets in LA. Hollywood does a great job with their prepared foods or one could make a reservation at the Hungry Cat when it opens for brunch. After the Farmers Market, there is the largest independent music store in the world at Amoeba. Since one can buy reserve tickets at the ArcLight, one can consider seeing Watchmen right now in the Dome or one of the other movies in their black box theaters. As we know in LA, the Arc Light is among the best movie houses in America. Right now you can see the Watchmen costumes in the lobby as shown above.

So with a full stomach, it is a several block walk to the Red Line Station at Hollywood and Vine. We would catch the Red Line to the 7th and Metro Station at Figueroa which is around 20 minutes away. One way tickets on Metro are $1.25 or a day pass is still $5. Making sure we leave the station at the Figueroa exit, the plan is to walk down several blocks to LA Live at Fig and Olympic. The purpose is to see the Grammy Museum which opened in December. This is now a must see when visiting Downtown LA. At the Grammy, you could easily spend anywhere from 2 to 4 hours due to the number of interactive exhibits. However, the goal is to make it over to FIDM by 3 pm with one hour to spare to see the current Motion Picture Costumes exhibit that runs until March 29, 2009. Looking through the archives, you can see my previous post on the exhibit.

So now that it is 4 pm, what would be next on this journey? We could walk do a mini Historic Core tour, or head over to Cole's or the Nickel Diner at 6th and Main for an early dinner and then back to Hollywood. The Nickel Dinner is a new restaurant that looks like it has been in existence for 50 years, but opened in 2008 and named among the top new restaurants in LA for 2008 by Los Angeles Magazine. Then there is Cole's known for its French Dip sandwiches which dates back probably 80 years or so, also recently re-opened after being renovated by Cedd Moses. Both are worthy dinner dates and neither are in the pocket guide. After dinner, you would walk up 5th Street to the Pershing Square Station to take the Red Line back to Hollywood to go to the Chinese Theater at Hollywood and Highland or to see a movie at the ArcLight and not fall asleep from all of the walking.

But if one had the time and energy to explore the Historic Core after leaving FIDM, you would go north on Hope Street to see the LA Central Library, walking through the Library noticing the historic Goodhue building and the spectacular public art in the new wing, out the door on the 5th Street side then wandering through the historic lobby of the Biltmore out onto Olive Street, then continuing the walk north on Hill to see the Angels Flight cars waiting for PUC approval to begin service again, then into the Grand Central Market, across the street to see the Bradbury Building as featured in Blade Runner at 3rd and Broadway. From here it would be time for dinner. Note that the LA Conservancy has tours of the Historic Core, and now also tours of Main Street. Also, if one really had to see the Frank Gehry Disney Hall, then it is a relatively short up hill walk along 2nd Street to Grand Avenue.