Sunday, January 6, 2013

Ghost Stories, Fan Girl Freak Out, and Theatre

 My last few days in London were definitely the highlight of my time in London. First up was the Tower of London. I didn't think I was going to be able to go because the cost (£20) was prohibitive for anyone on a tight budget. But thanks to a generous donation from Mimi, my grandmother, I was able to go. For those of you who don't know, the Tower of London is a fortress that has existed in some form since Roman times, but most of the original buildings were destroyed or worn down by the time William the Conqueror made it a true fortress in the 13th century. The Tower of London is actually made of twenty different towers, united behind a large wall. It was a home and fortress to the royal family through the 14th century, when it was transformed into a prison. Today, it houses the British Crown Jewels, a very large museum, and the Yeoman Warders. I spent about 4 hours in total at the Tower.




This is a Yeoman Warder. He was our tour guide with a positively delicious Welsh accent. He was really great. Yeoman Warders are members of the Royal Army, with a distinguished record. This particular guy served in the army for 18 years before becoming a Warder. It's a highly coveted job. He mentioned that they have an opening at the moment and that there are about 350 applicants for that one position. The Warders get to live inside the tower with their families, and they have a variety of duties including leading tours in which they get to tell some really gruesome ghost stories about people or events at the Tower. It's a pretty great job, and they work hard to get there.
Richard I, as in Lionheart, was known for keeping his dangerous creatures such as lions in the pit below the drawbridge, between the moat and the castle. Both served as deterrents for unwanted visitors. The moat was fed by the Thames, which is pretty much the dirtiest water ever. All sorts of utterly disgusting things in it, including the body of the poor bloke who tried to swim across before you. The presence of the lions is pretty self-explanatory. Pretty much if you don't die from the toxic water, you get eaten. Surprisingly, not a lot of unwanted visitors to the fortress.
When the fortress became a prison, this gate was called "Traitor's Gate", and it is where the prisoners were brought in. It's located just above the moat, a little ways away from the lion pit. Prisoners would come by boat through the moat and enter in plain view of everyone at the tower. There would generally be a crowd to boo and hiss and throw rotten food at them as they came in. Before it was Traitor's Gate, the gate formed a barrier between the Thames and the castle, when the water level was higher and the Thames still flowed through the fortress. Back then, it was called the "Water Gate". Coincidence? I think not.
 This is the "Bloody Tower" aptly named for the gory deaths that occurred here or to people who were housed here. Richard III, before he was king, had two young nephews. When their father died, Richard became the 3rd in line for the throne. One night, the two boys vanished from this tower, presumably murdered by Richard the III. The bloodiest execution in English history also occurred near here. On this particular day, the executioner was intoxicated, and unable to enact his duties swiftly. As the Yeoman Warder said, "The executioner was a part-time butcher, a part-time executioner, and a part-time drunk. On this particular day, he was all three at once." It took him five tries to hack the poor fellow's head off, though he did manage butcher the guy up pretty well before he finally killed the guy.
 Here we have the memorial to all those executed on the scaffold in the Tower. Records show there were close to 300 souls executed on this spot, Including three Queens of England. Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, and Jane Grey. These three are buried in the chapel erected near the site of the scaffolding (no photos allowed). When they excavated the area to build the chapel, the workers discovered a mass grave of an estimated 1200 people, all assumed to have been executed in the tower as well, though no record of the executions exists. The remains of these victims were placed in a grave below a memorial inside the chapel.

The Tower Bridge. This is not the London Bridge. London bridge is actually pretty normal-looking, not as exciting as this one. Probably one of the reasons the English are always making jokes at the expense of Americans is because one of those richy-rich robber baron Americans from the early 20th century actually bought London bridge, thinking it was the Tower Bridge. He was very disappointed when it arrived in the States, and promptly returned it. Idiotic rich American...
We are now entering the crazy Fan Girl portion of the blog. I took about 200 photos on my tour of Leavesden studios, where the Harry Potter movies were filmed. I have resisted the temptation to post them all here with a paragraph about why they're awesome. I promise I don't need to be institutionalized or anything. I'm completely sane despite the fact that I know all sorts of inane Potter trivia off the top of my head. So no calling the loony bin, ok?
 The tour began with a little video with narration from the Trio (that's Harry, Ron, and Hermione) in a little cinema. about 5 minutes of introduction. It ended with the Trio going through the doors to the Great Hall. Then the lights came on, and the movie screen came up like a curtain, and there were the doors to the Great Hall, exactly where they had appeared on screen moments before. It was a really cool affect. To my delight, Nymphadora Tonks took the trouble to come back from the dead to lead our tour; note the bubble-gum pink hair.

 The Great Hall was all decked out for Christmas, of course. So there were the usual (for Hogwarts, at least) twelve Christmas Trees as well as crackers and wreaths, etc. The food on the table is all plastic, of course, but it is the food used in the welcoming feast from Philosopher/Sorcerer's Stone. When filming for that scene began, they had real food, but as the day went on under the hot lights, they had to switch it out for the plastic stuff. Apparently the smell was horrendous. The floors and walls are all real stone, and the tables are made of real English oak. The only thing missing from the whole room in general was the enchanted ceiling, of course. All the shots of the ceiling from the films used the scale model pictured below, to the left. In reality, it's about 10 or 12 feet long. They would use this as the base, and then add the CGI effects for the reflection of the sky outside and/or the owls coming in with the mail, and the floating candles. You get the idea.
On the right are Harry and Ron's costumes from the Half-Blood Prince. The one on the left is obviously Harry's. It's cleaner and obviously better cared-for. The one on the left is Ron's. Note the untucked shirt and patched robes. In terms of personal hygiene and appearance, I'm told the actors are very similar to the characters they portray.
 This was something I thought was pretty neat. In Deathly Hallows Part 2, Harry wears the same outfit for almost the whole movie, because nearly the entire movie takes place over about twenty-four hours. For continuity purposes, they had about six sets of the same outfit for Dan Radcliffe to wear in varying conditions of wear. When he puts on this outfit just after escaping from Gringotts, it's in relatively good shape. By the end, he's been in a burning room, several explosions, died, come back to life, and engaged in an epic battle with Voldemort. So they had to have outfits that reflected each stage of the battle.
 These next two pictures really need to be side-by-side for you to get the full effect, but it'll still work this way. This is the Gryffindor boys' dormitory. Just outside the frame on the right is Neville Longbottom's bed, next to that is Seamus Finnigan, followed by Dean Thomas. Moving on to the next photo is Harry's bed in the middle, with Ron's to the left. These rooms were obviously Christmased up as well. The attention to detail in the personal areas is really neat. For example, though never discussed in the films, the books describe Dean Thomas as an avid West Ham football fan. He's muggle-born, so grew up with muggle sports rather than Quidditch.
 Seamus and Ron tease Dean because his West Ham posters are muggle posters, meaning the pictures don't move. It's just a little thing, mentioned a couple of times in the first couple of books that only the die-hards really notice. Speaking as a die-hard, I gotta say it was really neat that they put that sort of detail into the sets. On another note, the oven in the center of the room is real, brought by one of the set designers who took it with her from the set of the film Chocolat. Looks sorta familiar, doesn't it?
 There's a little story that goes with this one. Way back in early 2007, before the seventh book had been released, the cover art for the book came out, and all the fans jumped on both the British and American artwork, analyzing it all to death. On the spine of the British edition, there was this symbol; a straight line, enclosed by a circle, enclosed by a triangle. Now we know it as the sign of the Deathly Hallows. But back then, we had no idea what it meant. Driven by our obsession, we all noticed this little dodad that had been in Dumbledore's office in the background of a couple of shots of Goblet of Fire. Everyone discussed it to death, including me. We got pretty close to the truth, too. Did J.K. Rowling put this on the set to set the stage, or was it merely coincidental? We don't know, and JK's not telling. But after watching that clip over and over and over again, trying to get a better look at the thing, it's nice to see it for real, even though the mystery of the symbol is long since solved.
 This is the Mirror of Erised. It is inscribed with the words: "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi" Turn it around, and it says "I show not your face but your heart's desire." In the books, looking into the mirror will show you the "deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts." According to Dumbledore, the happiest man on Earth could use the mirror as a normal looking-glass. When I looked into it, I saw myself exactly as I was, because truly at that moment, I was happy and couldn't ask for anything else. That obviously proves it works, right?
Here we have Dumbledore's office. Made up of three small adjoining towers, it's always been pretty much exactly as I imagined it. Some fun little tidbits: most of the thick leather-bound books are actually doctored phone books. Though it was never featured in a book or movie, Dumbledore's sleeping quarters (located just behind the desk, down a couple of steps) are actually fully furnished the way J.K. and art direction thought would be appropriate. The columns are all real, as well as the stone floor and oak desk and chair. Again, the attention to detail astounded and delighted me.
 The Burrow, home of the Weasley clan. A truly magical place. There were contraptions which enabled you to make the iron move back and forth over the tablecloth fifteen feet away from you, make the dish brush scrub the dishes in the sink clean, and even make the knife cut up the vegetables for dinner. I was a little put-off by the scarf knitting itself in the corner in Slytherin colors, but I guess I'll get over it. I've always loved the Burrow in its mismatched, distinctly lived-in condition. It always seemed like such a happy home.
 The best part of the tour was without a doubt the scale model of Hogwarts Castle. This was no insignificant model. Around twenty-five or thirty feet high at its highest point, probably a good eighty to one hundred feet in perimeter, it was a sight to behold. This was the part of the tour that truly took my breath away. In the films, whenever they needed to do a shot of the exterior of the castle, whether it was one of those shots of Hedwig flying around the grounds, Harry battling a dragon on the rooftops, or characters just walking around the castle grounds with the castle in the background, they would film it using this model. The actors would generally do the scene with a green screen or a part of the full-sized set (like a balcony or portion of a roof), then the effects guys would do some fancy camera and computer work, and voilà! You've got full size actors on a considerably smaller scale model of the castle. It's pretty neat. That's about it on the studio tour.

After I finished with the tour, I had a little time to kill in the West End before my show, so I walked over to Covent Garden to see some street magic. I'm a bit of a nut for close-up magic tricks. The street magician I stopped to watch was pretty good. Hilarious, and really good at the whole magic trick thing. He even did the oranges from the cups and the melon from the hat trick, which I can never figure out. He did a good fifteen or twenty minutes, generally making jokes at the expense of Americans. When he finishes up, I go up there to give him some change out of my pocket, and he says "Oh, what a beautiful young lady! Tell me, are you married or happy?" and I said, "Oh, I'm very happy." and he says, "Oh, dear. I was going to ask if you wanted me to make you unhappy, but you're American. I can get over a lot, but that's just one thing I can't get past."He was joking, of course, and I was a really good sport about it.

At this point, it was time for my show. I got super cheap tickets to "Singin' in the Rain" in the West End. It's one of my all-time favorite movies, and I'd never seen the stage production. It was fabulous. The American accents from all of these British actors were nearly flawless. I've said it before; the key to an American accent is all in the "r"s. I heard a couple of them over do it, and a couple of slips like "cahr" for car, and "gihl" for girl, but those were from the supporting actors or ensemble. The main cast was amazing. Lena Lamont probably permanently damaged my eardrums. But in a good way. The title number was great. Center stage was sunken down about two or three inches, with a wood-paneled floor. At first I thought it was just to facilitate all the tap dancing (which it did), but at the end of the first act, it actually started to rain on stage. Like pouring rain. The orchestra was in the balcony upstage, not in a pit, so when Don started dancing around and splashing in that rain, the people in the first three or four rows got a little wet with little yelps of surprise. During intermission, the crew cleaned the floor thoroughly. It turned out that the sunken center stage was actually equipped with a draining system as well. Then at the end of the second act, it poured again, with the main trio of actors in those signature yellow raincoats and the chorus doing a big reprise of the title number. With twenty or more people on stage splashing around, the front rows got wet all over again. There was an elderly couple that ran for a free seat in the back. It was hilarious.

All in all, it was a really great vacation. I took about 300 photos from these last few days in London. Obviously, I couldn't post them all here. If you would like to see more and either don't know me personally or don't have a facebook (pretty much everything is posted there) feel free to contact me privately, and I can email you some. I'm back in Paris now, with another semester ahead of me. Wish me luck!


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