15 Dec, Friday - Universal Studio - Studio Tour

And so our tour in LA began with a tour to Universal Studio. The drive there from our hotel took almost 2 hrs, as they had to pick up guests staying in other hotels.

In any case, we reached Universal Studio slightly before it opened at 10am, but just take a look at the crowd there and you can see how good business is. we were admitted in before 10am, and was told to listen out for the director's call of 'action' before we can start exploring the ground. Everyone rushed off once the word 'action' was heard and we had to walk quickly to catch up with our tour guide.
We started off with the Studio Tour and it was really cool. We boarded this tram which took us around Universal Studio where all the filming takes place. On each carriage, there were tv screens showing our commentor Doug and he was really entertaining. Below are pictures of all the huge studios or stages that movie filiming takes place.
The first picture below, I can't remember which movie has this scene. I am not a movie lover. Maybe you guys can recognise it. Then we pass
The picture below is how a flood can be created. It looks so real yet it is man-made. They need a drainage system. Now we all know why making a movie is so expensive. Creating all these effects is really difficult.



The set for central park was so minute! It's so amazing how they just focus on 1 small area and creates this illusion that central park is huge. The reason for it is that the real Central Park is filmed without the actors while the actors and actresses will be filming in Universal Studios. The crew will then stitch the 2 parts to create this idea that filming has really be done in Central Park.

Next, we passed by many sets. Doug said that 2 different filming could take place at the same location. Inside the building or outside the building. So it might be possible to notice that some movies have the same background.We also saw how they created the effects of earthquake, floods and car crash scenes in movies... It was so awesome!
We saw the real sets and props for many movies, such as War of the World, Bruce Almighty, Jurassic Park, The Grinch and also for TV series such as Desperate Housewives, The Office and CSI... It's amazing how realistic all these sets look... From Rome, jungle forest to Europe all within the studio perimeter. We could also see filming going on in the distance but too bad we didn't see any big movie stars.
I see why Universal Studio is a popular destination, the employees made the effort to make you feel welcome and happy. It is so unlike our Singapore Theme Parks.