August 12th - Warner Brothers Tour

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this web log are the personal opinions of Ian D Smith, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff or members of the Official Lord of the Rings fan club.

Move the mouse over a picture for a description, or click on a picture to see a larger version

Warner Brothers Studio Tour

Gate 3 - the start of the Warner Brothers Tour

The entrances to the studio complex at Gate 4

The famous Warner Brothers water tank - like so much in Hollywood, a rather vacuous construction with no real use

Oh great! - another 20 minutes spent wandering aimlessly around a Western set in the hot sun, just like at Universal

Security at the main exit from the studio lot

With everyone from the fan club finally away, it's time for a private tour of the Warner Brothers studio lot. My tourist guide has warned me that this tour needs to be booked at least a week in advance, which I have done just prior to my trip to San Diego, and my destination is Gate 3 - a small innocuous entrance opposite the studio's main entrance at Gate 4.

I arrive, as advised, three-quarters of an hour early, armed with passport (photo id) and $32 in cash. The tour lasts approximately two and a half hours and is, according to my guide, more technical than the Universal Studios tour. Not long after arriving we are taken by "shuttle" (an electric car with room for about 12 people) to the main entrance and pass through a barrage of security people before being taken to the main "VIP Tour" area. I don't know if it's that lack of sleep is catching up with me or that I'm just starting to lose my somewhat rose-tinted view of Hollywood and LA, but it is at this point that I start to think the letters "V", "I" and "P" are somewhat over-used. Our shuttle escort has come across as more mean than customer-oriented and the number of other people in the main tour area brings to mind the word "cattle"

After half an hour to carouse the Gift Shop our tour starts. Our tour guide today is Steve. He is a breathe of fresh air after the somewhat hyped-up Yvette from yesterday's Universal tour: efficient and informative, rather than hammy and overly-theatrical. We later find out, when another very irritating tour guest (you know the kind, objects loudly to tour guide jokes about Ronald Reagan, turns up late at the end of every tour stop etc etc.) asks, that Steve is another Hollywood wannabe - having appeared in some commercials back home and wanting to get into acting and writing instead of tour-guiding.

Our introductory tour tells us that we may see celebrities as this is a working studio, and that photo's are not allowed for most of the tour (including the museum - go figure!). We are also told that the tour guides are not allowed to point out celebrities and that it is entirely up to us. Now call me cynical, with a capital "C" but when none of us see anything remotely resembling a celebrity and the one interesting part of the lot where they're just building sets (for the new Tom Cruise Samurai movie) is strictly off limits, I take all this with a pinch of salt. The number of carts ferrying tourists around, despite the pre-booking policy, is even greater than Universal Studios, which is seen more as a theme park than a genuine studio tour anyway.

The first stop is a 20-minute one at the Warner Brothers museum - this is far more interesting than it sounds and I really would have liked another half hour here. Steve advises us to read the letters as he thinks they are the most interesting exhibits - and he is right, although everyone else scurries off to see the Harry Potter exhibits that take over the whole of the second floor (I didn't even get up there) or the costume and props exhibits on the main floor. Letters from Ronald Reagan, Elia Kazan, James Cagney and Elizabeth Taylor's director reveal what Steve has referred to as "the real Hollywood" - a back-stabbing, greedy, egomaniacal industry of quite shocking proportions, that help put minor fan club spats into context! One's heart bleeds for Elia Kazan as he vainly battles to stop religious bigots destroying his "Streetcar Named Desire". James Cagney comes across as a sweet man with integrity, Elizabeth Taylor as a monster (or as Steve calls such actresses "high maintenance") and Ronald Reagan as a rather misguided fool (he was desperate to become an action hero - and got kind of bitter and twisted when it didn't happen). Fascinating stuff!

We then proceed onto the sets of some American TV shows - both apparently quite big over here (one was called The Gillingham Girls or somesuch and the other had the word Reginald in it - I'm not a great TV watcher!). These sections were similar to the Universal Tour visit to the Providence set except that the information given was at a much less patronising level and the Reginald set, a sit-com, was populated with workers getting ready for a shoot on it the next day.

With set visit out the way, we were off for a tour of the back lot - oh great! another stop-over at a Western backlot! Forgive my boredom threshold, but this was by far the least popular part of yesterday's tour of Universal, and having done it twice already, the yawn factor was rather high. Fortunately future visitors will be spared the tedium as studio's appear to have finally woken up to the fact that nobody cares any more and the Warner Brothers' backlot will apparently be destroyed to be replaced by a small seafront town set.

We next visit the external set of ER, a show I haven't seen, but which provides a lot of interest from my other tour attendees, before being deposited back at the main reception. Throughout Steve has been an excellent guide (the best so far), professional to the last (when asked what he thought of the new Clint Eastwood movie "Blood-whatjamacallit" he stone-facedly replies "I saw it - a heck of a lot of other people didn't" refusing to provide any further comment when irritating tourist no.1 keeps pressing him on the matter).

I spend the rest of the day, leaving the camera back at the hotel (I'm all photo-ed out) visiting the tourist sites of Hollywood - the Chinese Theatre and Hall of Fame, and then playing catch-up on the web logs for Saturday and Sunday. In doing so, I find a lovely little note from Primula, who perhaps more aware than anyone else of my despondency at the free-loading and downright selfishness that can marr large events such as fan club gatherings, has left a sweet note of what she calls "mental" pictures on the reverse side of a note of pictures I have made earlier. It helps me put things into their correct perspective and focus on the great things about this trip rather than the one or two silly little ones that really soured parts of it for me. In conclusion, I've met some fantastic people while over here so a big thanks to Prim herself and people like Truss, Arwen2, Moochelas, LadyOBloom and Josh who worked so tirelessly on behalf of all us fans behind the scenes, the whole of the Weta and Torn posses who were just fantastic ambassadors for everything to do with the film.

There are too many others to thank specifically, but I should single out Pip, Val, Pixie, Silver and Jo for hanging out with me throughout my trip and really ensuring I had a great time. It was great to meet some old friends like Lithilien, Rosie, DesertElf (with Dan - good luck for the wedding guys) and Sierra too, as well as some wonderful new faces I really didn't get enough time to spend with and would have liked to get to know better: Amy, Anna, Garfy, Primmy B, Nikki Took, Nestalvaniel, Hannah, Holbytla (Heil Hitler! ;-)), Larualinda and Icarus and others whose names I'm sure I've forgotten! A quick final mention to Brett (the Baron) who gave me champagne at the Hollywood Bowl concert and, I've only just realised, ended up picking up the tab for a couple of gin and tonics I had in the hotel bar on Saturday night - I owe you a few beers, matey! Oh and also Sammy who gave me a nice welcoming Frodo goblet present. Thanks! That was very sweet.

All that being said, it seems appropriate to end this particular set of Web Log trip reports back at the Warner Brothers security exit (picture opposite). In those immortal cartoon words we're all familiar with:"That's all folks!"