Meet The Man Who Gives A Magic Touch To Harry Potter’s Home

Since the world’s first behind the scenes tour of the Harry Potter movies opened in the UK 13 years ago, more than 17 million people have streamed through its turnstiles generating more than $1 billion of revenue for film studio Warner Bros. Indeed, it has been so popular that Warner gave the green light to a second Potter tour which opened in Tokyo yesterday.

This spellbinding success isn’t just down to the power of the Potter brand as it takes much more than sorcery to run one of the world’s leading entertainment destinations.

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter sits on a 200,000 square feet site 20 miles north of London. Fittingly, it is located at Leavesden studios where all eight of Warner’s movies about the boy wizard were made, along with the three Fantastic Beasts spin-off films. Although the site is owned by Warner, it is used by other studios and has been home to some of their biggest blockbusters.

Universal’s F9, Sony’s Spider-Man: Far From Home and Paramount’s
PARA
Mission: Impossible – Fallout were all made at Leavesden along with the latter’s imminent sequel, Dead Reckoning Part One. The Potter tour is set inside two hangar-like soundstages and is designed to give guests the experience of stepping on to one of these sets.

For anyone of a certain age, studio tours conjure up memories of peering at props in glass cabinets from afar. Those days are long gone.

The Making of Harry Potter blurs the boundary between fantasy and reality in dramatic fashion. It starts with a short film about the making of the movies which ends with Potter and his chums standing in front of Hogwarts Castle before the screen lifts up to reveal the actual wooden doors used in the film.

It puts guests straight inside the Great Hall, famous in the movies for its floating candles. There are no fire hazards like that on the tour and instead there are spotlights hanging down from the rafters above as they did when it was used as a set.

After this grand entrance, the tour gives guests a look at what it takes to transform the actors into their on-screen characters. There are costumes, wigs and, of course, wands. Rows and rows of them. Every item is meticulously labeled with details of the film it was used in, the character it was used by and even the fictional materials it is meant to be made of.

The props are all close enough to get some magical selfies with them and, unlike some tours, guests can spend as long as they want inside. Some get through it in a few hours whilst others come dressed in full wizard regalia and spend the whole day there. There’s plenty to keep them busy.

Fancy peering inside Harry’s dormitory at Hogwarts? It’s there. Ditto the full-size carriages of the Hogwarts Express steam train used in the movies. Guests can walk inside it before strolling through Professor Sprout’s Greenhouse where visitors can uproot an angry green shrub, known as a Mandrake, which was seen on screen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Just like on an actual movie set, instructions are scrawled on the reverse of the façades showing how they fit together.

At the touch of a button, many of the sets spring into life and reveal the real magic behind the movies. An iron appears to move on its own in Harry’s friend Ron Weasley’s house and compartments cascade out of Hogwarts’ teacher Remus Lupin’s suitcase in an effect you would have thought was created by a computer when you see it in the films.

There are no rides, but some of the exhibits are interactive. One allows a computer-generated character to be controlled by guests moving their hands and arms whilst another digitally inserts them onto the back of a broomstick.

Other areas of the tour use more old-fashioned Hollywood wizardry to give guests the impression that they have got a starring role in one of the Potter movies. It is used to great effect in the area dedicated to the Gringotts Wizarding Bank which features a full-size set of its famous entrance hall.

Huge chandeliers hang from the ceiling and pointy-eared goblins sit at the bank tellers’ desks lining the walls. That leads to the vault which contains the treasures of evil witch Bellatrix Lestrange, played on screen by Helena Bonham-Carter. Prop makers created 210,000 coins to fill the vault in the final two Potter films alone and guests appear to be immersed in them on the tour.

It is thanks to an old movie-making trick called forced perspective where the proportions of objects are reduced the higher up they are. It makes the piles of treasure on display seem to soar and it was the brainchild of Oscar-winning Production Designer Stuart Craig who worked on the Potter film series. As did the tour’s Construction Manager Paul Hayes and Head Propmaker Pierre Bohanna.

Special effects are even used to make it seem like a rampaging dragon has wrecked the bank’s gleaming lobby just like it does in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. A carbon copy of the lobby at the entrance of the area stands at the exit but instead of being in immaculate condition, cracked marble columns and smashed chandeliers are strewn across its floor. The culprit is shown on a high-resolution screen which is seamlessly integrated into the elaborate set to make it seem like the dragon is emerging from a mist and then breathing fire.

Next to all of main displays on the tour are panels with profiles of the production team and screens showing interviews with them about the key steps in the movie-making process. Guests even get to walk through a mock-up of the model shop where the weird and wonderful creatures from the movies are made. There are goblins with different noses, a werewolf’s head on a table, swaying potted plants sitting on the shelves and a mermaid model hanging from above.

Fragile paper models of key scenes are on display in cabinets whilst guests get up-close contact with more detailed ones. The tour saves the best till last when the walkway winds around a model of Hogwarts Castle which is so intricate that it was used for close-ups in the films.

Even guests who aren’t fans of the Potter movies can’t fail to be impressed by the attention to detail. In fact, the tour gives such a thorough overview that you walk out feeling like taking up a career in movie-making.

The actual directors of the Potter movies are some of the most well-known names in the industry including Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell and Chris Columbus. It takes an equally-heavyweight head honcho to run the tour.

Its vice president and general manager is Geoff Spooner, a highly-skilled industry veteran with a career in the entertainment industry spanning more than 20 years. It started at the London Eye observation wheel where Spooner rose to become sales channel development and systems manager. After an interlude as a general manager of the National Express motor coach company, he became operations director of Britain’s LEGOLAND park. That was followed by a role as general manager of the Warwick Castle visitor attraction before he took the top job at the tour in 2016.

Managing an attraction with so many different components is far from a walk in the park but, as Spooner revealed to us, he has a magic formula to keep it running smoothly.

What does your job involve?

My role as SVP and General Manager is to ensure that Warner Bros. Studio Tour London consistently delivers a compelling world-class visitor experience in addition to exceeding its financial objectives. This involves working with very talented teams across multiple disciplines to ensure that we are all working towards the same goals.

Why did you choose a job in the attractions industry?

I didn’t take a traditional route into the industry. I studied zoology at university while also working in the zoo team of a UK theme park. One year, they asked if I’d like to work in the main theme park team. I guess they thought if I could work with lions, I would be able to cope with a ride breaking down, so I ended up in the Guest Services team.

What was the career path that you took to get here?

I’m lucky to have worked in a wide range of attractions and operations in my time. I finished my degree right at the same time the London Eye opened and started work there in various roles managing customer services, admissions, and ticketing systems. After that I had a 5-year spell working in airport coach station operations which was interesting, but I really missed the unique experience of working in visitor attractions. I was fortunate to join an amazing Merlin Entertainments team at LEGOLAND Windsor as Operations Director before being given the opportunity to manage the stunning Warwick Castle where I focused on accommodation development. Finally, I joined Warner Bros. Studio Tour in 2016. I actually applied to work at the studio tour as Visitor Experience Director when it first opened but didn’t get the role. I think it worked out in the end.

What does a typical day involve?

My days are incredibly varied, it can include walking the studio tour with the visitor experience teams, reviewing marketing materials, working on plans for future expansions, discussing visitor feedback and celebrating the great work that our team do every day. Currently we are supporting our super team in Tokyo with the opening of Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter. It’s been a huge team effort and the studio tour looks incredible, it’s definitely a must-visit attraction.

What skills do you need to do your job?

Effective communication, decision making, financial acumen, being able to question and identify opportunities, leadership, an eye for detail, approachability, patience, and a good sense of humour. By no means an exhaustive list!

What do you like most about your job?

I get to go to Hogwarts every day – what’s not to like?

What is the highlight of your day?

Whenever I see feedback from visitors or speak to them directly about their experience, but particularly when they mention by name the team members who helped exceed their expectations.

What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?

Opening the studio tour’s Gringotts expansion and our new lobby in 2019 was a major project and one that was delivered very smoothly despite it being logistically very challenging. There was a great deal of operational disruption with temporary entrances and multiple building extensions to fit into a tight schedule, but the team successfully navigated this without it impacting our visitor enjoyment. The result was a significantly upgraded studio tour experience that we’re all really proud of.

What is the biggest challenge in your job?

When I joined the studio tour in 2016, we had a 5 star Trip Advisor rating and a 5 star Google
GOOG
rating. Seven years and over 17 million visitors later, we’re so proud to still maintain those high scores. Ensuring that we consistently exceed the expectations of our visitors is my biggest challenge along with ensuring our team enjoy the job they do as this is so essential to achieving that.

What advice would you give to someone looking for a job in the attraction industry?

Really whatever type of job you are thinking of doing you can probably do it in the attractions industry as there is just so much variety. It’s going to be hard work, but it’s also going to be a lot of fun.

What is the secret to successfully running an attraction?

Ensuring you have a unique and compelling experience that grabs people’s attention and is delivered to a consistently high standard by a fantastic team.

Broadly speaking, how high was attendance in 2022 and what you are forecasting for 2023?

Our annual figures are closely guarded in a Gringotts vault but I can share that we’ve welcomed over 17 million visitors since we opened in 2012 and we’ve set very ambitious goals for 2023.

How do you keep the Studio Tour ahead of the competition?

Fundamentally we are 100% focused on continuously improving the visitor experience – for example our recent Magical Mischief feature was significantly enhanced from the previous year. It’s important that we have a mentality of delivering wow-factor from the outset and challenging ourselves to consider how we could make it even better. I’m lucky to work with an extremely talented team who work constantly with this mindset.