Afterthought: Sony Studio Tour

Last Friday, I was able to secure tickets for the Sony backlot tour in Culver City. I’ve only been to Culver City once before but there are two things I love about it:

1) The city has a great movie industry history.
2) It always has great lighting. The light is very soft and creates a dramatic effect. Maybe that’s why studios settled in the city.

Finding a parking spot was tough because all of the spaces said “Reserved”. I had to exit out of the lot and come back in and asked a security guard how the parking garage worked. It turned out I had to stop at the valet and they’ll redirect you to a parking spot. Never had that experience before. I got to the Sony building around 2:20, 10 minutes before the tour starts.

I go in and the building reminded me of a James Bond villain fortress. The first thing I noticed is a catwalk by the second floor: This is where the henchmen would overwatch. Two towers, one on the left and the other on the right. One security guard on each tower. This is where Bond would judo chop the guards. Then I turn around and see a glass wall with memorable images from Sony movies and the Sony log in the middle of it. Replace the Sony logo with the villains face and you have a fortress.

Met up with a friend, registered at the office and off we went on the tour. There were 12 people on the tour.  First thing we did was the obligatory green screen background picture. I asked the photographer if they check portfolios for her job and she said they don’t and it’s a real easy and kick back job. Then we went to watch an outdated film on the history of Sony. I think the latest movie clip I saw was for Big Daddy and Spider Man. I was disappointed. For a major movie studio, they should update it every year or at least every other year.

Then we got a tour of the building and I learned that the catwalks are used to shoot from the top angle. The camera would shoot down on the lobby, which doubles as an airport terminal. Pretty impressed how they could still make the lobby look sleek when they’re not shooting anything.

Finally, we go outside and walk across the street and enter the backlot. We first passed a studio park where scenes from Seinfeld and King of Queens were shot. I wasn’t too intrigued by it. I was more fascinated by the lighting because the sun was setting and it was still soft. If you’re a photographer, you’d love Culver City’s natural lighting.

Then we were off to the building where decisions are made whether a movie will get the greenlight. The exterior was also used for Spider Man as Peter Parker’s high school. We went inside the lobby and saw some Oscar Best Picture statues that were displayed. We couldn’t take pictures because they were afraid people would photoshop the statues and pretend they won. Kind of a weird reason why you can’t take pictures of it. It’s so easy to find an image of an Oscar statue on google.

We walk some more in the backlot and enter a New York set. There was a shoot going on but we weren’t allowed to go near it. I like the feel of the backlot, reminded me of Animaniacs, when they’d run around the stuido: people riding bikes, crew members getting in line for free food, other crew member building sets, executives talking among themselves. It’s cool seeing different type of people working together to make a movie.

Next up, we stop by a “library”. Here, the tour guide called some people to act out some scenes. This is what made this tour different from the Paramount (regular tour but good in different ways), interaction. Throughout the tour, we role played to get the “movie” experience. I’ll talk about it more later on.

We enter another building where the project offices are at. One office was for the current comedy champ, Judd Apatow. The other one was for Angels & Demons starring Tom Hanks, 90% of the movie was shot on set.

Then we go to the Screen Gems (produced classics such as Resident Evil and You Got Served) building where the president of the division talked to us briefly. He just passed by as we were entering the building. He even hit one of our party pretty hard as he opened the door. Ouch! She got hit in the stomach and I’m sure she got a bruise out of it.  It’d be a good story to tell her friends.

Next up was the audio building where it was used to edit audio, create sound effects and recreate dialogue. It takes four hours for post production to recreate 6 words in the studio! That’s why it’s important they get the dialogue clearly during the shoot without sound interference from fans and buzzing lights. Wow, I thought editing for 1 hour for a minute of video was a long time.

After this, we went to a couple of sound stages, which were pretty boring. One of the reasons it was boring was because we weren’t allowed to take pictures anymore. Not much was going on besides the crew members building some sets. I preferred walking outside than entering the dull and dark sound stages.

One highlight with the sound stages was the “Til Death” set, starring Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher. I liked this part of the tour because I put my crappy acting skills to the test. I was playing the best friend and our scene called for a reunion with some old family friends we haven’t seen in a while.

First take: No enthusiasm from the actors, we were holding back. Also we didn’t know what we should be doing because we didn’t have a script.

Second take: I hugged a person that I’ve supposedly met 5 minutes ago. Damn, I ruined the scene.

Third take: Everyone finally calibrated and we made a believable scene…or so we were told by the tour guide. He gave everybody that particpated a Superbad beanie. Woo hoo.

I enjoyed being on the set and experiencing what the actors feel. Felt nervous, but you feel the power that everyone else is paying attention to you.

After that we went to the last sound stage, Jeopardy. I wasn’t fascinated by it, I would have enjoyed it more if there were actually taping going on.

Afterwards, the tour guide called it a day and gave us free shirts back in the office. I got a large Resident Evil Extinction shirt. YES! One thing that was weird was that the tour guides were accepting tips. I guess Sony doesn’t pay them enough, must be broke from the PS3.

I enjoyed the tour but I guess I was expecting more big movie sets. For the most part, they were still building it. There just wasn’t much going on in the sound stages, nothing was shot and there were no stars to be seen. It’s probably because I went on a Friday. The tv show sets were cool but if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. I’d recommend the tour to hardcore movie fans. If you’re a casual movie fan, you’ll probably find it boring.



2 Responses to “Afterthought: Sony Studio Tour”

1. John Spartan says:

   November 24, 2008 at 1:18 pm

   Oh, sounds fun. I love the pretending to act on set part. I wonder if Disney has a similar tour like that?
2. Cricket says:

   November 25, 2008 at 1:22 am

   I don’t think Disney has a tour. The studios offering tours are Universal, Sony, WB and Paramount.