During the fall of 2009’ I was very lucky to have the opportunity to work on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie set for a little over a month.

This was an amazing experience where I was able to care for all of the animals used in the film. The animal department I worked with also provides animals for many well known movies such as Inkheart, The golden compass, Meet the parents, Harry Potter, Evan Almighty, The Hangover, Mamma Mia, Enchanted, Sherlock homes and so much more.

I stayed just outside of London at a beautiful manor next door to the studios at the
De Vere venues Hunton Park.

I also traveled into London often as well and visited Oxford, Bath, Stonehenge and Paris.

The studios were amazing! Leavesden Studios is the only movie studio to have one movie on location for close to ten years! It’s literally Harry Potter world. At lunch while in the canteen, I was surrounded by many beloved Harry Potter characters constantly. I was able to see all of the characters except Hermione who was back in America attending school-I did get to see her double often.

The canteen (or cafeteria) had amazing food buffet style but all hand made every day. The tables had collaged photos of the crew filming different Harry potter scenes and large glass curio cases lined the walls where film artifacts from the Harry potter movies such as props, clothing and more were displayed.

The studios are huge and many people will ride on bikes to get around, it looks a bit like large warehouses inside and I believe the studios used to be an old plane storage facility.

As you make your way through the immense warehouses you will see bits of items from the movie stuffed everywhere and all of the sudden you will see a large wooden frame much like what you would picture the inside of you home wall to look like just 2x4 wood pieces and wall but as you walk around these enormous boxes you will find doors that once inside will take into The Great Hall, Gringots, Diagon Alley even Harry potters bedroom at the Dursleys.

They set up the sets like this so they can move them around when they need to. It’s amazing and very interesting. However because I was there towards the end many sets were being taken apart which was kind of sad.

I was able to be on site a few different times while actually filming. I watched large battle scenes in front of the castle on Hogwarts grounds and almost all of the major characters, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Weasleys, Deatheaters, Hagrid you name it were all there. I stood about a foot behind the whole Weasly family watching scenes being filmed and Ron is really tall!

I was able to go through the many departments to see how everything is created and the prop department was my favorite! It’s amazing to see how lifelike everything is up close and even more amazing watching everyone create things like a fake/wax Dumbledore or a hippogriff.

Unfortunately you had to practically sign your life away promising to not take photo or video while around the studios so I am unable to show any photos being on set-I do have loads of paperwork and passes, Ids and other items but I believe they do not want this posted either. I had many people ask why I did not just sneak some videos or photo from inside the studios which I could have probably been able to do but really it took a lot of planning, time and money for this experience and I can guarantee the studios would have kicked me out in two seconds had they suspected I was doing this and then I would have wasted a great opportunity for one lousy photograph-didn’t seem worth it to me.

I was able to photograph in the animal area because they are not owned by the studios-it’s a different company that just basically rents the studio grounds as a place to stay because Harry potter uses them so much for the wildlife.
I have loads more photos of me with the animals from Harry potter (such as Mrs. Norris, McGonagall in cat form, Sirius black in dog form, Hedwig, Aunt Marge’s Bulldog and much more even animals from other movie sets that I might add later.

On a side note another girl I was working with hung out with me on Halloween night and (originally from Paris) she had never been trick or treating so after she begged me relentlessly in English and French---yup I took her trick or treating at 27 years old! It was great fun-we did not have costumes so we used whatever I had in my room including Halloween napkins, black eyeliner and teasing our hair out awkwardly.

I was very sad when my time ended there and I had to go back to the states but everyone was extremely nice and I have to say this will not be the last time I work with a movie set. I am currently in the process for trying to set up some more opportunities and will be sure to share when this all happens.