Hooray for Hollywood! The Studios!

Yay!!The best part of LA, THE MOVIE STUDIOS!

There are 4 major working studios currently in Hollywood (which offer public tours):

Universal

Sony Pictures

Warner Bros

Paramount Pictures

The last time I was in LA, I took the Universal and Paramount Tours. The Paramount tour was AWESOME! Which is why I wanted to take it again :-) (oh yes, and also to share it with Liesl). More on that later...

 The Universal tour was not really much of a working studio tour, but more of a theme park.  So this tour didn't impress me too much. If I wanted to go on a rollercoaster ride I would have gone to Disneyworld. It's a fun tour, but I have no desire to do it again. So we decided to give this one a skip this time around.

 The Sony Pictures lot was formerly the MGM lot. Naturally, I was really looking forward to this tour as it was  home to all the great movie stars of yesteryear and classic movies and MUSICALS!

Recently, Sony also bought Columbia Pictures, which means double the fun!!

 Our our studio passes

Inside the admin building

 The tour was a little disappointing, as it has a LOT of potential, but they barely touch on the MGM background, and spend most of the tour punting the new Sony Pictures movies.

Also, the lot was under construction, so a few of the areas were out of bounds. We were barely allowed to take any pictures on the tour - because taking photos of an empty Sony lot or the water tower is apparently a threat to US National Security.

Entrance to the lot

The Irving Thalberg building

The original entrance

 All the buildings are named after famous actors and actresses who used to work on the Lot in the golden years. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a photo of the Judy Garland building, as this is in a "restricted" area. I assume they are hiding alien bodies and UFOs back there....

 Barbra Streisand records ALL of her albums in this sound stage, so they have re-named the recording studio after her. Incidentally, this is also the same sound stage where Judy Garland recorded "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for "The Wizard of Oz"

A sneaky shot of the lot (and Liesl)

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!

I can't remember which movie this is from... I'm clearly not the target market

The old school house where Judy and Mickey would do their homework between takes

The Jeopardy sound stage

A wall of Emmys

Lights, camera, action

The Jeopardy set

My sneaky shot of the water tower

For info on the Sony Pictures tour visit: www.sonypicturesstudiotours.com 

 The Warner Bros tour was MUCH more entertaining. It really provided you with insight on what it must be like to work in the Studio and a few tricks of the trade. However, the tour did concentrate more on the Studios TV productions, instead of their movies.

Warner Bros is home to the Harry Potter franchise. They have a fantastic Harry Potter museum - with original costumes, and props from the movies. However, no photography is allowed - so as to preserve the articles.

The lot is  home to Clint Eastwood - he has offices on the lot and films most of his movies here.

 George Clooney formerly had offices here too - he has recently moved to Sony Pictures.

The Smoke House - near the entrance to Warner Bros - which is what George Clooney named his production company after. Wonder if it will change now that he's moved to Sony?

Ellen is filmed here - we were hoping to catch a glimpse of Ms Degeneres, however she was taping at the time of our tour.

 "Friends" was  filmed here. Currently, "Big Bang Theory", "Two and a Half Men" and "Pretty Little Liars" are all filmed here.

We were taken onto the set of "Two and a Half Men" - but once again, we were not allowed to take photos as they had just set up for filming.

Jim Carey and Steve Carell were also on the lot, as they are shooting a new film together. (FYI- Ashton Kutcher's trailer is bigger than theirs. He has the biggest trailer on the lot - a double storey silver bullet).

Moving wall set for "Hart of Dixie"

"Hart of Dixie" set

The lake in the jungle

Adding in more trees - most of the trees and bushes etc are fake

 Some shots of facades on the back lot.

Town for the "Hart of Dixie" - This is also the square which they use as Rosewood in "Pretty Little Liars"

The Wardrobe department - all the admin buildings were built in a way that they could double for banks / hospitals / malls etc if needed for a scene.

The Sound Stages

City Hall for "Hart of Dixie" and "Pretty Little Liars"

This movie theatre facade has been used in many movies - most memorable for me is the final scene in "The Way We Were" - when Katie runs into Hubble outside.

The fully functioning theatre which they use for movie screenings

The "Subway" which leads to nowhere.

The subway leads to nowhere, but there is a small extension at the bottom of the stairs. Wardrobe usually sets up here with different costume options. So when extras go up and down the stairs to the "subway", it's actually the same people over and over again, they are merely changing their costumes at the bottom of the stairs and coming up again!

The Town Hall - which they use in the Batman films. Clint Eastwood actually stores all the costumes from all his films in here. Weird.

Guess what was filmed here?  This is also referred to as the "Lucky" stage. As all show filmed here have been extremely successful

Carpentry department where they build all the sets

Yes, that is the Bat Mobile!

The Anglia from Harry Potter

We were then given a special treat. On the lot they have a preserved set - which is no longer a functioning set, and they won't ever break it down as they are keeping it for posterity.... this set belongs to... Central Perk from "Friends". Usually they don't allow photos, however it was one guys birthday, so the tour guide made a special exception, and let us snap some pics.

Yes, that's us on THE couch!

The couch will eventually be sent to the Smithsonian

For info on the Warner Bros tour visit: http://vipstudiotour.warnerbros.com/

 Yay! It was time for my FAVOURITE studio tour. As mentioned earlier, this is the second time I was taking this tour. As far as tours of working studios goes, this one is the most practical and informative.

One of the main reasons that this is my favourite tour, is also because of the history behind the studio (as it is today).

In the heyday of Hollywood, there were the Big 5 Studios - RKO and Paramount being two of them (MGM, Warner Bros and Fox being the other three). 

Paramount biggest star resident was Mae West. RKO had stars on the lot such as Katharine Hepburn, and produced all the Fred and Ginger Musicals. Lucille Ball was signed to RKO; after the success of "I Love Lucy", her studio, Desilu, bought the RKO lot and incorporated it into Desilu. (Incidentally, it was her studio which gave us "Star Trek". ) Lucy then sold Desilu (and the RKO lot) to Paramount. So Paramount is now home to all three studios. 

Currently, "Glee" is filmed here, as well as "American Horror Story". We also saw Ryan Murphy on the lot. Apparently, he is a bit of an ass though. So we didn't stop to chat.

That's my kind of golden arches!

Paramount is the only studio which has a view of the Hollywood sign

Lucy Park - she had this built so that she could spend time with her kids on her breaks

Lucy's dressing room

Lucy's offices in the Ball Building

 The Ball Building. Tom Cruise used to have his offices on the top floor.

The sound stages

The backlots - New York Street.

Another subway entrance

The Tom and Nicole doors. Any guesses as to how the doors got their name?

The big spot lights on top of all the buildings

The sky and tank

This water tank doubles as a car park when it's not in use. Movies such as "The Perfect Storm" were filmed here.

Paramount movie theatre which is used for screenings of new movies

Us on the bench from Forest Gump

The original Paramount entrance. This is the entrance which they use in "Sunset Boulevard" - when Norma arrives at the studio to see Mr de Mille.

For info on the Paramount tour visit: www.paramountstudiotour.com

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our studio tours.  There was so much to learn and take in, that I cannot remember it all. Information overload. But being on the lots is truly a thrilling experience.

As an extra....

How cute is the fencing around the Walt Disney Studios. Little Mickey Mouses all the way around.

AND

 One morning we woke up to find that they were using our road to film a car chase  / explosion scene for a TV series. This was the view from our hotel window, and then down the street.

Only in Hollywood!

 

xxx