On a magic tour with Harry Potter

 　　LONDON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Harry¹ Potter's fans in Britain could go to Hogwarts with the bespectacled boy and start a magic trip from the upcoming Saturday.

　　The Warner Bros. Studio, which started to build over a decade ago with the launch of the first of Harry Potter series, covers an area over 150,000 square feet in the northwest outskirts² of London.

　　"It was such a magical place to grow up," said Daniel Radcliffe who acts Harry Potter in the movies. "People will be amazed to see the incredible sets that we've worked in all these years."

　　Rupert Grint, who played Potter's best friend Ron Weasley, said, "The sets all have tiny little details that you may not always notice in the films but when you actually walk through them, you can see all the work that's gone into it."

　　Visitors into the studio would first set foot on the iconic Great Hall of Hogwarts, whose prototype was the dining hall of famous Christ Church College in Oxford³. It was here that Potter and his friends were assigned to different schools by the sorting hat in the film.

　　On both sides of the hall were displays of uniforms from the four schools. The smallest red and yellow ones for Gryffindor were worn by the young Radcliffe in the first movie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, while dummies⁴ of the teachers, including Professor Albus Dumbledore, stand at the front of the hall.

　　Visitors could not only drop into the dormitory of Potter, the hut of half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, and the offices of Dumbledore and the pink vicious lady Dolores Umbridge, but also mount the purple three-deck magic bus, or search for the magic wands and owls⁵ in shops of the dim Diagon Alley⁶.

　　Along the journey, staff workers were ready to tell visitors secrets inside the studio, among whom some once took part in production of the movie series.

　　Danny Oliver had played in the last two movies. "I played several different roles," he recalled. "For example, when Harry Potter went back to his parents' abandoned house, I was a Muggle walking and dancing on the road."

　　Oliver described going back to work in the studio "coming back home." "Everything is so familiar, even the smell in the air," he said poetically⁷.

　　He told Xinhua reporter that each and every detail there was handled with delicacy⁸. "Look at the potion bottles in Severus Snape's classroom. The more than 1,000 bottles all carried hand-written labels to make the scene more real."

　　The tour would also reveal the secrets of special effect behind the movies' magical scenes.

　　Those who watched the movies could surely remember the moving portraits on the walls of Hogwarts, but few know that the portraits were drawn⁹ after crew members of the production team. After a portrait was finished, the painter would draw another picture with only the background, Emma Norton, visual effect producer told visitors through a big screen.

　　During production of the film, the crew members, dressed up as in the portraits, performed against the backdrop of a green screen, before staff workers in charge of special effects added the background to make them as if moving in a portrait.

　　Many people can fly in the movies on a broom or in a motorcycle, with a most unforgettable scene being Harry Potter hunting the Golden Snitch in the Quidditch matches. During production, a broom was placed on a motion base. The actors rode on the broom to "fly" against a green screen, before a background of castle was finally added.

　　One may also marvel¹⁰ at the self-knitting needles and chopping board. In fact, a machine attached to the needles was hidden behind the half-finished scarf in the movie, while a wire was wound under the table of the chopping board, a staff explained.

　　Visitors may also use the distant controller to "create the magic" themselves, he added.

　　The last scene in the tour was a model of the Hogwarts. A staff only known as Gracia told Xinhua that the model, as tall as a two or three storey building, was used to create a panorama¹¹ of the college. "The moss¹² and soil are natural, so as to make it more real," she said.

　　Creation of the model took seven months, but this is not the most tiring task. "Do you still remember the scene of Christmas snow? It was made by sifting¹³ salt," she disclosed. "The cleaning work was a nightmare. A lot of people spent two weeks to remove the salt."

　　Production of the Harry Potter series started in 2000 and it took ten years to finish all the eight movies. The blockbusters proved a huge commercial success, and became a shared memory of a generation all over the world.

　　"For over 10 years, the Harry Potter film series highlighted the exceptional creativity and craftsmanship¹⁴ that we have in the British film industry," said Josh Berger, President and Managing Director of the Warner Bros. UK.

　　"We are delighted that we can now open the doors to this world to the public," he said, "and celebrate the extraordinary talent that goes into making major movies here in the UK."

1 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

2 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

3 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

4 dummies   

n.仿制品( dummy的名词复数 )；橡皮奶头；笨蛋；假传球

参考例句：

• If he dummies up, just try a little persuasion. 如果他不说话，稍微劝劝他就是了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All the articles in the window are dummies. 橱窗里的全部物品都是仿制品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 owls   

n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• 'Clumsy fellows,'said I; 'they must still be drunk as owls.' “这些笨蛋，”我说，“他们大概还醉得像死猪一样。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
• The great majority of barn owls are reared in captivity. 大多数仓鸮都是笼养的。 来自辞典例句

6 alley   

n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路

参考例句：

• We live in the same alley.我们住在同一条小巷里。
• The blind alley ended in a brick wall.这条死胡同的尽头是砖墙。

7 poetically   

adv.有诗意地，用韵文

参考例句：

• Life is poetically compared to the morning dew. 在诗歌中，人生被比喻为朝露。 来自辞典例句
• Poetically, Midsummer's Eve begins in flowers and ends in fire. 仲夏节是富有诗意的节日，它以鲜花领航，在篝火旁完美落幕。 来自互联网

8 delicacy   

n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴

参考例句：

• We admired the delicacy of the craftsmanship.我们佩服工艺师精巧的手艺。
• He sensed the delicacy of the situation.他感觉到了形势的微妙。

9 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

10 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

11 panorama   

n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置]

参考例句：

• A vast panorama of the valley lay before us.山谷的广阔全景展现在我们面前。
• A flourishing and prosperous panorama spread out before our eyes.一派欣欣向荣的景象展现在我们的眼前。

12 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

13 sifting   

n.筛，过滤v.筛( sift的现在分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审

参考例句：

• He lay on the beach, sifting the sand through his fingers. 他躺在沙滩上用手筛砂子玩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I was sifting the cinders when she came in. 她进来时，我正在筛煤渣。 来自辞典例句

14 craftsmanship   

n.手艺

参考例句：

• The whole house is a monument to her craftsmanship. 那整座房子是她技艺的一座丰碑。
• We admired the superb craftsmanship of the furniture. 我们很欣赏这个家具的一流工艺。