Tuesday – Warner Bros Studios

This morning we boarded a tour bus to take us to Warner Bros Studios, for a VIP tour of their back lot.

After a 10 minute video montage of famous clips recorded at the Warner Bros Studios we boarded a 12 seat trolley cart to take us in to the back lot.

First stop was their ‘jungle’, where many famous shows and movies have filmed here in the undergrowth.  The most recent being ‘True Blood’, where the cabin is used as Merlotte’s Diner.

We entered their mid west town, which has been ‘dressed up’ over the years to feature in many movies and shows including ‘Gremlins’, ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ (below left is the town hall from that movie), ‘Friends’ (the flash back scene where Ross to Rachel to the prom, below right).

We drove around the sound stage studios and entered the transport warehouse, which is home to several famous original cars from the movies, including the ‘bat’ vehicles, and the General Lee from ‘The Dukes of Hazard’.

Our guide was a bit of a film geek, and proudly told us that every car in the warehouse could be driven out of there if needed, with the exception of the Harry Potter car.

Next stop was the props warehouse, where 4 floors were dedicated to all props big and small.  It was also where all of the original props from a famous show were kept in studio form…Nicola nearly fainted when she walked on to the set of Friends!

We entered a real live sound stage, walking around the set of an American show called ‘Chuck’…which neither of us had ever seen or heard of!

Back on the cart we visited the costume museum, which we were not allowed to photograph – a real shame as the costumes featured were amazing.  Amongst the collection were original costumes featured in The Dark Knight, Where the Wild Things Are, Inception, The Matrix, Willy Wonka and Million Dollar Baby.

We were dropped back at the visitors centre and waited for our shuttle bus back to the hostel.  Another long journey back to the hostel, as you don’t seem to be able to get anywhere quick here, and a late lunch of pizza.

After a hectic couple of days exploring Los Angeles we have spent this evening chilling out in our room and doing our laundry.