Tag: Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood

Thinkwell Group Congratulates Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood on Its Latest Tour Expansion & Reopening

Jake Williams
Los Angeles, CA (August 19): In an ongoing collaboration with Warner Bros. Studio Tours,
Thinkwell designed and produced the all-new Welcome Center experiences at Warner Bros.
Studio Tour Hollywood, which opened in June. Part of an entirely new building that expands the
Tour with retail, parking, and more, celebrates the Studio’s cinematic history and key franchises,
including new immersive interactive and media-focused experiences for the two largest Warner
Bros. properties, Harry Potter’s Wizarding World and DC Comics.

Visitors begin in an introductory exhibition space that showcases the history and innovation of
Warner Bros. and Burbank studios. Guests encounter a satellite view of the studio lot covering
the floor, displaying the scale of the Warner Bros. lot and featuring a 14 ft (4.3 m) replica of the
iconic WB water tower. Surrounding media exhibits give an introduction to the Studio’s storied
history. Guests then enjoy the tour’s new preshow film in a state-of-the-art theater before
heading out to discover the secrets of the lot on the tour. Upon return, guests enter into a new
immersive finale attraction that brings the blockbuster movies guests love to life, featuring DC
Superheroes & Villains and Harry Potter & Fantastic Beasts.

The DC Universe area includes opportunities to bring Wonder Woman’s Golden Lasso to life
and scan a surveillance system inside Batman’s Batcave for villains lurking around Gotham.
Custom interactives with unique photo ops bring the heroes of DC Comics to life alongside
never-before-displayed film artifacts.

Within the new Harry Potter spaces, guests explore a variety of interactive and photo-ready
magical encounters. Visitors can link their Wizarding World accounts and be sorted into their
house with the Sorting Hat, test their potion-making skills with interactive cauldrons, or pull “live”
mandrakes out of pots in the Herbology room. A room dedicated to Fantastic Beasts lets guests
connect with a variety of magical creatures through fun photo ops and interactive state-of-the-art
media surprises. Guests conclude their time with a “Celebration of Warner Bros.” finale
experience with a rotating collection of awards and mementos from the studio archives where
guests can pose with an Oscar statuette.

“Thinkwell is proud to have played a vital role in the creation, design, and development of these
new experiences at Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood,” says Craig Hanna, Chief Creative
Officer at Thinkwell Group. “We are fortunate to have great partners at Warner Bros. who
helped continue to push the project to completion last year during the pandemic, and we’re
excited to see guests welcomed back to the reopened Tour with these new experiences.””
The Welcome Center expansion creates an entirely new introduction and finale attraction to the
Tour with interactive and engaging moments celebrating the Warner Bros. legacy and library.
Thinkwell conceived, designed, and produced all media and interactives throughout the new
spaces in conjunction with Thinkwell Media and Thinkwell Studio Montréal for the new Welcome
Center and finale.

About Thinkwell Group

Thinkwell Group is a global experience design and production agency with studios and offices in
Los Angeles, Montréal, Beijing, and Abu Dhabi. For the past 20 years, Thinkwell’s
multi-disciplinary team has created compelling experiences for a wide range of clients and
brands around the world. Thinkwell has extensive experience in the strategy, planning, design,
and production of award-winning theme parks, brand & intellectual property attractions, events
& spectaculars, museums & exhibits, expos, and live shows.

Thinkwell Media is a full service creative production agency that specializes in immersive media
experiences.

Thinkwell Studio Montréal develops and delivers cutting edge interactive experiences that
seamlessly blend content and technology.

For more information visit: www.thinkwellgroup.com.

Thinkwell Group Designs and Produces New Interactive Studio Attraction for Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood

Andrea Yoo

Thinkwell Group, in collaboration with Warner Bros, designed and produced a new attraction called Stage 48: Script to Screen, which houses original experiences, displays, and interactives
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. (August 5, 2015) — Thinkwell Group, a global experience design and production agency specializing in the creation of theme parks, major attractions, live events, and museum exhibits around the world, today announced its role in designing and producing a new addition to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood. The 25,000-square-foot facility, called Stage 48: Script to Screen, is featured as the finale of the backlot tour and is the culmination of a two-year project that takes visitors behind the scenes of how movies and TV shows are made.

The immersive attraction provides visitors with a hands-on introduction to the world of filmmaking and includes interactive features and exhibits that highlight the phases of the production process, from screenwriting and set design to visual effects and post-production. Visitors will not only be able to see authentic costumes, sets, and models from films like The Dark Knight, Corpse Bride, and Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, they’ll also be able to interact with various elements that explore and explain the production process from start to finish.

“It has been a real privilege to collaborate with the Warner Bros. family to make Stage 48: Script to Screen a reality. This was a top-down effort, with an amazing amount of participation and attention from the Studio Executives, Heads of Departments, and the Archive team. The Warner Bros. tour has been providing its visitors with an unparalleled experience inside one of Hollywood’s most storied studios, and Stage 48 is a wonderful finale and a clear demonstration of the studio’s commitment to their guests,” says Chris Durmick, Thinkwell Creative Director for Stage 48.

Visitors are welcomed to the new attraction by Ellen DeGeneres in an introductory video after which they are able to walk through a series of displays that show the various stages of pre-production. From script writing to casting, visitors can view re-creations of what a screenwriter’s desk would look like, try casting a film at an interactive touch table, and see actual scaled models of film set pieces and costumes created by design departments. Visitors can also design their own Batmobile on an interactive design station as well as outfit computer-generated models in costumes from The Great Gatsby or Camelot.
Visitors then walk through to the production area which houses the original Central Perk Café set from Friends, where visitors can act out a scene on the famous couch, get behind the camera, or be a member of the studio audience. This area also includes the space capsule used in the film Gravity.

In the post-production area, visitors can see how special effects, sound design, and editing complete the Hollywood magic. Visitors can experience green screen technology and ride a Batpod through the streets of Gotham, act as Dobby from the Harry Potter films using motion capture technology, or portray a larger-than-life Gandalf from The Hobbit at a forced perspective table.

At the end of the exhibit, visitors can experience the history of Warner Bros. in the Legacy Room, which includes some of Jack Warner’s personal effects and features a collection of Oscars® and Emmys® the studio has received in its almost 100-year history. There is also an almost 180-degree projection screen that shows a compilation of clips from award-winning movies like Casablanca, Driving Miss Daisy, to television programs like The Waltons, and Roots. Opened on July 16th, Stage 48: Script to Screen includes a new Central Perk Café and a retail store and is the finale to the existing studio tour that will allow visitors to go even further behind the scenes of the television and film world to get a true insider’s view into the workings of actual Hollywood productions.

About Thinkwell Group
Founded in 2001, Thinkwell is a global design and production agency that connects companies with custom content-driven experiences in the physical world. The agency headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Beijing and Abu Dhabi collaborates with its clients to envision, strategize, and create immersive, one-of-a-kind guest experiences. Thinkwell specializes in the creation of theme parks, resorts, museums, exhibits, location-based entertainment, live performances and events around the world. The award-winning company has become a leader in experiential design by bringing a unique holistic approach to every creative engagement, delivering extraordinary results to notable clients over the years, including Fortune 500 companies, film studios, museums, theme parks and destination resorts.