Secrets behind the Dark Arts will be revealed for the first time this half-term at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter. For one week only visitors will learn how the Dark Arts were brought to life in the films. Discover how the costumes were developed for the most infamous characters, learn about the make-up techniques used to help the actors get into character and come face-to-face with Death Eaters.
Other special features include a ‘lesson’ in the Potions classroom where the real contents of the potion jars will be explained. Over 500 of the original jars are displayed all with handwritten labels. Some of the few remaining Prophecy orbs will be on show at the Malfoy Manor fireplace with revelations about their use during filming in the Hall of Prophecy.
Dark Art Facts from the Studio Tour
An extra layer of fabric was added to Voldemort’s™ costume every time he became more powerful. During filming for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix™ over 50 meters of silk were used.
Aragog, the giant spider, was covered by hand with yak hair, sisal and hemp from brooms.
The make-up effects used to create the Dark Lord included temporary tattoos for veins, enhanced cheekbones, contact lenses and false eyebrows, fingernails and teeth.
Each werewolf prosthetic was made with real goat hair that was inserted strand-by-strand.
The Prophecy orbs are made of glass and were filled with seed pods, mushrooms, mussels and rubber frogs.
The secrets behind the Dark Arts will start on Saturday 27 October to Sunday 4 November.
A new video made by TVUK gives everyone the chance to have a ten-minute tour of The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.
It gives a glimpse of a few of TNMOC's growing number of displays: from the code-breaking Colossus through the restoration of the Harwell-WITCH computer, the Elliot 803, the ICL2966, to the home computing revolution in the PC gallery and the NPL Technology of the Internet gallery.
"This is not just a techie museum with machines in glass boxes. This is a working environment to show how machines worked – that’s the essence of The National Museum of Computing. As the Museum continues its rapid growth, there are many opportunities for new sponsors, new members and volunteers," said Tony Sale, a trustee and director of The National Museum of Computing.
The National Museum of Computing warmly thanks Phil Fothergill of TVUK for creating the video.
About The National Museum of Computing
The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, an independent charity, houses the largest collection of functional historic computers in Europe, including a rebuilt Colossus, the world’s first electronic programmable computer.
The Museum complements the Bletchley Park Trust’s story of code breaking up to the Colossus and allows visitors to follow the development of computing from the ultra-secret pioneering efforts of the 1940s through the mainframes of the 1960s and 1970s, and the rise of personal computing in the 1980s. New working exhibits are regularly unveiled and the public can already view a rebuilt and fully operational Colossus, the restoration of the Harwell / WITCH computer, and an ICL 2966, one of the workhorse mainframes computers of the 1980s, many of the earliest desktops of the 1980s and 1990s, plus the NPL Technology of the Internet Gallery. In June 2010 TNMOC hosted Britain’s first-ever Vintage Computer Festival.
Funders of the Museum include Bletchley Park Capital Partners, InsightSoftware.com, PGP Corporation, IBM, NPL, HP Labs, BCS, Black Marble, and the School of Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire.
The Museum is currently open on Thursdays and Saturdays from 1pm, and on Bank Holidays in spring and summer. Guided tours are also available at 2.30pm on Tuesdays, Sundays and some other days. Groups may visit at other times by arrangement and special organisation Away-Days can be booked.
