Until today, little was known about the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey attraction that is part of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort.
Here’s a video released by Universal Orlando today detailing many aspects of the attraction, with a sneak peek inside:
The photo below has now been released from within Universal’s enormous recreation of Hogwarts Castle, home to the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. The photo depicts what appear to be hundreds of floating candles and will be featured in the Room of Requirement.
If you look carefully at the photo (click to enlarge), you’ll notice that well-placed mirrors on the left side (and in the distance) create the illusion that the room is much larger than it actually is -- and that there are hundreds more candles than there really are.
This screen shot from the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride shows Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) riding a broom through a Quidditch game.
Seen here is a hall of moving portraits, some of which will interact with guests.
More details from and locations found within Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey attraction:
Dumbledore’s office: Here, you meet the Headmaster as he welcomes you to Hogwarts
Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom: Where you first meet Harry, Ron and Hermione
Gryffindor common room: You meet three additional characters who prepare you for your journey
Room of Requirement: Here, with hundreds of floating candles above, you take your seat on an enchanted bench and begin the Forbidden Journey
Other locations: In addition, guests will pass through the Dungeon passageway and hallways of Hogwarts where they will have the chance to see hundreds of wizard portraits from the films, including several magical talking portraits created exclusively for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, including the four founders of Hogwarts. Guests will even get a glimpse of the Sorting Hat.
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey Quick Facts
Storyline: As you venture through Hogwarts, you meet Harry, Ron and Hermione, who convince you to skip a planned lecture and follow them. Upon taking their advice you travel by Floo powder, and begin your adventure as you soar over Hogwarts, narrowly escape a dragon attack, have a close encounter with the Whomping Willow, get pulled into a Quidditch match and more.
First-ever combination of advanced robotic ride system technology with innovative, immersive filmmaking
Award-winning composer John Williams oversaw the creation of the attraction’s score
The queue includes the following Harry Potter book and film elements: Headmaster Dumbledore’s office, Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, Gryffindor common room, Room of Requirement, and the greenhouse; talking portraits including the Fat Lady and the never-before-seen four founders: Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw; the Sorting Hat, the One-Eyed Witch statue and the Mirror of Erised
Duration of ride: The full attraction experience, including the queue, takes about an hour
Number of scenes in the attraction: 12
Characters (featuring Harry Potter film talent): Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Albus Dumbledore, Rubeus Hagrid and Draco Malfoy
You may also catch a glimpse of Fred and George Weasley, Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom
And here is a CG fly-through of Hogsmeade Village that is also part of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter:
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter will hold its grand opening at Universal Orlando Resort’s Islands of Adventure theme park on June 18, 2010.
(Photo credit: Kevin Kolczynski, Universal Orlando Resort.)
Good article. Don’t you think it would be more honest if you linked to the UniversalPR videos on YouTube, rather than re-uploading them yourself? Universal’s videos must lose a lot of views, due to your unnecessary duplication of their copyrighted content. Please link to THEIR videos.
Mike – You’re free to visit UniversalPR on YouTube, but Universal PR releases video on their media site (http://media.universalorlando.com/harrypotter in this case) for the specific purpose of outlets such as this blog to display them however they see fit. It’s not “re-uploading” so much as helping to distribute their content. Their goal is not specifically to gain YouTube views, but rather views in general – they want to get the word out about the subject at hand, regardless of how people see it. Their goal is to get people to visit their new attractions. If I upload the video to the InsideTheMagic YouTube channel, it gains more views via our YouTube subscribers that Universal may not otherwise have gotten.
And… I actually had the top video in this post on YouTube before UniversalPR did. So if I had waited for them to upload it, then I wouldn’t have been able to post this as soon as I did.
1. If UniversalPR had uploaded their videos simultaneously to YouTube and their own Media site, would you still download them and re-upload them? I understand that Universal are often slow to get their content on YouTube, but what if that changed?
2. You say that Universal’s goal is to gain YouTube views, regardless of whose channel they’re on, which I understand. The problem is, people who re-upload these videos specifically to make money from them, due to the high number of views that they’re automatically going to get (being Harry Potter related). Surely it should be the people (UniversalPR) that took the time to create the video, and the people featured in it, making money from it. I hope you understand my point. I guess if there was no money involved it wouldn’t seem so bad.
1. Yes, I would still upload the content to my own YouTube account, provided that Universal makes it available for that purpose. Think of all the subscribers to my YouTube account that don’t visit Universal’s account. They expect me to provide them with all of the video and information that I can – and they may not check UniversalPR’s account, or even know it exists. In that case, it’s much better that they see it from me than not see it at all.
2. You have to keep in mind that PR videos are essentially commercials. Universal is not interested making money off of their videos directly. They don’t run ads on their YouTube channel. They want to reap the benefits of people visiting their parks after seeing the videos – no matter where they see them.
Remember that there needs to be an incentive for media outlets to do what they do. Would your local television news program be on the air if they did not run advertisements during the broadcast? They play clips from Universal’s PR videos during their broadcasts in the same way that I embed them on this site. Do they tell their viewers, “If you want to watch the latest from the Wizarding World, don’t bother to tune in here – just go to Universal’s web site!” That’s not how the media business works.
It’s a win-win game. Universal makes a video. Universal releases the video, hoping that anyone and everyone will pick up on it and spread it in any way they want. Those outlets enjoy the benefit of delivering the exciting content to their visitors – and possibly making a few bucks off advertising in the process. Universal enjoys the benefit of free advertising.
I’m not making a fortune off of this blog or any of my theme park-related endeavors. So I’ll take what I can get, when I can get it.
You said PR videos are essentially commercials, which makes sense. The weird part is, if you read the Terms and Conditions on Universal’s PR site, they seem to say that you can’t use their content for commercial purposes. The way I interpret that is, you can’t use their content to make money for yourself (such as from the YouTube Partnership Programme). Here’s the quote:
“You may download material displayed on the Site for non-commercial, personal use only, provided you also retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained on the materials. You may not, however, distribute, modify, transmit, reuse, re-post, or use the content of the Site for public or commercial purposes, including the text, images, audio, and video without Universal’s written permission.”
“Without Universal’s written permission”? So would you agree that, yes if you have Universal’s permission it’s ok to re-upload their videos, but if you don’t it’s not ok?
I’m actually surprised you’ve gone to the trouble of writing for their permission, considering that your show is technically (no offence) an amateur fan podcast, rather than a professional business endeavour.
If you’d like to continue this conversation, I’d be happy to via e-mail. This has veered off topic for this blog, especially considering that I will now be posting all theme-park related content to InsideTheMagic.net and not here anymore.
I think it’s great when you upload videos that you’ve shot and edited yourself, and it’s obviously fine that you make money from those via advertising. They’re your videos. It’s all good.
I just have a problem with you advertising on videos that you’ve downloaded from Universal’s website and re-uploaded to YouTube before they’ve even had a chance to themselves. That just doesn’t seem right. You shouldn’t be accepting money from those videos (because they’re not your videos), and you shouldn’t be putting them on YouTube before Universal do (because you suck up all the views that THEY should be getting).
I don’t think you have the right person to complain to. Hopefully you will find the problem but in the meantime delete my name from whatever list you found it on.
Peter
Good article. Don’t you think it would be more honest if you linked to the UniversalPR videos on YouTube, rather than re-uploading them yourself? Universal’s videos must lose a lot of views, due to your unnecessary duplication of their copyrighted content. Please link to THEIR videos.
Mike – You’re free to visit UniversalPR on YouTube, but Universal PR releases video on their media site (http://media.universalorlando.com/harrypotter in this case) for the specific purpose of outlets such as this blog to display them however they see fit. It’s not “re-uploading” so much as helping to distribute their content. Their goal is not specifically to gain YouTube views, but rather views in general – they want to get the word out about the subject at hand, regardless of how people see it. Their goal is to get people to visit their new attractions. If I upload the video to the InsideTheMagic YouTube channel, it gains more views via our YouTube subscribers that Universal may not otherwise have gotten.
And… I actually had the top video in this post on YouTube before UniversalPR did. So if I had waited for them to upload it, then I wouldn’t have been able to post this as soon as I did.
Thanks Ricky. 2 questions.
1. If UniversalPR had uploaded their videos simultaneously to YouTube and their own Media site, would you still download them and re-upload them? I understand that Universal are often slow to get their content on YouTube, but what if that changed?
2. You say that Universal’s goal is to gain YouTube views, regardless of whose channel they’re on, which I understand. The problem is, people who re-upload these videos specifically to make money from them, due to the high number of views that they’re automatically going to get (being Harry Potter related). Surely it should be the people (UniversalPR) that took the time to create the video, and the people featured in it, making money from it. I hope you understand my point. I guess if there was no money involved it wouldn’t seem so bad.
1. Yes, I would still upload the content to my own YouTube account, provided that Universal makes it available for that purpose. Think of all the subscribers to my YouTube account that don’t visit Universal’s account. They expect me to provide them with all of the video and information that I can – and they may not check UniversalPR’s account, or even know it exists. In that case, it’s much better that they see it from me than not see it at all.
2. You have to keep in mind that PR videos are essentially commercials. Universal is not interested making money off of their videos directly. They don’t run ads on their YouTube channel. They want to reap the benefits of people visiting their parks after seeing the videos – no matter where they see them.
Remember that there needs to be an incentive for media outlets to do what they do. Would your local television news program be on the air if they did not run advertisements during the broadcast? They play clips from Universal’s PR videos during their broadcasts in the same way that I embed them on this site. Do they tell their viewers, “If you want to watch the latest from the Wizarding World, don’t bother to tune in here – just go to Universal’s web site!” That’s not how the media business works.
It’s a win-win game. Universal makes a video. Universal releases the video, hoping that anyone and everyone will pick up on it and spread it in any way they want. Those outlets enjoy the benefit of delivering the exciting content to their visitors – and possibly making a few bucks off advertising in the process. Universal enjoys the benefit of free advertising.
I’m not making a fortune off of this blog or any of my theme park-related endeavors. So I’ll take what I can get, when I can get it.
Thanks Ricky. One last point.
You said PR videos are essentially commercials, which makes sense. The weird part is, if you read the Terms and Conditions on Universal’s PR site, they seem to say that you can’t use their content for commercial purposes. The way I interpret that is, you can’t use their content to make money for yourself (such as from the YouTube Partnership Programme). Here’s the quote:
“You may download material displayed on the Site for non-commercial, personal use only, provided you also retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained on the materials. You may not, however, distribute, modify, transmit, reuse, re-post, or use the content of the Site for public or commercial purposes, including the text, images, audio, and video without Universal’s written permission.”
How do you interpret that?
It seems you have ignored the important last four words of that text.
“Without Universal’s written permission”? So would you agree that, yes if you have Universal’s permission it’s ok to re-upload their videos, but if you don’t it’s not ok?
I’m actually surprised you’ve gone to the trouble of writing for their permission, considering that your show is technically (no offence) an amateur fan podcast, rather than a professional business endeavour.
Not quite.
If you’d like to continue this conversation, I’d be happy to via e-mail. This has veered off topic for this blog, especially considering that I will now be posting all theme-park related content to InsideTheMagic.net and not here anymore.
I’m kind of done with what I have to say, really.
I think it’s great when you upload videos that you’ve shot and edited yourself, and it’s obviously fine that you make money from those via advertising. They’re your videos. It’s all good.
I just have a problem with you advertising on videos that you’ve downloaded from Universal’s website and re-uploaded to YouTube before they’ve even had a chance to themselves. That just doesn’t seem right. You shouldn’t be accepting money from those videos (because they’re not your videos), and you shouldn’t be putting them on YouTube before Universal do (because you suck up all the views that THEY should be getting).
I don’t think you have the right person to complain to. Hopefully you will find the problem but in the meantime delete my name from whatever list you found it on.
Peter