The Life of a VIP - Adventures By Disney Backstage Magic About This Page:

[dsteiny23]

The heli-tour pics were amazing...I especially like the bat cave...dork, huh? And how cool to have a one-on-one tour. We did a heli tour on our honeymoon in Hawaii with 6 people. We did wangle our way into the front seat though.

Stars homes and crime scenes I got nothin.

[coffeechef]

Originally Posted by OhToodles!

That helicopter was tiny. The tour and the photos were amazing!! And then what a great evening taking in Santa Monica.

Kelly........... just to hijack this thread for a second to tell you that I love the pic of Dylan in his Baseball outfit

[PrincessSharon]

Originally Posted by HollyH

That has to be the best dessert evah!!!! OMG, I'm drooling just thinking about it! And did I see berries in there with all the other deliciousness?

I also thought the "Movie Star Homes and Crime Scenes" was a very interesting pairing lol.

The mini heads were a bit creepy. They reminded me of how we learned to make masks in clay class this year. Mine turned out to look like a mini, angry Montel Williams!!! I was proud that I made something that looked like something (even if Montel wasn't exactly who I was going for) but in the end, I have to agree that the concept is good, but in real life.....not so much.

That dessert had a little bit of everything fantastic, and they all worked very well together. Delicious! And too funny about your angry Montel Williams!

Originally Posted by doccoc2002

Great photos!!! Dessert is my fave part too!! As my mother says there is ALWAYS room for dessert!!!

My mother says the same thing! In fact, she tells me if you're not really hungry, it's okay to skip dinner and go right to dessert.

Originally Posted by Wendyismyname

Oh my word. That dessert looks fabulous!


Okay, girl you gotta put me in the no-taste category , I do love me some Crocs and seeing your picture of the Crocbands, I wanna get some! so sporty!

I love all your pictures of the piers, the rides(i probably wouldn't ride any either), the water, the mountains, how happy you look!!

As popular as Crocs are, you're not the only fan!

Originally Posted by zacksmom_1993

Shashi- that happy look on your face is making me so excited to see you (in just a little over three weeks! ) I guess the goal will be to make sure you still look as happy after nine days with me and Zack. I'm loving all of the photos, especially because I'm giggling that the water treatment plant is called SMURRF. I'm just imagining the advertising campaign for that one! Can't wait for more.

The only thing that would take the smile off of my face after 9 days with you & Zack is the thought that it's time to say goodbye. And I totally loved the SMURRF name.

Originally Posted by coffeechef

Oh that dessert looked fantastic..... I have to agree about the Crocs. I think they look cute on little kids. Little feet little crocs Big Feet.. Clown shoes. but I have to admit that I just ordered some sandals .. so

Heh, clown shoes! I do agree they're pretty cute on little ones. Wait a minute, I'll have people thinking I actually like Crocs. The horror! And if you don't tell anyone about the sandals, I won't either.

Originally Posted by Jillybean

Despite the fact that you keep insisting on eating bananas , I still you! What a whirlwind of a trip you're having! It's so fun going to California with you!

And that picture of you all windswept and everything is gorgeous!

Jill

P.S. My 10th grade science project was a water treatment plant (did I mention that I placed 3rd and got to go to the regional science fair ) so I was all over those pictures!

I eat all those bananas so you don't have to, Jill. That's how much I love you. And I love that you had a special appreciation for the SMURRF.

Originally Posted by disneydani

Love the tour of Santa Monica....how come your self portrats come out a whole lot better than mine?

That dessert looked absolutely yummerific.

danielle

Dani, I'm pretty lousy at self portraits. It takes 2 or 3 shots to get it right.

Originally Posted by OhToodles!

That helicopter was tiny. The tour and the photos were amazing!! And then what a great evening taking in Santa Monica.

I am used to seeing bigger helicopters on tv, so it never even occurred to me that there are different sizes.

Originally Posted by dsteiny23

The heli-tour pics were amazing...I especially like the bat cave...dork, huh? And how cool to have a one-on-one tour. We did a heli tour on our honeymoon in Hawaii with 6 people. We did wangle our way into the front seat though.

Stars homes and crime scenes I got nothin.

Yes, you get your own helicopter depending on the size of your party. I would hate to be stuck in the back or something.

[PrincessSharon]

Day Three – Monday, April 12
Who says it never rains in Southern California?

I woke up at 4:00, a little later than the morning before, but still. I decided that I would stay up late to make myself very tired and see if that would help. This was the first time I’ve ever had difficulty adjusting to a new time zone (and I hope it’s the last). I was glad to have a few days to get on track before the ABD part started.

After my morning ritual (backing up pictures, catching up notes), I got ready for the day. The forecast was calling for rain that day, but as it got later, it got brighter, which was good because the day before had been overcast all day.

I headed down to Ocean & Vine for breakfast. I decided to try the buffet this time, and it was delicious. I didn’t bring my camera with me, so no pictures. While I was eating breakfast, I discovered that it was, in fact, raining. But it was also bright and sunny. It was actually pretty. Much prettier than here in NY anyway.

After breakfast I went up to fetch all the stuff I’d need for the day. With camera in hand, I decided to take some photos of the rain/sun. There was a cozy fire in the lobby, even though it didn’t “feel” like a rainy day to me.




I would certainly enjoy rainy days more if they all looked like this one.







I went out and collected my car. Except today, they had us move to the back entrance because there was some kind of construction going on in the front of the hotel. When my car arrived, I programmed the GPS and happily didn’t hit much traffic on the way.

I could tell immediately when I got close to the lot.



The VIP tour started at 10:20 and we were supposed to be there 15 minutes ahead. I arrived at about 9:45. It was beautiful and sunny again, so I decided to leave the umbrella in the car, as well as my jacket. Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck were there to greet me.



After going through the metal detector, you enter a gift shop. There’s a desk where you check in for the tour, as well as a food counter serving coffee and pastries. There was a sort of long line, which took about 10 minutes to get through, so I was glad to have the extra time. When I got to the front of the line, check-in was quick and easy. I was told to go to door B at 10:15. She then asked if I had a jacket and I told her it was in the car. She said, “Good, you’ll have time to go get it.” Okay, then!

When I got to my car, it wasn’t quite as sunny, so I decided to bring my umbrella as well as my jacket, so I just grabbed the backpack I’d brought. It did get a little chilly at times, so I was glad to have the jacket. Also, it did rain off and on (and even hail once ), but it rarely happened when I had my umbrella. Luckily, California rain is polite enough to be gentle when I was standing out in it, so I didn’t get terribly wet.

I had a peek around the gift shop, and then it was 10:15. I knew the groups were supposed to be about 10-12, so I was surprised when about 40 people filled up the room. We watched a short film about Warner Brothers films, and then were broken up into 4 groups. I guess the others in the room were on the regular VIP tour, not the Deluxe. The regular VIP tour lasts about 2 ½ hours, while the VIP tour lasts about 5 hours and includes lunch. So much happened on this tour that I don’t remember every single thing. I’ll try my best to cover everything, but some of the events may be slightly out of order.

Our tour guide was Thom, and I’ll say right up front that he was great. The first thing he told us was that he talks a lot! He said if we had a question about anything, to just go ahead and ask, because he doesn’t always stop to ask if there are questions. Then he asked us about what shows the group watched, because he tailors the tour around what people in the group would enjoy.

There were 9 of us in the group, and since I was the only solo traveler, I got to ride shotgun in the golf cart. We headed off, but then stopped almost immediately at the offices of the studio executives. Thom told us all about the history of Warner Brothers (there were 4 Warner brothers) and how they’ve evolved over the years. Now they do more television than anything else, but since the lot is so large, there’s always something going on.

As we drove around, Thom pointed out that the office buildings were intentionally built to be very generic looking, so that they could be transformed into many different locations with signs.



I remember this cabin is used as a restaurant in a tv show, but I can’t remember which show.



We went through the jungle.



Warner Bros. is the only lot with a jungle, so a lot of films come to WB just to film a scene or two in the jungle. There are lots of homes and buildings that are more than just façades. This is where many of the shows’ writers work.




The Mentalist crew was working in this house


This is a real café, but is also used in various productions as a café





Then we visited a square that I recognized from Gilmore Girls and The Dukes of Hazzard.





Continued…

[PrincessSharon]

Back to the “houses.” Many of the houses have a different look in the front and back, so they can be used as two separate houses. There’s even one house that has three “sides.”


One side of the house



We got to go inside one of the houses.



The houses have rooms, but no ceilings. The ceilings are open to place all the lighting and speakers and stuff. If there’s a place in the script for the ceiling to show, they put up a fake canvas ceiling.



All filming is done downstairs, because they don’t want to carry heavy camera and lighting equipment up and down the stairs.

Then we got to see the other side of that house.


The other side of the same house

We got an interesting bit of trivia. That particular two-sided house was used in the tv show Dukes of Hazzard. One side was Uncle Jessie’s house and the other side was Boss Hogg’s house, so even though they were rivals, they lived in the same house!

We passed some generic looking buildings that can be used as official buildings.


Hang some flags and you’ve got an embassy!


A courthouse – the sign just reads a generic “County Courthouse”

While we were touring the lot, we saw a film crew at work. They were doing a scene from a new tv show called Dark Blue. It’s a cop show that premieres this summer on TNT. Incidentally, when Thom was telling us about the show, he actually said the phrase “police cops.” I don’t know if he was being clever or if people in L.A. actually say that (I’ve seen it on tv and figured it was a parody of something stupid tv execs say). Either way, I thought it was pretty funny, but nobody else seemed to even notice. We had to stop and wait for a few minutes, and while we could watch, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures. They were doing a scene on the “street,” so a bunch of cars were lined up on the street behind them. The cars would drive continuously around the block in the scene. It’s always done that way on the backlot, so if you watch carefully, you might see the same car drive by two or three times in a scene.

We also visited the city set, which I recognized from a lot of tv shows. I was watching a Monk rerun recently and saw a bunch of stuff that I recognize now.

There was a subway station (which, with signs, could serve as any subway line).



It doesn’t actually go underground, but there is a small area at the bottom of the stairs. They’ll stuff a dozen or so extras down there where they can’t be seen, and when it’s time, they’ll come up a few at a time like a train just arrived.

ER filmed here for years and years, and even though it’s not in production anymore, there’s still a lot of stuff that’s recognizable.









We saw a city alley that I recognized from a lot of stuff.



This is the spot where the famous upside-down kiss took place in Spider-Man.



Because it was raining in the scene, and Tobey Maguire was hanging upside down, he nearly drowned trying to get the shot! They eventually had to stuff cotton balls up his nose, and then he sounded like he had cotton balls stuffed up his nose when he said his lines! They had him come back and record the lines later, but I’ll never watch that scene the same way again.

We passed a couple of studio icons seen many times throughout the years.





And I took a photo of this brownstone, but I don’t remember why. It’s probably from a show that I don’t watch that often!



I don’t remember exactly when we took a break for lunch, but we did visit the restaurant. I thought we’d be eating in the studio commissary, but we actually had a lovely lunch in the restaurant where the VIPs eat. For some reason, I don’t have any pictures of my food, so I don’t remember what I had. I’m almost sure I took pictures, but they’re not on my memory card. I think I had salad to start, and then a pasta dish, and then dessert. Sounds good. Too bad we didn’t see any celebs in the room.

During lunch, though, we discovered that everyone on the VIP tour was part of the ABD group! I knew a couple of others on the ABD trip were taking the tour that day, but since there’d been a large group that morning, I wasn’t sure that they were on the same tour.

We started talking about it, and Thom, our guide said he actually would love to do that tour himself! He really wants to get on the lot at Jim Henson Studios! After lunch, he confessed to me that he was all nervous because now he was “competing” with Disney, and he knew they always did a great job. I assured him that he was doing fine.

Continued…

[PrincessSharon]

We then visited a bunch of the big soundstages. A lot of the time, we weren’t allowed to take pictures – particularly on sets of shows that are still in production.



There are two soundstages that are named after the shows that were filmed there for years.





There’s also a plaque hanging outside each stage, listing the major productions filmed there.



We got to go inside one of the shops where they cast a lot of big pieces.



And we got to see some special effects things, like how they do fake gunshots.



We also got to see how they do fake snow and even feel it. They use different kinds of snow for outside-the-window snow and snowing-on-actors snow.

Next we saw where they print giant posters and signs.



There are two big printers, and one was actually printing something at the time.



They also sometimes use it to print what I call scenic backdrops (I don’t remember what they’re actually called). Here’s an example of a safe (that’s just a door).



I especially loved the backdrops that hang outside the windows, so it looks like the show is being filmed in Denver instead of on the WB backlot. We saw this really cool one of NYC. The same backdrop is used for daytime and nighttime, just by the way it’s lit.


Daytime look


Nighttime look

We also got to see where they paint huge backdrops. They hang a big canvas with the entire scene laid out, and then the artists paint a little section at a time and then they move it up or down for the next portion.

We then visited a spot where they have a bunch of movie cars.


Austin Powers


That’s one of a bunch of clones that were made for The Matrix


Dukes of Hazzard


Chuck


Get Smart (with Steve Carell)


Batman


The Batmobile even has bat tire treads




Harry Potter


I forgot what this is from

While we were in this room, we posed in front of a green screen for a special photo (each group posed together – four couples and me).



Continued…

[PrincessSharon]

We also got to visit Central Perk, which was disassembled and placed here as sort of a museum when Friends was over. The regular tour visits this, but they are only allowed to stand in a corner, but since we were on the deluxe tour, we got to walk around and even get pictures. It was cool to sit on the couch and stand behind the counter. We also heard a really cool trivia tidbit. An extra ended up with a more prominent role on the show because he was the only one who actually knew how to work the espresso machine. He ended up playing Gunther, and appeared in a lot of episodes!






Those aren’t real windows, but the scenic backdrop thingies. Realistic, aren't they?



Then we visited the place where they store all the big pieces of furniture and stuff to furnish sets. When the set designer comes in to “shop,” they stick tags on the stuff they want.




The tag says “Hold for Parks and Recreation”





Over the years, they’ve come to discover that they actually have some valuable antiques, which aren’t really used in productions anymore because of their value.


A genuine Tiffany lamp


One of a pair of lamps worth big bucks (something like half a million dollars)




A replica of the President’s desk


“Hold for Castle”

We also got to see some smaller props and stuff (props are technically stuff that actors hold).









We also got to visit the stages where The Mentalist and Chuck are filmed. It was really cool to walk around in Chuck's apartment (and I totally had bathroom envy - his bathroom is huge), or to visit the CBI office. No pictures were allowed there. We also visited the stage where they shoot Two and a Half Men. It’s filmed in front of a studio audience, so the setup was different. We got to see the perspective of the audience, and then we got to actually walk around on the set. Thom told us we were in Charlie’s bedroom and one of my tour mates was like “who wasn’t?”

We also visited a costume shop, which had actual costumes from lots of films through the years worn by people from Marilyn Monroe to Will Smith. Upstairs from that was the Harry Potter Museum, with costumes and stuff from there. I got to try on the Sorting Hat. No pictures were allowed there.

After the tour, we got our Where the Wild Things Are photos and that was that. By this time, the off and on rain was permanently off, and it was nice and sunny for the rest of the trip.

Up Next: Sunset on the Beach

[Grammy Grumpy]

Wow, that is certainly on my "to do" list for whenever I get back to that part of CA!!!

[Wendyismyname]

Fun updates!!!! Really cool!!!

[doccoc2002]

Amazing!!! and we haven't even got to the ABD stuff yet!! You make me want to jump on a plane an dvisit my DB in Cali...even tho he was just here!!

[disney_duke]

That tour sounds amazing!!! You sure got to see AND experience some cool stuff! How funny Thom said he feels like he's competing with Disney. Doesn't he know nobody can compete??? kidding. Thanks for sharing those pictures and all the information, really neat!!

[KMB733]

Wow! What an amazing tour. You saw so many cool things, and that awesome that you got to go to Central Perk!

[lazanya]

Fun! What a great tour!

[HollyH]

Sounds like a great time! Can't wait for more .

[Colexis Mom]

Great tour and pictures P Sha! We're going to do the basic hour. I don't think the kids will last 5 hours!! more please!